How to book 251 concerts, part 4: Cultivate advance publicity

When I began thinking about this project, I scheduled a discussion with the incomparable Natalie Neuert (Director of UVM’s Lane Series and Lecturer in arts management) and Lane’s Operations Manager Katie Masterson to get their general advice on promotion and logistics. 

Going into our meeting, I had imagined that media interest would start to trickle in only after I had played a few dozen concerts. “Guy Says He’s Going To Do A Thing” did not sound to me like a story that would attract media attention.

Natalie and Katie had a completely different take. They advised me to go for maximum startup splash with a launch concert in a prominent, populous venue and with press release, website, and other PR machinery in full gear before the kickoff.

And they were right. (This is why Natalie teaches Arts Management and I teach Fundamentals of Music Theory.) As result of our PR push, we had a top-of-homepage web story from UVM Communications, a video preview from the UVM Center for Vermont Studies, a feature article in Vermont’s largest daily, a half-hour interview on Vermont’s most prominent private talk radio station, and a feature on the area’s most-watched TV news station, all before the first downbeat. (Vermont Public Radio and Seven Days, Vermont’s largest weekly, are coming up in the next week or two.)

The primary goal of all this publicity, from our perspective, was not personal glory (though I’ll take any I can get). It was rather to build awareness and buzz around the project so as to open doors when we knock on them asking presenters to make their spaces available (for free) and to promote the programs. And it worked! Better still, it has led to a couple dozen unsolicited offers (and counting)—some unimaginably cool, that we might never have otherwise found.

This is a good moment to mention the best thing about working for a university: collaborating with great faculty colleagues, brilliant students (Katie is a 2021 Music Technology and Business graduate and my advisee, and there's also a team of three current MTB majors working with me), and support staff who are exquisitely skilled and generous (despite being woefully undercompensated—are you listening, UVM admin?).