Press Tips

Vancouver 2SLGBTQIA Radio Shows

GenderQueeries - Airing Thursdays 8pm - GenderQueeries@coopradio.org 

Qut and About In Canada - Airing Thursdays 7pm - OutAndAboutInCanada@gmail.com  

QueerFM Vancouver (Barb Snelgrove) - Airing Tuesdays 8am QueerFMVancouver@gmail.com / @queerfmvan 

If you want to up your music submission game...

Create a good onesheet, Album Press Release (also see below for press release tips) and Electronic Press Kit.

Think of EPK's like a resume, you can tweak them for each audience. 

If you're Canadian and / or 2SLGBTQIA, list it in the onesheet/EPK in bold if you're submitting to Canadian / Queer shows. 

Press Release Tips

Write an attention grabbing subject line. 

A show host's inbox will have hundreds of press releases, you need to stand out.

Canadian stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian content , if you're Canadian, SAY SO (so few people do)

Start with a short paragraph

"Vancouver based, trans artist Jane Smith (she/her) is releasing her debut punk rock album at $venue on $date ... her music draws on influences like $bandname"

Expand lower in the email

• Keep it short, avoid run on sentences, use lots of paragraphs.  

• Make it easy to skim.

• Write for a simpler audience

• Why is your album special?

Have a call to action “Name is available for interviews $YourContactInfo” 

Include a phone number! Reporters / producers would much rather just arrange everything on one quick call rather than waiting for emails to come back.

Attach your onesheet / EPK

If you have a photo, include it!

End with a section with links 

General tips

• Keep it under 1 page. 

• No walls of text. 

• Check spelling and grammar.

• Don’t send it to 10 people at the same outlet. It’ll likely get filtered as spam and your email may be blacklisted.

• Go through your local media outlets and find reporters / shows who have done pieces covering music like yours, or queer issues. Make a contact list from those names. If you've done previous interviews with the reporter, write down the date and quickly thank them for previous coverage when reaching out again.

Before agreeing to an interview, check out the reporter's / producer's other work! 

In media, editors write the headlines and reporters have little to no ability make changes. There is an incredible power disparity between reporters and editors.

An editor might use a clickbaity, perhaps even exploitative headline to drive traffic. Don't be pissed at the reporter if this happens, especially if there is a vibe difference between the headline and the article.

Work to establish relationships with reporters. They will often switch outlets (there have been incredible numbers of layoffs lately) and follow them to different outlets. 

Submitting Securely to the Press

Realistically, we're just a niche radio show and most things requiring this level of paranoia probably should be submitted to a different outlet. 

That said, transphobes are litigious and Coop Radio likely doesn't have the funds for a legal fight to protect your identity.

Don't send things by mail. Printers embed serial numbers and time / date stamps into prints.  

The TOR browser 

If you use email, create a burner email account just for this. https://proton.me/ could be a good option. 

When creating a burner email, if you need to set a recovery email

1. Use the TOR browser to create a throwaway email for the recovery email.

2. Don't add your phone number or another email to the throwaway. 

3. Once you have submitted, don’t use any email you created again.

https://www.torproject.org/download/ 

Consider using https://cryptpad.fr/ and sending us a link

Use a tool like EXIF Purge to remove metadata from any images you submit (https://www.exifpurge.com)

Use Tails to draft and submit your content. Do NOT use something like Google Docs. 

if not TOR then use a VPN you trust, ideally connecting to a VPN server with an endpoint outside of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States.

How to name and organize your files when sending them out

Radio stations OFTEN get attachments like 

UNTITLED01.WAV

UNTITLED02.WAV

...

It's a pain to sort through, it's a pain to queue up, it's pain to log. It reduces your chances of getting music played.

Create a google drive shared folder / dropbox shared folder and use the following folder and file structure 

Folder: ArtistName

Your main OneSheet.pdf 

A PDF with shortcuts to your website, bandcamp, apple music, etc

High Res Press Photo.jpg 

Sub Folder: (year) AlbumName 

ArtistName - Album Name - ## (track number) - Name of Song.mp3

AlbumOneSheet.pdf (if you have one)

AlbumArt.jpg (high res is best)

For song names / album names, avoid characters that don't work well with Windows. No * /   \ etc.  You can find unicode characters that work, but an anti virus might flag it. Keep it simple. 

Make sure your files have metadata - not just the usual ID3 tags like Title, Author, Album, etc but also the ISWC number (see below)

If you're hoping to submit to radio shows that air before 9pm, strongly consider making a "clean" (no profanity) edit. Canadian broadcast regulations frown on any profanity before 9pm. It might still play, but you don't want to give a producer any excuse to dump your track.

People used to email .zip files of their albums, but you'll run into an email size limit even with MP3s. There are "share big files" sites, but they often look unprofessional / are scummy and filled with questionable ads.  If you're sending a single, 1 MP3 file attached to an email might work, otherwise use a google drive.

Archive your media appearances!

News outlets come and go, they merge, content gets deleted and links change.  Realistically, you can expect your interviews to be available for less than 5 years for print and audio, less than 3 years for video.

CBC Radio archives are horribly tedious to go through. Get these ASAP or you will seriously regret it.

Soon after the piece is published, grab a copy. 

If you're on a phone, use your phone's screen recorder. 

On a computer, if it's video, use Open Broadcaster Software and make a copy (quick tutorial here)
For printed content on websites, save the link via the Wayback Machine but also print a copy to PDF (this has been working less well as websites get more complicated) or take screenshots.