Rachel Sellick- The Importance of PR

Sarah Harralson speaks with Scarlet River PR owner, Rachel Sellick, about Public Relations in the music industry for artists. 

Find Scarlet River PR's services here: 
https://www.scarletriverpr.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hi, everyone, This is SarahHarrelson, your host of the Mind Your
Music Business podcast. Today we aretalking about all things public relations with our
guest Rachel Selik, the founder ofScarlett River PR. Rachel comes to us
from the UK and she established ScarlettRIVERPR in twenty nineteen as an artist management

(00:29):
company, which has now evolved toa booking and promotions company specializing in modern
country music. So Scarlet River PRbenefits country artists from the UK and abroad
with PR and promotional services. AndRachel, not only do you run this
company, but you are also aPhD candidate in neuroscience. Wow that's a

(00:52):
lot, so thank you so muchfor being here today. Rachel. How
are you? Oh? Now,Prather, thank you so much for having
me. Yeah, I'm doing reallywell. Oh, thank you very much.
How are you. I'm good.Yeah, I'm glad we could have
this interview today. So start offby telling us how did you get into
music and country music and have youalways had a passion for both music and

(01:15):
science. That's a good question.I think the answer is probably yes.
I grew up surrounded by music justbecause my father was a singer and you
played a guitar. I grew uplearning how to play piano and things like
that. I did a bit ofsinging in my day and like worship teams
in church and stuff like that.But I don't think I ever saw it

(01:38):
being a Korea for me. Itwas more something that I like did on
the side and I really enjoyed it. I was always really interested in biology,
and that's kind of where my neuroscienceinterest kind of stemmed from. I
went to Liverpool University here in theUK to do an anatomy degree purely because
I hated plant biology and it waslike the only way to do biology but

(02:00):
not have to do with something Ididn't like. So I kind of just
went down that road and carried on. I was like, that's what I
thought I was going to do,essentially, was do the science, carry
on that route and see where thattook me. But whilst I was at
university, I met a few peopleat a country festival because I really enjoyed
country music. I enjoyed listening toit. It was very small at the

(02:21):
time, so this was back intwenty fourteen twenty fifteen, and it was
it was growing in the UK,but it wasn't like an established genre.
I would say that people you know, listened to it and knew what we
were talking about and knew about thesethis modern style of country that comes out
of the US and is obviously veryvery normal, I suppose for radio over

(02:43):
where you are. And so wewent to a festival called Country to Country.
It runs the in London, andit's really a festival where all of
the big US artists come over forthe weekend, so the carry and with
the Luke Bryan's, you know,Jason Oldine, all of those artists end
up coming over. So I wentover to that as I ordinarily met a

(03:05):
few people there who were kind ofwithin about my age, and they wanted
to start recording music in country Andto me that was like bizarre because there
wasn't really a UK scene per se. But I said, well, you
know, as a scientist, whatI'm really good at is speaking to people,
putting you know, emails together,formulating those sorts of things. I

(03:27):
can't really help you on the creativeside. I'm not a songwriter, I
don't you know, and all thatsort of stuff. I can't help you
there, but I can help youwith all the things that probably musicians don't
really like to do anyway, andso that's kind of where it started.
And over that course of that year, I ended up kind of getting involved
in the management style aspect of things, and a few artists that I was

(03:47):
working with ended up touring in theUS and winning some awards over here in
the UK, and I think Igot to a point where I was like,
oh, actually, I really enjoyit, and this is kind of
something that I could see myself continuingto do. So that's where the management
kind of came from. But itwasn't until covid started, actually, where
so many people were trying to dothings online but didn't really know how to

(04:11):
do it. They didn't know howto release music in an age where we
couldn't go and tour, and sothat's where I kind of thought I could
step up and help people because I'dbuilt and establish those relationships here in the
UK, so I thought I couldbring that in to the modern kind of
digital era. And that's where mypr kind of information and where that kind

(04:32):
of stemmed and grew from. AndI think that's definitely what my passion is
and where my passion lives in musicindustry now is helping people take a product
that they're really proud of and helpto promote that in the UK, and
I'm building that now into mainland Europe, into the States, and I'm working
with quite a lot of US artistswho are coming over and touring in the

(04:54):
UK, which I love. Sothat's kind of where it stems from at
the moment. Very cool. Yeah, and don't often think about it or
realize it, but there I thinkthere is such a relationship between science and
music, so it kind of makessense when I hear that you kind of
love and have interest in both fieldsbecause they can be correlated in so many

(05:16):
ways. Yeah, absolutely, that'sthe thing. I mean, I could
go off on a science ned tangentabout you know, the relationship between the
brain and music and and things likethat. For a while, I was
really interested in how music can helpepilepsy patients. So yeah, there's definitely
a lot and it's really interesting.When I was in Nashville a couple of

(05:36):
years ago, I ended up meetingwith a couple of pis at Vanderbilt Medical
Center, and even then, youknow, just chatting to them about the
relationship between music because obviously a lotof the patients that they see are musicians.
So it's yeah, it's fascinating,but I won't bore your listeners with
the the ins and outs of sciencetoday. That might have to be separate

(06:00):
episode conversation. I think that's veryimportant too. But anyway, back to
the PR side, how did youcome up with the name for Scarlett River
PR? Oh, good question.So I live in a little town in
the UK called Chepstowe, and betweenso Chepstow is in Wales and between Whales
and getting into England you have tocross two rivers. So I was actually

(06:25):
on my driving test and I wasspeaking to my driving instructor and he was
like, oh, well what abouttwo rivers management because you live between two
rivers. Which was a good start, but it wasn't like it really click
for me. But being a womanin the industry, I really wanted something
that was quite bold and so that'swhere I thought about Scarlet is in the
color really and just put the twotogether. Yeah. I love that because

(06:49):
when you do hear the name,it kind of reminds you of females and
music, Yeah, which is great, two great things. Yeah. So
for someone who is listening, whomight be new to music, or maybe
they're planning on putting out music forthe first time. Can you just kind
of give a basic explanation on whyusing a PR company as beneficial to the

(07:15):
success of a music release. Yeah, for sure, absolutely so. I
think for me, one of thebiggest things that I always talk about with
clients is that you put in somuch work and effort to create this incredible
piece of music that you're proud ofand a lot of the time it's also
incredibly good. But you never knowas a musician when you're just starting out

(07:38):
how to get it to the peoplethat you want to get it to,
And I suppose a PR company isthere to really be that middleman for you
and to introduce your music to thepeople that we have relationships with and have
built relationships with for a long longtime and really set kind of at least
start that pathway of networking and collaborationfor you. So that's kind of what

(08:01):
I tried to do, and that'swhat I believe is really important, especially
for a new artist, because youreally want to utilize the PR company's connections
that you know that they have andreally bring that out so that you can
therefore reap the benefits of getting yourmusic out in front of listeners and audiences
that you wouldn't ordinarily have if youcan't tour in those particular areas. So

(08:24):
especially with like worldwide you know,PR and media and radio nowadays which you
have, we're blessed to be ableto really connect on a global stage.
Is being able to put that musicin front of the right people to then
give you additional opportunities. So forexample, I've worked with clients from the
States. I've worked with clients inthe UK who have then gone and toured

(08:48):
in different countries and we would helpto really find the companies out there,
so whether that is radio, whetherthat is a magazine, to get their
music in front of those audiences beforethey come, so that then they can
come and they have an audience alreadyestablished, they have people who know who
they are, and then you cancome and do that rather than kind of

(09:09):
I suppose starting from scratch and knowingwhere to go. And I think after
a while you can definitely start tobuild those relationships and you hope that over
time the people that you've been connectedwith via your PR company or your radio
plug or whoever it might be,will then come on board and follow your
journey. And be a part ofthe process from there on out. Yeah.

(09:30):
Yeah, And as you mentioned,you know, if you're an artist
trying to release music and do thePR by yourself, you know, firstly
maybe they don't know where to gowho to reach out to. But it's
also time consuming reaching out coldly todifferent platforms trying to get a write up

(09:52):
on their new music release. Andyou know, an artist can spend all
this time reaching out, maybe they'renot reaching out properly, and then they
get no response. And as youmentioned, with a PR company, you
already have relationships built with people andthat's basically the artist introduction to them.

(10:15):
There's already a foot in the doorto get someone to do a write up
or create press on their music.Yeah. Absolutely. And actually I was
speaking to somebody the other day aboututilizing the strengths that you have as an
individual as well, and I thinkit's really important that as an artist,
like you were saying you have,you almost are a CEO of your own

(10:39):
business, and the business is thetitle of yourself or your band or whatever,
and you have to really organize anddo so many things and have so
many different hats that you don't havetime to do all of those things,
and so I think it's really importantto be able to identify what are you
really good at and maybe what areyou not so good at that somebody you

(11:01):
could hire somebody to do because theyare really good at it. So then
you're utilizing all of the best ofboth, you know, the best of
everything. You might be an incrediblecommunicationalist, and you might be like,
Okay, I can really talk topeople, and I love the online thing.
I'm really good at creating graphics,and I love social media content.
So you'd be like, Okay,well, I maybe don't need someone to

(11:22):
help me with that because I'm reallygood at it and I love that,
But I really don't know how toreach out to venues and I don't know
how to book shows for myself,and so therefore you would want to hire
a booking agent. So I thinkthat's also really important. And whether that's
pr or not, I think justin general in the music industry, I
think as an artist it's really importantto think about what are you really good

(11:43):
at and what can you continue todo yourself, because that's where your strengths
lie. But then also it's okayto not be good at everything, and
if you're not as good or you'rea little bit weaker in a certain area,
like find somebody that is really goodat that and work with them.
Right. Yeah. And sometimes venues, especially bigger size venues, they don't

(12:05):
really want to hear from their artistdirectly. Usually they like to hear from
a manager or a contact representing theartist, just to make it a little
bit more professional when communicating show details, pay, etc. Yeah. No,
absolutely, I think sometimes having thatthird party party is really beneficial for

(12:28):
an artist, like you said,just because they have those relationships with people
and it's almost you know, rightlyor wrongly. I think as an artist,
having somebody really promote you and alreadybe invested in you give somebody else
that kind of like oh okay,well if if so and so is believes

(12:48):
in them, and if so andso thinks they're really good, then I
can as well. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely important to show that there's
investment in this artist. So youoffer pr campaigns are some of your services
for clients and bookings as you mentioned, So do you mostly do live show

(13:09):
bookings for clients in the UK ordoes it vary in other countries? Yeah?
So at the moment, we do. The bookings that we have done
and are doing are based in theUK just because that's where our our clientele
is. That's where like our communicationsand connections are in regards to venues.

(13:31):
But that doesn't mean that we justwork with the UK artists. So we
have worked with US artists and thenintroduced them to those venues and helped them
to put on a few shows,which has been really fun. So we've
worked with them, Aaron out ofNashville anyway, Aaron Goodwin and jesseg we
worked with them. Matt Wayne,we worked with them last year, which
is awesome. So they came overfor a festival and then we put a

(13:54):
couple of shows together for them,and then they had somebody else that put
a couple of shows together for them, and so we were all part of
like a nice, big network,which is great. So we like to
do that and that's I think howwe feel like we can bring over new
emerging US artists and then European aswell. But in terms of the PR
we're really building that to be moreglobal. It's got a huge focus on

(14:18):
the UK and mainland Europe and especiallyobviously Country, but I really want to
build that more into a global kindof all genre campaign whereby you know,
you're not just getting your music outin front of country fans, you're getting
your music out in front of musicfans, because I think that's also really
important, right. Yeah, Andyou mentioned that you'll be moving to Nashville

(14:43):
later this year, so I imaginea lot of your focus will shift to
booking clients and the US finding morevenues in the United States. So you
imagine you'll be back and forth betweenthe US and the UK a lot for
that adventure. I think maybe atthe beginning, we probably will have to

(15:07):
just to really keep both sides happyand to make sure that we're not don't
I don't want to go to theUS and neglect the fact that I came
from the UK, and you know, I started my journey in Britain and
I have loads of friends and musicalfamily over here. But I think it's
just moving to Nashville has always beenlike a huge passion of mine, I

(15:30):
think, and Tyler as well,as you've spoken to him on the podcast,
and I think for both of us, we're just so invested in what
being in the US can offer us. You know, as a family,
but also as as entrepreneurs, asmusic business owners, you know, things
like that. And I just thinkthat when we've been there, we've just
felt such a sense of warmth andwelcomed us and just peace that that's what

(15:54):
we need to be, which we'rereally excited about. And so I think
I will want to really, likeyou said, build that US database and
that US clientele, but also themedia relationships and the PR relationships so that
then I can offer that both ways. So I can say to the UK
clients, hey, now that I'vebeen out here for a while, I

(16:14):
can help you to hit this market. But also, you know, having
the relationships with the US clients cansay, well, I've still got those
relationships in the UK, and Ican pass you on to people who are
still there so that they can comeover. Yeah, and we're so excited
to have you both in Nashville.And it'll be exciting for clients because either
way you can book artists on internationaltours, whether that's you know, Nashville

(16:41):
art is going out to the UKor vice versa. Yeah, and being
able to book international tours for artistsI think is very important right now too.
Yeah, definitely, I think sinceyou know, everything's kind of really
building and there's a huge wild whyI want, I think for new music

(17:02):
all the time now. I justthink it's an incredible opportunity to be able
to really move and to tour,like you said, and I think just
to give even just to give audiencesthat feeling that we haven't had for a
few years, that we can goto a gig and really enjoy being in
front of an artist and listening totheir music, hearing, you know,
how they wrote the songs. I'mall for a good writers around, you

(17:25):
know, hearing about where those songscame from and the emotions behind it,
because I think that's so important thatwe often miss out on because we're just
so excited by like a melody ora good beat, which is also really
important. But I think sometimes whenit's so amazing to strip back a song
to its like beer bones. Yeahyeah, I think I saw you booked

(17:48):
a tour in the UK for countryartists Christy Krauss, and it looks like
some of the tour days she hasare right arounds right around style in the
UK, which is exciting because mostpeople only see that format of a show
in Nashville, Yeah, it's definitelybecoming something of interest here for sure.

(18:10):
It took a little while and westill do. I ran one last year,
and you really have to explain whatit means, because it's not you
know, like you said, youcan walk down any high street in Nashville
and there'll be a writer's around andit's normal, whereas here people still don't
quite understand what it means. AndI think people expect it to be the
artist as well, whereas obviously sometimesit's the song it's actually the songwriters who

(18:33):
you've never heard of or you've seentheir name because they're a credit on an
artist track, but actually they're notan artist in their own right. So
like getting your head around those sortsof things has been just it's just a
different atmosphere. But I think peopleare realizing how incredible it is to be
in a room like that. Andso, yeah, Kirsty has been great
when she's booked quite a few ofthose dates and built She's so good at

(18:56):
building relationships that she's been able toget on a lot of things. So
she's worked really really hard love it. So can you tell us about the
Scarlett River launch pad that you offerand what that entails. Yeah, so
you yeah, you've cut me upon that, and so essentially it's a
work in progress. But the ideais to be able to offer clients basically

(19:22):
like a one stop shop everything thatthey need PR. So building for me,
building relationships with photographers, with videographers, you know, with graphic designers,
booking agents and things like that,and then being able to offer a
package where you can pay one feeor you know, fees and installments,

(19:42):
but you get access to everything thatyou need from day dot of wanting to
record a track to the release andso relationships with music producers and things like
that to get you into a studio. If you need writers, then great,
then writers, then we would workwith you to right the press release,
get things on board for that.Maybe a database so that you can

(20:04):
do your own PRR if you wantto. But just building something like a
platform that enables artists to just getthe help that they need, like on
their way to building that PR databasebecause I think, you know, it's
very it's difficult to get going,but I think once you've done it,
and once you've released a few songs, you can start to figure out who

(20:26):
promotes your music, who really likeswhat you do, the radio stations that
often play the music that you canthen reach out to again and again,
and so helping you to get tothat point really is the idea. Yeah,
and I love that idea. Ithink it's a very popular idea right
now for a program and membership becausea lot of endependent artists are sholling out

(20:48):
money to different people like pure company, social media management producers. You know,
they're spending money in all these differentlittle places, and we're a company
to put all their resourced resources together, everyone they know who has different expertise.
I think that's such a great idea. So that way, maybe the

(21:12):
artist can only go to one placenow to buy all the things that they
need, and maybe they'll be ableto get a little bit of a discount
since it's all in house in oneplace. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah,
I think that would just be somethingthat hopefully artists would feel benefits them.
And for me, it's always beenabout you know, client first, artists

(21:36):
first, what you need as anartist and what you need in order to
make x y zed work, BecauseI know that every artist is different,
and so that's why I think it'sreally important to make sure that what an
artist is after they can obtain andif we can help them do that in
some way, then yeah, wellfor it. Yeah. Absolutely. So
when you think back to when youstarted Scarlett River versus now, would you

(22:03):
say it was difficult to find partnersat first to get promotional placements for your
clients. That's a good question.I think I was quite fortunate in the
fact that I had come into theUK country scene at a time when it
was really only just starting to grow, and so I was really fortunate to

(22:26):
meet all the people that I feltI needed to meet at the time,
in the right place at the righttime, to build those relationships, so
that when I started the company,I already had a personal relationship with them
and I was able to go tothem and say, hey, you know,
I'm starting this company, would yoube willing to promote this artist?
Play this artist on your radio station? And I had lots of friends that

(22:47):
were on radio stations, So Ithink for me, the starting point was
relatively okay. I was like,okay, like, I've got a starting
point. I wasn't starting from scratchbecause I had those relationships. The most
difficult, I think was then buildingthat up to something that is bigger than
it was because at the time Iwas definitely just helping small independent artists who

(23:11):
hadn't released any music or had releasedone or two singles, which was brilliant
and I love that, and Istill do that today because I think it's
really important to promote and to workwith new and aspiring talent. I love
that, I will always love that. But obviously as a company, you
want to build it up so thatyou get a better reputation. So then
you work with clients that already haven'testablished a fan base and they want and

(23:34):
they want more. But if theywant more, they also expect more,
right So I think getting from thestarting point to a point where I could
offer more global outreach and bigger opportunitiesfor clients was probably the hardest part,
and probably in part still is becauseI'm always wanting to offer more and be

(23:55):
able to give more, right Yeah. But then I as the company progresses
and you get more clients, it'seasier maybe to get more partners established when
you can say, hey, I'vehelped these clients with this. Oh definitely,
yeah, one hundred percent. AndI think also if a client has

(24:17):
some accolades or like really great achievements, all of those things. It's kind
of a test to how you canreally you know, write a press release
or write an email to really pushand get to the point about how great
they are anyway in their own right. And sometimes all it takes is those
few little buzzwords that they've won afew awards and they've been in the Billboard

(24:40):
charts and things like that, andthen people are like, Okay, that's
really interesting, I'm interested in that. So there's a little bit of both.
I suppose there's how we promote itand the relationships that we have,
but also when the clients have alreadyworked really hard and they have those established,
you know, things to their namealready, then it's a tiny little
bit easier to promote them as well. Yeah. Yeah, definitely, it

(25:03):
goes both ways. The artist needsto kind of do their job at the
same time and you know, releasemusic, play shows, get out there
and do stuff to kind of youknow, deserve the press. Yeah.
Absolutely, And I think something thatreally stood out for me it was a
few years ago. I went toan artist management course in London, and

(25:27):
this is when I was doing management. But I think it applies to everything,
and they'd said that the biggest thingto bear in mind is that as
an artist manager, you shouldn't comeon board with an artist to do everything
for them. You come on boardas like a second pair of hands so
that you can achieve more together,like you can almost achieve double And I

(25:48):
think that's so great. And Ioften find that when clients are invested in
their own journey, like you werejust saying, when they already pushing to
do shows and to find their ownways to promote their music, then they
automatically the PR campaign usually is moresuccessful because you're both working together to achieve
those things. Absolutely, and it'snot just you know, taking the money

(26:12):
and then putting someone somewhere, yeah, without a relationship. Yeah. So,
Rachel, we are so excited thatScarlett RIVERPR is making its way to
Nashville and it should have many internationalachievements and more clients ahead. Where can

(26:34):
people find you for any PR servicesor needs for sure? So you can
essentially just google Scarlet RIVERPR or searchScarlet RIVERPR as a handle on any of
the social media platforms. We willbe there and if you want to head
to our website, it's www dotscarletriverpr dot com. And my email address

(26:56):
is info at scarletriverpr dot com.Amazing, thank you so much, Rachel.
We loved having you on the podcasttoday. No, thank you so
much. It's been a pleasure.