| CMU Directory: What do music PR agencies do? |
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Introduction
Many record labels, even those with in house PR and promotions departments, employ special PR or promotions agencies to manage their media promotions on some or all of their releases - ie to persuade newspapers, magazines and websites to write about their artists and releases, to persuade radio stations and music TV channels to playlist their songs or videos, to persuade music and entertainment TV shows to invite their artists to guest or perform, and to persuade DJs to play their songs during their radio shows or at clubs where they DJ.
There are numerous PR and promotions agencies - from one man operations to large companies. Some concentrate exclusively on media relations, others offer a whole range of 'below the line marketing services' such as flyer and poster distribution, mailing list compilation, promotional event management etc etc. Some of these companies only work on music projects, others work in all areas of entertainment, while others still work with a whole host of consumer brands.
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PR v Promotions
Traditionally media promotions in the music industry has been split into two distinct bits.
Firstly that bit that tries to get artists coverage in newspapers and magazines, which is called PR, the people working in this area being called PRs or publicists.
Secondly that bit that tries to get songs or videos played on radio stations, TV stations and in clubs, which is called promotions or plugging, the people working in this area generally being called pluggers.
In the online world these two roles can become a bit blurred, because you are trying to get websites to write cover your artists, and to play your songs or videos - both PRs and pluggers sometimes work in online media promotions, though some companies specialise in online promotions specifically, and you could argue this is a this is a third bit.
In record companies there will often be separate departments for PR and promotions, and maybe even for online. Externally, many agencies will also specialise in one of these areas - and on the plugging side may specialise even more so, dealing exclusively with radio, TV or clubs. Some agencies do both PR and promotions, though may be hired to just do one or the other on anyone release, which can get confusing when you're a journalist trying to figure out who to contact about that release.
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National / Regional / College
Record labels generally split all media (newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV) into those that operate on a UK-wide level and those that operate on a regional level. Again a large label may have different in-house teams to deal with national and regional PR and promotions, and likewise different agencies will specialise in national or regional work.
This means you may have one agency representing an album to Radio 1, Radio 2 and Virgin Radio, and another to local radio stations. And one agency representing an album to NME, Q and the national newspapers, and another to the music editors of local newspapers and listings magazines.
It's worth noting at this point that some London based media are generally treated as national press or radio, even though they only broadcast to London. I'm not sure why this is, except that a London-centric music industry (wrongly) thinks of London media as being more important.
There is a third strand to this distinction. The student market has always been very important to the music industry, and therefore college or student media - ie student newspapers and radio stations based on campus - are regularly serviced by music PR and promotions companies. Obviously student media are a kind of regional media, but often a seperate agency will be employed to do college promotions, and some agencies specialise in college PR and promotions.
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Genre specialists
In addition to all that, some PR and promotions agencies will specialise in certain genres of music - often because niche genres will have their own magazines, websites and specialist radio shows which are not necessarily targeted in more mainstream campaigns. Those agencies who specialise in niche genres will often do both PR and plugging for releases.
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Directory
The CMU PR & Promotions agencies directory here is not exhaustive but includes all the major players in music PR and Promotions. There are email contacts for most companies and website links for those companies who have a web presence.
Those companies on a blue background are primarily press/PR agencies while those on a grey background are primarily promotions/plugging agencies. Those on a green background do both. We also state more specifically what areas each agency work in in the 'type' column, using the following key.
Key:
[NP]: National Press; [NR]: National Radio; [RP]: Regional press; [RR]: Regional Radio; [CP]: College press; [CR]: College Radio; [C]: Clubs [O]: Online [TV]: TV
