Music

SPIN magazine has retained BNC (Bragman Nyman Cafarelli) as agency of record for all marketing communications. BNC will work to promote magazine and web editorial content, as well as the company's upcoming 25th anniversary celebration in 2010, which will include "commemorative issues, live concerts and other programming elements."

"We are tremendously excited to help make the world take note of the extraordinary work SPIN is doing in print, on the Web and through their exceptional events series," said Joseph Assad, Executive Vice President and General Manager, BNC. SPIN's circulation is currently at 540,000.

BNC has worked with "more than 100 celebrities" said Assad, including Cameron Diaz, Jenna Fisher, Whoopi Goldberg and Kate Hudson. Corporate clients include Samsung, T-Mobile, Audi and Amazon.com.

Today we received quite possibly one of the best press releases to hit our inbox in quite some time. The headline read: WEEZER INTRODUCES THEIR VERY OWN SNUGGIE- THE BLANKET WITH SLEEVES.

The release was sent by Weezer's agency, Big Hassle, in conjunction with the band's latest album release. Raditude. The Weezer Snuggie isn't available yet, but the agency said, "it will be available for $29.99 for purchase online." Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick wonders, "People do seem more willing to buy these ridiculous blankets with arms than they are to pay for music these days. I think that's the point."

Will MySpace remain the top social network for musicians? What does a publicist do to break a band these days? There are some of the questions we asked Keith Hagan, co-founder of music PR and management agency SKH Music. Keith and his partner Steve Karas have worked with some of the biggest artists and labels, including Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath, Barry White, Aerosmith, Arista, Mammoth and Interscope.

They have also done work for some of the industry's largest events such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival and The CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival, which is took place this week in New York. We caught up with Keith as CMJ winds down.

You've been at major labels like Mammoth Records, Arista, what led you to start an agency?

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Most publicists would consider it a success to book a client [especially a non-A-lister] on a few national TV appearances. Jon Bon Jovi, on the other hand is getting an entire network. TVNewser has the details on Jon Bon's deal with NBC Universal to promote his new album, which includes appearances on, "The 'Today' show, 'The Tonight Show,' 'The Jay Leno Show' and 'Saturday Night Live' -- and even an interview on the 'NBC Nightly News' with Brian Williams.

Writes TVNewser's Kevin Allocca, "Singers often appear on TV news programs to promote their work or causes, but an elaborate arrangement like this including both entertainment and news programs is uncommon."

"Rock band Kiss hired Levine Communications Office for PR as it releases its first album in 11 years, Sonic Boom," reports PRWeek's Kimberly Maul.

The agency has been in the PR business more than 25 years and has worked with household names including Barbara Streisand, Michael J. Fox and David Bowie. Agency namesake Michael Levine recently incurred some public backlash after issuing a statement immediately after the death of former client Michael Jackson that some thought was insensitive.

Levine told PRNewser that he has worked with Kiss before and said of their success, "I am smart enough to know getting to the top is hard, staying at the top is harder." We asked him if there was one booking he would want to score for the band, to which he replied, "Getting them to play the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl." What, no halftime show?

[Music video for Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead"]

Indie-rockers Passion Pit have been getting a lot of buzz of late, and selling out many of their tour dates as a result. The Austin American-Stateman's Peter Mongillo recently interviewed the band, and keyboardist Ayad Al Adhamy credited their success to PR.

American-Statesman: You've been selling out shows across the country. Why do you think people are so excited to see you?

Adhamy: People tell them to be excited. We have a really awesome publicist. It's a word of mouth or word of Internet thing. It's nothing we're doing.

A modest and humorous reply? Perhaps. However, it's always nice to see the publicist get a shout out, and this band is getting a lot of press. Just who is the publicist? Kip Kouri of Tell All Your Friends PR, which also handles acts including the New York Dolls, Yoko Ono and White Rabbits.

[Hat tip: BrooklynVegan]

Arjan Timmermans, a new business development manager in MS&L's Atlanta office became the first credentialed blogger to cover the Grammys this weekend live from the Staples Center in LA. He covered everything including the pre and post shows for Grammy.com, as well as his own blog, and communicated with readers via Twitter.

We heard from an MS&L source that Timmerman got noticed by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences because of his coverage of MTV events, and because he's been blogging about music on ArjanWrites.com nearly every day for six years.

[Paul McCartney, Nancy Shevell, and Samuel Jackson at the Grammys, image cred]

This year's Grammy Awards went big with new media, making use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and an iPhone app, as well as a "My Grammy Moment" user generated video contest. While the Grammy.com online newsroom certainly left a bit to be desired (it only listed press releases available in .doc and .pdf format), the official Twitter, Facebook and blog information was posted prominently on the site's homepage.

We're all about the effort to connect with fans and viewers, however a few efforts fell flat, including the official blogs, which were out of date and a bit bland, and video, in which content was limited and not embeddable.

What could they have done better?

-Outtakes. Many of the groups only perform one song. Maybe some would have agreed to perform additional takes in advance of the show to be released as web only exclusives via Grammy.com. This would surely be a way to boost online buzz among hardcore fans who want to see more than the 3-4 minute TV slot.

-Hire a prominent blogger. Big music blogs like Stereogum had much more up to date content, including live blogs. Perhaps there is a way to have integrated some of this content with Grammy.com? Also, big artists Twittered live from the event, including DJ Diplo and Questlove of the Roots - maybe these artists would be interested in having their Twitter feed or liveblogs featured on the site.

Certainly this is not a comprehensive list. What are we missing? Add your ideas in the comments.

With the music industry increasingly going digital, do album release dates still matter? The short answer is yes.

Let us not forget that Lil Wayne's recent album, Tha Carter III, still sold over 1 million copies in it's first week, even if it was preceded by a slew of free downloads put out by the rapper. Jim Walsh of music PR juggernaut Big Hassle reps clients including Weezer, Liz Phair and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. He tells PRNewser, "Many factors go into choosing a date. Touring schedules have a lot to do with it. Some bands like releasing at off times of the year to stand out and have less competition. It's like going on vacation in high season."

Lil Wayne's album came out on June 18th.

However, September is still a big release month, as the industry gets back into the swing of things after the summer "down" season. This despite the fact that, according to Walsh, "ads are more money in the 4th quarter."

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