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But New York Polyphony has eschewed all three of those, signing instead with a small, specialized management firm and upstart Avie Records, and doing without a publicist altogether.
Instead, the all-male vocal quartet has relied on grassroots networking, innate talent and old-fashioned luck to become, in just four years, one of this country's best-known early-music groups.
"We are proud of the momentum we are beginning to generate, but we're still very hands-on, and we'll probably maintain that because we like it," said bass Craig Phillips.
New York Polyphony's Denver debut last year at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral was such such a hit that a donor immediately offered to put up the money to bring back the group for an encore appearance.
The return concert, which will take place at 7:30 tonight at the cathedral, will feature mostly selections from the ensemble's recent recording, "Tudor City."
The album, with music from 15th- and 16th-century England and four new works by Andrew Smith, reached No. 6 on Billboard's classical chart in June, and drew attention on NPR's "All Things Considered."
About 70 percent of New York Polyphony's repertoire comes from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the rest is new music, including commissions, often by up-and-coming composers.
"When we first started, we would say that our music was pre-tonal and post-tonal, but that was confusing, because then we had to describe to people what that meant," Phillips said.
Other than the famed female vocal quartet Anonymous 4, most of the best-known vocal ensembles specializing in early music are based in Europe: Orlando Consort, Trio Mediaeval and Hilliard Ensemble.
"The name of the group, New York Polyphony, was kind of the suggestion of the producer we were working with," Phillips said. "He insisted that since there is such a strong tradition of European groups with this kind of music, having New York in our name would catch people's attention and have some novelty appeal.
"So, we're actually finding that is the case."
New York Polyphony came together more or less by accident. The four members of the group - Phillips along with countertenor Geoffrey Williams, tenor Geoffrey Silver and baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert - knew one another but had never performed as a foursome.
Then a producer working on a modern version of a medieval mystery play for Public Radio International asked Williams to put together the music for the project. The countertenor invited the other three singers to take part.
The producer was so impressed with the results that he passed along the group's recording to Avie Records, and the tracks formed the basis of what became "I Sing the Birth," a Christmas album.
"So we kind of had a record in place before we were really a group," Phillips said.
New York Polyphony has rapidly gained recognition since, and the success of "Tudor City" has served to propel it even further.