by Edina Jackson

Created on: June 01, 2008

PR for an artist or fashion designer or anyone can be a very scary word! It does not have to be though because it can be as easy as you make it. Many artists don't have the money to get a professional PR rep on hand or may not even know what PR is. Most people I have spoken to seem to think PR is short for promotions and that it simply involves handing out flyers and placing a couple of adverts and that's PR taken care of. Newsflash guys, this is so not the case! PR is the planned process of getting a message across to your potential publics. Meaning the people who will be or who already purchase your product or service. In order for people to want to purchase a product they must have some product knowledge and be aware of what it is they are buying. Therefore PR comes before advertising and it can be a very broad subject area. Although I could focus on many aspects of PR in various different fields, I will be focusing on PR for musicians. Working in music PR for a few years now I have found that many of the young artists that ask me for my help do not have a clue when it comes to this area, well listen up gals and guys and take notes.

What you need to do your own PR

Before you jump into doing your own PR you must put together a brief plan, making sure you have a timeframe and you stick to it. Decide what you want to achieve from your PR plans and make a clear and concise outline of what you are going to be doing. PR involves generating press interest, creating a buzz, networking, keeping the public informed by setting up mailing lists and updating potential fans and existing fans on everything that is going on. Even updating and keeping Myspace pages and websites up to date is very important.

Decide on your image and the kind of message you want to put across with your music and stick to it.

You now need to put together a press pack this will be given to the press, venue owners and event organisers, agents and even people in radio.

Your press pack should include photos therefore it will be a good idea to invest in getting some professional pictures done.

Press pack materials

Bio (this is like an outline of what you have done and are doing as an artist)
Press release (one or two paragraphs of something that is actually news e.g. an album release or performance at an event. Make this short and interesting)
2 press photos printed A4 size with contact details on the back or paper clipped to the bottom of the photo (all materials must have contact details on them so

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>