mu[sic]
a column by Scott D. Lewis

There's No Such Thing As A Free CD

There's no such thing as a free lunch, they say, and apparently, there's no such thing as a free CD.

The whole reason I got into this Music Journalist gig was for the free stuff, and I have no shame about that. I do have some regrets, though. As a music critic, and even more so as the music editor for magazines, I've gotten thousands of free CDs over the years. I've received a lion's share of overnighted concert tickets, t shirts, stickers, lighters, candy, keychains and even gratis booze. What more could I want?

I could want it without the strings attached. When I started this gig, nowhere in the glossy professional brochure (which bolded each and every reference to tons of free stuff) was there any mention of the fact that once I received tons of free stuff, I would be hounded high and low by publicists. The publicists' job, simply stated, is to get as much press and airplay as possible for their clients. It's a simple, understandable goal, but the means and methods some of them reach to reach that end are neither simple nor understandable. Good publicists – and there are many (I love the fine folks at Girlie Action, Sacks & Co., 2:30 PR, 24 Promotions, Deluxxe Media, etc.) – send you the music, photo, bio and selected press, keep you informed of their clients' noted happenings and check unobtrusively to see if you were able to get any ink, airtime, or webspace for their act. A good publicist is there to help, to assist their targeted media conduit with anything and everything they might ask for. They're honest and professional (though understandably not entirely forthcoming), answering questions and arranging interviews, tickets, press materials, photo shoots, and general artist access.

While the best publicists are realistic about their bands and their cause, too many are full of hype. I can't count the times Joe or Josie Publicist has tried to convince me that I just have to write about their band because: (a) The band is the best band to ever pick up their instruments, (b) The band is getting a lot of airplay/rotation, (c) The band has a remarkable story like 'college buddies form rock band and release their own album and set out on cross-country tour in a van they bought on credit', (d) "Everybody is writing about them," (e) all of the above. Sometimes, the sell job is just blatantly unethical behavior, such as the manager of a local nothing-band who submitted to a local publication a "story that will certainly be of great interest to your readers." Surprise – it was a glowing overview of the very band she gets a (potential) cut from. The real humdinger was seeing that same propaganda run as a story in a neighborhood paper a few weeks later.

 

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