The Promo Problem: A Publicist's Perspective

A few months back in a feature, I addressed the proverbial Elephant in the Room among music writers: the vast and never ending stream of compact discs that flows into mailboxes, so many that it's physically impossible to listen to them all. The piece struck a nerve in an inside-baseball kind of way; publicists and music writers found it instructive, or at least discussed it. No solutions have yet come to the forefront. In fact, I get more CDs these days than I did two months ago.

It's a small problem, for sure, in the scheme of things, and I should probably be channeling my attention to more pressing issues like war/peace, poverty, world hunger, AIDS. But still, the conversation continues.


During my research, I spoke at length to publicist Ariel Hyatt, who runs Ariel Publicity. She had great things to say, and helped me frame my thoughts. Thankfully, she recently posted a publicist's perspective on the usefulness of promotional CDs in the 21st century, and addressed many of the thoughts that she included during our conversation. It's a great read.

The Ugly Man Behind the Curtain in Music Publicity (via Idolator)
Confessions of a Promo CD Junkie