Over the course of the past ten days, I have interviewed three people within the music industry. They are:
- Steve Knopper, contributing editor for Rolling Stone, and author, Appetite for Self-Destruction
- Jaime Rosenberg, director of publicity, Alternative Distribution Alliance/Warner Music Group
- Tracey Pepper, media coach, and former editor, Spin magazine
All three of these professionals work in different areas within the music industry, but they all have connections to publicity and music journalism. Steve Knopper has worked as a music journalist and editor; Jaime Rosenberg sees the record label side of publicty; and Tracey Pepper has worked in both fields and transitioned between the two. What I found most interesting is the threads they have in common across their interviews.
Steve, Jaime, and Tracey all agreed that relationships are the most important aspect in music journalism from both sides. Publicists need good relationships with journalists, as the journalists are the ones who can pick up a story. However, music journalists like to have good relationships too, as their relationships determine whether or not they get to cover a major artist.
I also was given plenty of valuable insight into what happens when negative publicity comes to play. Those relationships that were so important a minute ago? As a publicist, you have to go beyond those and focus on your client, your artist, to make sure that he or she is getting what she needs. As a journalist, you have to focus on your readers first, and what they deserve to know.
For the rest of my project, now, I would really like to come to an understanding of how that divide works out. I think going back through my interviews will help me, especially as I give more context to the answers I have. I also want to conduct more interviews, and hopefully use all of this information to develop a full understanding of relationships in music journalism and publicity.
