Wendy Day explains how independent rappers should build real relationships with music bloggers through personal outreach, not paid placements. She walks through identifying writers, learning what they cover, and keeping them updated on releases. Once you have momentum, organize press runs in NYC or LA to meet bloggers and playlist curators in person.
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Hi guys, how are you today? So my little rap friends, today I'm going to talk about, um, the blogs. And even though I have covered, um, how to hire a publicist, and you should go back and watch that because that really does matter, um, I want to talk about reaching out to the blogs and press runs and the stuff that you can do, prior to hiring a publicist and the stuff that you're going to do after you hire one as well. But, um, you hire a publicist when you've got a movement, and in order to get to the point of having a movement, you need to, um, at least reach out to the blog so that they know who you are. It's going to take a while before they post you, but you still need to be reaching out to them to let them know who you are and what you're doing, and you know, what your music is, what your videos are. And I always suggest that the artists do this themselves. And yeah, I know, like, you really need one more thing to do, right? But you're the best spokesperson for yourself, and the journalists, the bloggers will respect you more when it comes from you. And even if you've got somebody on your team that writes it for you and then passes it to you, and then you add like your own flavor and you actually are the one that presses send, it's just better for you to build the relationship with the blogger. You know, blogs are not as crucial as they were 10 years ago, and I blame us in the industry for that because what we started to do when blogs became the way that music started to break and catch on, we started buying blog placements. So instead of doing what was right, which is blowing the artist messed up, letting them have a natural buzz, and reaching out to the bloggers so that they could cover the artist authentically and organically, um, some of us started paying the bloggers to cover our artists. So what happened was the people reading the blogs realized that it was no longer about how dope you were in terms of coverage or how big your movement was. It was all about money, and it became about, um, even artists that were kind of whack getting coverage on the blogs because the bloggers were trying to make a living. So they were accepting the money, and people in the industry were paying them a lot of money to feature their artists on the blogs, and it really fucked shit up. So people, fans, stopped turning to the blogs for information, and now today in 2020, the blogs are The more successful blogs are the ones like Shade Room and Worldstar, the ones that have the more sensational, um, you know, DJ Akademiks, uh, VladTV, the ones that have the more sensational coverage from the music industry as opposed to the ones that are there to talk about the industry as a whole or what artists are coming up, who's new, who's doing what, you you know, so the blogs are even struggling a little bit. But as an artist, you need to be everywhere. So even if there's only 10 people reading a blog, you need to be there because that's 10 people that could potentially know who you are. And it doesn't make sense to hire a publicist and spend the money to do that. It's really something that you can do yourself. So I suggest that you start reaching out to the blogs And the way that you should do that is you should go to the blogs, see the coverage, get to know who the writers are, get to know them by their bylines, figure out who the writers are that cover your type of music positively. So if you are a more lyrical rapper, who are the bloggers and the journalists that really like lyrical rap? Who are the ones that like street rap if you're more of a street rapper? So get to know who the writers are and then start building a relationship one-on-one with that blogger. And you can find out their, um, the best way to reach them. You know, you can find them on Instagram, you can find them on Twitter, you can find them on LinkedIn, you can Google email address for whoever that person is. Get to know them as a person, get to know what their likes are, and start building a relationship as well as updating them on your music and what you're doing. This industry is built on relationships, so you're gonna have to do this eventually anyway. And then when you start to blow up and you start to really get your music out there, those bloggers will become your best advocate and your best, um, uh, cheerleader for what you're doing. I also think that EPKs are more important today than they ever were. And the reason that I say that, and I'm somebody who never used EPKs, but in the past couple of years I've been using them because sometimes we work in our own bubble and people don't realize how big an artist is regionally when they're based in LA or New York. So an EPK can be a really creative and, um, interesting way to show the bloggers who the artist is, who you are, and, you know, how many streams you've gotten, what platforms are your strongest platform, are you doing better on Apple, have you streamed 200 million times, you know, which is your most popular video, what your new single is. It's just a way to update people on what you're doing until you've got a publicist in place. And then the last thing I want to say about media is, um, and again, go back and watch the How to Choose a Publicist video because you need to know that too. That's the step after this, and this is where a publicist will first come in handy, is once you do have a movement and you've really got something to talk about— and again, the publicist is your megaphone— you want to set up a press run. You want to be able to go to New York and you want to meet with all of the bloggers that you've been building relationships with, and the ones that you don't have access to, the editors, um, of the publications. And you want to go through their offices and meet and greet them so that they can see you and pictures with you and really get to know who you are as a person. And while you're doing these press runs, you're gonna do one in New York and one in LA because that's where the bulk of the blogs and bloggers are located. When you're doing that, or you could do it around a conference like A3C or South by Southwest because a lot of bloggers attend those as well. But when you do these press runs, you also want to sit down with the folks at Spotify that can make a difference in your career. When you do an LA press run, you want to sit down with the folks at Apple Music. If you're in Atlanta, you want to sit down with Pandora. Get to know the platforms and the people that are responsible for getting your music on those platforms, because as you build a relationship with them, they can really give you a lot of helpful direction and insight as to the best way to utilize their platform to the maximum potential for you as an artist. And you want those folks to know who you are as well. You know, the, the major labels do this beautifully. They do it all day, every day. And as independents, we need to really step up and do this as well. But you gotta find out who the proper person is at The Playlist, at Spotify, at Apple Music, at Pandora, and then you need to interact with them just like you do with the bloggers. It's again building relationships. So I hope this was helpful. And don't inundate the bloggers with stuff. Don't spam them. But make sure you're engaging them and you're building a relationship. It's not one-sided and they don't owe you shit. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. Bye, rap buddies!
