If instant gratification's your thing, PR is probably a poor career choice. Many days, you'll feel as if you've been pushing a big stone up a hill. But sometimes the planets line up for you: last month, Dotdotdotmusic placed major stories about three clients on public radio. 

On May 19, Kronos Quartet's David Harrington was interviewed by Adeline Sire for PRI/BBC's The World, talking about the group's latest CD, Rainbow. 

A week later, David Krakauer and his cohorts in the klezmer/funk/hip-hop collective Abraham Inc. were the subject of a feature story on NPR's All Things Considered. Abraham Inc.'s debut CD, Tweet Tweet, subsequently became the first disc ever to reach #1 on Amazon's Funk and Jewish Music charts at the same time! At this writing, it's also #7 on Billboard's Jazz chart. 

And on May 30, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen spoke with Maya Beiser about her new hit CD, Provenance, currently sitting at #3 on Billboard's Classical chart. (Take that, Yo-Yo!)

Financial offerings always make a point of saying that past performance is no guarantee of future results. But it's worth noting that to date, all of Dotdotdotmusic's long-term clients have been featured on national public radio programs. In fact, Dotdotdotmusic has placed no fewer than four stories about New Amsterdam artists on NPR. We're grateful to public radio for embracing music that transcends easy categorization, and to its listeners for responding with open ears.

DOTDOTDOTMUSIC's campaign on behalf of Kronos Quartet's Perspectives Series concerts at Carnegie Hall has wrapped up. With assistance from Carnegie's formidable press department, it's been a big success: all four concerts in Zankel Hall were sold out. A superb NY Times 'Arts & Leisure' article by Steve Smith certainly helped ticket sales. But one of the most striking things we encountered in working with Kronos was the group's commitment to social media, a priority shared by Carnegie Hall as well. At the outset of the project, we worked together to identify sources of web-friendly content -- in this case, a series of short videos created by Kronos. These were deployed early and often through the Kronos Facebook and Twitter feeds -- and retweeted by us, among many others. With a high percentage of single-ticket buyers in the group's demographic, these efforts were arguably crucial.

What to do if your ensemble or festival doesn't have a dedicated marketing/social media person? Or if you've never held a video camera? DOTDOTDOTMUSIC can advise you on first steps or next steps to help you raise your social media profile. Many of these are quite simple -- for example, is your Facebook link hidden on the "Contact" page of your website? -- others, a little more sophisticated. But there's one social media strategy that's unlikely to help artists: ignoring it entirely. Here's an interesting analysis of Facebook's demographics. Note the tremendous growth in the 35-54 range...

One of the most rewarding projects we've been involved with lately involves a pair of new CDs and a release event spotlighting multifaceted composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck. The CDs: Eternal Interlude, featuring the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and Rainbow Jimmies, including chamber works played by Todd Reynolds, Matt Moran, Claudia Quintet, Ethos Percussion Group, and the composer himself. The event: a virtually unprecedented triple bill at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, with sets by three of John's ensembles. Exciting, yet potentially challenging from a PR perspective, given that John's music exists in a zone where jazz, contemporary classical composition, and world music intersect...sounds beyond genre. Our larger goal, of course, was to help create that indefinable "buzz" the helps raise awareness of an artist's accomplishments across a wide range of media.

For this project, we partnered with the excellent Ann Braithwaite of Braithwaite & Katz Communications, who was charged with securing coverage for Eternal Interlude in the jazz press, where John is best known. Our brief was to promote the LPR show to NYC media across the board, and gain visibility for John among classical/new music writers in general. Happily, we were successful on all counts. Eternal Interlude has been widely (and glowingly) reviewed, landing on several "Best of 2009" lists. For our part, John was profiled in the NY Observer, the concert was previewed in the Village Voice (a Voice Choice), Time Out New York, New York and The New Yorker (both in the classical sections) and The New York Times, which then ran a stunning review of the show. A few days later, the announcement came that Eternal Interlude has been nominated for a Grammy -- a bold choice, according to the LA Times. Here's hoping for a win, John!!  

We're very excited about working with the Kronos Quartet to promote their upcoming Perspectives series concerts at Carnegie Hall, March 11 - 21, 2010. Their residency encompasses four fascinating concert programs featuring two World, one U.S., and six New York premieres. They will also mentor three lucky emerging quartets, who will give a recital of their own on March 21. 

The March 11 opening concert includes the world premiere of a new piece by Terry Riley -- his 26th for the group! -- written to mark the composer's 75th birthday and his 30th anniversary of working with Kronos. Collaborations with musicians from around the globe; pieces by established masters and new voices; adventures in sound, experiments in style...it's Kronos's world. We just live in it! Here's the group in a driving arrangement of a traditional Iraqi song, Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me.

A brief reflection, inspired by last night's CMJ showcase with New Amsterdam Records and Canteloupe Music:

Back in January 2008, when we were working on the press release for the launch of New Amsterdam, there was some debate as to how to describe the hybrid scene that spawned the label. In conversations with its founders - Bill Brittelle, Judd Greenstein, and Sarah Kirkland Snider - the term 'indie-classical' came up, and it seemed to capture the spirit of the thing best. Since then, the phrase has gained quite a bit of traction, with some competition from 'alt-classical,' recently used in an absorbing article by Washington Post critic/blogger Anne Midgette.

Whether you love these terms or hate them, two things are clear: the indie-classical approach to developing new audiences - via non-traditional venues and imaginative, cross-genre programming - has become increasingly influential in the concert music world. And in less than two years, New Amsterdam has emerged as the "virtual headquarters" (in the words of New York magazine's Justin Davidson) of this thriving scene. DOTDOTDOTMUSIC is proud to be associated with such a creative and enterprising team - and such outstanding music!

BTW, if you're in NYC on one of several Fridays in the coming months, be sure to check out NewAm's fascinating Archipelago series, presenting cross-genre chamber music at the stunning Galapagos space in Brooklyn.