Music promotion blogs - Get your songs out there : Blog

In the past, music blogs used to be one of the ways to launch a career in music to the top parades. Nowadays, even though social media has taken a considerable space in music promotion, independent artists still can rely on blogs to promote music. How? In this article, we’ll explain the importance of blogs for indie artists and how you or your band can be featured in one. Music blogs appeared in the beginning of the 2000s with the rise of MP3 music. The first ones were created by music lovers who wanted to share their passion for music with other people on the internet. Mostly, they would introduce a band or a new single and share their opinion about them. It was also common to share the MP3 file by the end of the article, so readers could download and listen to the release. Nowadays, many music blogs have become a source of income for their creators. The passion for music and the desire to share it with other fans, however, are still there.

Blogs are not dead!

It’s true that people spend more time on social platforms than in blogs, but any fan of music has probably heard about Pitchfork or Billboard before. Maybe they have even read the content of these blogs or seen a discussion on X (formerly Twitter) about one of their articles. This shows how powerful music blogs still are. In the era of media content that we live in, blogs are more alive than never! It’s hard to keep track of so much new music and artists emerging, so music blogs became very important for those who want to keep up.

Blogs supports indie artists

Although social networks are an important key in music promotion, they emphasize content not for its quality and authenticity, but for the numbers of followers and the impact it has on the platform. Independent artists can end up losing chances if they don't have enough interactions on the platforms.

On the other hand, blogs are led by people that will assess the talent of your work and the constitution of your music despite your numbers on social media. A music blog can help you build a large fanbase, since audiences are usually very loyal to the opinions of a blog. You can reach new people outside of your bubble and even gain a fair review of your music.

How do you get featured on a music blog?

Well, first of all, you have to research some famous blogs with a great number of views that accept music submissions. Seek for the history of the blog, how they emerged and what they do nowadays. Different blogs focus on different music genres or topics, so it’s important to read about it before pitching anything. For example, there are blogs that give more attention to exclusive content than others. In this case, you may think of a way to offer them something valuable, like a song that hasn't been released yet. Inside a blog, there can also be writers that talk about different genres. It’s important to see which writer matches the style of your music best and read a couple of their articles before submiting a song. Let’s take a look at some examples: the website Stereogum covers a lot of musicians of different styles, from rapper Ice Spice to indie folk artist Sufjan Stevens. They accept all kinds of music, so any artist can have a try at being featured on it. Now, another famous example is Kerrang!. This British online magazine focuses exclusively on rock 'n roll music. If you play rock, that’s a great place to submit your tracks to. If you're a reggae artist, however, it might not be the right choice. Genre-specific blogs like Kerrang! can be easy to enter. Since they don’t cover the whole industry, they're more likely to accept pitches from indie, unknown artists. Do your research and see if the blogs you’re interested in are accepting submissions.

Organize a sheet

After your research, write down all of the blogs that may take your submission, followed by important info about them. Include the name of the writers, contact information and submission guidelines, if they have one, in your sheet.

Which blogs accept submissions from independent artists?

There are plenty! The FADER, for example, covers music and culture in general. This Song Is Sick, on the other hand, only posts about new discoveries in the music industry. Indie Shuffle, as the name says, lists new names on the indie rock scenario. Another blogs you can dig are Earmilk, A&R Factory, HighClouds, RGM, Plastic Mag and PopMatters. You can even try your luck and submit your releases to the most mainstream ones, such as The Needle Drop and Pitchfork. After you've sent a pitch to a blog, go back to your sheet and write it down. Keep track of everything!

It’s time to pitch!

You've found a blog and now you need to write your submission. How do you write a good one? Well, before anything, you have to read the website's guidelines. Most blogs have one for submissions and there you’ll find what it’s acceptable and what information the bloggers are looking for.

In this case, it’s more important to follow the guidelines strictly than it is to write an incredible pitch. If you forget something that was indicated in the guidelines, it’s possible that your submission won't even be read.

The importance of an elevator pitch

When coming up with your pitch, try to enlighten all the good features of your song. Talk about what makes your music stand out from the others and the references you used to create your tracks. You could briefly talk about your career as a musician, too. Make an impactful pitch in a few words that will sell your song to the blog. This is a strategy also used in marketing – the elevator pitch. A powerful text that brings all the good aspects of your product and it’s so short that could be read in an elevator ride.

Create an email template you can use

We know time is a precious commodity for indie artists, so to make the work easier, create an email template that you can send to all the blogs. A good email starts with a greeting, explains how you came to know about the blog, introduces your work, and tells the recipient why you should be featured on their website. After hitting send, there’s the most boring part – waiting. Most blogs will respond to you in between 3 to 7 business days, so there’s no need to send an email twice. Remember that nobody likes spams and that'll only attract bad attention for your work.

Build an EPK to have an effective response

An Electronic Press Kit, or EPK, is a package of information about a band or a musician. You can send your EPK to bloggers and journalists in order to promote a new album or a new song. An EPK is like the profissional resumé of a musician. It’s always important to have one ready in hand, because event bookers and radio stations can also request EPKs to see some of your work. An effective EPK has:

A short bio about the band or the artist. Nothing too large, maybe two or three paragraphs (remember the elevator pitch!);
Where to find your music online, like Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and Apple Music;
Photos for promotion;
Social media: be sure to link all of them, like your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more;
Contact information;
A good branding: that's the face of your work, and it must be a design that communicates something about you and your music.

You can build your own EPK. The internet has a lot of tools to help you with that, if you don't want to hire a professional right now. But remember that music promotion is an investment. In order to be successful in music, you need to start treating your music as a business!

Keep trying

If you get declined in the first email, it’s not the end of the world! See where that submission went wrong and keep that in mind for the next submission. Keep trying until you get where you want. Make all your hard work writing, singing, playing and producing your music worth it. If something is good, it deserves to be heard!

Music promotion blogs – Get your songs out there