This PR word is becoming a cliche in many industries, what does it even mean? Public Relations.
In plain English, it means creating, maintaining and sustaining a favourable image between you (celebrity, brand, organisation etc) and your audience. That’s it! Yes, that’s all.
As a music artiste, what does PR mean to you or your career? You are a brand that people can relate with, you have targets (those you want your music to appeal to). So, what is the best way to create, maintain and sustain the good image you want your fans to perceive of you?
Many emerging artistes do not consider PR in planning and marketing their projects which often leads to disaster.
In music, certain things have to be in place for you to have a successful career, one of which is how your fans perceive you. Is it good, bad or in between?
Because PR involves creating, maintaining and sustaining, there has to be A STRATEGY! A strategy that will involve different stages of planning. For instance, do you need to go on a radio tour? Do you need to send your fans periodic newsletters? What kind of influencers will promote your project? So many ways to go about it, because what works for A might not work for you.
He who fails to plan, is definitely planning to fail. You don’t just wake up and say you feel like doing giveaway. Fine, you might have the money, but are you getting results? Is your giveaway converting more streams?
To be fair, a number of upcoming artistes don’t know the importance of PR, but it’s not an excuse to operate on vibes, without a strategy or a plan. The least that can be done is to have an external PR consultant.
Nothing can replace PR in your career as an artiste. NOTHING! Although paying girls to dance to your songs is a way of raising awareness, it can never replace the real deal. The budget you have for playlisting your song can never replace PR.
As mentioned in the previous article, PR creates and maintains a favourable image to your audience, so there’s a part of it that creates, while another part maintains it, and the other sustains. Jumping to playlist your songs doesn’t do all of these.
Like a car on the highway, you need to use the acceleration pedal often and properly for your car to keep moving. Know when to slow down, know when to top your speed and most importantly, keep pressing the pedal to continue moving.
A-list artistes don’t joke with PR because it’s their source of strength and their driving force. Imagine Wizkid dropped #MadeInLagos and just went to relax – it would’ve done well because why not? He’s Wiz. That is where the part of sustain comes in – sending care packages to influencers, shooting videos, strategic posts and many more.
My dear friend, the Nigerian music industry is a red sea already, what are you doing differently? Do you have a budget for PR or it’s vibes and insha Allah?