I’ll be honest. I struggled with writing this piece for many reasons. One of those main reasons was because I was trying to take the high road. In a situation like this though, the high road is a bit hazy. Is taking the high road in this situation to just walk away from it shaking my head or is taking the high road in this situation actually addressing the issue at hand so that it may save some future people from walking into a very sticky web? Well, I decided that it was later.
I have been running The Great Southern Brainfart blog since 2009. I am not world famous nor do I claim to be. I have a very modest but loyal and dedicated readership that I have built from the ground up by just being myself. I have done countless interviews, album reviews, concert reviews, and editorials and never have I once even thought to charge anyone. Why would I? I’m a writer and as far as I know, writers/journalists don’t charge bands for press. It’s just not what you do.
While I totally understand the need and the want to make money but charging bands for press just doesn’t seem to be the way to do it. That is why I started doing PR work (Dark Waters PR). I wanted a way to make some money utilizing the skills I have acquired in my years of running my blog while keeping PR services affordable for smaller, unsigned bands who can’t usually afford the “big guy” PR prices. It’s the happy medium of doing a service for smaller independent bands while making some money for my work. The situation that we have at hand here is that I (as a PR person) was turned away from a “news” site because I didn’t want to pay to have one of my clients reviewed/interviewed. The person I am referring to is a guy named Randy “Rocket” Cody who runs a website called The Metal Den. When I recently submitted a press release to Mr. Cody, I was hit back with this reply:
“Hey Don, I am so busy over here it’s not even funny. Thanks for submitting [band] music to TMD. I enjoyed what I heard. I wanted to provide you some information about my full-time publicist service. I am in full swing over here working with a killer roster of bands and would love to bring them aboard.
For one month I will do the following for [insert band here]:
- Write or edit bio with distinct story representative of the client.
- I will personally review CD and post at TMD’s site.
- I will interview the band (via email or phone) and post at TMD’s site.
- Target all heavy metal media, including: radio, weeklies, dailies, blogs, ezines, freelancers, video and television outlets.
- Solicit metal media for show previews, reviews, interviews and airplay.
- Target personal contacts throughout worldwide metal media.
- Write UNLIMITED press on your band published at TMD’s official site,with heavy bulletin marketing via TMD’s sites on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and ReverbNation!
- You also get a monthly report that details all of the placements, and you will also be provided online links to coverage or hard copies of articles that have been published.
- [Insert price here for services]
So here, you can see my confusion at first. Why was he offering to do all of these services for my band when I am already being paid by them to do these services? I replied back to him to let him know that I didn’t need all of these things that I was simply trying to get press for my band and that my bands were not going to PAY for press. Mr. Cody then replied again:
“None of your bands have EVER been written about by anyone at my level in the game. And guess what? They never will, unless they pay for it. LOL Think about it, dude! You have to pay for advertising on Facebook and Twitter just so you can get fans and then you have to pay more money just so they see your posts in the news feed!! LOL Every kind of exposure online costs money. Now maybe your bands don’t want to pay for any press, and develop any real following on their social sites, but I am currently pound for pound the most widely published metal journalist in the entire world! Let me see one of your bands interviews or reviews with someone with my following and 12 years of experience writing for the top sites. That you didn’t pay for!! LOL SHOW IT TO ME!!!”
When I sent my final reply to him telling him that I didn’t charge people for press on my blog, he had this to say:
“You charge nothing because you are an idiot!! LOL I have earned over $100,000 off of just promoting mostly unsigned bands that would have never been seen anywhere else with as much worldwide acclaim as THE METAL DEN. Why? Because I wanted to GET PAID FOR MY WORK!! This is not the only area I make money. TMD has an eBay where we sell our merchandise and hold auctions for collectibles and instruments. I just sold another bass guitar for a client yesterday and made a bunch of profit!!!”
On Mr. Cody’s website, he even seems to be baiting people in with a contact page that says:
“If you want to add us to you Press Release mailing list, please send “Metal” related only press and updates to news[at]themetalden.com”
Then he turns around and sends you a reply telling you that your band is going to be written up by “someone at this level of the game.” What level is this that he’s talking about? The reason I ask is because when I asked everyone that I knew if this was a common practice in the PR world, I was told three things: “No”, “This is completely unethical”, and my favorite, “Who? What site? Never heard of him or his site until you mentioned him.” Nobody knew who this guy was or even heard of his site. I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t feel all that great about paying someone who boasts to be, and I quote, “I am currently pound for pound the most widely published metal journalist in the entire world” while nobody in the industry that I have talked to even heard of him before my asking them and also didn’t seem to be the least bit keen on his practices.
So here we have Mr. Cody showing his true colors. I find this to be an insult to all of the writers out there who do what they do with integrity and heart. Also, how would you feel if you were a band and the person you were “paying” to represent your band was saying stuff like this? I don’t know about you but I personally would be downright embarrassed.
You may also be asking, “Don, but you have a blog and you do PR. How do I you it?” Well, I keep my entities separate and do so out of absolute fairness. If a band is working with me as a PR person, I don’t cover them on my site because I consider that a conflict of interest. I will however work tirelessly to get them the best press I can get them from other publications and sites. When (and if) they are not working with me anymore, I am then free to be a press outlet for them as I am for any other band. It’s really not that hard to maintain a level of integrity and do two things.
Getting press for your band isn’t always an easy thing.
That’s why they have PR people that you can pay to help you get press from other websites and publications. That’s their job. Sometimes, you can even just email certain blogs and if they like what they hear, they’ll give you a review. I have done this for many bands. Bands like Holy Grail, Kyng, and Crobot, and Brave all started by either sending me an email themselves or having a PR person send me their stuff. I listened to them and became a huge fan of those bands. That’s just three of the countless bands I have received emails from asking me to give their band a listen that ended up with a review, concert review, and/or interview on my site. I’m not saying that my site is at all responsible for breaking these bands. What I’m saying is that I didn’t charge these bands for the press I gave them because in return, they gave me their music and/or tickets to a show. As a writer, that’s my compensation.
At the end of it all, no real “journalist” or “writer” with any ounce of integrity will ever ask for payment in exchange for press. You are either paying someone to get press for you or you are submitting your music (hard copy CDs and/or digital) free of charge in exchange for someone in the press to give it a listen. Now whether or not they actually listen to it and review is up to them but again, you did your part and that should cost you nothing. If you’re curious, go ask Blabbermouth, BraveWords, Metal Sucks, hell, ask ME how much we charge to give bands press and we’ll tell you the same thing: ZERO! ZIP! ZILCH! NADDA! I can only hope that every unsigned, upstart band, or hell, every band will read this article and learn one thing from it: YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR PRESS
At this point, you all are also probably wondering why I even mentioned this guy by name and his site. Why give him the press? Well, I did so because I wanted all the bands of all levels out there to know who one of the “not so good” ones are out there. Trust me, by not going with this guy, you are not missing out. If after reading this you would even consider being represented by someone like this, than more power to you but I can only hope that you all learned something valuable from this piece. This is my public service announcement to everyone out there and I hope that it hits home with everyone who reads it.
