We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart PR. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of My Manager, where we’ll share actionable advice on all facets of the music industry - “news you can use.” The newsletter is free to all until August, at which point we’ll pivot to a $5/month subscription for the weekly newsletter, and we’ll send out a monthly “Free Friday” roundup with limited access.
This week, we talk with radio promoter Shil Patel, owner of Tiger Bomb Promo in Athens, Ga. We’ve also got some podcast recommendations, industry news highlights, social media advice, your weekly DIY Toolkit, and more.
BUT…before we dive in, we wanted to tip our hats to other writers who inspired us / helped shape the concept of My Manager:
Water and Music was our “aha!” moment that made us decide to go for it with My Manager - but here are several others we highly recommend:
Robert Christgau - the Dean of Rock!
Larry Fitzmaurice - former Editor at The Fader
Todd L. Burns - former Editor-in-Chief at Red Bull Music Academy
Brady Gerber - bylines at Pitchfork, Stereogum, Rolling Stone, and more
Shawn Reynaldo - bylines at NPR, Pitchfork, SPIN, and more
Dan Ozzi - America's Only Music Writer™
Tom Erlewine - Senior Pop Editor at TiVo, bylines at AllMusic, Pitchfork
If you know of any newsletters from women or BIPOC we should know about - please let us know!
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
Hunter S. Thompson
INTERVIEW: SHIL PATEL // TIGER BOMB PROMO
A conversation with Shil Patel, owner of Tiger Bomb Promo. He’s worked radio campaigns for Sufjan Stevens, Buzzcocks, Alice Cooper, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Hiss Golden Messenger, Julia Holter, The Magnetic Fields, Daniel Romano, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers - and many many many more.
If you want to know more about how a radio campaign works - Shil is going to break it down for us. He shares the components of a campaign, how he gauges if the campaign is successful, the hidden benefits of doing a radio campaign, and some of his best advice to up-and-coming musicians:
PODCAST (full interview, audio-only)
Don’t have time to read all the trade news? Here are some weekly highlights:
Napster, iHeartMedia Dropped from Massive Streaming Collusion Lawsuit
What Place Will Virtual Tipping Have in the Post-Pandemic Music Industry?
What Kind of Year Will It Be for the Record Business? The Forecasts Are Getting Worse, Not Better
Podcasts Worth Your Time
The New Music Industry Podcast - How to Use Data to Grow Your Music Career (with PDF Cheat Sheet)
Pitchfork is starting a podcast and the first episode is about Tik Tok
Your DIY Toolkit (we’ll give you one tool a week to focus on)
Every musician who plans to pitch their music should have a SoundCloud account. We know, we know, you have an EPK. However, private SoundCloud links are the industry standard for pitching to writers. If we did our job well and wrote a killer pitch, then all we want people to have access to is that song or album link. If we can get someone to listen to a song, then we have done our jobs.
Our advice is to upload your album like it is front-facing to the public—even if it isn’t yet. This means: don’t simply upload the tracks the mastering engineer sent you. Make sure your songs are labeled with correctly with ONLY the final titles — no redundant artist name in the title, no extra info like “track01,” “master_ref,” “final mix,” or “16 bit.”
Since it’s going to be on Soundcloud, you might as well do it up correctly and add tags, album/single art—all the bells and whistles. Check out these videos for more insight.
Social Media News
TikTok of the Week
Just for Fun
A music challenge testing how well you recognize historic hits
Have a question or a tip? Let us know and if we use it we’ll give you credit and link your socials!
If you dig what we are doing, here are some easy ways to support us:
Forward this to a musician
Subscribe to the $5 / month paid version
Follow us: