DIY Musician Resource: What Is a Premiere?
Howdy, cowpokes. Rainbow Rodeo is proud to support independent and DIY musicians throughout country, blues, Americana, folk, and all the other roots genres you can shake a guitar pick at. But LGBTQ+ artists are often marginalized in greater society, which means they can’t always hire publicists or industry insiders to help promote their work.
Over the last few weeks, Rainbow Rodeo has received a number of requests to print song premieres, but it seems there is some confusion about what that means. I hope to clarify it here so you can put your best foot forward other publications as you plod your way to rock stardom!!!
What is a premiere?
A premiere is when a song (or video) is posted exclusively to a media outlet. Ideally, premiering a song generates audience excitement (because you can hear it before it’s widely available) and it draws readers to the outlet. If you ask a publication to run a premiere, give them some wait time before moving on to the next. Running your song in multiple outlets and calling it a premiere is a huge no-no and is going to piss editors off. There are only so many days a year when we can run premieres and they’re widely sought-after, so flubbing one will not endear yourself to editors.
When should I pitch a premiere?
Ideally, 1 – 2 months before the song is released. That way if one outlet turns you down (or never gets back to you) you have time to move on to the next.
When should the premiere go up?
Ideally, a day or two before it’s released to streaming services. The song should not be available anywhere else.
But if it’s not out yet, how can I send you the embed code?
Soundcloud, YouTube, and Bandcamp all have ways to make a song/video “unlisted.” (Do not publish the song as private, because the embed code won’t work.) You’ll have to check their FAQs to figure it out. If you’re not using those services, you can even throw the song up on Dropbox and generate a link to the file.
As a DIY musician, there are a lot of unwritten rules out there. I hope this helps clarify some things and streamlines the process of our working together, and your working with other outlets!
