The Hot Hits’ Nic Kelly Knocks ‘Cold Spamming’ PRs, Tells Artists to Reach Out

Frustrated with scattergun PR tactics, broadcaster Nic Kelly this week took to Instagram Stories and encouraged emerging artists to pitch direct to his inbox. 

Kelly, best-known as host of the Hit Network’s national night show, The Hot Hits with Nic & Loren, and a passionate advocate for Australian music, took the unusual step of sharing his contact details online.

“I want to help artists make informed decisions about where they put their money. No one’s got any,” he tells The Music Network. “And unfortunately, there’s some people out there that are trying to take money from artists under the guise of doing a great job for them.”

Kelly changed tac after receiving five emails in an hour from a company pitching music “that was entirely inappropriate for our show,” he explains. “There are so many incredible people doing publicity in this country that I way prefer to see work with those artists.”

Kelly’s Meta post reads: “I’m annoyed about the amount of artists I’ve been speaking to who have had bad experiences in this space, spending heaps of money on PR that’s got them no results, and the offenders – there are some common themes…” He continued, “personally I love nothing more than an artist sending me their own music and telling their own story.”

In a perfect world, he added, publicists would “stop cold spamming”. There “are plenty that do it brilliantly.”

Kelly has notched more than a decade experience in the music industry, including Night High Records which he launched in collaboration with EMI. Last week, he participated in 2025 Indie-Con in Adelaide, and contributed his commercial radio perspective for an on-stage radio caps debate.

His social media shout out “clearly struck a chord because that’s the biggest response I’ve ever had,” he tells TMN. “I just want artists to do well. That’s literally the whole MO of this.”