How To Know If A PR Firm Is Legit Or A Fraud?

Music promotion agencies, or Music PR Firms create, manage and implement advertising and promotion campaigns for artists’ new music or events. They take care of public relations to maximize the exposure of an artist’s releases or tours. Many independent artists, finding these tasks time-consuming or not knowing exactly how to do it, choose to appeal to such firms. And often-times, they can experience being scammed by agencies, selling miraculous followers and streams and formulas to their clients.  

How to avoid being fooled? How to filter through the thousands of PR agencies? 

From key questions to ask, tips for identifying scammers, and tips for dealing with them, this article will give you the necessary knowledge for artists to wisely choose a publicist or a music marketing agency. 

Before talking about music pr and its various players, we want to draw your attention to the first thing to check (regardless of the type of service you are seeking as an artist):

MANDATORY LEGAL NOTICES

Does their website have any legal notices, general conditions and privacy policy? If not, you better escape while you can!  

If a company that offers you services or sells products is not able to display this information MANDATORY by law … it does not look legit. And that goes for any business even outside the music industry. Having a business means being responsible and knowing the duties that come with it, and finding out about legal obligations. Not respecting these obligations says a lot about the management of the company and the lack of transparency displayed to its customers. Without the existence of a proper terms & conditions display, artists will have no guarantee on the service, the reimbursement if necessary, or even the working method, and to ensure that the company is even registered in the first place. 

Another point on which artists must pay attention to is press references.

Does the agency or freelancer tell you that it has an article or an interview in Forbes, or a TV appearance on NBC? For you, is this a sign of credibility or success?

Often, these passages are paid for by the agency or the freelancer himself. And yes, articles in major magazines are often paid for, published as sponsored content.

Conclusion:

A good PR firm should be able to tell you about their current clients and clearly explain their strategy. They must be able to name each person contacted at each place where they have contacts. They must be passionate about your project and have listened to your music before your first call, with a clear idea of the target media required for your campaign. They should know your music genre and be able to identify other artists similar to your music.

To avoid

Any company that won’t give you a price for their services. Avoid companies or publicists who ask for your budget first, then write you a proposal to match that budget. A PR company needs to know who your music can reach, how long it will take, and the budget needed to achieve those goals. They should budget to match your goals, not the other way around.

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