As independent Hip Hop artists, we spend a great deal of time and energy trying to find ways to promote our situation to the masses. From posters on a phone pole to postings on Facebook, we all want to be seen and heard. A great deal of us rely solely on guerrilla marketing tactics and social media to pave the way to fame and fortune. A small percentage of us will approach mainstream print, TV or radio media outlets to market our products and services, and an even smaller percent are being given a shot.
An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) is a very useful tool to have in the toolbox. A few photos, a bio and some work in a nice digital file format bundled is the bare minimum. But an angle worthy of publishing, or buzz, is where it starts. An album release party, charity event or CD signing at a local business could create a story worth talking about. And if done properly, could make the difference in winning, and really winning.
Learning how the press works could be very valuable in our level of success at working the press. They often have a built-in, loyal audience that want to know what’s new. That could turn in to new customers for us. But their time is very valuable and we must be conscious of that in our efforts to get them to publish our story. That is where a strong press release comes in handy. All of the elements are in place right now to become a hit and go to the press. If we make it simple for the press to create the story, the more likely she is to create it. In other words, the less she has to write, the better your chances.
An industry standard press release works wonders. At this point, we are competing against world events. So let’s compete against world events. If we look the part to the publishers, we gain their respect and they may even give our records a listen. Add the bio, pics and buzz and we score a phone interview to put the finishing touches on the evening news or front page in the town newspaper.
There are tons of sample press releases online to help with format and writing techniques if you have never written one. The number one reason the press have given me for not publishing more Hip Hop is that they have to write the feature from scratch. We can help them with that. We can write our own features because that is what Hip Hop is all about.
