About Pirate!

Pirate! is a radio promotion & marketing agency with offices in Boston, MA and New York, NY. We work with artists, bands, record labels, managers, distribution companies, brands, events & more. Promoting their music to radio stations, college students & tastemakers across North America. We are a team of music industry professionals (and more importantly fans) who strive to be the best independent music and marketing team there is. Pirate! is the trusted radio promotion partner for all releases from Anti-, Dirty Hit, Epitaph, Too Fine, Topshelf, Sargent House, Pirates Press Records, Memory Music, SmartPunk, Trash Casual, Mint 400, Propeller Sound Recordings, and more!

Currently, Pirate! services the following formats and concentrations:

College Radio Promotion / Non-Commercial Radio Promotion:

We have built great relationships with all of the college radio / community radio (non-comm) music directors and program directors who report to NACC, JBE AAA, and Spinitron and stations turn to us for the best new music, news, gear, etc. We send records to SiriusXM (including XMU, AltNation, Faction Punk, Underground Garage, The Loft, and many more), KEXP, KCRW, KCMP, KUTX, WXPN, WNXP, Music Choice, and hundreds more! College radio and non-commercial / community radio is one of the oldest and still one of the best ways to break up and coming artists or to build on a fan-base without having to play the commercial radio game. Pirate! is a 3 time Promotion Company of the Year award winner at the CMJ Awards. We have been responsible for #1 records at CMJ and/or NACC by Ratboys, Dry Cleaning, Snocaps, The Beths, Turnstile, Saya Gray, Waxahatchee, Mannequin Pussy, Sleater-Kinney, Beabadoobee, MJ Lenderman, The Linda Lindas, The Arcs, Wet Leg, Curtis Harding, The Black Keys, Mavis Staples, Crumb, Foxwarren, Fleet Foxes, Jeff Tweedy, Fever Ray, Broken Social Scene, Girlpool, Dr. Dog, Neko Case, Wilco, Tegan & Sara, Tom Waits, Devotchka, Mates of State, The White Stripes, Matt & Kim, Bat For Lashes, Elliott Smith, Rilo Kiley, Crystal Castles, Andy Shauf, Liars and more! Pirate! had the #1 album on the NACC Top 200 for 24 of the 48 reporting weeks in 2024, and another 18 of 48 reporting weeks in 2025!  With 9 more to start off 2026, Pirate! artists alone held the #1 album on NACC for 50 out of 102 total reporting weeks in the past ~2 years.

Alternative Specialty Promotion:

Like college radio, commercial specialty radio is also open to new and indie music. Specialty shows are typically the weekly indie / new music / local music / etc. programs on the commercial alternative stations across the US. We focus on all stations who report their playlists to Sub-Modern (including KPNT, KJEE, KITS, WAXQ, WEQX, XTRA, WRXL, KXTE, KNRK, and dozens more) and have had #1 records by Social Distortion, Joyce Manor, Jeff Tweedy, The Beths, Matt Berninger, Cheekface, Capital Cities, Waxahatchee, Pom Pom Squad, Crumb, Sleater-Kinney, Wilco, Party Nails, Cherry Glazerr, Ratboys, Mannequin Pussy, Albert Hammond Jr, The Arcs, Titus Andronicus, Two Door Cinema Club, Starcrawler, Wet Leg, Deafheaven, The Linda Lindas, Fleet Foxes, Death From Above 1979, Laura Jane Grace, Archers of Loaf, Bat For Lashes, Bob Mould, Alkaline Trio, The Interrupters, Enter Shikari, Japandroids, Broken Social Scene, Dan Auerbach, The Silversun Pickups, The Black Keys, The Menzingers, and more.

Tastemaker & College Marketing:

In an effort to better serve our clients in niche markets across North America and with the strong relationships we’ve built over the years with music directors, DJs, bloggers and all around tastemakers, is also able to penetrate these markets with non-music projects. We’ve found this is also a great group to introduce new products / services / films / TV shows / events / etc. to in addition to all the great music we send. We have marketed products and events to college students and tastemakers from HBO, Target, The Nor’easter Fest, Puma, The Sun ‘n’ Snow Fest, Backbone, Levi’s, The AltCom Fest, Cranmore Mountain Resort, Something In The Way Fest, and more!

Tour Support:

Planning a tour and want to make sure you alert radio stations in every market? We can help get your shows listed on stations’ concert calendars as well as help set up ticket giveaways, interviews, and in-studios. This is offered as part of a typical radio campaign or a standalone service.  As a standalone service, this is a great option for emerging artists who have not released a record yet, are about to release a record, or have released one previously.

Management & Consulting:

We also provide management and consulting services for a very select group of clients.

Submissions:

Pirate! does accept submissions, if you are interested in working together please email steve (at) piratepirate (dot) com and include as much info as you can, links to download or stream music, etc. No need to mail us packages, email is by far the best way to get to us. Pirate! takes a custom approach to what we do, and we only accept projects that we believe in and feel we can help gain airplay and/or fans for! We’ll check out your band / project / album / product and talk collectively about what we think we can do together. If we don’t think we’re the best team for your project we’ll let you know and even tell you who we think may be a better fit.

Contact info for both Pirate! offices is below, for specific contact/biographical info on each member of Pirate! click on their name above.

PIRATE! BOSTON:
Steve Theo
617.256.8709

Dom Paolo
781.779.1114

PIRATE! NYC:
Douglas Blake
617.571.8043

Pirate! around the web:
Pirate!: https://piratepirate.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/piratepirate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/piratepromotion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piratepirate
Spotify: http://tinyurl.com/piratespotify

Contact Steve:
@realstevetheo // Facebook // LinkedIn
steve at piratepirate dot com // 617.256.8709

Steve Theo

Steve Theo is co-founder of Pirate!, a music promotion, public relations, marketing, and management company that works with artists, brands, and record labels to promote their music or products to radio stations, DJs, and tastemakers across North America.

Steve started in college radio at Bentley’s WBTY, which landed him internships at Planetary Group & Sony Music, as well as a job at Columbia Records, where he ran the college & metal departments. He also spent 7+ years on-air at the late great WFNX and hosted/programmed the specialty show First Contact.

Steve also co-founded Rock Shop Boston, an event that gives back to the Boston music community with panels, discussions, and expert talks. He also spent 12 years as an adjunct professor at Bay State College, overseeing internships and teaching marketing classes in their Entertainment Management and Audio Engineering departments. He now gives back to the local arts and music community by serving as chair on the Reading Cultural Council, part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which grants funding to cultural programs in the area!

Contact Doug:
@douginthehaus // Facebook // LinkedIn
doug at piratepirate dot com // 617.571.8043
https://douginthehouse.com/

Douglas Blake

Doug Blake grew up in Charleston, SC before moving to Ledyard, CT where he decided to attend UConn. After 2 years at UConn of which he remembers none he transferred to Georgia Southern University. Where he majored in broadcasting and served as the Music Director for WVGS for 2 years. Upon graduating Doug moved to Boston and got his professional start at the Planetary Group. After many adventures at Planetary Doug wanted to pursue his love of wine. Upon leaving Steve told Doug that he should join up and try promotion some more under the name Viking. Doug thought the name Viking was really stupid and said he would come on board if it were called Pirate!

Over the past 8 years Doug has lead Pirate! to 3 Promotion Company Of The Year and 4 Promoter Of The Year Awards at the annual CMJ College Radio Awards!

Doug likes to cook, drink wine, eat nachos, bowl, play tennis, watch baseball and paint. He has a cat named Nibbles and a dog named Panda.

Contact Dom:
Twitter // Facebook // Instagram
dom at piratepirate dot com // 781.779.1114

Steve Theo

Dom grew up in Rhode Island and attended the University of New Hampshire to pursue a degree in music education. Soon after arriving, his love for radio was born when he joined the team at WUNH and quickly became the station’s music director. After a nearly four year term in that position, Dom graduated and started working as a producer for iHeartMedia out of their Providence branch while also interning for Pirate! Promotions. At the top of 2019, Dom officially joined the team at Pirate! Promotions and eventually moved up to Maine.