How to get your band's CD reviewed

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

if you are a newish band trying to add to your collection of media clippings and get the word out on your band, how do you get the attention of the reviewer at your local paper (besides being good and well known locally)?

ideally, what should the cover letter include?

― MerkinMuffley (MerkinMuffley), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 05:53 (twenty-two years ago)

short bio mentioning where you've played, what other bands you've been in, what releases you have out, how to get in contact with you, etc. odds are they're not even going to look at the paper until after they've listened to the CD, so try to imagine what info they'd be interested in rather than trying to write something convincing them to listen to and/or enjoy it. hype-sounding stuff is generally bad.

oh, and the phrase 'produced by jim o'rourke' seems to work like a charm.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 07:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't lie about the level you operate at. If this is your first demo and you claim that you have a travelling fanbase of hundreds of adoring kidlings, people will laugh at your claims. Apart from anything, reviewers get wet over the idea of having this killer band all to themselves before *anyone* knows about them (I do at any rate).

Don't say things like "Imagine the bastard offspring of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground in a blender with The Happy Mondays" or something. People are generally not totally stupid.

Don't do the sleeve with a Word-based design package, and don't include a sticker you printed on your dad's PC. That's about all I can think of at the moment.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Get your mates to write to him saying what a great band you are and asking why they haven't covered you yet.

If you haven't got any mates then write to him yourself using a pseudonym.

If someone's already written a decent review of you, send a copy of this to him.

If no-one's written a review of you yet then do it yourself using a pseudonym.

It's worked for me several times.

--Eddie Snide....

Oops, sorry, I meant to say:

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 09:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, and make sure your chum writes the review in a way that makes it painfully obvious someone's pressganged him into doing it as a favour. It's great when that happens.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Ditto everything in Mencap's first post. But the truth is, there is no substitute for being good and/or interesting, impressing people live, and getting those people talking about you and coming to your shows. Back when I was writing about local music on a weekly basis, a good word about a new band from a couple of key contacts of mine was far more convincing to me than even the most perfectly pitched "hey, looka me" letter.

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

can we continue this discussion? anybody got more tricks than those previously mentioned?

― in the end they're just fucked up animals wailing about their pain (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:01 (sixteen years ago)

email bloggers about your desire to be blogged

― iiiijjjj, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:09 (sixteen years ago)

tried it (only to like 20 or so) and they didn't

― in the end they're just fucked up animals wailing about their pain (jdchurchill), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:13 (sixteen years ago)

actually i'm wondering if anyone wants physical cds these days, or is it preferable to send zip files/rapidshares/ftp links?

― emotional radiohead whatever (Jordan), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:14 (sixteen years ago)

xp you didn't take creative liberties with the wording did you? if so, that's a mistake. it's crucial that you explicitly request - and this is key - your "desire to be blogged"

― iiiijjjj, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:15 (sixteen years ago)

a nice hard blogging

― emotional radiohead whatever (Jordan), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:16 (sixteen years ago)

Send it to Uruguay.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:17 (sixteen years ago)

make music worth listening to

― ksh, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:17 (sixteen years ago)

feel free to take some of this advice lol

― modern eunuch-like crooning (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:44 (sixteen years ago)

yeah really that thread says it all.

― bug holocaust (sleeve), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:48 (sixteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.