The Glossary: Genevieve Taylor | PR Manager at Glisten
What does a PR do?
Music PRs work with artists, labels and their teams to develop their profile, gain exposure and tell their story. We get the artist and the music to the right places at the right time, making sure we are always reaching the right audiences.
We write press releases, create media kits, commission biographies and advise on press shots for use, and around releases we pitch the music or event news to all the relevant publications to raise awareness and secure coverage. All of this feeds into co-ordinating press opportunities to promote what the artist has coming up - this can be interviews, playlists, mixes, podcasts, radio shows, photo shoots, brand collaborations, through to news pieces and playlist inclusions.
To do this we need a really strong network of media contacts, so we cultivate relationships with the press. This can mean meeting journalists for coffee, inviting them to join us at gigs and also chatting regularly with them about what our artist’s have coming up.
We also create strategic plans to help our artists grow and achieve specific goals, so we look at their activity over a long period of time and plot out “moments”. This includes creating timelines around when releases or major gigs are, and can include things like when best to drop a studio mix, or when might be the right time for a cover shoot. With things like shoots, we often coordinate these and advise on the best creative teams (stylists, photographers etc) and for these - drawing on our network to help them find the best fit for the artist.
A PR will also be on-hand for what we call “crisis management”, this is where we help the artist to publicly navigate difficult situations that might arise. Also sometimes we will advise on social media use, and help organise events or look for events for our artists to attend. The list goes on!
What makes a great PR?
Soft skills will get you far in PR. To thrive you do need to be hard-working, good at communicating, organised, friendly and pretty resilient - you have to be okay with not getting responses or getting rejected and keep going.
You need to have lots of energy, perseverance and be able to come up with creative ideas. Our bread and butter is being good at writing, researching and managing the relationships you have with media, artists and their managers, creatives, label managers etc.
These interpersonal skills are really important and come into play in many ways, such as if an artist has written music about a difficult time in their life. If they want to communicate, we are responsible for handling that with care.
What are the professional requirements for a successful PR?
There are no set qualifications to work as a PR! I think having a degree in communications, media, journalism, marketing can help but it's not actually necessary. Like, there are things like the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, which depending on where you want to take your career could be helpful, but that is a very formal route, and in my experience, successfully working in music PR is really about building from the ground up - meeting people, building your network and just really caring about sharing great music and telling interesting stories.
I don’t think I’ve really needed my degree to get where I am now, but I guess it has been helpful in setting up my PR agency - I already understood things like marketing, finance, business admin, etc without having to undertake a lot of extra research/courses which cost time and money.
So much of my experience has been on-the-job training from the very ground up - from putting on and promoting events and working on-site at clubs, festivals, brand events so I could understand exactly what roles other people do and where PR connects to moving up to working behind the scenes on events with media teams and artists, to assisting at a magazine before finally interning and then growing within my first agency role, followed by many other roles which have lead me to where I am now. Understanding what keeps the cogs turning and respecting each person's role in the industry is so important.
What are the common misconceptions about the role of a PR?
I think PR is sometimes also perceived as a glam role with lots of fancy events and schmoozing, and going to events and networking is part of it, but often the really big events, we don’t have easy access to, we are at home monitoring emails instead! In reality there is a LOT of admin and ground work, it can really feel like you do the job of three people, and there's always something else to be pitched.
A common misconception is that if you work with a PR you are guaranteed loads of press coverage. In the case of a music PR, this is never a given but we will always try our best, and even if an album doesn’t get a written review or a whole load of interviews around it, by using our skill and contacts, we can ensure the music has been communicated to the right people, and that is part of the artist’s journey. PR isn’t advertising, we can’t make anyone cover music - it’s not possible to force anyone and it is hugely dependent on a combination of things, from editorial schedules, budgets, staff holidays (maybe said artist’s biggest fan at a publication is on leave and misses the coverage window), through to current affairs and what is going on at wider media and how that might affect news and feature coverage plans.
What music PR’s can do is try their best to communicate the music and story behind it, in the most authentic way possible for the artist, to the right people, and encourage them to support it, or critique it. A key part of our job is having strong connections and knowing who might be interested in specific sounds, artists or special project themes.
I’d really like to see more industry wide support of what we do. I think it can be easy for someone to say “don’t pay for a PR you don’t need”. In some cases, yes, you might not need it. I think it’s great for an artist to build their profile organically until the right time to work with a PR, and a good PR should be able to advise on when the right time is too. But our role is important - a music PR is like a bridge between the artist and the media, and we amplify their voice in an impactful, creative way. It’s also super time-consuming work, so if an artist has a job and makes music, they often just don’t have the time to write press releases, or know who to send it to, or have their contact details, or a relationship with them. Music journalists receive hundreds of emails a day, and we can help cut through the noise.
What changes would you like to see happen within your sector and the music industry in general?
It has been devastating to see so many music and culture publications shutting down or being sold off, recently. Which has led to attitudes like “the magazines are shutting, PR is a waste of money”, and during times like now with the cost of living crisis, that is understandable. But the entire music industry is an ecosystem, and investment into that ecosystem needs to happen to keep it healthy. Like with everything really, there needs to be a more collective approach. I would really like to see big music corporations, major labels, even top-earning artists doing a lot more to help fund more music publications and platforms. We need more spaces for a much more diverse range of artists and genres to be covered, and to ensure the future of music journalism is more secure.
And in general, there are too many to list, but a really big problem is the systemic misogyny in the industry. The Misogyny in Music report published by the Women and Equalities Committee January 2024 confirmed that sexual harassment, gender discrimination, power imbalances and unequal pay are entrenched in the industry, along with a culture of silence and a lack of accountability for perpetrators of abuse. The WEC listed recommendations to the UK Government. Despite responding with “everyone should be able to work in the music industry without being subject to misogyny and discrimination," the Department of Culture, Media and Sport confirmed they will not take any action. It paints a very bleak picture and is such a kick in the teeth to the important work of the WEC, and platforms like Saffron who work tirelessly to improve equality in music.
On a lighter note, there are so many amazing people in the industry, and it really is a privilege to be able to help share artist’s stories, and be part of incredible events. I have noticed there has been a real sense of camaraderie in the last few years, particularly post-pandemic. We are all navigating an industry that has been through so much, so it’s been great to see more care within it; from people taking more about issues around mental health to the widespread undertaking of Mental Health First Aid courses among industry professionals, through to more people sharing ideas and resources a lot more openly.