MUSIC PROMOTION VS MUSIC MARKETING

An essential question for your success!

As much as artists need a PR at some point in their career, most of them actually don't know what a PR does. They often confuse "promotion" and "marketing" and have misconceptions in this entire area, and what they pay for.

That's why I decided to wear my PR jacket and explain the best that I can the differences between them, so you can make the best decision for your next campaign, 

to set the right goals and the right budget.

Music promotion has changed completely from what it used to be 20 years ago, which could explain the confusion! 

Originally, music marketing and promotion were one concept, designed to get to sell as many CDs as possible. 

Must-Read: WHAT DOES A PITCH LOOKS LIKE?

Music promotion has changed with time, how will you adapt to it?

MUSIC PROMOTION

Music promotion is handled by a P.R., also called a Publicist.

How was it before the internet era? Back in the days, music PR companies were focusing on the only areas that featured music: print, radio, and TV.  This is why only artists signed to record labels succeeded: the labels had the budget and the professionals behind them working on the projects. Therefore, there was less competition than today!

Must-Read: HOW TO PLUG MUSIC TO RADIOS?

Gone are the days that music is promoted on print, nowadays, everything is digital.

How is it today? 

1) There has been a transformation from paper to digital.

The print world has been dying within the music industry: leading music magazine NME closed their print edition after 66 years. At that point, it was clear that the music industry no longer needed printed publications and that’s when blogs began to take over. 

Blogs have been dominating the music space on the internet for the past decade. The music publicists had to adapt to the trending music news medium and had to attack them first to secure coverage for their artists.

Must-Read: 10 things to consider before hiring a music PR

2) The TV shows that once made an artist famous no longer exist. 

Except the national radio stations, radio listenership has dropped and they had to adapt to the digital era by introducing new factors to their sites such as playlists, videos, and social media features.

3) The way music is "consumed" and the appearance of the streaming platforms

Music is consumed in an entirely different way to how it used to be, so the aim of music promotion is different too. When our only option to listen to music on demand was to buy a CD, a cassette, or a vinyl, music PR campaigns were used to secure physical sales. 

Now, with music being consumed on streaming and video platforms, a music PR campaign is meant to direct an audience to those areas. The talent in a publicist was their pitching skills to magazines and industry tastemakers but now, they also need to be able to pitch to Spotify Editors, understand the platform to know where a track should be featured and what editor is best to approach.

Although hiring a publicist is still key for promoting a musician and take their career to the next level, their media outreach, promotion technics, strategies, and "savoir-faire" shouldn’t be the only focus point. 

Getting an artist played on the radio or featured on a large blog can do wonders for their career, but it mainly acts as a form of legitimacy.

Must-Read: WHY DOES A SONG NEED TO BE PROMOTED?

To make the buzz and get more exposure, the promotion also needs to be presented in a digital form to capture the audience’s attention: Facebook Live, Youtube Live, Twitch,... They can be paired with a Premiere on a big blog and broadcasted from their platforms.

The platforms for music promotion is far different from before already.  

MUSIC MARKETING

Music fans no longer sit and watch MTV to find their favorite artist. Instead, they explore Spotify playlists, take their favorite YouTuber’s recommendations, songs played in commercials are Shazamed and music fans receive targeted ads on Facebook.

Music marketing focuses on content, social media, and online marketing techniques.

To be able to be discovered, artists now have endless options to get their music discovered :

1) Social Media marketing

Over half of the world’s population is on social media, making it the easiest way for musicians to distribute their music and content, engaging an audience like they never could have before. 
It's amazing, but also very competitive. 
To be able to get more exposure to the right audience, artists have the option to promote their posts against a set budget. 

But don't get it wrong: promoting an artist on social media isn't just about paying and getting the right results. It's a difficult task because people don’t enter Instagram or Twitter to listen to music: They scroll and take in short-form content that’s extremely engaging but doesn’t require them to be taken to another platform such as Spotify.

That's why social media advertising and marketing is very specific: it's about understanding every social media platform, their algorithms, and taking advantage of their functions to grow an artist and reach the right goals for the right niche.

Must-Read: 22 FREE WEBSITES TO SUBMIT TO PLAYLISTS

Social media has become very important when it comes to promotion, including music.

2) Influencer marketing

The average person spends over 5 hours a day on their phone but only 3 hours 30 minutes watching TV, so placing your music on TV shows, adverts and movies won’t have the same impact like it used to. 

Influencer marketing is a modern phenomenon in the marketing world and they can be used to place a track in YouTube videos, Instagram Stories, feed videos, and also to be tweeted about by high follower Twitter accounts for example. 

Getting added to a YouTube video on a channel with a few million subscribers is now considered by some people as strong as having a song being placed in a TV series. 

Influencer marketing also comes with a price. Depending on the number of followers a Youtube personality has, you'll usually pay a fee to get featured. The more followers, the more exposure, the more money. Of course, it doesn't apply to every single one of them, as an artist can be selected by the influencer because they genuinely like the artist. 

Allocating a budget on what we now call "influencer marketing" can be a good idea... record labels actually use them, so.. the decision is up to you!

Must-Read: WHEN SHOULD I PROMOTE?

IN CONCLUSION

Music marketing is a targeted and paid service for your content to be promoted on social media and music platforms such as commercials that you pay through social media, curators and influencers, promoted posts, etc. It’s working alongside modern technology to hack algorithms, creating social media content to attract and engage a targeted audience.

You can do it yourself, or you could hire a Music marketing specialist, also known as SEO or Social media marketing specialist.

The goal is the reach more people, gain followers, and therefore get your music heard.

A music PR or a publicist will run a campaign to promote your new release (music video, new album, new single, etc..) through the traditional and online media. It's someone that you hire, who has connections and has direct access to the media, to get the artist exposure in blogs (online promotion), secure interviews, airplay, and press publications. A P.R. will be able to advise and establish a strategic plan. 

The goal here is to establish credibility and legitimacy through major outlets and larger media exposure. Ultimately reaching more listeners, gaining followers, and getting your music heard. 

If you had to choose one or the other,  hiring a PR will be more costly than only run a marketing campaign. But in the long run, and with repeated campaigns, the results will be more solid and durable with a PR. The more PR campaigns you run, the more results. Don't be disappointed if your publicist doesn't reach the number of features you hoped for the first time. It will get better in the next release. It's a game of patience, trust me. When journalists see your name several times in the course of the year, if they weren't interested the first time, they will be interested in the second, third, or fourth time they see it.

Combining a PR campaign and a marketing campaign is definitely the best option.

But keep in mind that marketing and promotion are 2 different fields, yet complementary. You can't assume that a PR will be able to run your social media marketing plan on top of plugging you to radios and securing articles in blogs and publications. Some can do it. But I deeply think that we shouldn't put all our eggs in the same basket. 

Let's get in touch!