So, you want to get a review?
Many bands ask for reviews. Which is cool. It's a great way for me, as the reviewer, to discover new music. However, I'm often surprised over how little effort the band is willing to put in presenting their material afterwards.
Often, the request for a review goes something like this: "please review our stuff. Here's a link to our spotify/youtube/whatever". That's not good enough.
For one, while I don't care if your music has already been released, most other places, particularly magazines, will care, and will not review your music if it's already out.
Secondly, while I don't need you to send me a physical disc (although I will admit that it's cool when bands do), you really should send me something I can download, and I should not have to use a medium I need to pay to not be interrupted by adds on to review your music.
Remember to add track numbers to the tracks, so they load in the right order in my media player.
Finally, you need to write something about the band. It doesn't have to be a professional EPK, but that's what you should try to emulate if you want reviews.
Now, I understand that it's hard to write good about yourself, and it's easy to either exaggerate too much or write too boring about your band. However, I don't need you to be a great writer. Just tell me who you are, what genre you play and who is in the band. If you can tell something interesting about the band or the music, that would be great as well. Add some photos. Or a band logo, or maybe some cover art, and you have the beginning of an EPK you can then improve on later when submitting to professional reviewers. You should also consider submitting lyrics, even if it's easy to hear the words in the vocal lines.
A final thought: submit for review to someone that seems to like the music you play. All reviews are subjective, and sending grindcore to someone that only reviews prog is never going to get you reviews you can promote your band with.
Ps: when submitting music, don't forget to, you know, actually submit it.
Often, the request for a review goes something like this: "please review our stuff. Here's a link to our spotify/youtube/whatever". That's not good enough.
For one, while I don't care if your music has already been released, most other places, particularly magazines, will care, and will not review your music if it's already out.
Secondly, while I don't need you to send me a physical disc (although I will admit that it's cool when bands do), you really should send me something I can download, and I should not have to use a medium I need to pay to not be interrupted by adds on to review your music.
Remember to add track numbers to the tracks, so they load in the right order in my media player.
Finally, you need to write something about the band. It doesn't have to be a professional EPK, but that's what you should try to emulate if you want reviews.
Now, I understand that it's hard to write good about yourself, and it's easy to either exaggerate too much or write too boring about your band. However, I don't need you to be a great writer. Just tell me who you are, what genre you play and who is in the band. If you can tell something interesting about the band or the music, that would be great as well. Add some photos. Or a band logo, or maybe some cover art, and you have the beginning of an EPK you can then improve on later when submitting to professional reviewers. You should also consider submitting lyrics, even if it's easy to hear the words in the vocal lines.
A final thought: submit for review to someone that seems to like the music you play. All reviews are subjective, and sending grindcore to someone that only reviews prog is never going to get you reviews you can promote your band with.
Ps: when submitting music, don't forget to, you know, actually submit it.
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