FAQ:

1. When do I contact/hire a publicist?

That all depends of course, but once you have recorded material you are happy with
people hearing then it is a good idea to get that into a publicist’s ears.

2. Once I have a release date, how far ahead should I contact you?

Generally speaking, national campaigns are booked anywhere from 3 to 8 months
ahead of time. If you have a targeted release date then the sooner we start talking the
better. The highest percentage of success comes with the most amount of lead time.

3. What is the single most important thing to have in place in order for me to have a shot
at some significant press reaction and radio play?

OK, This is an easy answer. The music has to be great. It all starts and ends with the
music.

4. What is the second most important thing to have in place in order for me to have a shot
at significant reaction and radio play.

Another easy answer. Live dates and tour dates. Nothing says press and radio like live
show dates. From Coldplay to the garage band you and I have not yet heard of, the
cornerstone to any kind of significant media reaction are live dates,

5. Can you book me a tour?

Sorry. That we cannot do. Sadly the majority of bands still book their own tours and
the booking agents in Canada are very busy people. The best bet is to take the mic by
the cord and start booking a tour yourself. One quick hint would be to look at bands
you think are like minded genre wise and to visit their websites to see where they have
played. Once you get a sense of the names and types of venues they are frequenting
then it’s time to send those venues a package and go get yourself some shows.

6. Do we have to have a label?

Absolutely not. If you have made and pressed your own albums then consider yourself
a label.

7. Do we have to have distribution?

In a word, yes. This is significantly more important than having a label and if you
would like the support of Factor and other government programs it will be become
something you need to address. Often, media outlets will need to know that your album
is available via a national distributor in order for them to support it. They want to know
that if they write about it or play it on air it will be available to the reader or the listener
at a retail outlet or at the very least they will be able to order it from their favorite
record store or major web retailer.

8. Can you write me a bio?

We write what we call one sheets. These are specific to the album you are releasing.
You can check out examples of one sheets on the front page of the website under the
current releases. There are one sheets available for each artist in that section. In order
for us to write that we will need some background info from you AND we will need to
live with your music for awhile. We only write these for folks we are going to work
with and we don’t do “one off” bio writing.

9. Do we need a fancy press package?

Heck no! In fact when we do mailer all we include is the CD and the one sheet
mentioned above. Less is more.

10. What else so I need?

For now we just need to hear your music. You can either mail us a CD or point us to
a site where we can listen to a few songs and read some of the things you have been
up to. Once we decide to work together we will need colour jpegs of you or your band
as well as a jpeg of your album cover and a way to get in touch with you or get a
message to you that will be returned within a short period of time.

11. Do you listen to everything you are sent?

Yes! It may take awhile but we definitely listen to everything that comes in. If you
think it has been awhile and you have not heard from us then drop us an email and we
will get back to you with where we are at in the pile. We usually end up listening to
solicited material quicker but we definitely listen to everything we are sent. It’s your
music and we have nothing but respect for all the music we are sent.