How to Promote a Single Release in the UK: Music PR Timeline
When working with developing artists or helping with UK Music Marketing, one of the most apparent changes recognised by www.quitegreat.co.uk over their 30-year history is the release patterns artists tend to focus on. The UK Music Promotion focus for many artists now is to get as much music out there as quickly as possible, sometimes on track per week. The reason, in part, may be the focus on social media algorithms, but generally dividing releases into a calendar timeline, similar to release schedules on record labels, tends to make sense. It allows your UK Music PR Agency to build media interactions, focusing on the band or artist’s brand to align features, radio play, and interviews. These can be outlined in regular reports, which also give time to build media coverage on the musician’s social platforms.
The way we tend to help with UK Music PR is to initially ensure the key things an artist wants are developed across our wide range of 30 or so sites, which rapidly drives social media activity and then provides ‘brand structure’. If one of the most important elements is to highlight that the band is one of the hottest live acts in Bristol, then that will be the focus for our writers. From that point, we build out using detailed question sheets to create music magazines, websites, and radio interactions, focusing on the unique stories behind the music and on which non-music areas can be contacted.
So, timing is important for releases, but let your Music PR Agency breathe and grow with you.
Music PR vs Playlist Pitching vs Radio Plugging: What’s the Difference?
There are similarities to reaching out and building UK Radio Promotion and outreach to Spotify playlists, but there are pitfalls if you think a Spotify Music Promotion Agency will ‘mentally flypost’ and develop your brand as with UK Radio Promotion. As outreach to radio stations generally means using the Music PR Agency’s contacts and relationships, knowing, for example, which rock stations to target to build momentum. When it comes to Spotify Promotion, you need to be more careful, as Spotify keeps a very close eye on real streams and those not-so-real streams. You may find that you work with a Music PR Agency that utilises Spotify playlist promotion, but a wide range of Spotify playlists come with a fee, so at times the promotions team will use some of the budget they are being paid to pay for streams or pay-to-play, as some call it. This does not help an artist in the long run, as it does not keep things real. It also means that, after a number of months, when Spotify reaches out to your Distributor to do some ‘good housekeeping’, you may find your music being deleted, so do be careful.
How Much Does Music PR Cost in the UK?
The number of times we are asked at www.quitegreat.co.uk by artists contacting us daily for Music PR support, How much do our services cost? The reality is that this takes the artist down a rabbit hole of asking for ‘packages’ rather than understanding that all artists are unique and need to be treated in that way. UK Music Promotion, when it comes to developing artists, focuses on how to best work with an artist’s budget and on offering timelines and services that fit. Otherwise, if an unsigned artist focuses on the budgets a Music PR Agency charges rather than telling the Agency what they are trying to work within, the artist may later believe they were encouraged to spend more than they wished. Whether this is or isn’t the case, it is best for all concerned to align properly so a musician isn’t selling the kitchen sink to afford a Music PR Agency fee that is really too much for them. The most important thing is to have an amicable relationship with your UK Music Promotion Agency, and the one thing other than not doing what you say you are going to do that causes both parties to fall out is money. Keep it simple, agree what you can afford over a series of releases and build your relationship with your Music PR Team.
What Does a Music PR Agency Actually Do?
What does a Music PR Agency actually do? That is a good question, and it differs immensely from our experience over the last 30 years of helping build UK Music PR for our clients. Some Music Promotion Agencies specialise in Radio Promotion, others in Online PR, and some in TV Promotion. What www.quitegreat.co.uk builds for clients is a rounded campaign, with our writers initially developing a focused narrative aligned with key aims across our 30 or so websites. From that, build the first-stage radio play, then utilise artist videos to drive interaction via our Talent YouTube channel, which has over 1 million subscribers. Then, from that, go mainstream, whether it be rock media outlets, hip-hop or folk, right through to jazz, as we have a heritage of musical variety, which means our contacts are truly broad-ranging.
The important thing is to understand the artist fully, really get under their musical skin, so we understand the hooks and angles and be able to complement the style and unique backstories to take their messaging far and wide. So if you are a jazz violinist with a passion for fast cars, then who knows, in addition to the likes of Jazz Journal, you may end up in Porsche magazine, thereby allowing new fans to ‘bump’ into you.
Check carefully when talking with your Music PR Agency that you know what you are getting, and be careful not to get ripped off by promises that are clearly impossible to deliver, as being an unsigned musician is tough enough without losing money on a dream that was never real.
