Your Self Images

Unsigned Records has signed a really great singer-songwriter and is planning to release the CD he is currently recording around Summer 2014. Part of the radio and press campaign to promote his first single involves telling the world "his story".

This guy is rather shy and thinks his music should speak for him but the first some folks are going to learn of him is not from hearing his song on the radio but from reading about him in music magazines and the Internet. In fact radio stations want to see him being promoted and written about before they'll feel comfortable playing his records. In the music business Context Is King and the public will decide what a performer is and where he belongs if he doesn't do it himself first.

Bob Dylan spent a good amount of his early career fighting the image he was given by the press. He hated being "the voice of his generation" and insisted he was simply a "song and dance man". However, writing protest songs didn't back up his claim as protest music is hard to dance to so without him giving them a viable alternative (they appreciate people making their job easier) they decided who and what he was.

This is not a matter of making up some pack of lies about what he's done or where he's been or with whom he's slept (although those are effective press angles), but simply writing his bio, which should always be included in any PR or record mailing, in a way that makes him seem interesting. Everyone has something that helps to define them. Maybe a hobby or an experience or a lifestyle or a home in a particular geographically interesting location can be used to help add some color to someone who feels their music is all they have. Every musician has music, that's not unusual or unique. Thinking your music should speak for itself is like writing on your resume you're unemployed and that should be enough to answer an perspective employer's question as to why you want the job.

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