Whether you want to get a record deal or sell your music online, if you submit your music to review sites, you’re better off than that rival Shelbyville band.
Sadly, modern A&R is less about your music and more about how well you can draw a crowd online, as well as onstage. Thus, blogger outreach is vital for the unsigned musician…
The Benefits of Reviews from Music Blogs
- Feedback on your craft
- Increased chances of being discovered
- Quotes for your bio and press kits
- Improve your overall online presence
- That winning sense of external validation
Tips to Help you Find Music Review Sites
The most popular music blog aggregator is Hype Machine. Browse through sites within your chosen genre and location with ease. A quick search of your name could also show you music blogs that have already featured or reviewed your music – While you’re there, subscribe to The Doughnut mag on HypeMachine…
Sign in with your Twitter details and FollowerWonk (from the great people over at Moz) is your best friend for searching and analysing Twitter. For example; search Twitter bios for the words ‘music blogger’ or ‘music journalist’ in your area with more than 200 followers, or use it to compare profiles and find new people or places that will help get your music heard.
…or you could just Google ‘music review blogs’, but that’d be too easy. Using basic orange belt Googling skills (or advanced search), you can find blogs in your area, sites that have been updated recently (and thus not dead altogether) and even search for sites that have written music reviews about bands similar to yours.
Stand out and get your music reviewed
Sourcing contacts can be a lengthy process, so it will help to start a spreadsheet in Excel or Google Docs and start prioritising them. It’s up to you if you want to go for email addresses or Twitter accounts etc., but a tweet to your online EPK or press release alongside an email can help.
Sending download links without a streaming option could mean losing a lot of potential reviewers to apathy. Using a known and trusted host like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Reverbnation or YouTube for digital submissions will make it easier for bloggers to listen to, and post your music online.
Read More: You don’t have to spend a lot of money either, read more on DIY EPK creation on a budget.
Submit your music for review in bulk
On a side note; if you’ve built a really big list of emails (say 100+) and want to submit to every single blog, you may want to look at Mail Merge for MS Word or Open Office. Write a single message and send a unique copy to hundreds, if not thousands of recipients by linking your word processor to Microsoft Outlook with only a few clicks.
Follow up and get your music heard
Blogs get a lot of mail, so if you’ve sent a strong EPK, music video or a physical music submission to a local website or blog covering your genre and you get no response… it may help to politely follow up in a couple of weeks.
And if you haven’t already, submit your music to The Doughnut…
Image Source: hlg and clanlife
