The Musician’s Guide to Hiring a Publicist
Ariel Hyatt and her team at CyberPR spend long days helping artists build an audience. Included in their toolkit is the particularly misunderstood role of music publicist. To help explain what a music publicist does and how to hire them, they've created several free resources.
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My team and I at Cyber PR spend all our working hours (and many non-working hours) talking to musicians who want publicity for their art. What continues to baffle us is the fact that many of the artists who contact us have no idea what publicists do, or what to realistically expect from a publicity campaign.
First off, I just want to say this:
MUSIC PUBLICITY IS A BUYER'S MARKET.
You (the artist) are in the position of power. You are supplying the music, and you are paying the bill, so you hold the cards. Take your time, do your research, and make sure you're hiring someone who will really do your music justice.
I'm not gonna lie to you - effective PR campaigns don't come cheap. If someone offers you publicity for a few hundred bucks, it is in all likelihood not going to get you the results you want. Good PR is an investment, and it will pay off in multiple ways.
The Cyber PR Team wrote two articles specifically designed to help you figure out
a) if you're ready to hire a publicist
b) what to look for when you start shopping around
c) what to expect from a publicity campaign.
5 Misconceptions About Music Publicists (and music publicity in general)
and
5 Benefits to Choosing the Perfect Music Publicist
If you're looking for some advice about DIY music publicity (as opposed to hiring a publicist), come download our Publicity Checksheet. This will help put structure around your publicity strategy, and give you some tried and true tips on getting PR for your music.
