Sound Business: Artist Booking and PR Join Forces at The Press House
For music fans, the most exciting convergences are from genres coming together – separate sounds joining to create something even more satisfying.
Tommy Merrill is President of Artist Development & Booking at The Press House.
To those who work to back up artists behind the scenes, the prospect of combining different business channels can feel equally enthralling. That’s what’s happened at The Press House, a successful New York City entertainment PR firm that now houses a fast-growing booking agency division.
One of the key components of the partnership is Tommy Merrill, who heads up booking and artist development at The Press House. Merrill’s residency there came after he had been the talent buyer at the popular NYC live venue Rockwood Music Hall for 7 1/2 years. Then, in April 2012 he joined forces with Dawn Kamerling, who has overseen The Press House’s steady expansion from a music-based boutique PR firm to a full-service company offering a lifestyle division, film and restaurant publicity, licensing, interactive marketing, event planning — and now has artist booking under its roof.
On the PR side, the Press House client list includes known names like The Cutting Room, ECR Music Group, Imagem Music, Julian Lennon, James McCartney, Pledge Music, and Spin. Meanwhile, a number of music PR clients are also booked by Merrill, including McCartney, The Breedings, Robert Fortune, and Rachel Ann Weiss.
While artist publicity and booking aren’t exactly strange bedfellows, it’s not often they you’ll see these two verticals entwined so harmoniously in a boutique – forming a fashionable service offering that savvy independent artists naturally gravitate to.
Tommy Merrill explains where the inspiration for his partnership with The Press House came from. Along the way, get valuable guidance about how a successful live strategy — or a fresh new business venture – comes to life.
Why was being a talent buyer a good introduction to the touring business?
Working as a talent buyer was a phenomenal introduction to the touring business, especially in terms of our model at The Press House. Developing an artist’s live show is the most important aspect of their career.
Not only did it give me access to thousands of artists, managers, labels, agents, venue information across the country etc…, I was completely immersed in the development process of a wide array of artists over the years at Rockwood. I was exposed to numerous successful plans that the artists and their teams put into place, based primarily on the live show.
I was also aware of many strategies that were not so successful. Seeing as many shows and development campaigns as I did allowed me to formulate what my own course of action would be.
What did you learn about how a tour works, by being a talent buyer for a busy NYC live venue? What are the different moving parts needed to book a successful gig?
I really learned the importance of connecting with other venues and other artists in multiple markets. I found the cross-promotional opportunities with other artists very rewarding and refreshing — artists helping artists. And I witnessed it work time and again over the years.
To be able to tap into the right scene in the right venue in varying markets is so important for touring artists, and can make all the difference in the world in terms of finding the best audience for your music and hopefully being invited back.
This is also where I experienced the importance of a “strong team.” It was always great to see that an artist could do it all themselves in a professional manner, but when the team was firing on all cylinders, it made all the difference in the world.
Dawn Kamerling, founder of The Press House, was on the same page as Merrill about coordinated support for artists.
One of the deciding factors in launching this new division came from my experience in moving forward after a show was initially confirmed. I would lock a show in with an artist, manager, agent, label, whoever it might have been, and then the follow-up email would have ten new people copied on it, ALL of which were from a different company. What I would witness happen many times were details getting lost in translation because of the lack of being in the same room directly next to each other. And in the end the show would suffer in some way.
Dawn and I thought having the agent and publicist under the same roof would be a wonderful way to start to alleviate some of that confusion and ultimately make the show better for the artist.
How do those dynamics change when you’re talking about booking a local artist that’s looking to play for just one night, as opposed to a stop in NYC as part of a 20-date tour?
I’m not sure those dynamics do change when it’s a one-off. I think when the show is a one-off hit, there is a different reason for the show perhaps and different methods of promoting it to your fans, but all of the pieces still need to be there.
That team strength needs to be focused differently, but focused nonetheless on presenting the best live show/event possible.
How did you start to get interested in “switching sides” and becoming a booking agent?
Over the years, the multitude of artists that I had the immense pleasure of meeting and becoming close with started to really sink in. That personal relationship really started to become interesting to me.
The last couple of years at the club, I had numerous artists come to me seeking help in various ways and asking for advice on a number of issues associated with this crazy business of music. And the reality of it is when one is a buyer at a venue there is absolutely no time for anything else. I was completely buried in booking 400+ shows a month, thus having no time to devote in assisting artists I believed in.
That’s when I started to think about removing myself from the venue life and focusing on the more personal side of the artist. And I’ve found this change to be incredibly rewarding!
What was the opportunity you and Dawn saw for a new approach to booking artists?
When speaking with Dawn initially and really brainstorming how we could work together, there were two issues that we both thought needed to be addressed.
First, we saw a huge gap between developing artists wanting to get on the road and those artists being courted by the larger agencies. These developing artists are the ones who I’ve spent years caring about, so it only seemed natural that these artists would be the ones who we would reach out to and help move forward in their careers.
We created a model that allows them to do this. Getting developing artists on the road to start to build that foundation in markets outside of their home was something we thought was very important. The live show will always be something that is at the forefront of this industry, and we felt the more artists on the road, the better.
Second is what I mentioned earlier about needing as many services under one roof as possible. In our opinion, this eliminates the chance of important parts of the team not being on the same page throughout an entire campaign. We feel that booking and tour promotion are two aspects that should go hand in hand.
James McCartney is benefiting directly from The Press House approach.
Why was The Press House the ideal place for you to launch this business, instead of another partner?
The Press House seemed ideal because of Dawn Kamerling and the business she had been running for 12 years. When I initially began thinking about changing jobs, Dawn was the first one to assist me in fully flushing out the idea for me to start my own company. In the midst of those talks it evolved into starting this with Dawn’s company as a partnership and new division.
The Press House is a wonderful PR company with a stellar reputation running for the last 12 years. The infrastructure and relationships the company has built over those 12 years has helped me immensely to hit the ground running upon leaving Rockwood.
Dawn and I also worked together on multiple events during my time at Rockwood. It seemed like the perfect fit and it certainly has been for the first year. We couldn’t be happier with the direction the company is going.
What are the different ways a band gets onboard with you and booking aspect of The Press House’s offerings?
I look for a few things when taking on new artists. First and foremost there certainly needs to be a raw talent that really moves me as a music fan, but I also think a very strong work ethic is needed to be successful or to even begin laying the foundation for success.
It’s a pleasure when artists bring more than their talent to the table. I’ve always thought that knowing the ins and outs of one’s industry — no matter which aspect you primarily focus on — makes that person infinitely better at what they do. Thirdly, I look for artists that are realistic about their goals. I like to agree on short and long-term goals and then attack them in the proper order to succeed.
Is there a recent example of the benefits of having everything under one roof for a Press House artist?
I think the best example of this would be working together on the James McCartney tour. Earlier this year, James did a 47-date US tour that started in early April and lasted through mid-June.
As you can imagine, someone like James has many media opportunities coming his way in the midst of this run. It is incredibly difficult to manage these dates alone in terms of all the details relating to playing the shows and traveling to and from each market. A great deal of these media opportunities arise last minute, and having the publicist in the same office really expedites everything to get locked in and confirmed as quickly as possible.
I can’t tell you how many times in the last year, both media outlets and talent buyers alike have thanked us for our speedy responses in regards to everything. We take great pride in our communication with everyone when working a campaign together. Dawn, myself, as well as the rest of our staff are quite dangerous when brainstorming in a room together.
You have an interesting definition of “success” for your artists. Can you explain that? What are the different positive outcomes you’re working towards?
I’m glad you asked this question. Our definition of success is when our artists meets the goals we, as a team, put into place. Whether that is a few spot dates in the region to get a developing artist’s name out there a bit more, or a financially successful 40+ date tour.
And here is another example of what success is for us. When we can lock into a one-year campaign to grow an artist properly by gaining the attention that artist deserves with touring and PR, everyone wins. If that attention means that one of the larger agencies starts to show interest in taking them further in their live careers, great! We are thrilled that we could assist in taking that next step in their journey.
— David Weiss
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