music blog submission

Ever wonder how independent artists get their music to the masses? Sometimes, music just doesn’t get into the hands of disc jockeys and influencers. Some forms are either too hard, or unsolicited, and therefore never get the attention that the label or artist wants. So how do you get people to listen to your music? Well, there are several ways to go about it, but one of the most powerful options that you will want to pursue is that of blogs. Blogging has moved away from being criticized, to where it is now a serious contender in how music can be promoted, shared, and influenced. In some instances, you will find that blogs could very well take on a track or record and make it go viral, within certain parameters. If you want to get your music on blogs, and you want to seriously make an impact, you need to know a few things.  

How to Get Your Song Heard by Bloggers

First and foremost, you need to isolate the music blogs that you want to put your music on. You should not just think that your audience is “the whole world”. That’s a mistake. Many artists and bands are asked about who they want listening to their music, and they say the whole world. Well, that’s a nifty thought, but even the biggest bands in the world do not get the “whole world” to listen to them. You need to focus on a niche of fans that will grow exponentially.

With that in mind, you’ll need to figure out where you want to submit your music based on parameters that you are going to find your music in. For instance, asking a few questions can help you figure this out. These are just a few questions you should ask:

• What genre of music do we play?
• What genres are within that banner?
• Who are the core fans in that genre?
• What sites discuss this type of music?
• Which sites promote tracks, and records?

Music blogs cover music. But not all of them cover your genre, and your style. If you submit your metal tracks to a hip hop blog, they aren’t going to publish anything positive about it. Unless you are rapping within the confines of your music, the chance of you getting noticed is going to be slim.

Leverage the Power of Music Blog Aggregator

In conjunction to music blogs, you need to know what hype machines are. These are not the same as blogs, although they work in a similar fashion. The hype machine moniker discuses link indexes that help blog posts, tracks and more get noticed. This index focuses on sharing the top blog posts, links, and music within 700 plus blogs. If you can get here, you could very well get guaranteed a serious impact in your genre, and could very well see a huge jump in the fans interested in what you’re doing.

Here’s the thing, Hype Machine can help, but they are not going to put up mediocre music. They will also delete a link or blog if they don’t feel that the editorial elements or the recommendations are worthwhile. They are notorious for integrity, and avoiding that label of “selling out”, which is a tricky element.

Paying For Maximising Your Return on Attention

Now that you know a little bit about hype machine(s), and blogs, you are going to need to understand how to get your music on blogs. You can’t just submit tracks right away. You need to create a list of sites that you want to target. Amidst that list, you need to create contact information and look at requirements for submitting music. 

To be frank, this is a painful job.

So, if you want to maximise your Return On Investment and Attention of your work. You can do 2 things:

• Hire a virtual assistant to complete the task 
• Pay to connect effectively with bloggers and influencers

We will focus on paying services.

To start, you should set up a modest budget $100 for promotional consideration, including music submission to blogs that you want to target.

A platform like Submithub, created by Jason Grishkoff of Indie Shuffle, centralizes the process of submitting to music blogs. Brian Hazard from Passive Promotion wrote an extended case study about Submithub’s service here.

Fluence is a marketplace to reach out to influencers (bloggers, curators, Djs, producers, and more). In exchange for a fee, influencers will give you a feedback of your material and maybe promote your song through their social media channels.

Doing this will make sure that the content provider is compensated for taking time out of their schedule to promote your record, as well as give it an honest review.

Note, paying for submission and review does not guarantee a positive outcome, but it does give you coverage. Follow the submission guidelines of any blog you want to get onto, or you will get ignored.

(DISCLAIMER NOTICE. We are not affiliated, associated, endorsed by Submithub or Fluence)

The Cost of A Publicist/Hypeman/Marketing Agent

If you believe your music is worthy of getting national exposure, then you will need to consider procuring the services of a publicist. These individuals can work with press releases, electronic press kits, setting up interviews, getting radio station airplay, and much more. They can even get you coverage within blogs and other websites that would normally not listen to unsolicited material.

The downside for a band or artist that hires someone in this arena is simple, it’s not without a cost. If you want coverage from someone that can put you in the front of large crowds, and get you from dives to stadiums, you’ll look at a starting price of around $700 – $1,000 a month. If you want to get to the top of levels, expect to pay $4,000 to $10,000 a month. Independent artists usually don’t have this kind of money, but just 1 month of the services could very well pay off dividends for a band that is ready to get beyond just blog submissions.

Start Setting Up A Plan

At this point, you have enough information to start formulating a plan of action. With the information, above, you should be able to get your music on blogs. You just must narrow down your field of reference, get your music ready, website polished, and follow guidelines. If you don’t have time for all of this, it’s important to hire a publicist, manager, or someone that is going to help you with this. Blogs today are not just small time; they can be tastemakers that put you in front of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Start working on this now, and see how far you can go with blogs.