Publicists—Hardest Working & Most Undervalued?

Part One

Phyllis Stark

Publicists are among the hardest-working people in the music industry. But to hear them tell it, they’re also the most undervalued and underpaid, are routinely saddled with blame when things go wrong, and must constantly battle label bosses, artist handlers and even the artists themselves who have wildly unrealistic expectations.

Nashville’s publicists are competitive with each other, but are also a tight knit group who regularly share stories, complaints and cautionary tales. The Stark Truth conducted an informal poll among about a dozen Nashville publicity pros for this two-part report, which will conclude next week. All were promised anonymity to encourage candor.

The publicists surveyed almost uniformly cited the following as their top three job concerns:

1. TV talk show bookings mean everything. Publicists say they are regularly asked to try to land every act on the marquee morning and late night talk shows. Some label execs and managers even seem to hold the laughable belief that a booking on Oprah is attainable even for a newbie act with no story and no track record.

Publicists say the TV talk show circuit is tricky to navigate as the “rules” seem to shift as a lot of trades and deal-making go on behind the scenes. One publicist says his biggest frustration is, “Turning on the television and seeing an artist that has no business being on TV, [when] you have been pitching your artist to the same show for months.”

Another publicist points to the “inconsistencies” in TV bookings, noting “there is no rhyme or reason to some of them,” particularly when bookers pass on a double platinum artist but book an act with no album sales and little airplay. “That makes it hard when the artist, managers and your bosses ask ‘How come so-and-so was able to get a booking and my multi-platinum hit maker can not,’” says one publicist. “There are no answers.”

One publicist says she is now routinely asked about landing Oprah for nearly every project she works.

“Have they honestly ever watched Oprah, ” she wonders. “Do they see the A-list Hollywood stars, the music stars who are selling four, five, ten million albums AND are curing some kind of disease or donating millions of dollars to aid? You don't just get on there because you have a great song.”

2. At labels, promotion departments are king , getting all the tools they need, while publicity is undervalued, despite being a critical cog in the star making process.

One publicist complains that the promotion team at her label gets “constant kudos [and bonuses] for just getting a top 20 or top 10, but there is rarely any praise if you pull in Letterman, Leno, The Today Show and an incredible slate of media on an artist and project. Just to show the inconsistency, when was the last time a publicist got a bonus for getting a huge media booking?”

Many label publicists feel their departments are not as respected as others. Says one, “There are no meetings at the label where publicity is the focus. However, probably half of the meetings get spent talking about the radio airplay.”

One publicist says artists, managers and even execs in other departments of her label don’t understand “how difficult it is to get media on country artists these days. We don’t get to pay for space like marketing and sales can or run promotions or fun trips like [the promotion department] can. We have to ask for space for free, in essence. Plus, in PR, we are competing for space and performance and interview slots with not only the other country artists in our format, but with A-list Hollywood stars, Oscar winners, sports stars, television sitcom stars and music stars of every genre. Honestly, the country artists are at the bottom of the rung.”

3. Journalists frequently don’t return calls or e-mails, leaving publicists hanging with no firm “yes” or “no” decision about coverage. Worse yet, they’ll get a knee jerk “no” from an editor or booker who doesn’t fully grasp the reach and popularity of country music.

One publicist says she pitched a feature on one of her bigger stars to a New York-based editor and was told “no” with the explanation “‘No one in New York really knows him.’ This was a major national entertainment/lifestyle magazine with a huge, huge circulation,” the publicist says. “I then proceeded to ask, ‘Well, isn't your magazine on news stands in Ohio, Nebraska and Kansas too?’ She just sat there in silence and then said, ‘Well, yea, but still.’ Wow!”

In next week’s column, the independent publicists let fly with their own unique issues and concerns.

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SUPER SPIN: Capitol Nashville artist Eric Church has been unexpectedly ousted from the opening spot on the Rascal Flatts Me and My Gang tour, apparently for playing too loud and too long. A recent show in New York City was his last. Church had been scheduled to play nine more dates on the arena tour including one today in Omaha, Neb., and continuing through Moline, Ill.; Dayton, Ohio; Austin, Texas; Bossier City, La.; Memphis; Toronto; and New York markets Buffalo and Albany.

In a swift and shrewd effort at damage control, Capitol quickly announced yesterday that Church would play the same markets as the Flatts tour on the same days, albeit in smaller venues. In what he’s jokingly dubbed the Me & Myself tour, Church will play tonight at the Whiskey Roadhouse at Harrah’s Horseshoe in Council Bluffs, Iowa, less than five miles from where the Flatts tour is playing at the Quest Center Arena in Omaha. Fans who bring a ticket stub from the Flatts show will get into Church’s 11 p.m. gig for free and get a free poster, which Church will sign.

In a prepared statement, Church said, “We’re coming [to those markets] because we said we’d be there.” Explaining his dismissal from the big tour, Church said, “We couldn’t present our show the way we had envisioned, and we felt it was compromising our performance.”

He was careful to also include kind words for Rascal Flatts. “Jay [DeMarcus] Joe Don [Rooney] and Gary [LeVox] are good guys and I appreciate them introducing me to their fans,” Church said in his statement. He called his brief time on the tour “a great opportunity to play for so many enthusiastic fans who treated us like a headliner every night.”

Meanwhile, Church’s loss is a huge gain for Big Machine Records newcomer Taylor Swift, who was quickly tapped to fill the tour slot playing before Gary Allan and the Flatts starting today. The Me and My Gang tour wraps Nov. 3.

(Phyllis Stark can be reached at p.stark@comcast.net.)