mediabistro.com: PRNewser

Passion Pit on Their Popularity: "We Have a Really Awesome Publicist"

[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]

Monday Feb 09, 2009

MS&L Exec Covers the Grammys as First Credentialed Blogger

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.

Grammy's Make New Media Push, But Is It Enough?

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the effort to connect with fans and viewers, however a few efforts fell flat, including the official blogs, which were out of date and a bit bland, and video, in which content was limited and not embeddable.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

Wednesday Sep 17, 2008

Music PR: How To Choose An Album Release Date

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."

Tuesday Dec 11, 2007