Getting exposure is vitally important when you are in the driving seat of your music career and one of the key aspects of this will be getting reviews from music blogs

Please don’t take it for granted that because you make music, no matter how good it is, that the blogs will be knocking at your day to review your latest release. It’s true that their content is dependent on music but there’s so much musical content out there that to get the attention of bloggers will require some effort on your part. It’s mainly down to courtesy really but here are a few more things for you to keep in mind

1. Please Follow Instructions

More often than not, most music blogs and online magazines will have instructions on their site as to how they would prefer you to submit music. For some strange reason, I can guarantee that when you browse these sites, you will also find the bloggers stating that more a lot of submissions get ignored because they don’t follow instructions. Why people? Trust us, it doesn’t matter how good your music is, if you don’t respect simple submission requests, you will not get reviews from music blogs.

2. Did you take that Pic with your Phone?

To be fair, as phones continue to evolve, the cameras that come with most of them are fairly decent, but you still need to be mindful of the professionalism of the photo. We’re not saying that you have to shell out hundreds on a top-notch photo shoot but remember that this is likely to be a first impression you’re making. A selfie taken in your bedroom or kitchen is not really going to make the grade.

3. No Fan Newsletters

How annoyed do you feel when you get a cold call trying to sell you insurance or a mobile phone or something of that nature? Well, that’s exactly how the owners of music blogs feel when you send them your music/newsletter without their permission.

Definitely a bad move. You want to avoid sending email blasts when seeking reviews/features but if you feel that you absolutely must, please use the ‘Bcc’ function in your email. This is where you can send to multiple people without any of your recipients actually having to see your lack of respect for peoples email addresses.

4. Do I know You?

For all its blessings, social media may be giving a lot of people the wrong impression of what is acceptable. Bombarding a reviewer publicly on Twitter or Facebook is definitely not a good move to get reviews from music blogs especially if you have not established a relationship with them first. Even then, there are some things that the general public just don’t need to see. Just try and be mindful of etiquette when reaching out via social media.

5. Quality of the Music

This really should be the first thing that you consider when seeking reviews. Is the music ready for public consumption? You have got to be your biggest critic here and be totally honest and objective as you can. If your music is not mastered or is poorly mixed, then you probably don’t want to bombard the ears of a reviewer with it just yet. We’re always more than happy to give you a little feedback on your music if you like or of course you can take advantage of our mixing and mastering service.

Of course, there are many more things to consider and these are only guidelines but it’s definitely worth working on a strategy for getting reviews from music blogs.