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'Spin Doctor' - a Guide to Dance Music P.R. by Stuart Evans

Author: Stuart Evans
Monday, December 5, 2005
Where's the angle…-
Is the most repetitive quote that you'll ever hear.

It's the strangest thing. You work with clients to serve their need. You plan and develop strategies for the launch of a dance music release until you believe that you've come up with a winner. You're thrilled and begin to dance a merry jig around the office. You put the fun back into skipping and think that your client is going to LOVE you with the results. Inspired, you draft a media release, thinking that you have all corners covered. send it off to the targets and sit back and wait.

Nothing!
One day later… still nothing.
You take things into your own hands and call the journalist or editor to follow up the release. After finally get through a voice down the other end of the telephone responds with, "Where's the angle, Stuart-"

Damn it! All of your hard work has come undone because the editor or journalist doesn't like it.

So, mathematical and fishing definitions aside, what is an angle- Well, an angle is a different outlook on a story. A different slant or perspective even. An editor once told me that "the angle's more important than the tone" and man, how they live by those words.

Learn the angles and fish around for different ways of looking at things (maybe the fishing definition is suitable after all). It's easier than you think. Trust me, I'm a (Spin) Dr!

You may be sceptical but let me explain. Say that Infusion fly home from Europe, for the express reason of playing at the Australian Dance Music Awards, before heading back to complete their European tour. To the eye that's not a story in itself, and based on these facts alone a dance music magazine will probably not write a news item about it. But take a closer look… repeat… "where's the angle-" What about covering it from a business angle - how much money does it cost to fly back- What are the costs involved for the Dance Music Awards- Is it better to have an act like NuBreed, currently in Australia, to perform and thus cut back on expenses- You see how things start to develop from very little-

Keep the editors and journalists happy and work on viewing things from a different perspective. After all, variety is the spice of life.

And above all else remember this famous old adage: Dog bites man is not a story… but man bites dog is.

Until next time,

Stuart Evans runs the highly acclaimed Vibe Communication with fellow PR junkie Caroline Yates. Vibe is a marketing, PR and communications agency dedicated to the 18-35 year old demographic.

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