We started Essentially Pop nearly 2 years ago in order to promote music that deserved to be heard.
Our focus was on the independent artists who were never likely to be heard on the radio for whatever reason. Our remit hasn’t changed. We joined forces with a number of PR companies and while we appreciate the amount of work we’re getting, we’re finding that more often than not it’s artists who are being covered in lots of other publications, who don’t necessarily need coverage from us. We’re thinking, therefore, that it’s time we gave things an overhaul.
We have a team of about 20 writers, all of whom have other things going on in their lives – work, study, family and so on. We’re from all over the place, mostly the UK, but we also have writers in the US, and hopefully soon, in Ireland as well.
Everything we do on Essentially Pop is for free.
We’re not getting paid to write about particular artists, we’re not getting paid money to write, we’re not getting paid to do anything, full stop. Rather we pay for our website, our time, our work.
This doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate guest list invitations, or CDs, meeting artists we’d never dream of meeting, or having opportunities to attend functions we’d never even thought we’d have a chance of attending. But – it does mean that other things will always come first – we can only cover as much as we can cover – time is always going to be at a premium.
We have a heaving email inbox, and because of this, some artists don’t get covered, which is sad for everyone – we feel particularly bad about it, because we might have been the only place those artists were going to get any publicity.
So – we’ve decided to re-jig our remit. Essentially Pop is about music that deserves to be heard. We will cover the independent artists who’ve contacted us FIRST – and THEN we will cover those who have been sent to us by PR agencies. Of those artists, we will be covering those who NEED coverage the MOST. Yes everyone needs coverage, but if an artist has been getting exposure on the radio and interviews and reviews in other press, then they’re not going to be as high a priority as the ones for whom we are the only publicity they ever get.
We are going to be writing more editorial pieces as well, and also have a less London-centric focus, with more articles about artists in other regions – in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US, Canada, Australia…the world.
We LOVE the relationship we have with our PR agencies, and are truly grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to talk to and meet artists we’d not otherwise have the chance to. We LOVE the relationship we have with our artist submitters, and are thankful for the chance they’ve given to us to listen to their music first, to show us that there’s so much good music out there that deserves to be heard. We hope to be able to do a better job for all of us, and get the focus back on where it belongs.
