Publicity, PROs and Radio are the topics of the three latest installments of CMA’s ongoing Industry InSite series of instructional Webisodes, each one posted at My.CMAworld.com on the third Monday of the month and dedicated to demystifying a specific area of the music industry.
Episode 8, “Publicity — The Portal to the People,” went online Dec. 21 with a look into the purpose and the practice of publicity. Whether working with new or established artists, the publicist needs to make sure that their unique qualities, personal as well as musical, stand out before the public. Equally important, the artist often needs to be taught how to communicate those traits through interviews and other contact with the media.
This is a potentially touchy area. While acknowledging that many reporters suspect that media training transforms artists into idealized images of themselves, Wes Vause, VP Media, Sony Music Nashville, added that it is actually about “helping the artist become comfortable on camera” with who they really are.
Jeff Walker, President, AristoMedia/Marco Promotions, cited more effective communication as a goal of media training. As an example, when his clients are asked when their next album comes out, he encourages them to reply not just with the date but in a complete sentence: “My new album comes out on Oct. 21.” This makes it easier for “national television shows to utilize this footage in three or four different shows” as a sound bite, Walker said.
The necessity of reaching out toward the public forces artists to go beyond the old paradigm of print publications. “Times have changed a lot,” said Dixie Owen, Senior Director, Media and Public Relations, Capitol Records Nashville. “A lot of artists are having to do a lot more work.”
Owen therefore insists that her clients learn how to use Twitter to connect directly with fans. But this can be risky. “It’s more important than ever to control your appearance,” said Mary Hilliard Harrington, President, The Greenroom. “There is always someone with a digital camera phone, and that photo will be up and circulated within five seconds of being taken.”
This makes the publicist’s role more crucial than ever. “You’re the go-between for the artist and media,” Owen concluded. “Their dreams are in your hands.”
Episode 9, “Getting to Know the PROs,” targets a dream that’s common to songwriters: getting paid for performances of their material. Posted on Jan. 18, this Webisode examines how the three major performing rights organizations — ASCAP, BMI and SESAC — collect approximately $2 billion per year, about 89 percent of which goes to the writers.
Like publicists, PROs face hurdles and opportunities posed by new technology. Some, such as watermarks and fingerprints, allow more accurate tracking of performances. Traditional measurements continue to work well in established media. For example, cue sheets document uses of complete or fragments of works in television shows. And “blanket licenses” ensure compensation for music played in settings that range from restaurants to aerobics classes.
However, the Internet has emerged as a kind of wild frontier through which music streams freely. In this unstable medium, PROs issue short-term “experimental licenses,” capped perhaps at six months with a blanket charge to be renegotiated depending on whether each Web site enjoys greater traffic, loses popularity or even goes offline. It’s less than precise but, as Jody Williams, VP, Writer/Publisher Relations, BMI, insisted, the Internet is “the future of the music business. It’s the future of the performing rights organizations.”
The question that none on the panel could answer is the one posted most often by prospective members: Which PRO is right for me? That can be determined only by the songwriter, based above all on human connections with PRO staff. On this point, agreement was universal among Pat Collins, President and COO, SESAC, Williams, and Connie Bradley, Senior VP, and Vince Candilora, Senior VP, General Licensing, both with ASCAP.
Episode 10, “The Rhythm of the Radio Charts,” went live Feb. 15 and features interviews with Lon Helton, Publisher/CEO, Country Aircheck; Wade Jessen, Senior Chart Manager, Nashville, Billboard; Jon Loba, VP Promotion and Artist Development, The Valory Music Co.; and David Ross, Publisher/CEO, Music Row.
This latest installment discusses why chart success is crucial to an artist’s career as well as the methodology behind the Billboard, Country Aircheck and Music Row charts. “Chart position is the primary measurement of success that everyone in the departments outside of promotion look at,” said Loba.
CMA Industry InSite was created by CMA’s Artist Relations Committee under the leadership of its Chairman, Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn, and Vice Chairman Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. Produced by the digital marketing firm Hi-Fi Fusion, it will examine radio charts, venues/talent buyers and merchandisers among other topics in months to come. CMA members are invited to submit questions to the experts appearing in each episode, with replies posted when received.
