The Truth About Music Press Releases

Our mothers told us "If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all."  In the world of music press releases I’d like to re-write that to say "If you can’t say anything truthful, don’t say anything at all".

Recently, the CEO of a major indie download site declared on the company’s
blog, "While MTV and Yahoo have closed down their music services, (our company) has grown by more than 60% over the past year."  Impressive
growth, but MTV didn’t close its service; it just moved partners from Microsoft
to Real, and Yahoo still has a store; they just outsourced it.

Then another major music destination announced "exclusive" streams of Radiohead’s In Rainbows.  I published it as a decent score for the site, but a better informed Hypebot reader pointed out that another service had offered this stream much earlier.

We all expect spin and hype in press releases. But we also expect the truth. In the digital age, those writing press releases need to remember that the truth is just a Google search or a watchful reader away. – Bruce Houghton