As the host of the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast, I constantly receive pitches from PR people who are trying to book their client(s) as a guest on my show. On the flip side, as a publicist myself, I am regularly writing similar emails on behalf of folks that I’m pursuing opportunities on behalf of.
As such, I get to “go to school” on what works and what doesn’t work by seeing what others are sending out that is getting my attention or turning me off.
In the music world, I’m amazed at how many people like to try to pitch based on flowery words that are borderline abstract and seem like they intend to only convey the sound and/or mood of one’s artistry. After all, we all know that it’s a “what have you done (for me) lately” business. So, never mind why you think your sound is unique and/or who you think you sound like. It’s your accomplishments that are going to get you noticed.
But even then, you still have to remember the ocean of other music creators that you’re swimming in. To say that you’ve “played a ton of live shows” or have “been on countless stages” or “won several awards” is far too vague and – possibly to your detriment – open to interpretation.
I saw Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Rush in concert 24 times between 1983 and 2015. My brother, on the other hand, saw them 113 times. The lesson here is, what seems like a lot to one person might not seem like that much to another.
I’m sure that it’s very impactful when I tell people that “Now Hear This Entertainment” has gotten listeners from 163 countries around the world and that it’s one of the top two percent most popular shows out of more than 3.2 million podcasts worldwide. In addition, the day after tomorrow, Episode 521 will be released, meaning that a new episode has been delivered on-time, every week for what will be ten years in just twelve days from now.
Do you see how much more attention-getting it is when you have exact statistics to help tell your story?
One of my performer clients, singer, songwriter, guitar player Frankie Raye, “only” had 284 bookings last year. I say that tongue in cheek, but at the same time, she’d had 330 in 2022 and a staggering 388 in 2021. That in and of itself tells a story and is certainly more eye-opening than an artist saying that they “perform constantly” when, in fact, they might be defining that as every Saturday. See the difference? You don’t want someone with a potential opportunity for you to say, “Oh, that’s all?”
Three weeks ago, I wrote a blog about it being awards season. If you’ve gotten lots of trophies and/or plaques, be specific as to what they were and how many of them you won. To just say “multiple award winner” might be a smokescreen for “I won two awards” or it might be twelve and you’re selling yourself short.
If you’ve been at this a long time and are about to put out your ninth album but you simply say, “My new album,” then how are people supposed to know about your back catalog? Make some mention of that body of work so that it’s clear that you’re a veteran of the music scene.
You might never know what the difference was in someone giving you a Yes (or a No) for whatever opportunity you’re pitching them for, but as someone who has done this as long as I have, I can assure you that you’ll only put yourself in a better position by using numbers to tell your story more specifically.
In fact, I’d love to hop on a ten-minute phone call with you about this. Don’t worry, I’m not going to sell you anything and I’m not trying to get you as a client. I simply would like to hear about your challenges and offer some advice from my twenty years of working with indie music artists, as well as authors, entrepreneurs, actors and filmmakers, small business owners, and podcasters from around the U.S. Draw upon all that experience of mine to benefit whatever it is that you’re doing career-wise.