A publicist pitching to radio! Author: Lou James The Push's Music Industry Pathways Coordinator

Q&A with Georgia Cooke

Photo: Georgia Cooke (Publicist at Remote Control Records)

Q: Can you begin by telling us a little bit about you and Remote-Control Records?

A: My name’s Georgia Cooke. I’m a publicist at remote control. A publicist is someone that essentially helps an artist get their music covered by different media outlets. That could be radio stations, magazines, online blogs, newspapers or any media that exists. I do that at Remote control records which is an Australian based label, we look after a whole bunch of different international and Australian labels. We work with artists like Courtney Barnett, Methyl Ethel, the XX so a really mixed bag of different artists.

Q: How important is it for an artist to build a relationship with their publicists? A: I think it’s pretty important to find the right publicist. There are a lot of things that people can do themselves. If you’re just starting out and you’ve never had any radio or press coverage you could try and do it yourself first and then get a publicist on board after that because that way, they’ve got something to work on.

Building a relationship with your publicist is super important. You want to have some clear goals and targets and make sure the publicist you get works on similar music to you. You also want to make sure they are known exactly what radio stations to be played on and what blogs you want to cover you, so you are pitched to the right places. Q&A with Georgia Cooke (Continued)

Q: Where would you generally place ‘pitching to radio’ in a PR strategy for an artist?

A: I would place it as the number one thing to start with. When I start working on a PR campaign for a band generally I first start figuring out what radio stations and programs will like their music because once you get some radio play lots of different blogs that listen to that stations will start picking up on your music. Works as a great way to figure out how to start building your profile.

Q: For radio, are you pitching to program managers, producers or radio hosts?

A: This is a bit of a loaded questions because this depends on what radio station you are pitching to. Each one is very different so community radio, verse commercial verse triple J all have different processes and the best way to figure out who to pitch to is to do a bit of research. Usually every radio station should have a general submit section on their website or the best person to reach out to. The other thing to think about is to make sure to pitch to the specific station, program or presenter that actually likes the music you’re playing.

Q: How important is it for an artist to have an online presence before pitching a song to radio?

A: I think it’s pretty important to have at least social media accounts set up that way you can actually direct the presenter or whoever you are sending your song to see what gigs you’re playing next, ‘like’ you and keep track on what you’re doing. Also– if someone hears you on a station and then check you out and you don’t have your profile set up they can’t find you so it’s pretty vital.

Q: How do you determine the appropriateness of the song to radio?

A: I think every song is appropriate for radio at some station. Again, do research. If you have a seven- minute jam, then maybe a commercial radio might not play that. Triple M usually play 3-4 min songs max and triple j like shorter songs if possible. The beautiful thing about community radio is that each presenter has full control of what they play s o they could play a 12 min song and that’s absolutely fine. Other thing to make sure is that if it’s a family friendly station, if might not be the best thing to send a song that has heaps of swear words.

Q: What is best practice to servicing your music to radio?

A: The way that I usually service to radio is that I’ll start before the song is released. I do my research and figure out where the songs fit and will send different personal emails to those different presenters. If you’re not sure whether to service to Community radio or Triple J Unearthed first so it all at the same time. Upload song to Triple J Unearthed and as you’re doing that also email different community radio presenters. Make sure in the email you don’t attach your song, send a drop box link because you want to avoid clogging their email inbox andmake them annoyed! Q: Do you have a different approach for community radio and commercial radio?

A: Both community and commercial radio each have their own music directors, however they each take on very different roles. At commercial radio, the music director chooses everything that gets played across the whole station, across all programs and is very strictly guided by adverts. Whereas community radio has a lot more freedom. Their main role is to get the songs they think specific presenters might like sent to them. Community radio doesn’t have any guidelines on what songs they can or cannot play. The main thing I do is basically a big deep dive into what the community radio presenters are playing and figuring which of those presenters will like the song. I look them up and find them online, sending them an email (which you’ll find on their program page) with the link to the song and trying to forge an organic relationship with them.

Q: Why is Triple J Unearthed important and how-to best pitch to them?

A: Triple J Unearthed is so incredibly important. It’s a way for unsigned artists to get their music to Triple J, Double J and Triple J Unearthed and is a platform that means you don’t need a manager, label or publicists to get your music on Triple and so you don’t need a heap of money. The best way to pitch to them is to set up a Triple J Unearthed profile and you can do this online and then upload your song. It’s best to upload your song at the same time as everywhere else in the world like Spotify. Making sure that when you upload your song you have all your bio info; press image and social media profiles are ready. Anyone, any fan, double J and triple J presenters can review any song and are always looking for new music every week.

Q: As a publicist what’s the difference between pitching to Double J and Triple J?

A: Double J and Triple J are super great stations that cater to slightly different audiences. Triple J is a complete radio station that is targeted at young people. Double J is a digital radio station which means it can be played on digital radio and online and aimed towards an older audience. I guess again, the most important thing to pitching to either of these is to dive in and figure out and what type of artist do I admire and what to be in their position in five years’ time and which radio presenters are playing them. You can find this out by looking at their website and typing in the artist.

Q: What happens when a radio station plays an artist’s song on the radio?

A: Oh, this is a good question! When you get played on the radio sometimes the presenter will let you know, you might get an email, or you might not have any idea! There’s a really great resource called Amrap so upload your track to hear and Triple J Unearthed. Amrap uploads it to a music library which any community radio presenter can listen to. On Amrap there’s airplay search function so you can type in the name of your band and to see where you’re getting played. Another handy tip, when you’re doing your research to figure out who to send your music to, look up the type of artists that you think you sound like, look them up on AMRAP and find the presenters playing that music because then that’s who you should send your music to!

For further information or assistance, please contact The Push on (03) 9380 1277 or email [email protected]