I did a bit of blog-hopping this morning and it seemed like there was some kind of theme running through some of the posts I came across. Or maybe they just kinda jumped out at me because I’ve had this topic in mind for a while. At any rate, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about “black hat” marketing tactics and how they’re being used in the music industry.

Now if you see “black hat” and “music” in the same sentence and your first thought is of Slash, the dude from Guns ‘n’ Roses, let me explain. “Black hat” is a phrase used to describe techniques that are a little shady, a lot unethical and sometimes even illegal. (There’s a good explanation on Wikipedia and another one on About.com. Although these examples are about SEO, the same principle applies to other types of marketing.) And like the title of this post says, black hats are so not cool.

Photo by Scott Penner

One PR firm learned the hard way

Those of us that are or have been involved in the world of blogging are (or should be) aware of laws and regulations passed by the FTC about disclosure, meaning that we’re all required to let our readers know if we’ve been paid or compensated by someone for a particular post. So like if I write a CD review, I have to mention in the review that I received a free copy of the CD or that the artist or publicist came over and did my laundry for me in exchange for the review (an offer which, by the way, I just might entertain *hint hint*!)

So when a bunch of people posted reviews of video games and apps on iTunes and failed to mention that they were employees of the PR agency hired to promote those games, the PR agency – Reverb Communications – got caught. Now that PR firm is paying the price. According to an article on CNET, the PR firm is required to remove the reviews and refrain from posting further reviews. (There’s a PDF version of the proposed settlement but I just skimmed it because ever since I gave up my career as a paralegal, I have an aversion to combing through legal documents.)

Not only did the agency get themselves in a lot of trouble, they also put their clients’ reputation at risk. Reverb’s “black hat” tactic did some damage to their own credibility and to that of the game companies they represented. So was it worth it? Did those tainted reviews boost sales enough to justify such a scheme? My guess would be no.

Side note: it’s unfortunate that the PR firm’s name is Reverb Communications because there could be some confusion or assumption that they are somehow connected to the music site Reverb Nation. They’re not connected at all. Reverb Nation rocks.

Ok, so that’s just one example of some shady marketing I’ve seen. And, yeah, it was about video games rather than music but it happens in music too. I know a lot of indie and DIY musicians struggle with getting their songs and albums reviewed (I’ll be sharing some tips about that in a future post), but don’t be tempted to take shortcuts or do anything shady. It takes a lot of time and energy to market yourselves but doing it honestly will pay off so much more in the long run.