written by: Bryan
Why Music Reviews Are Important
It’s every musician’s dream to have their music talked about. And hopefully people will be saying GOOD things about your music!
But it can be difficult to form a plan of attack for getting your CD reviewed by magazines, newspapers, websites, and zines. The overwhelming temptation is to buy a big print “directory” of places that review and send your CD to everyone in it. Brute force doesn’t work for the vast majority of indie music artists though, and it is expensive. Unless you are already a big name, in which case someone is likely handling your publicity, there’s no need to send it to everyone.
First, why would you want your music reviewed? I mean, why do you care what some stupid music reviewer says – he/she is only going to write a few trite sentences about your songs anyway. Isn’t the goal to get the music buying PUBLIC to like your music?
Unfortunately, while this has changed to some extent now that online music communities like Myspace are all the rage, good reviews are still important for selling CDs and attracting attention. You could try and garner attention by playing tons of shows. But still, it’d be REALLY good if some of the people who attended the show were press who might write a review of your band, thus attracting more people to check you out. So it comes back to getting reviews again.
Reviews blurbs can also be handy to put in your press pack that you send out, especially if the reviewer source is more well known. They aren’t completely necessary but it sometimes helps to have some “familiar” bands that a reviewer has compared you to. These band names can be “bolded” in the reviews part of the press kit and will definitely help catch eyes.
Oren Lavie
Gregg Yeti And The Best Lights
The Republic Tigers
The Transport Assembly
