nice one Fade! missed this place....looks fucking sick!
little short bit here on promo...
ITS ALL ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW....
No one ever wants to hear this, and back in the day day, this above statement was even more true that it is now.
The internet really started to change things for music with the advent of social media and bloggers.
I remember when i first started here everyone was on soundclick, that is how we listened to and shared beats... I remember when Myspace first kicked off and many many people were skeptical.
But undoubtedly it was myspace that changed everything. you could talk to connect with and be a part of the music scene in a real way. Labels were scared of being bypassed, which at that time really did start to happen. The revolution was on us and the way people digested music really did change.
So why has everything reverted back to how it was back in the day day?
Well it hasnt really, the internet/consumer revolution is fully established and things ARE very different now, BUT the proliferation of free software and massively quick download speeds, which allowed ordinary people to indulge in music, led us to where we are today.
10 years ago, sure there was crap flying around everywhere, but no nearly as much as today. It is this wave of shit and boring music that has played the industry right back to where it was 20 years ago, the "who you know scenario". Why though?
People trust established sources, and resultantly the bigger tastemaker blogs/online mags got VERY VERY powerful. I mean look at it, they have destroyed the printed media sector wholeheartedly and without remorse, what with sveral prominent print zines calling it a day and setting up online. This is mainly due to the fact that people ALWAYS want new music, but theydo not have the TIME to go wading through hours of junk to find the gems - this is why the big blogs and blogs in general got so powerful, they are the prawns of the music world, they sift the bottom of sea cleansing it of shit, in the process providing its fans with nuggets of crustacean pearl... (go tell your 13 y/o cousin who hypes his wack beats on the net that it is him, and his ilk that have de-democrasised the industry)
They have the power to make or break an artists nowadays (with the exception of genres that rely on street grinding - usually urban - hip hop in the US and vocal grime in the UK)- you dont need a label to get this type of hype, you just need to get in with the journo crowd - in fact labels OFTEN sign people on the back of blog hype, they NEED a finished product nowadays they do not have the money anymore to develop artistss for the long game, so they use blogs, just as we the consumers do, to hunt out new music in the search of something goos - so if you want to have a chance to feature on these sites you have to play the game. And just like Risk, the game is looooooooooooooong.
It takes years to get people to pay attention to you but are there certain tips that can help you get the journalists attention?
1) EVERY EMAIL YOU SEND SHOULD BE PERSONALISED - that means no CC fails and no sending the SAME mail to multiple people
2) BE NICE! Praise their writing or at least make sure you have read enough of their work to have a discussion if needed
3) MAKE SURE YOU READ AND COMMENT ON THEIR REVIEWS/ARTICLES - we all like praise and to know we are doing a good job, a journalist is EXACTLY the same
4) MAKE SURE THE PERSON YOU ARE SENDING IT TOO IS ACTUALLY RELEVANT - this is very very important, if you get this wrong you could blacklisted, journos talk to each other, it is a clicky industry and they are ALL friends with each other
5) BUILD A RAPORT - dont make the mistake of asking them to listen to your beats on first contact, wait a while before you do and they will be MUCH MORE inclined to listen to your work - start by praising an article and discussing it a bit
6) IF YOU DONT GET A REPLY DO FOLLOW UP - but only once or twice.... use your head, if you have sent beats it is ok to follow up like a week later with a brief "have you had a chance to listen to the tunes at all yet? No worries if not type of thing" - if you are just discussing an article and they dont reply, start up a new conversation a week or so later... Journos PREFER artists to PR people - THEY WANT TO GET TUNES DIRECT, THEY WOULD RATHER THAT THAN GET IT FROM PR - why? because then they can legitimately say they have "discovered" something
7) MAKE SURE YOUR TUNES ARE PROFESSIONAL QUALITY BEFORE SENDING OUT - they dont have to be perfect, no ones are - but if they are shit, your mails WILL NOT BE OPENED AGAIN... so make sure you are confident before sending to industry pros, if you aint there yet, use places like ILLMUZIK and your mates to help you along the way....
8) NEVER ATTACH ANYTHING TO AN EMAIL EVER! - this will get you placed in the spam folder without a doubt... Send streaming links as well as the option to d/l
9) NEVER USE A FILE HOSTING SITE THAT HAS POPUPS OR REDIRECT LOOPS - so no sendspace, no hulkshare or the like.... only use things like DROPBOX, WETRANSFER or BOX... (you know they type of thing) - you gotta make shit as easy and fast as possible....
10) NEVER HYPE YOURSELF OR ATTEMPT TO DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC TO ANYONE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY - journos think you are trying to do their job and most of the time what YOU think about YOUR music is NOT what others think... so always let other people decide what to think of your tunes DO NOT help them along the way... If you hype yourself to a label and you fall short, again, you in to that place is GONE FOREVER
This is just the tip of the iceberg tbh.... hit me up yo!
