The role of the publicist is changing. Although still tasked with getting artists discovered by securing tastemaker features in blogs and press, they are evolving with the industry and many also now work in social media strategising, streaming playlist pitching and influencer marketing.
SMB's evening course in Music Marketing & Promotion, provides an in depth and entertaining 'how to' for finding, building and monetising an audience for music today.
Bee Adamic is the founder of Liberty Music PR, a global music pr agency, specialising in creative release campaigns for musicians at all stages of their careers. We caught up with her to find out how she got into the business, and why!
Why did you decide to pursue a career in music PR and what was your route to where you are today?
Bee: For me it was an organic thing, I always wanted to work in the music industry however I just didn't know what I wanted to do, as I wasn't musical in anyway... but I was passionate and creative. I tried my hand at lots of things; event curation, artist management, blogging, radio presenting... none of them paid me, but gave me such valuable insights into those areas. Then one day I was managing a band that we'd invested quite a bit in - music pr went through a pretty big agency and the results were BAD... I stepped in to try and rectify things and utilise some of my own contacts. I re-pitched them to my journalist contacts and saw the results coming in. Then suddenly I was asked to do the same for a friends band and the rest as they say is history.
What have been your proudest achievements in the music industry?
Bee: It's probably taking a relatively unknown London based artist, Georgia Meek, and working on her debut single, which now has over 300k plays after 2 months and tonnes of great online and print coverage. Very proud of Georgia and the way we are continuing to build her.
You’ve had some great success with securing Spotify playlist support for your artists. How important is this for new artists , and what are your tips to help others do the same?
It's sooo important... it will literally take you from being an artist with a few thousand plays to a few hundred thousand in a matter of weeks. It'll allow you to be heard by the masses, by hitting some of those more significant lists, especially your NMF's [Spotify's New Music Friday Playlist]. I think production is key, all of those major playlists share the same thing, exceptional production. Another tip is hitting those key tastemakers music blogs too.
What advice would you give to an artist trying to market themselves in 2018?
Stay authentic... and make sure your visuals and overall brand is on point.
Stay authentic, don't put your eggs in one basket, as in don't put so much emphasis in one song, keep pushing them out and make sure your visuals and overall brand is on point.
What advice would you give to someone seeking to work in music marketing or PR?
Try it, put yourself out there... intern for someone, make yourself so valuable that they won't want to lose you. But remember you might need to work for free for a bit, which I understand some people can't always do.
Tell us about what Liberty PR are working on at the moment and what we should watch out for from you in the future.
... we are exploring new routes to market, one of them being influencer marketing.
We are trying to diversify our offering, as I'm pretty sure the new generation of music fans will probably stop reading about music in a few years time. Blogs are in decline, radio, print mags too... it's sad but so many people just don't discover music in those ways no more. So trying to stay ahead of the curve we are exploring new routes to market, one of them being influencer marketing.
Thanks Bee!
Find out more about Liberty Music PR HERE
Find out more about our Music Marketing & Promotion course HERE
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