This article originally appeared on The DIY Musician Blog.
Blog premieres (where you give a blog a limited window of time in which they’re the only place someone can go to hear a song or watch a video) have become a ubiquitous way of promoting new music – but are they worth it?
That’s something Kevin Breuner and I discussed on our latest episode of the DIY Musician Podcast after hearing news that Indie Shuffle had decided to stop doing premieres (here’s why), and that artists like RAC were applauding the move.
I recently premiered five tracks and one video on six different blogs and saw some mixed results (though honestly, it’s difficult to measure the effect of these types of things), and I shared a bit about my experience in our podcast discussion as well: the good, the bad, and the puzzling.
A few of my premieres felt like drops in the bucket. But a couple had an obvious effect, leading to some radio play and good press quotes. But the real power of the premieres was in their cumulative effect; they seemed to build an online momentum and excitement for the release, even among people who might not have clicked to hear every single song premiere.
That being said, I had a publicist help me set up all but one of these premieres, so if you’re handling your own PR – which takes a lot of time – it might be advisable to shoot for just one song premiere and one video premiere in as high-profile an outlet as you can get.
What’s your "single"? The song that will most immediately grab people’s attention? Or maybe the song you’re proudest of? Pick a few standouts from the album. (If you’re releasing a single, well, problem solved!)
Some blogs will request an audio file, but most blogs are happy with a SoundCloud link. So upload those tracks, add any relevant notes and artwork, and then be sure to set the audio as private – otherwise, it wouldn’t be much of a premiere, would it?
Hype Machine is a site that keeps track of what’s trending in terms of music activity on blogs – blogs that, I should add, if they’re the first to feature a track, get credited on Hype Machine with much of the early activity for that song, even if other blogs start to share the same tune. So, win-win for you and the premiering blog!
In addition to MP3s, HypeMachine monitors SoundCloud plays as long as the song is set to public on the platform, so you want to make sure you’re ready to set that puppy to public on the day of the premiere.
Here’s a little bit more info from Hype Machine’s site:
SoundCloud embeds must be public and be “Enabled for App Playback” in order to be read. Hype Machine must be allowed to access tracks by the rights holder on the account.
Why do some track names show up incorrectly?
We get our data from mp3 ID3 tags, so the artist and title fields need to be filled out completely. If there is no data in these fields, we will display “Unknown Track.”
SoundCloud: Tracks uploaded to SoundCloud should always be titled Artist – Title. We will check ID3 tags first, but will fall back on SoundCloud track titles if there is not enough information (it also seems that SoundCloud sometimes erases ID3 tag contents during its processing).
If there is no artist specified in the track title, we will use the username of the uploader.
Remixes should be titled Original Artist – Title (Remix Artist Remix)
Covers should be titled Cover Artist – Title (Original Artist Cover)
What are your dream blogs for a premiere? No harm in starting at the top and working your way down the list. So make a list! But make sure you have in mind to send them genre-appropriate tracks. For instance, don’t send your pop-rock track to the Americana blog.
Search the sites for contact info. If none is provided, try a resource such as The Indie Bible, or you could even ask a publicist if you can purchase a truncated portion of their media list for blog outreach purposes.
What’s exciting about this release? Write it down in a sentence or two, copy and paste the private share link for the track or album on Soundcloud, and then ask if the outlet is interested in premiering the track or video. Also, be sure to include links to your website, social profiles, and longer press release.
[Ask a Publicist: 4 Elements of a Great Music Blog Pitch]
Start at the top of the food chain and work your way down. Don’t necessarily jump at the first blog that bites; you might get a delayed yes from one of those dream blogs (who also probably have stuffed email inboxes).
Once you’ve confirmed that a blog will premiere your song, work out the exact date and time (if possible) the song will go live. This will help you get everything else ready in advance of the premiere.
Switch that track to public at the right time if you want Hype Machine to take notice.
Have some messaging ready to go for social and your newsletter. Once the premiere is live, just copy the URL and a nice quote from the post (if the blog wrote something extra about the song) and fly it into your pre-written copy. This will help you keep from scrambling on the day of the premiere when it’s most important to blast the news out through every channel.
Twenty-four to 48 hours later, you’ve got more content to share with fans: the actual song (on SoundCloud, or wherever). No need to route them to another destination at this point when they can get it right from the source.
Get more tips for being featured on music blogs:
Chris Robley is an indie-pop songwriter whose music has been praised by the LA Times, NPR, the Boston Globe, and more. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry magazine, Prairie Schooner, Boulevard, and others. Robley is also the editor of CD Baby's DIY Musician Blog.