Indie music PR in Manchester
Two lists, run as one campaign. The specialist indie press, and the Manchester media and venue network that gives a writer a reason to take you seriously.
Indie is the most crowded desk in British music press. The editors at the titles that matter receive well over a hundred pitches a week, most of them a Dropbox link and a paragraph of adjectives. The campaigns that get through are the ones with an angle a writer can build a piece around before they have even pressed play.
It also carries a weight of history that cuts both ways. Manchester bands get read, which is an advantage. They also get compared, immediately and often lazily, to four decades of predecessors. Getting ahead of that comparison is a specific piece of work and it belongs in the first draft of the pitch, not the fifth.
An indie campaign run from Manchester therefore works on two levels at once. The genre list reaches the writers who cover this music seriously. The city list builds the local foundation that makes the genre pitch credible, because an artist who already has coverage, radio support and a live reputation at home is a considerably easier sell than one who arrives with only a track.
The indie list
This is the tier a campaign at this price works hard at. It is where an indie band's audience is genuinely built, and where a first campaign can realistically land.
Independent, prolific, and consistently early on bands who go on to break. One of the more receptive desks in British indie.
Long-running and generous with coverage for developing artists who arrive with a real story.
High-volume independent coverage across guitar music, with a genuine appetite for unsigned acts.
Genuinely open to unsigned submissions and a realistic first radio play for a debut single.
Regional uploads are listened to properly, and the route from a local show to national specialist play is real.
Tom Robinson's open submissions inbox. Free to enter, widely read by other tastemakers, and a legitimate first credential.
The Manchester list
Manchester's local music media, which is unusually strong for a UK city outside London.
Community station with strong emerging-artist support and a real audience among the city's musicians.
Long-standing Manchester station, particularly strong on dance and urban music.
Rock-oriented commercial station with genuine local commitment.
Broad reach across Greater Manchester. A general-audience desk, so it needs a story rather than a release.
Independent cultural coverage with real credibility locally. Competitive, and usually reached with some coverage behind you.
The rooms
Night & Day Café remains the room a Manchester band is expected to have played, and its ongoing licensing fights have made it a story in its own right. The Deaf Institute and YES cover the step up, with YES's multiple rooms making it useful at several stages of a band's development. Band on the Wall carries genuine institutional weight after its refurbishment. Soup and The Peer Hat serve the more experimental and DIY end. Gullivers and The Castle Hotel anchor the Northern Quarter small-room circuit. Beyond those, Gorilla, Academy 2 and New Century mark the transition to a real touring audience.
How we pitch it
Scene before sound
Editors think in scenes. A band from the Windmill orbit, the Leeds DIY circuit or the Glasgow guitar underground is a legible thing to write about. A band with influences ranging from The Smiths to Radiohead is not. We position you inside a scene an editor already covers.
The live proof point
Indie press still respects the room. A sold-out show at a well-regarded 150-capacity venue, a support slot with a credible touring act, or a festival billing gives a writer a concrete reason to move now.
What's included
Indie artist in Manchester?
Send us the track, the release date and where you have played. We will tell you what is realistic before you spend anything.