An advice on choosing / working with PR companies?

[larrymagee]

Hi - I produce alt folk songs for a really talented young singer-songwriter. She just launched her bandcamp website https://lizlachmar.bandcamp.com/ and was contacted by a PR company to do the following for a $600 one-time fee. Is this reasonable? What questions should we be asking? I think this music might do well on college FM radio. thanks....

* A professional website built custom for your band with pages for everything you can think of from pics, shows, music, reviews, merch, downloads, links, social media, videos, and more. Websites are easily updated and include a domain name and of course we connect it for you.

* A consultation with a representative to go over royalty collection, single choices, marketing, branding, copyrights, and more.

* Mastering of your album or EP before the songles go out to radio.

* A radio campaign going out to at least 250 internet radio stations, 200 College FM stations along with review & blog sites as well.

* A new press release written to go along with your radio campaign.

* An E.P.K. built including songs, links, pics, videos, bio, and press release. This E.P.K. is what goes out to each radio station.

* Pitching for Film & TV placement and licensing. Over the years we've helped get plenty of artists songs placed into major films, tv shows, and commercials. As long as the music qualifies, we can pitch.

[Kolstad]

I think it sounds reasonable if they can deliver quality on these things. To do these things well requires a lot of skill.

Also think of it as a learning experience, as these things needs to be done in each case of a music release. So try to ask questions that enable you to understand how they go about it, maybe get their template for the campaign, website, press release and EPK.

Also ask to get the specifics of the mastering, what gear, settings ect, so you can reproduce it without them for another project.
Make sure to get documentation on which radio stations they approach, and better yet - who they contact at each station.
Same goes with the pitching, who are they approaching and whom.

So you'd want as much of their paper trail as you can, with as many specifics as you can get, for two reasons. 1) You want to make sure they are accountable for what they promise, and 2) you'd want to learn how to do much of this yourself for future releases-

That would be my concerns.

[Len911]

Advice? Well, a few minutes spent googling will be time well spent.

For example, you might find how long a website has been in business, a year or less?, you may find out if the owner has similar aliases, or if they have been connected with similar companies offering similar services, with similar mo's.
That's sort of a red flag.

It's usually a red flag when someone out of the blue contacts you.

$600 sounds really, really cheap for even a few of the things they are promising, even by Bangladesh standards.

I found this for a video

All Music videos start at $600(one videographer). Each music video price includes, filming, editing, youtube/vimeo post & mov. file of completed project.The completion of the music video may range from 3-5 weeks before being delivered to the client.50% cost of the video is expected the day of the first shoot day/night. *Any out of state (meaning out of ***) video shoots will be assessed with a toll & $40 gas addition.

This sounds a lot more legit,

[andygabrys]

Way too cheap for that long list of services, based on my experience hiring a firm in 2008.

When it comes to sending out press kits, part of the success comes from the follow up.

Sure they will send out to 250+ outlets, but do they follow up? And how many times for how long?

Mastering too? I wouldn't trust that.

[larrymagee]

Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate the thoughtful responses.