What Makes a Press Release Effective?

As British music journalist Matthew Wright observed in his practical post “How To Get Reviewed by a Jazz Journalist^[4],” getting coverage by independent, respected publications whether in print or online is almost always a boost to a musician trying to build a career. The first approach to such publications, or those who write for them, usually involves a press release: a concise text (appropriate image attached) intended to pique interest and supply basic information.

Over years of writing about jazz I’ve read thousands of press releases, and written dozens. Press releases are issued as emails and snail mail, as printed pages accompanying CDs and LPs for review, and may be used on websites, even as home-page posts. My guidelines about them may be most useful for artists who launching DIY publicity campaigns, intending to create or at least contribute to their own press releases. ^[5]

This article’s prime dictum is: Don’t worry! Press releases aren’t physics or trigonometry. You can indeed write one yourself.

Basic considerations for a press release

The basic consideration when starting to write involves the intended audience for what you’re writing – that is, the readers you want to engage. Press releases ought to be designed to be available, accessible and offered to a multitude of potential end-users, but those end-users are not your greater potential listening audience – which includes friends, relatives and fans who are not involved in the business end of your work. 

Rather, the readers you want to influence are editors, writers, broadcasters, webcasters and perhaps agents or bookers at venues. These folks don’t want (and probably won’t read) lengthy, in-depth articles about you and your projects that you yourself or your publicist have painstakingly composed. They’re not looking for literature. They want information, quickly and clearly stated.

You may place at the top of a press release some choice endorsements you’ve received from noted influencers – do that in a format different than the body of your text – but I urge you to lead with facts that can be absorbed at a glance. 

The best checklist for information necessary to provide remains that hoary journalism standby, the five Ws: Who, What, Where, When, Why (and sometimes How). Of these, I think “Why” is the most important, the intrinsic lure that persuades someone to make an effort and perhaps enlist others in spreading word of your news.

PR as news

Yes, news! A press release is by definition about something that just happened or is about to happen (which means it’s not a bio, though it may and most likely should include some biographical information, nor is it an album synopsis, although if it’s an album you’re promoting, you do want some specific info related to it in your text).

Those readers I mentioned above are looking for news of something new, not simply the same old thing – if that were the case, they could just reprint an old story. No, you should project that you’ve got something newsworthy^[7] to offer. 

So identify what that something is.

If you can’t tell an editor or writer what’s newsworthy – interesting now, not in the receding past or some vague future – you won’t grab their attention. A big, often circular file, aka “trash can,” awaits press releases that don’t convey timely, compelling news.

How do you know what’s news? Well, what are you bursting to say? What do you want the world to know?

A related question is: How do you conceive of that world? Local, regional, national, international, or all of the above? Narrowly focused (say, on jazz per se, immediately upcoming performances and current recordings) or broad (taking in politics, aesthetics, other arts, community issues, spirituality)?

Are you reaching out to local media platforms and press, music (or music business or music education) outlets, independent journalists, slick periodicals, online bloggers, the Twitterverse^[8]? If your answer is “everyone,” you’ve posed a bigger than necessary challenge for yourself, not to say you can’t do that.

Hook, line and sinker

Although you will and should want this press release to catch the eye of everyone who receives it, I advise some prioritizing is necessary in order to concoct the text, as well as a dispassionate understanding of how your message will play to a professional who is less invested in the subject than you, yourself. Maybe a good way of planning a press release text is to draft a hook, line and sinker.

• The hook is your intriguing major statement – the news you’ve got, including (or alluding to) why what you’re saying matters.
• Your line is an expansion of that hook into the details you need to convey, details that reinforce the hook.
• The sinker, or closer, is a call to action. In other words: Hear this! Here’s what’s behind it. Contact for a deeper dive!

If, for instance, you’re an emerging established professional, trying to announce your breakthrough into professional activities, consider your market. Who/What/Where/When/Why are you trying to (and rightly so) breakthrough to?

Is there a local angle in your hook (“There’s a new saxophonist-composer in town, who sounds like nobody else, exciting crowds at Club X, every Xday at X o’clock“)?

Are you promoting a regional tour (“Player X, roaring through the area, brings a new sound and/or concept to this place on this date at this time“)?

Are you announcing a new phase of activities, collaboration, life-style change related to your work (as a theme, this works best if you’re already established for the reader as something else)?

Do you have a new album^[9] – if so, what’s it about, why should readers care (“The Way of All Flesh, X’s musical answer to the question of the meaning of life, is coming out WHEN, available WHERE“)?