The ground work you forget.

I have just going through 46 blogs, 25 newspapers and 13 radio stations on a Saturday morning. All because The Magnettes and Royal Prospect are playing on Youbloom in Dublin, Ireland first week in June. Also The Magnettes is playing in London a week earlier so I guess by the end of today I have done around the double.

This is the ground work artists forget or don’t realize that it should be done, especially when you don’t have a PR firm doing for you. Actually in The Magnettes case they have two PR firms in UK doing it. Still I’m doing it just to get some extra things going.

If you are going to another city playing. You should contact the local media. That is the groundwork. The funny part is that when I speak to journalists they usually never get this kind of information. I work a lot with Live at Heart (showcase festival in Örebro) and when we book bands to the festival the ones that does questions about how to reach local media are the ones that have professional managers. And I will assume that on Youbloom we might be the only ones that actually reach the press in Dublin out of the 100 acts that actually play.

Yes the statistics shows that I will probably get 45 no answer from the blogs, 25 no answers from the newspapers, and the same results for the radio stations. Still 50% of the times it actually comes one back. And that one could be huge for your audience. So even that the number is against you. When you get it in you have a good benefit so wasting a couple of hours doing this is worth it.

Also that some journalists will remember you. We know they see the press release. Okay they will not act on it this time. But when you go back a couple of months later they might remember you and actually put you their paper, blog or radio show.

This groundwork is rarely done by the artists. It’s usually forgotten or pushed over to someone else to be done.

Right now I’m about to send emails to my friends in Dublin asking witch news outlets they think is important, check that to my list, but also ask them if they have some personal insights in these media outlets. Yes you have to do the groundwork but you also have to think twice.