Issue: Q4 2021
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LEARNING

The art of making an earworm

There's an unspoken rule in the music industry: if you're an artist who goes by only one name, you need to be great. Beyoncé. Prince. Madonna. Cher. All mononymous music superstars with talent, money and fans in abundance.

Adele, a relatively recent addition to the single-stage-name club, also lives up to the hype. In her 13-year career, she’s sold over 120 million records globally, won over 80 awards – including 15 Grammys and an Oscar – and captured the hearts of fans across the world.

All eyes are currently on the singer-songwriter following the release of her fourth studio album, 30. In true Adele fashion, the project has smashed several records. Lead single ‘Easy on Me’ had the highest ever first-day streams on Spotify (24 million listens globally) and the most first-week plays in US radio history.

So what’s the secret behind Adele’s success?

Sure, her powerhouse vocals and elite penwomanship are legendary. But, as we PR professionals know, it takes more than skill – raw or refined – to keep our publics happy and entertained.

It takes deep audience insights, regular production of engaging content and careful reputation management.

In other words, it takes a music publicist who knows their stuff.

Music is arguably the most shadowy of PR sectors, rarely featuring at events or in online content.

Given the UK music industry’s impact – £5.8 billion gross value added to the domestic economy (SOURCE), over 50% of the UK public considering it vital for their quality of life and the UK’s reputation overseas (SOURCE) – it’s high time we explored what it’s like to make popstars pop.

 

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While digital spaces are great, we live in a throwaway digital society where everyone’s jostling to get noticed. So it’s important to utilise every outlet you have access to.

Secrets of a successful music campaign

Running promotion activity for a new single or album release is bread-and-butter activity for music publicists.

It’s where creativity meets stakeholder management meets media relations, as they work with artist management teams, record labels, event and brand PR teams and journalists to roll out chart-topping campaigns.

And while success is never guaranteed, there are tried-and-tested strategies that can improve your client’s chances of achieving number 1 status.

“Never leave your audience alone,” says Dermot McNamara, founder and MD at media and entertainment agency Candid Publicity, who led promotion for Irish legacy act The Nolans’ 2020 greatest hits record Gold – their highest charting album in 40 years.

For Sope Soetan, a publicist at London-based PR agency The Outside Organisation, it’s all about having patience and strong freelance journalist contacts.

When he led the release campaign for drill rapper Headie One’s 2020 debut album, Edna, he sought out Black writers to do the media interviews.

“Drill has negative connotations in the mainstream press and so Headie isn’t a big fan of interviews. It was important the writers have the cultural understanding of his life experiences so they can capture the nuances of his story,” he says.

It’s a strategy that worked. Sope secured coverage for Headie One across an enviable list of publications like Music WeekNMEThe Times and GQ. Oh, and the album topped the UK charts – a first for the much-maligned genre.

Sope even beat Dua Lipa and Little Mix’s PR teams to win ‘PR Campaign of the Year’ at the Music Week Awards 2021.

“That was a surreal moment for me,” he reflects.

“It’s the biggest campaign I’ve worked on and I was thrown in the deep end. Seeing the album reach number 1 was great. But winning the award – that was my work. I did that and I’m so proud.”

 

At first, I felt the pressure to always be ‘on’ but I’ve had to set boundaries, especially as a mum.

It’s (not always) a glamorous life

Hanging out backstage at festivals, strutting down red carpets, rubbing shoulders with the stars in the studio – life in music PR sounds pretty sweet.

But with the dazzling perks comes hard work.

“Working with challenging people and dealing with last-minute cancellations can be tricky sometimes,” says Kat Koumourou, deputy head of press at Listen Up Promotions, who represent top electronic music stars like Black Coffee, Duke Dumont and Eric Prydz.

“An artist once showed up three hours late for a photoshoot. By some form of miracle, we managed to get everything wrapped up with time to spare and the final output was amazing. It was a relief at my end!”

The long and unsociable hours that come with music work can also be a pain. When Brenda Juliet launched music agency MyBlaqBook earlier this year with her business partner, she found herself up at LA hours to work with her international client’s team.

“At first, I felt the pressure to always be ‘on’ but I’ve had to set boundaries, especially as a mum,” she says.

“Luckily my daughter is great and I’ve got family and friends to support me. It makes things a lot easier.”

So are the difficult stakeholders and less-than-delightful working patterns worth it?

Absolutely, says Sope.

“My clients are like my babies. When I see them being championed by a publication or discovered by new people, it’s the best feeling.”

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Weathering 2020’s storm

It’s passion that has fuelled many in the music industry over what has been a disastrous 21 months.

Over a third of music jobs were wiped out by the Covid-19 pandemic last year, according to trade body UK Music (SOURCE). Live music was hit the hardest, with revenues plunging by about 90% due to event cancellations and venue closures.

Music media was also impacted, with several publications struggling to do print runs or having their budgets and headcount slashed.

Touring DJs made up a big chunk of Kat’s roster pre-pandemic – work that dried up after the first lockdown as live music events were halted.

Luckily, her team were able to pivot to supporting release-based artists, working with new clients to promote their work through homemade visuals and live streams on Instagram Live and Twitch.

At one point, I wasn’t sure I would see the year through in my role. But we worked well together as a team and really thought out of the box when it came to our campaigns. We managed to pull through in the end.

As if a pandemic wasn’t enough to contend with, the UK music industry is also battling with the hangover from Brexit and calls for racial equity following last year’s global protests.

Brenda is part of the charge to create greater inclusion in the industry. MyBlaqBook, which she launched earlier this year with her business partner Giovanna Mae, focuses on creating a safe space for Black artists.

“We didn’t set up the agency in response to Black Lives Matter but the conversations around racism have helped artists find us,” she says.

“We had no idea how much MyBlaqBook was needed. And it’s run by two Black women – that’s not a common thing in the music business.”

Creating a sound future

Despite the challenges ahead, there’s a general sense of hope among many in the music world as the world gradually opens up.

“We’re already planning into Q3 2023. That’s even before we’ve delivered the backlog of work from the past two years,” says Dermot.

Tech is a key driver of this optimism – an unintended star of 2020 thanks to the need to continue delivering work while physically distancing to stay safe.

Take TikTok. The video-based social app – whose active global user base rose from 507 million in December 2019 to a billion this year – is now a major influence on the sounds and visuals of some of the world’s biggest artists.

“It’s the new space to be creative. It doesn’t have to be silly dances – just having your content on there can be a good thing,” says Brenda.

For her, the value for PR lies in the showcasing and sharing of content on the app.

“It’s all about how you leverage your artists’ success on the app. If they have a viral song or challenge, it’s easier to pitch them in, as they have a name. PR needs to work with marketing and keep an eye on social media,” she adds.

Kat sees video providing a plethora of opportunities for musicians to create art and connect with fans.

“A lot of publications are moving away from just offering traditional editorial press in favour of videos and visuals. Lockdown also saw the use of remote shooting via Zoom, making it easier to access artists who aren’t within certain markets or territories at a given time,” she says.

Podcasts also proved popular during the pandemic, as we tried to escape the bleakness of lockdown living. UK podcast fans listened to nearly 60 million hours of podcasts per week in 2020 – twice as much as they did in 2017 and 17 times more than in 2015 (SOURCE).

Getting your artist on a podcast is a great move. It has a different reach and arguably more virality than print and online.

“Getting your artist on a podcast is a great move,” says Sope, who balances PR with his co-hosting duties for critically acclaimed music and cultural podcast Don’t Alert the Stans.

“It has a different reach and arguably more virality than print and online. People come to read a specific online article or page in a magazine. But if you’re invested in a podcast series, you’re going to listen no matter what.”

All this industry transformation could mean more opportunities for future talent. But what does it take to get ahead in the music biz?

Keep a cool head in times of trouble and trust your intuition, says Dermot.

“Pause and take a deep breath before answering. Most prickly situations can be diffused pretty quickly provided you don’t fly off the handle.”

The four experts agreed that understanding the media landscape, following your favourite artists in the media and building your network are good places to start when building your career.

“Speak to at least three people at an event and follow up with them within one or two days,” advises Brenda, who attributes her move from tech to music to her strong industry connections.

Topping the quartet’s career guidance list was a genuine love for the music.

“It’s not compulsory for working in the industry, but I think it should be,” says Sope.

“You can learn to do the job over the time, but those with a genuine appreciation for different sounds, artists, cultural histories and scenes – they’re the ones that supersede the others. They’re the ones that last.”

And when you consider the career trajectories for Adele and her fellow mononymous peers, it’s a hard point to argue.