The-O PR

Their press material tells me all I need to know to spark an interest. Background on the band, relevant links, some images and a press release.

Readers of the blog will know I am not generally a fan of press releases, as too often they tell me nothing, other than advertising waffle. The-O press releases however give me some genuine material I can grab and use to create an article. They are also responsive to any questions I have about the band, ensuring I can make contact with the bands members if appropriate and providing me with additional information as requested.

I receive a multitude of Press material daily, much of it absolute junk and I feel sorry for the bands who are paying those agents.

The-O PR are in my experience a decent firm running out of offices in London, who are doing their best for their bands and representing those bands in a useful way.

The wrong PR manager

I regularly receive contacts from PR managers, which always puts me on the back foot, probably because I am so antiquated. I like to speak to bands and I like to speak to fans and I like bands who put themselves out there, but I do understand the world has moved on and there are so many potential sites, radio stations, TV stations etc. that using a PR manager can make some real sense for a band. But I wonder if they and the audience are really getting value for money?

Way too often, just in the short life of this blog, I have received introduction emails from PR managers which indicates to me, they are not giving value for money. They are happy to provide nothing but a press release, which Fool that I am (hey isn’t that on the blog from Jon and Lynn), I can’t help but follow the links and find out about the band myself.

If the band makes sense to the blog, then I will try to get an article posted. I always ask PR managers for release information and tour information and invariably ask for some additional background on the band, often I receive yet another email with excerpts from other websites, why they think that would be of interest I have no idea. That is just laziness on the side of the PR Manager, but it gets far worse.

As regular readers know, the blog runs a range of subsections: new releases; tour news; gig reviews etc.. speaking of which do sign up to the newsletter, link on the right hand side ->->->
for more information.

You may think that the additional articles in these subsections may be of value to the band and the information to be of interest to website readers. But no, the vast majority of PR Managers are not in the least bit interested.

All they chase are ‘another site has written about you’. They can send a wonderful email telling the band how many new websites are writing articles about the band and for this they are paid. They completely ignore ongoing readers and website owners who are interested in following a band, as it is too much effort.

There are a number of bands on the blog, currently on tour and with new releases who are represented by PR Managers who can’t be bothered to reply to emails. The indie bands blog will be releasing occasional articles on  PR Managers, as bands need to know who doesn’t really fulfill a task and who hits the bulls eye.