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Free Clarinet Now Publicity ResourcePromote Your Concert or Recital
Either benefit from this Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource or contact your professional management and/or publicist. If you don't have these professionals at your beck and call, read on... Here is a simple way to get exposure for your clarinet recital or concert. If you want to draw attention to your event, having a proper press release and a good media list is very important.
1. Pick your program and recital date: Is there anything on this program that will hook the “general public?” 2. Plan publicity 3. Gather your media list 4. Write your press release 5. Take an interesting photo 6. Send date, time, place and general basic information to arts calendars 2-6 month prior to recital 7. One month to two weeks prior to recital, send full press release and photo 8. One week prior, go the extra mile and do interviews on local radio or TV to promote the recital 9. Post your press release to your webpage, blog, Facebook page, etc… 10. Enjoy the audience that came to your event
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #1: Pick your program and recital date: Is there anything on this program that will hook the “general public?” Hopefully, this recital date is not next week. If you are like me, I’ll know about a potential recital six months to a year in advance. Once you have your date, figuring out the program is your job. My only suggestion “publicity-wise” is to insert something on the program a general audience member might like to hear. Think about a “hook.” It’s our job to expose clarinet to the world and add clarinet enthusiasts whenever we get a chance. This Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource is here to help you promote clarinet to the world.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #2: Plan publicity; gather your media list Make a publicity schedule based on your recital date. Try this schedule. This step is not required but good for long term exposure: Send your recital basic information as soon as you can. Date, time, place, contact information, ticket price or free and open to the public. Sending this out at the time you plan the concert will get the date listed in newspaper season arts calendars like a Summer Guide, Autumn Guide, etc… One month to two weeks prior to event. Send a press release and photo. Login to web calendars on newspapers and radio stations and submit your information. Basically “cut and paste” your press release info into these sources. If you really want to go the extra mile, check into some local radio stations. Focus on community radio and do not underestimate the power of local AM radio. AM stations are a good place to get used to talking about your event on live air to the public. Set one interview up or a few around the time you are sending out your press release. However, set the interview for one week prior to your event. Here is an example of AM radio I work with often here in the Hudson Valley: WBNR/WLNA Beacon/Peekskil, NY. Note that you do not have to travel to the station to interview; you can call it into the station.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource #3: Gather your media list A few questions: Are you publicizing locally like in your hometown or college town? Are you publicizing in the next town, next state, for a short or long tour? Either way, this page is for you in gathering a media list. This Tip #3 is the greatest GOLDEN NUGGET on this Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource in promoting your concert event. A. Go to USPS Zip Code Lookup to find the zip code of the town you a playing in (hopefully you know your home zip code) B. Now go to Google maps , type in your zip code and scan a 50 to 100 mile radius of your concert. C. Go to Grammy Advocacy Media Guide, scroll to the bottom of the page and look at Media Guide. Type in the zip code and click submit. Here you will get the media contacts of all of your major newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, magazines, etc… D. Click through each link and copy and paste the email addresses for editors. Also, depending on how gung-ho you are, take the snail mail addresses , phone number and fax numbers to either send hard copy press releases or call the contacts. This source is not detailed enough to give you the Arts and Leisure Sections of papers. Hopefully, editors will forward your information to those departments. It is good to cross-reference the official web-pages of the sources to gather that information. E. Email the press release to these sources F. Copy and paste your information into free Arts Calendars similar to this one at the
Times-Herald Record in Middletown, New York; G. Again, if you are gung-ho, consider doing radio interviews the week prior to your concert. Set these up a month to two weeks prior to your event. Don’t underestimate the power of AM talk-radio. Many of these stations have community corners or spotlights. You can call-in to the stations to talk about your event. H. Last but not least, post more to the web. Your friends on Facebook, if you have a Twitter account, etc… It’s great that you can announce your event to the world; however, focus your attention on the local community to draw people who will attend in person. Also, after you have a packed house, make sure you post a link to this Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource so others can enjoy a crowd.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource #4: Write your press release Think of an up-side-down pyramid. Keep the most important information at the top of the release. If journalists cut the press release, make sure they chop from the bottom. Try these rules. A. Keep the press release to one page. B. Title. Should include a hook. The most interesting or popular part of your recital or concert. C. Paragraph one, the most important information. Program title or your Name or Group Name, Date, Time, Place, Contact, Free or Admission fee. One sentence summarizing the selections on the program. D. Paragraph two, Program content. Subject material can include descriptions of the music, composers, styles, time periods, are you premiering a work, do you know the composer, are you performing with a family member, spouse, group info, etc… However, try to make it interesting and not read like an encyclopedia or music history book. E. Paragraph three, your bio or summary of your group’s information. And/or a listing of the group member names.
As suggested in D., some of the best publicity comes from a personal story. Are you buddies with a composer that you are premiering a work, are you performing with your spouse, teacher or a family member? Why did you pick the “theme” of your program? Why do you love playing Brahms or any particular style on your program? Also, have you played the same program for school children or elderly? Are you willing to do a master-class or clinic for local students in conjunction with your recital to promote your concert? Get a reporter to attend that class or have the band director snap a digital photo of you working with the kids. This is great material to help promote your concert. You can send the photo of you working with school kids or the elderly as an action shot to promote your concert event.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #5: Take an interesting photo I often see SO MANY portrait photos of musicians. My experience with the media is that portraits are boring and action shots are interesting. This is really easy now-a-days with digital cameras and simple uploads. Take a photo of yourself playing clarinet. You don’t have to play “Flight of the Bumble Bee” or any fast lick to make it convincing. I’ll usually just play a long tone open G or C below the staff to show the embouchure muscles engaged. Other basic thoughts: A. Pay attention to light; not over exposed (too bright) or too dark B. Pay attention to your background. Try not to take a photo in a room with too much clutter. C. If you take the photo against a wall, don’t stand too close to the wall. The shadow from the flash will show too dark and truly reeks of a non-professional photo. D. If you are playing with a pianist, take an action shot of each of you during a rehearsal. Pay attention to your clothes. If you are planning to wear a tuxedo for the recital and the rehearsal is in jeans, this just might not work. E. If you are playing with a group, again consider group action photo. F. Use the timer feature on your digital camera. They nearly all come with this. Set up the timer, run to your group and play a long tone or some simple lick. G. Let your imagination go. Make the recital interesting with the photo.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #6: Send date, time, place and general basic information to arts calendars 2-6 months prior to recital Alright, if you are so pumped about your recital and you actually follow this advice, first of all, you’re my kind of person, second, this will get your information listed in local magazines and seasonal arts calendars. For instance, in my neck of the woods is the Hudson Valley Magazine. If I want a chance at making their concert listings, I need to send them my basic information (date, time, place, program title, contact, free or ticket price) more than two months prior to the event. Also, if you have a list of newspapers and wish to call them instead of just emailing them, ask them if they have a seasonal art calendar. For example, it is August currently. Your recital is in April. Ask the papers if they have a late winter arts calendar or a spring arts calendar. If they do, who is the contact for that listing? Send them your information and keep the contact information for closer to the event. Having your listing in a magazine or seasonal arts calendar gives your event a “professional” weight to readers.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #7: One month to two weeks prior to recital, send full press release and photo You’ve had the press release written. You’ve gathered the mailing list. Now for the easy stuff, copy it or attach the release and photo into an email. WAIT JUST ONE SECOND… BEFORE YOU PRESS SEND, DID YOU HAVE ANYONE LOOK AT IT? Make sure you have a good, second set of eyes look over your release. Check the spell-check on your computer. DOUBLE-CHECK DATE, TIME, PLACE AND CONTACT INFO. These are the most important elements to getting butts in seats. OKAY, NOW YOU CAN SEND IT. Why one month to two weeks prior to the recital? If you send it the week or days before the recital, basically you will get no coverage. Again, by having the information out in time, you are presenting yourself as professional. Also, you need to practice, right? Send the release; then practice your clarinet. Go to bed and dream about how awesome it was you found this Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource. No, please dream about a great recital.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #8: One week prior, go the extra mile and do interviews on local radio or TV to promote the recital Basically, this is the bonus round of Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource. If you feel you are okay with doing a live radio interview, here are some tips to think about before it. Call the station and speak to the producer and/or interviewer. Get their email address and send them your press release so they can read ahead and have the basic and interesting information to ask you about during the interview. Practice! Yes, practice your clarinet. BUT ALSO, practice your answers. Expect questions like: When did you first learn clarinet? Why do you love music? Why did you pick this program? What are your plans with music? It all depends on how long the interview is. If it is a two minute interview, the basic information on your program is it. If 10 minutes or longer, prepare for the “life” music questions.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #9: Post your press release to your webpage, blog, Facebook page, etc… For webpages, you can post the press release as early as you have it written. For blogs and Facebook, you can post it within a week prior to the event. One great thing you can do is wait for a newspaper to post an article on its website, then post your link to your Facebook page. You are then promoting your event through a third party promoting your event. THAT, my friends, is awesome.
Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource Tip #10: Enjoy the audience that came to your event One piece of advice I'll give you is that you can tell your friends and family about your event until you are blue in the face, they will look at you and positively say, “Wow, that sounds great, we’ll see you then.” Then, to disappointment, they don’t come. Oh yes, you will have some come, but not all. Don’t mourn the people to do not come to your event. Celebrate the people who did come to your event. They probably are complete strangers and somehow, someway, they found out about a clarinet recital. They jumped into their cars, traveled and showed to hear YOU. Now that you have experience on live radio, talk to your audience. Give them the story behind the music. Tell them what you like about the music or the musicians you are performing with on-stage. Make that audience want to return to hear YOU, the CLARINET and LIVE MUSIC again. If you find this Free Clarinet Now Publicity Resource page helpful, please email via the Contact page. I’d love to hear if you followed any of this advice and if it gave you positive or negative results. Also, if you think of great publicity tips to share with me, I’ll help you share them with the world. For instance, what did you use as your hook? PRACTICE AND HOPE. PUBLICIZE AND HOPE. NEVER FORGET YOU FOUND IT HERE ON CLARINET-NOW.COM. THE FREE CLARINET NOW PUBLICITY RESOURCE PAGE. Sincerely, Christopher D. Jones www.Clarinet-Now.com |
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