EXCLUSIVE: SXSW legend Phil Tripp on how to get on the right people’s radars
If you can t make the SXSW Grip n Grin events at the The Lansdowne August 1 and The Corner Hotel August 2 for our eight speakers with over 50 years of tips, secrets and direction to give you, here…
If you can’t make the SXSW Grip ’n’ Grin events at the The Lansdowne August 1 and The Corner Hotel August 2 for our eight speakers with over 50 years of tips, secrets and direction to give you, here are 10 ways to get attention if you decide to register August 1 when SXSW opens for delegates – or if you’re a band/label/manager that gets accepted to showcase.
1. Sort your socials...
Make sure all your websites, Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn or other social accounts are current and correct. You’d be amazed how many look like you died years ago or broke up the band last May. Dead links make for dead ends; unupdated pages look naff.
2. ...and link them up ASAP
Registration gives you access to the SXSW social media database (SXSocial) of attendees by name, company, industry, country, occupation, city, state and other areas. Make sure you immediately link your social accounts onto your own registrant page so people can find you, add your URLs, photo, bio, what you’re looking to do at SXSW, etc. This is vital and FREE. Do it as soon as you register so you are visible with details.
3. Make friends!
Then start researching the datbase for other registrants who have something in common with you and send them nice premade messages (very short) inviting them to check you out. Start with Australia and you’ll be amazed that over 150 people have registered the first day!
Get to know your fellow Aussies – they are a gold mine of contacts, especially as veterans.
4. Start starring
Star each contact online as you message them and then weekly, go back on and search for new contacts that have just registered. Try agents by country, promoters by region or venues by city. Lather, rinse and repeat.
5. Media blitz: locals...
You want to get media names of people connected to, well, let’s say street press (AKA alternative weeklies – see http://aan.org/member-directory/) in over 100 US and Canadian cities. The most important is the Austin Chronicle (https://www.austinchronicle.com) where you will find Raoul Hernandez, your go-to guy.
You will also want to research trades (Billboard, HITS, Music Week, etc) and find writers who regularly have covered SXSW (get with someone who’s gone before and get their list!).
6. ...then nationals...
Next up are national music mags. Rolling Stone sends David Fricke every year and he is a rabid Australian music fan (david.fricke@rollingstone.com), just as one example.
Studio mags are important if you have a great story to tell—producers, engineers and A&R staff read them.
7. ...and your Aussie favourites
Don’t forget your homegrown media. When you are accepted to showcase, let them all know from TMN down to the Betoota Advocate. Trades, street press, online music sites, local papers, radio, TV… the list goes on. And when you get a grant. And when you have a visa issue or other impediment that you overcome. (Our drummer got busted at a CSG protest and was denied a visa, but we soldiered on...) Collect anecdotes. [Seriously, email us if you so much as stub your toe or if Ryan Adams favs one of your tweets. – TMN Ed.]
8. Pitch!
Offer to write daily columns from SXSW and the road on the way in and out, supplying pics and stories, especially for sites and press who don’t have a journalist going. Pitch to business and marketing media like Mumbrella, B&T and AdNews about doing music marketing pieces from SXSW or a guest editorial on how you got that odd sponsorship deal that cemented your trip.
9. Phone it in
Either your band or manager should get a annual SIM card for phone (I have a US$100 a year for 1000 minutes, renewable) with the 512 area code (Austin). Get it far in advance so you can get calls locally. No one is going to call your Australian number at a high rate and you will also have voicemail like a virtual office in the US year round. I’ve had my 512 number for 12 years and anyone in Austin can call it for 25 cents.
10. Publicity isn’t a dirty word
Really consider getting a publicist to work you on the ground and well in advance. Last year, I tipped an Australian music feature film maker who was accepted for screenings to Debbie Kruger, an Australian now based in LAX, former PR for APRA, Apple and a longterm Variety reporter. Three months out she pulled off miracles and joined Emma in Austin a few days before the Film Fest and did a spectacular job on the ground that never would have happened without specialist help. And it was paid for by the government in a grant.
Oh, and there’s an 11th. Make sure to work with Sounds Australia who do the BBQ (media stream to this each year as do industry types. Glenn Dickie, Export Music Producer—one of our speakers in Sydney August 1--has run talent for 17 years straight at SXSW and many other world tests and both Millie Millgate and Esti Zilber are also invaluable assets.
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