From about 1996 through 2019, I had the pleasure of handling tour publicity for Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull in North America. I learned a lot from one of Rock’s hardest workers and unique songwriters, plus his team. It helped me make contacts throughout North America. Some of the outreach work has changed through the years, because the media has. But our motivation, to find as much meaningful coverage for our artists, has not.  

Many 20th Century Media techniques still apply. Being of service to help journalists get information and to spread the word of your artist’s tour dates are still priorities.  Be kind.  

Media Outreach Tools: Until early 1990, most publicists could get by with a typewriter, telephone, fax machine, and the U.S. Mail. By 1993, working media people were online, so publicists needed to adapt.   

Not all media people preferred receiving info and recordings, digitally. Now most prefer it. Every niche genre—especially my beloved progressive rock, folk/singer-songwriter, and independent radio programmers (who are important for every genre, because there are so many musicians that aren’t on the charts) prefer CDs.  

From the 1990s through early 2000s, most of my assistants stuffed envelopes and addressed packages, making sure press releases were included. Now my assistants and I email personalized pitches to all our targeted journalists. They can sign in as me or do it from their own addresses as themselves. If their workstations are set up for ultimate comfort, they can send pitches from bed! 

Phone calls. Nowadays the ratio of time spent for independent publicists to communicate with the media has become 90% email and 10% telephone. Back in the 1980s and ‘90s, we were always on the phone. Before faxes, we mailed press releases. It was hard to sync the date the press releases arrived at every media outlet; so we wrote EMBARGO UNTIL THE SAME DATE at the top and bottom of the release. That meant, “do not publish this press release until that date and time, Dammit!”

Talking with journalists is something I miss. Now most of my calls go to voicemail. We do get callbacks, sometimes, and that’s always fun! 

Knowing what to promote, and to whom.

There are three reasons to do tour press when it comes to developing acts: 

1. Advance press – To promote the concert. Ideally, I’d love to send the first press release a full season (3-4 months) in advance. Pitch TV and radio for interviews. Talk or write to media that have long lead times, like local glossy magazines or monthlies. Most of the time I get the assignment 5 weeks in advance, and can still do it, but we –usually—lose out on potential placements. 

   4-6 weeks in advance, send a tailor-made press release. Do follow ups to targeting outlets every month, then a few times over the course of the month and week before the show. A few weeks out, send a short of press release.  Week of show—ideally Monday afternoon—send a short press release with the who/what when/where/ and one paragraph, and social media links AND hashtags for social media posts. 

2. Press at the show — you want to get people to the show. Nowadays it’s great to have fans posting on social media, so make sure the band knows to work the room, and pose for pictures. Don’t worry if music appears as a video. Consider this connection a modern-day comparison of bootlegs, that’s what it is. Doing interviews at the show post or pre-show also includes press at the show. 

3. If the act is in a market for a few days after a weekend or weekday gig, explore the town.  Meet up with local bloggers, record video interviews if there are video shows in the area. Go to stores—music places. Meet musicians for future gigs that you can trade, playlist curators, students at local colleges, all kinds of people that you climb up the ladder with. Visit schools to see about volunteer or paid master classes for the future. Check to see if there are fraternities and sororities that hire bands. Does the town have Fortune 5000 companies—call their Human Resources’ departments to see if they hire musicians for company events.

How to build your touring media list

I like organizing the information of each of my contacts in a list: 

1) MEDIA OUTLET

2) Contact Name 

3) email

4) phone

5) snailmail

6) websites and social media links

7) misc, which can include how they prefer to be serviced (mail cd, WAV files, MP3s) to things you have in common with the writer.

 Grow your media list by using suggestions from the venue and by doing your own research.

Always ask a venue their suggestions for local media. Tell the venue that your artist is available to do interviews, “Please, what media people have been supportive to the club, and who do you suggest?” Sometimes you have to follow up. If the act has an agent, and the venues doesn’t respond, ask the agent to give a nudge.

The venue’s publicist might say, “I prefer not to share my media outlets, when is your artist available for interviews.” Give them your artist’s availability. Then do your own research and outreach.

I used to go to the Library, and look in Broadcasting Magazine’s Yearbook for radio and TV leads, and the Barron’s encyclopedia listings of local newspapers.

Now I use google to search “Name of town, Newspapers” and check the websites and either make phone calls or send emails. A lot depends if the website includes a phone number!

To find radio stations, I search for relevant formats in targeted towns at Radio-Locator.com.  I’ll study links to radio stations, browse the sites, see if there are specialty shows relevant to my artist.  Often contact locally generated morning and overnight shows if they are entertaining, and your artist has a likeable personality.  If there are relevant shows, find the contact info, and craft your pitch.

Other places to search for media leads: TOWN WEBSITES, FACEBOOK PAGES FOR TARGET MARKETS. (Make sure they’re current and have reasonable fan interaction).

Making new contacts means you are meeting new people for the cause of growing as an artist.  That’s a process you’ll enjoy for lots of reasons, including inspiration. Let me know how it goes.

Anne also joined Music Biz Weekly podcast co-hosts Michel Brandvold and Jay Gilbert to talk about how tour publicity can work for artists. Listen in below!