1. Do your Research
It may sound obvious but read the descriptions that are included in The Music Blog Directory and focus your time and energy on blogs that fit your style of music.
Hit the link, go their website and read the last few posts, you may just discover a new blog to follow. Remember that you are asking the blogger to become your new fan, so it could certainly help your cause if you have already returned the favor.
2. Follow their submission guidelines
Some blogs have strict music submission guidelines. The music submission process are an important part of the game. It is also another way for a blogger to test if you have taken the time to read their blog or not.
3. Send personalized emails
Please don’t mass email blogs! Take the time to craft each individual email – address the blogger by name and casually mention a post of theirs that you enjoyed. You are asking the blogger to take the time to listen to your music and hopefully write a review, take the time to personally email each blogger which is why we included this information in The Music Blog Directory. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to send a generic email around to a list of bloggers.
4. Subject Lines
Subject Lines are like tricky first dates. Awkward but necessary and if you make a bad first impression then it can be difficult to recover!
It is best to keep subject lines simple, descriptive and personal. The ideal number of characters in a subject line is typically considered to be between 20 and 35.
You want the recipient to know right away exactly why you’re emailing. If your subject line doesn’t grab the person, your message is likely to get deleted on the spot. Avoid ALL CAPS, jargon, and the term “Press release” in the subject line. Universally all the bloggers said they delete any emails that have “Press Release” in the subject line. Plus they get annoyed with all caps and industry jargon. Don’t plead with people to “Open Me!”
When it comes to Subject Lines punctuation is not your friend okay!!!!!!!!
5. Keep it Short, Sweet and to the Point!
Bloggers receive hundreds if not thousands of emails a day so do not be disheartened if you do receive a response on your first try. Chances are they have not even read your email. Don’t overwhelm them with long windy emails…you have 3 sentences to catch the bloggers attention so keep it short, sharp, genuine, interesting and to the point.
Bloggers will simply tune out if you don’t get to the point quickly. If they want to know more, they will ask.
6. Be Unique…Be You!
We have all heard the phrase “what’s the story” and no that’s not where did you grow up and what ashes your music rose from (unless of course you grew up on a remote part of Antarctica and learn to play music in the ashes of the fire that kept you alive in the cold harsh winter)
“The Story” is simply what makes you and your music different from every other band out there.
You love your music and you think people should hear it. Now you need to convince why they should love it too…..
Instead, think about which unique qualities that sets your story apart from all the rest. So skip the hype and tell a story that captures people’s attention.
7. If you like it then you should have put a link on it.
99% of bloggers do not want their inbox filled by large attachments….aint nobody got time for that!
So do your part and make sure your music is stream-ready so that a bloggers can easily preview your music before deciding to download.
Websites such as Soundcloud or Bandcamp are an ideal platform to use when pitching your music to music blogs.
Also include a download link to a high quality mp3, band photo and artwork using a site such as HighTail (aka Yousendit)
Of course include links at the end of the email to your website (you do have one right?) and your various social networking sites.
8. Check their social media
Bloggers have a firm grasp on the importance of online presence and utilize multiple platforms to communicate such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram …..
Check out their posts on social media and interact with them by liking or favoriting posts of theirs that you relate to or find interesting.
9. Avoid Spam
I would strongly recommend running subject lines and the body of your email through a spam checker before sending to make sure they won’t get flagged on the other end. There are a lot of words that obviously get flagged by email spam filters like “opportunity, hot, free”), but there are some other “spammy” words you might not expect to cause problems. There are a lot of free spam checkers out there that can help you “de-spam” your email!
Email Spam Test http://www.emailspamtest.com/
Lyris Content Checker for Email http://lyris.com/us-en/
Contactology’s Email Spam Checker http://info.contactology.com/
Also I know this has been mentioned already but I cannot over emphasize the importance over not bulk/mass emailing bloggers as many them have a filter to block mass emails.
10. Don’t be a pest
Don’t send more than two emails. Along the same lines as “keep it short and sweet,” when you’re trying to get people to write and talk about your music, limit yourself to two emails: an email with links and a follow-up email, sent at a later date. You’re not going to get a “yes” or “no” right away, so you need to be patient.