As part of our Horizon Future Leaders series of interviews, we are connecting with the music industry’s next generation of leaders to gather candid advice and insights into their career journeys.
This week, we caught up with Sope Soetan, a music publicist, journalist, writer and speaker who’s built a career on telling great stories - whether through PR, interviews or cultural commentary.
As the founder of boutique PR agency SS Publicity, he’s worked with artists like SuperJazzClub, Joan As Police Woman and Kokoroko, while his writing has seen him interview Ezra Collective, Corinne Bailey Rae and Jazmine Sullivan.
Sope shares his advice on getting started in music PR and journalism, building a strong network, and how to carve out an authentic and fulfilling career.
Read the full Q&A with Sope below 👇
What’s your current role in the music industry?
I’m blessed to be working across a variety of roles and disciplines. I’m primarily working as a music publicist where I run my own boutique PR agency - SS Publicity - working on clients like SuperJazzClub, Joan As Police Woman and Kokoroko, amongst many others.
Outside of that, I’m a music/culture journalist, writer and speaker, which has granted me the opportunity to interview the likes of Ezra Collective, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mathew Knowles, JoJo, Jazmine Sullivan, Jim Legxacy and more.
More recently, I’ve started to take on work as a researcher in the world of documentaries and brand partnerships.
What does your general day to day look like?
Most of the time, my day consists of pitching news, reviews and features for my roster of artists. Additionally, I’ll be amassing assets and press materials for an album or EP campaign I’m working on. This tends to be the “9-5” aspect of my working life.
It's during the evenings and weekends where I’m working on the building blocks of whatever my next endeavour is as a writer/journalist or speaker. This tends to include vast amounts of reading, research, preparing questions and doing wider contextual preparation.
What steps did you take early in your career to gain experience and build skills to get you where you are now?
My first proper steps into the music industry came when I started writing articles for various websites I was voraciously reading at the time. This was at the height of what is now called “the blog era”.
This formed the foundation of my journalism career and later provided me with a strong edge when applying for PR and marketing roles at various record labels and PR agencies.
What opportunities did you explore early on that were particularly valuable?
I earned my stripes as an intern for various companies like LD Communications, W Communications and Whiteboard PR, before eventually landing my first full-time role at Listen Up Music Biz.
Has the opportunity landscape changed since then?
I can’t really speak to the landscape in PR as I’ve been self-employed for a few years now, so I feel quite far away from the politics and bureaucracy of that world, but I know staff turnover in such spaces has always been high.
In regards to journalism? The landscape has absolutely gone through tremendous changes. So many publications and titles have either folded or downsized their capacity to commission, and pay, freelancers.
There are of course new avenues such as Substack, but in terms of getting experience at renowned publications? Unless you have a strong relationship with an editor - and sometimes that isn’t even enough - it’s hard to get commissioned. Especially if you want to tell unique stories that are fresh and on the fringes of mainstream interests.
As someone dedicated to preserving the stories of black cultural innovation and its practitioners, this is something I’ve definitely come up against.
Are there any specific internships, projects, or initiatives that you would recommend to newcomers looking to pursue a similar role?
All the internships I acquired were never part of a bespoke programme or anything, so I can’t recommend any that I specifically benefitted from, but one of my biggest recommendations is cold-calling and cold-emailing companies you have a desire to work with. It’s pretty much how I secured all my roles.
What advice do you have for building and leveraging a professional network in the music industry?
The most obvious answer would be to network horizontally by engaging with other aspiring professionals and creatives who are seeking similar or adjacent roles to you. Creating your own projects that you can share on social media will allow you to find kinship spirits.
Otherwise, once again, I’d recommend cold-emailing individuals you have deep admiration for. Ask about their journey and if they can offer you any advice, introduce you to reputable people in the industry or invite you to events they might be aware of.
How has the evolving digital landscape impacted your role, and where do you focus to stay ahead?
The evolving digital landscape has meant that there’s less importance placed on print media, so beyond traditional online and print media, I’ve begun including editorial playlists and the pitching of YouTube shows and podcasts as part of my PR services.
On the writing side of things, I’ve focused on developing my niche as a writer, thinker and cultural scholar, which gives me credence to cultivate and develop one-of-a-kind angles, but also allows me to see how my writing/research skills can be parlayed into various other avenues such as research, curation, music supervision and strategy consulting.
As I get older, I’m focused on being a multi-hyphenate and multi-disciplinary industry professional.
What trends or changes do you see on the horizon for the music industry, and how can early career professionals prepare for them?
The music industry at large has been in a massive state of transition for a few years now, so it’s hard to predict what’s on the horizon as things are quite unpredictable.
How I’m preparing for the advent of such changes is expanding my artistic and professional practice and finding opportunities for myself which allow me to parlay my skills into new areas and develop new skills.
For instance, I had never thought about public speaking until I was offered a chance to chair a live interview with British soul royalty Terri Walker at the educational institute LCCM, which prepared me for my appearances at We Out Here Festival and The V&A.
What’s one piece of advice you wish someone had given you at the start of your career?
I wish I was spoken to earlier in my career about the necessity and importance of having a restorative work/life balance. It’s a lesson that I didn’t understand the weight of until a solid number of years into the industry.