The Orchard's Masterclass on Releasing Music
Plus, a success story behind a social media / publicity stunt we pulled last week.
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart PR. If you aren’t familiar with us, we’re industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more.
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. Please consider subscribing or forwarding this to a colleague.
Have a question or a tip? Did we (*gasp*) get something wrong? Our line is always open -- hit us up and if we use your response in a future newsletter, we’ll give you credit and link your socials.
This week on the My Manager Podcast is a conversation with Lauren Kasper, the Label Director at The Orchard in Nashville, TN. As some of our early subscribers know, the release of this interview has been in the works for a few months. We promised that as soon as we got a green light, we would send it out to everyone, so here it is.
Lauren really opened up the floodgates and shared a TON of info with us. When the interview was edited down from over an hour and a half (we cut most of ourselves out of it because it is so packed with information), we sent it over to get approved and it was gone over with a fine-tooth comb to make sure we weren’t giving away too many secrets.
What we ended up with is a masterclass on releasing music.
We encourage you to set aside some time and take some notes while listening. Then go back and listen to it again.
The Orchard is the largest independent distributor of music, film and video operating in more than 25 global markets. They offer an array of services for independent music labels, but there are still plenty of tips in this podcast for independent artists if you listen closely.
Lauren Kasper from The Orchard advises on how to get your music onto Editorial Playlists (3-min video)
My Manager Interview with Lauren Kasper of The Orchard (38-min audio podcast)
News You Can Use
Success Story
Last week, Frank’s band Great Peacock pulled off a publicity stunt in the run-up to their album release on Friday, October 9th. They decided to parody themselves in a satirical “fake news” article hosted on an obviously-fake Blogspot account. It ended up being a refreshing pivot from their standard content stream of press, playlists, and calls-to-action like “buy our new record” which can get stale VERY quickly if you don’t mix it up.
Here’s the satire article in question.
We posted it to the Sweetheart PR Facebook page, shared to our personal pages + Great Peacock’s band page, and it took off from there. We DM’d some close friends + super fans to keep a steady stream of comments going, staying “in character” all the while gently prodding any new folks in the comments to SHARE the post as well. Once you’ve gotten your bubble/community to engage, the algorithm takes over from there.
We’re not saying you should necessarily parody yourself — but don’t be afraid to get creative when it comes to your social content.
As of today, the Facebook post has almost 7,000 impressions and over 4,000 engagements.
Your DIY Toolkit
We’ve discussed this previously in our sync licensing newsletters, and Lauren touches on it once again in this week’s podcast. Here’s a reminder on the how and why of metadata and why it is VITAL that you have this organized when it comes time to release new music.
ALSO: Third-party apps to simplify adding metadata
TikTok of the Week
An easy way to learn and notate a song
Just for Fun
10 Awesome Music Videos Inspired By Video Games
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
Coming next week: Brandon Kinder of The Rocketboys // The Wealthy West talks sync licensing from a musician’s perspective
ICYMI:
Radio Promoter Shil Patel Breaks Down What A Radio Campaign Looks Like
Are You Giving Your Promotional Content the Attention It Deserves?
Follow us: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // TikTok // Spotify