Don’t Mislead Your Audience – Cite Your Sources

You can appreciate that as the host of the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast, I not only look at a lot of bios, websites, and EPKs from artists that I interview, but even more from those that I end up passing on booking as a guest.

Maybe I’m influenced by the guest blog five weeks ago having been written by a contributor from The World Is Your Classroom, but I’m thinking this week about performers who have too many vague references in what they post about themselves – on their website, in their Spotify bio, on their one-sheet, and so on – and need to learn to start citing their sources, just like they taught us in school.

If this is making you at all nervous, keep reading and consider this your warning that it could very much come back to bite you.

Before I get to how this can put you in an awkward spot, let us look at some examples of what I see out there that you need to make sure you are not doing.

In no particular order, let us start first with “award-winning.”  It is a very (very) commonly used expression that a lot of people use.  What exactly was the award that you won?  Did you get third place (and a ribbon or a certificate for such) and that is what you are counting as the award?  Moreover, what was the competition, though?  And how many people were in it?  Or did you pay-to-play, meaning you were pretty much guaranteed to walk away with some type of ‘honor’?

Another common statement that I see is artists talking about their songs charting.  What charts?  If it was, say, iTunes or Billboard Magazine, for example, wow, put those down, of course.  Mind you, I know you are proud of your song having charted, but we need context.  Was it the Texas Radio Charts?  If so, what does that mean to someone in New Hampshire who has no idea if that is something that is easy to land on or not?  And were you number 78 on that chart or was your song number 7 or 8?

I see performers who will indicate that they have opened for ‘numerous’ ‘big name’ artists.  There are two problems here that could be easily rectified if you would just be specific.  How many is ‘numerous’ – three or four?  Thirteen or fourteen?  And who have you deemed ‘big name’ artists?  Are they performers that people in your town know because they play at all the local watering holes or are they A-listers that are household names and have hit song after hit song?

When you write that you perform live all the time, what does that mean?  Every weekend?  Five days a week?

I am also seeing a lot of artists who will indicate the total number of streams they have gotten ‘across all platforms.’  What platforms exactly are you referring to?  If you know the total then you added them up from various sources, which means you can tell us what each of those platforms are.

Now let us start looking at the potential problems you face by being vague.

If I am interviewing you on my podcast and I say, “I introduced you as an award-winning performer.  How many awards have you won and what are they?” and then you stumble around and do not answer my question because you know it is not what we expect to hear, you lose credibility.  “Yeah, I am so honored to have gotten recognized like that.  It really means a lot to me and tells me I am doing something right.  I’m grateful to get that kind of notice for my music.”  That does not tell us what awards you’ve won or how many, and now I’m thinking, “Hmm, they must’ve won something that only one other person entered, and it was a small town thing that only those two entrants and the contest organizer know about.”

Or, if a venue is talking about booking you and says, “I see that you have had a lot of opener slots.  Who are some of the artists that you’ve opened for and where have these shows been?” and they were all at the same venue and it’s only three headliners and they’re all people from your hometown that no one outside of there has heard of, I seriously doubt you’ll get the booking.

Perhaps you are performing somewhere, though, and you introduce a song as, “I was fortunate enough to see this song land on the charts,” and then someone comes up to you on a break or after the show and wants to know more about that.  “What chart was that song on?  What number did it land at?”  They start asking questions that you laugh off and say, “Gosh, I actually don’t remember anymore.”  First, why don’t you remember if, secondly, why did you intro the song that way, then?

It just all boils down to credibility and a common buzzword these days, transparency.  Just be honest with people and you will avoid embarrassing situations.

For twenty years now I have been helping indie music artists, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more.  What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to?  Let’s have a ten-minute call so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.