Meet Jaime Sloane: The Powerhouse EDM Publicist Tells Her Own Story and Shares What She’s Learned
"For fans of: strong female leads, desert sunsets, deep conversations, purple auras, festival fashion, corny puns, jet-setting adventures, belly laughs, unconventional ideas and Jimkata’s Die Digital LP."
They say it takes a village, and when it comes to making the EDM world go ‘round, there’s no shortage of eyes, ears and hands that flow in tandem to push the needle forward.
One of these essential movers and grovers is Jaime Sloane of JSloane Creative. She’s a powerhouse publicist and seasoned scene veteran whose client roster ranges from Ultra Music Festival, Hulaween and Groove Cruise to Wax Motif, Walker & Royce, Popgang Records and Space Yacht.
Known for a “holistic” approach that incorporates multi-platform storytelling elements into bespoke publicity campaigns, Sloane has managed to grow her own independent agency to a nationwide team of four in just under two years.
“We’re all about press and promo that move the needle altogether as opposed to just, ‘Here’s a published track write-up,’ or ‘Here’s an interview opportunity,’” Sloane tells EDM.com. “We’re really looking for clients that have an interesting story to tell in addition to being a great producer, having an awesome catalog, and having great DJ mixing skills.”
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According to Sloane, working the press is more multi-pronged than it was even just five years ago. Playlist and publication placements are harder to secure, platforms for music consumption are constantly evolving and every couple years, there’s a new social media for the industry to adapt to.
It’s an industry explosion she’s seen firsthand: Sloane started out as a music journalist and blogger before cutting her teeth as the PR Manager at Steve Aoki's Dim Mak when she was only 21 years old. After successful stints at a couple of other firms, she was tapped as Ultra’s first-ever in-house publicist.
If Sloane’s learned one thing, it’s that for this kind of work, there is no such thing as a blueprint.
“My first week of work, they sent me to Ultra Europe," Sloane recalled. "I packed myself up from L.A., moved to Miami and then when I went to the office to get my laptop, they were like, ‘Where’s your passport? You’re going to Croatia.’”
Now gearing up for Ultra's flagship festival in Miami from March 24-26, Sloane, who self-identifies as the “ultimate Connector-in-Chief,” took some time to share her own story and advice with us.
“I feel like the circus never ends but I love it,” she described. “I grew up watching Almost Famous and thinking I was a cross between Penny Lane and William Miller, and I feel like I’m living that out and I love it.”
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EDM.com: Let’s start off easy. What does being a publicist mean to you?
Jaime Sloane: It’s the most rewarding experience. I’m such a music fan but I don’t have a musical bone in my body. So it’s my way of contributing to this scene and community, promoting artists and helping them tell their stories, and helping festivals reach potential attendees who go to these festivals and have cathartic experiences. I feel like I'm in a position to elevate important messages, to showcase underrepresented voices, to put forward to the world new names, and also just champion artists and projects that I think people should be paying attention to.
EDM.com: Does JSloane Creative work with any specific aesthetic or genre of artist?
Jaime Sloane: Working at Rephlektor Ink several years ago really taught me how to do PR in a genre-agnostic sense…Justin (Kleinfeld) and I worked with everyone from Claptone, Josh Wink and Loco Dice to Above & Beyond, Tiësto, Avicii and Circus Records. I think it’s cool that a lot of publicists do specialize in underground, for example, or specialize in bass, but just because I don't personally bump something in my free time doesn't mean I can't run a campaign for it. As long as I've seen merit in it and know that a fan or writer will like it and it's well produced with a good message, then that's something I'll explore.
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EDM.com: What did the early days of starting your business look like?
Jaime Sloane: I was working in-house for Ultra Music Festival and gearing up to work for Ultra Miami when the pandemic hit. We know the end of that story. I was doing some Spotify playlisting, just trying to keep the spirit alive while nobody really knew what the future of events would look like, and that’s when I started taking on my own clients on the side.
I’d always have people telling me I should start my own thing but I really had no ambitions to become a business owner. I still hate QuickBooks. I hate the numbers…But I started reaching out to people and people started reaching out to me, and that’s when JSloane Creative really started taking shape…Both my parents are small business owners in the media world now, so they were instrumental in showing me the ropes and walking me through the processes.
EDM.com: When did it really start to snowball and come together for you?
Jaime Sloane: I started setting up a lot of livestreams on Twitch for Insomniac and Spin Magazine. There were a lot of Reddit AMAs. It was pivoting from the traditional PR of events, in-person shows and festivals to trying to promote new music online. I had a lot of really cool clients like Space Yacht who were doing their own Twitch demo listening show. We were all figuring it out together.
The spring of 2021 is when things started to kick back off. The first festival client I signed was Hulaween. I actually covered the first ever Hulaween a decade ago for my college newspaper, so it was a nice full circle moment. Now we represent seven independent festivals, which is our bread and butter in terms of working with independent entities.
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EDM.com: You say you take a “holistic” approach to publicity – what does that mean versus a more traditional PR mindset?
Jaime Sloane: Every artist has a story. We help them shape their narrative based on what they’re already doing and saying and just giving them the tools to effectively connect with listeners, both potential fans and current fans. It’s all conceptual. We do a three-month minimum campaign, usually an EP, an LP, a remix package with a tour, two singles with a clothing line drop, because we want to tell those long-lead stories as opposed to just getting coverage. We’ll set up guest mixes, organize Instagram takevers with a big blog, or partner on curated playlists. Destructo, for example, had his 80s-inspired EP, Future Funk, come out earlier this year, so we’re currently working on publishing a playlist full of the nostalgic tracks that inspired it.
That’s why I called it JSloane Creative and not JSloane PR, because we’re all about press and promo that move the needle altogether as opposed to just, “Here’s a published track writeup,” or “Here’s an interview opportunity.” We’re really looking for clients that have an interesting story to tell in addition to being a great producer, having an awesome catalog, and having great DJ mixing skills. I’d rather take on a lesser-known act that’s got a really cool brand and sound and vision as opposed to a superstar DJ that doesn’t necessarily need my help.
Then the festivals, that’s who we do year-round retainers for. Festival press is my personal favorite because it’s the most interesting to tell stories about. You’ve got the performers: who’s making their debut, and who’s been playing since the beginning? You’ve got the visual artists, the dancers, the fashion angles, the sustainability angles. You can do radio giveaways, ticketing contests, interviews with the founders, and profiles for attendees that have been going since the beginning. It’s so much more layered and fun, which is why that’s where our focus has been between Ultra and our other festival clients.
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EDM.com: What about your own story? Take a minute to write how you would pitch yourself as if you were an artist.
Jaime Sloane: It’s all happening for PR queen Jaime Sloane. The 2020 debut of her self-titled company JSloane Creative was an instant hit, securing music clients across the genre spectrum thanks to her dynamic promotional strategies. As the ultimate “Connector-in-Chief,” she’s passionate about bringing talented people together and alchemizing creative collaboration. The fierce, fun-loving publicist careens between timezones, sipping espresso martinis and turning strangers into friends.
For fans of: strong female leads, desert sunsets, deep conversations, purple auras, festival fashion, corny puns, jet-setting adventures, belly laughs, unconventional ideas, and Jimkata’s Die Digital LP.
EDM.com: I love it. And now that you’re fully independent, how does it feel to now have clients buying into your own personal reputation and brand?
Jaime Sloane: It’s awesome. I’ve been doing this since I was in college. This is something I’m really passionate about. I have my own style. I’m a straight shooter. I’m very upfront. There are a lot of publicists who will go, “Yeah, sure, that’s awesome. Whatever you need.” That is not me, and that’s one of my strengths. I’ll speak up when it’s time to pivot, and I’m also not going to take someone’s money when it would be better spent elsewhere.
In my various roles, there were times when people, and especially men, would say, ‘Hey, you’re too loud. You’re too brash.” But I think that for me, it’s always been about staying true to myself and realizing that my point of view is valuable. People hire me because they want the truth. And so I think for women and in general, don’t be afraid to use your voice. I’m not trying to get anyone fired, but if you’ve got an opinion, you feel strongly about something, for me it worked out to always say it. And if someone didn’t agree with me, at least they respected me.
EDM.com: What have been some of your favorite full circle moments with clients?
Jaime Sloane: One was when I was doing the PR at Ultra Japan and Steve Aoki came up to me. I had worked for Dim Mak but obviously he wasn’t in the office every day, he was a top superstar DJ. And so in Japan I was organizing his interview for UMF TV, the livestream broadcast, and started to explain who I was, and he stopped me and said, “I know who you are.” It had been something like seven years ago, so that was really nice.
Then at Ultra Miami 2022, our MC, the voice of dance music, Damian (Pinto), was like, “Shout out Jaime Sloane!” during a changeover on the main stage. Everyone was texting me about it. Ultra was the first festival I went to when I was 18 years old, like on my own accord, so that was a great full circle.
With JSloane Creative, I worked with HNTR for a release on mau5trap called “Shadows In the Dark.” He’s based in Toronto, and in Canada, they have something called the Juno Awards, which are kind of like the Grammys but for Canadians. They added a new category called Best Underground Song that year and he won it. So he sent me a plaque and it really showed how tangible my work is. Those are the moments of, “This matters. This is important.” My promo, I feel, impacted that award being given, and it’s nice to feel like you’re part of a team, an artist project, that built that momentum toward something that really matters.
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EDM.com: That’s very special!
Jaime Sloane: I'm the most emotional person. I cry at commercials. And so when I see something like that…Artists and festival organizers work so hard. And so to see them be noted and get that cosign from an outlet or a journalist, and then that journalist becomes a fan, you can tell they really care. They're paying attention and they understand it's important to grow their fan bases organically. And press is really one of the best ways to do that–connecting to people on a human level.
EDM.com: Obviously your business, JSloane Creative, was one outcome of the pandemic. And so I feel like for you, the past couple years have probably been a metamorphosis on multiple levels, right? There was the experience of COVID-19, but also the experience of striking out on your own and carving a new path.
Jaime Sloane: Yeah, absolutely. I had a really unique pandemic experience because I would argue that it's the hardest I've ever worked because I didn't have clients. I didn't have a foundation. I didn't have a business plan. I was figuring it out. So I was working on the few campaigns that I had while also trying to figure out what JSloane Creative was and what our services were. So now I would say I’m working equally as hard but it's more running the campaigns as opposed to conceptually trying to build.
Being back on site after two years without events has been, every single time, it's a dream coming true. We try different things, we accomplish new things and we learn. And there’s always that moment when I’m sitting in the pit or in GA and just staring at the stage, and I’m thinking, “Hell yeah. This is magical. We contributed to this and let’s do it again.” It’s all worth it and it’s very cool that we built it out of thin air. I always say work hard and be nice to people. And I'm not the sweetest person ever, but I keep it real. And I'm very grateful to the people who have led the way and paved the way for me. All ships rise with the tide. We're all better together. There's enough room for all of us.
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EDM.com: What advice do you have to someone who’s just starting out, to Jaime 10 years ago?
Jaime Sloane: I think the best way to get your foot in the door is to start with a blog. You have an opportunity to talk to every single manager, agent, publicist, marketing director—whoever you want to connect with, you can cover their artist's music. And then, this is what I did, I sent it not just to the publicist who set it up, but also the label manager or anyone that was older. And then they knew my name. So then five years down the line, when I want their artist to do a remix for my artist, and I’m speaking hypothetically, you’ve already made that relationship.
Networking is all about a two-way conversation. It's not, “Hey, I want to be a manager. How do I do that?” That's not a good way to approach a manager because the manager's very busy. And why should they give you the time of day? The best way to do it is to be like, “Hey, I've supported your project in this way.” Or maybe you could do some social media or reach out to a manager or label and be like, “Hey, I really love what you're doing with X project.” Do your research. Don’t blind-pitch people. Personalize your outreach. Everybody likes flattery. And then offer something to them. That way, you’re teachable as opposed to just asking, “Show me the way to success.” You’ve got to build it for yourself.
It’s also the age of social media. You can just follow people online. I mean, don’t be creepy. But one of the women who works for me, she reached out to me on Twitter to interview me for her PR class. I thought she was brilliant and asked her to intern for me. And now she works 35 hours for me a week. You’ve got to just try to reach out and put your best foot forward.
Follow Jaime Sloane:
Twitter: twitter.com/sloanesays
Instagram: instagram.com/jaimesloane
Website: jsloanecreative.com
