Have you been naughty or nice? Either way, I'm expecting lots of Christmas Celtic knotwork snowflakes falling from the sky thanks to your generous donation on Kickstarter. My next compilation CD A Celtic Christmas is already at 150% of its funding with six days to go. I'm getting kinda hopeful that we will meet our stretch goal and I can hire a publicist for this CD.

A Celtic Christmas, the compilation CD from the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast

That's my big goal in fact, and I confess, there are several reasons for wanting to hire a publicist.

First, I do believe that a publicist, someone who knows all the radio and print outlets for Celtic music, can actually do a better job than I can at actually bringing attention to this album. You see, I may be called “The Celtfather” for my online promotion of Celtic music, but I am only know a small part of the media outlets out there. There are hundreds of Celtic music outlets. I have a database of about fifty, and it hasn't been updated in a couple years. Publicists know the market, but they also know how to get the reviews and features that albums need.

Second, this is a test. I've been wanting to hire a publicist for several years to promote my albums. While I do believe a publicist can do a better job than I can, I confess I'm not 100% convinced (more like 90%). So I want to see which works better, new or old media.

I'm a new media marketer. Publicists are largely old media. Yes, they've added blogs and social media to their repertoire, but they are still mostly old media. Daly Communications (the company we will be working with) knows the Celtic publications and will target over 300 radio stations, both national and local. So this album has the potential of reaching more outlets, which means more visibility, which should mean more exposure for the CD as well as all the bands on the CD. But will it?

As a marketer, I want to test this out. I want to see if a publicist can do more than I can with my internet-based marketing skills. Ultimately, I want to share that research with my music marketing website too. This is valuable info for all musicians.

Finally, The album needs to be adequately promoted, but I don't have a lot of time to do it this fall. I have four albums to finish. So if we don't reach our goal, I'll need to hire an intern to do the promotion in any case. This puts the promotion in the hands of someone who's qualified to do so, instead of someone who has to learn the ropes. I'm okay with that (because that is me too), but I'd prefer someone who knows the biz.

So once again, if you're able to make a pledge, please do so today.

If you're not, or you've already pledged money, that's okay too. Just do me a favor, tell a friend.

Thanks again for all your support. Slainte!