There is so much more to a career in making  music than just creative process. Music is very much a business. While many musicians shy away from the more practical and commercial side of things, a little bit of information can go a long way.

We take a look at the often misunderstood (by artists at least) world of digital PR. If you want to know if PR is right for you, what is involved, and what you can expect for your money, then you are in the right place.

Who better to discuss this with than Eleonora Cutaia, DJ, Label boss and owner of Ahead PR. Seeing the business from all sides means that Eleonora has the 360 degree vision required to give us the complete low-down.
 

The thing is these days, the line between artist and label is very blurred, so many times I’m actually talking to the artist. People are releasing their own stuff more now, but obviously we tend to deal more with labels.
 

When we created the system, we thought about this. There are the classic myspace bedroom producers that come to you with their web-cam taken picture and something that is not even properly mixed down, or mastered. We do get a few of those, a bit less now thankfully. We make it clear on the website there is a quality control. We won’t promote it unless we think it had the right cut to be successful.
 

Thanks to the system we have in place, the journalists, DJs, or whoever we target with that campaign, needs to give feedback before they can download. That way we know exactly who has the music.
 

Indeed, well the reward is the music. They can preview the music, they have all the artist and label information at hand, also in some cases they can access the artist biography. The great advantage for them is they can get in touch with the artist directly, so we don’t act as a middle person. We encourage them to build the relationship directly, be it for licensing purposes or interviews etc.
 

Yes, for example we have worked with this label, Tokyo Dawn Records, a really good experimental Hip Hop Label. The feedback for them exceeded our expectations, even people from completely different backgrounds, such as Laurent Garnier. A lot of remix interest came up, so much so that within a few months the same label had received remixes from a lot of well known and respected producers and they had enough material to release a remix album, and that was just a result of the campaign!
 

Yes, we try not to let our taste come in to play too much, and we judge the production in terms of quality. We recognise a good mix down, good mastering, and of course if someone can sing! At the end of the day, we want to guarantee a good result for them, and also it’s my companies reputation. We have worked so hard to build the connections that the moment they stop receiving quality music is the moment that things are going to go down hill.
 

It’s important to set a goal for what you are trying to achieve with a campaign. Sometimes we advise the artists or the label, to think about what they want to achieve, more bookings etc. They don’t understand that bookings are a consequence of promotion. I always advise to take time to make sure they invest as much as they can, whatever they can afford to make it look and sound the best possible. After all you can only make one first impression.
 

Unfortunately there are companies who haven’t had a long life because they have been a bit greedy. Going back to what I said earlier, they just took on everyone, so they aren’t able to get good results. However there is always the unpredictability factor, and no-one can guarantee anything to anyone except that we are going to service the best outlets for that genre of music, and that you will get feedback.

If it’s your first dealings with PR then there is going to be a learning experience. Chances are they are going to get good critical feedback that will help them choose their way to go.

Obviously the social networking sites are of some help, and building a following is vital to a project. I’m not saying you should be on facebook all day, adding friends and spamming people. That just has the opposite effect. An independent artist these days needs to be proactive, if he wants to see things moving quickly and stand out from the crowd. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of people still think they can do things themselves, but there is only so much you can do by yourself.
 

Definitely the second one. You know, I get disappointed myself if the results aren’t so good. I shouldn’t , but I do take it personally sometimes. We have to believe in the project to do anything about it. I really try and put myself in the independent artists shoes.

We have a section on our website where DJs or journalists can register on the site to receive promos. This goes into a review process, we are very careful about who we send music to, as we obviously have the labels interests in mind. DJs, journalists and radio stations that we think are relevant and are quite proactive, then we are happy to work with them.

Full article at http://bangthedj.com/articles/guide-to-pr/