How to Get Your Music Posted on Blogs

Every now and again we'll put together these guides. P&P receives an unending stream of of emails, DMs, and Facebook messages every day, and it's a daunting task to listen to all the music. We know that a good pitch can go a long way.

We like to think that the great music always rises to the top eventually. If you're sharing compelling music, people will share it and it will spread, even if it takes longer than you'd like. To speed up the process, here are some dos and don'ts to getting your music posted on blogs.

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Remember Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago? If you know anything about it, you know it was that album that a heartbroken Justin Vernon made while out in a secluded cabin in Wyoming. Every blogger that wrote about the album had to tell that story, and it become part of the draw. The story was compelling, and people were immediately more invested in the music that came from those circumstances.

I'm not saying you should retreat to an isolated cabin in the woods (Yes I am. You should. Do it.), but you definitely should think long and hard about what it is that makes your music special and unique. It's most likely not that you're blending genres like never before or creating the single most skillful album of the century. Your personal story can go a long way in generating interest if you share it in the right way.

Not every piece of music needs a story to go along with it, but most interesting music does have an interesting story, and if you can help get that across, a lot of people are going to take notice. In today's saturated market, a good story can go a long way.

Related: The Abyss Stares Back: A Houston Rapper's Life on the Edge

3 If you're just making music for your own enjoyment, you don't need to worry about this. But if you're trying to get other people to listen to your music, think about who you're trying to reach. Where do they go? What are they into? How do they consume music?

These are all things to consider when you're sending out your music to bloggers. Before you send, look at a few of the blogger's older posts. See what kind of music they like, and if your music might be a good fit.

Don't just blindly blast out your music to anyone who will listen. Decide who you're trying to reach, and put together a plan of attack.

4 We bloggers know we're not special. We know that you're sending your song out to tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of email addresses. Whatever you do, don't shove this fact in our face by forgetting to BCC if you're sending an email to multiple people.

It looks impersonal, and most bloggers probably don't want their private accounts exposed on massive email blast to hundreds of contacts. Forgetting to BCC will get your email deleted quicker than you can say, "Fire new tropical house banger!"

5 Follow-up emails will inevitably annoy some people, but if you think about it, they're only going to annoy the people who wanted to ignore you. There's a good chance that your email got lost in the flood of daily submissions, so a polite follow-up can't hurt. Just don't overdo it, please

6 It’s better to share five really good songs than 100 mediocre ones, unless your name is Lil B. If you share mediocre music on a daily basis, bloggers and potential fans will start to ignore you. There is just far too much music in the world, and dropping song after song leads to diminishing returns.

I’ve received emails that said, “This is just a rough cut, it’s not my best work at all but I think you’ll see the potential.” To me, that reads similarly to, “I’m lazy and I do not want to be taken seriously.” Nobody wants to hear a rough cut demo of your song that even you don’t really like.

A good practice is to have five or so people around you who you know will give you their honest opinion. Run it by them before you blast it out to the internet. If you don’t have anyone who will give you the harsh truth from time to time, you need to get more honest friends.

Instead of just dropping music all the time, try to connect with fans and other artists. Collaborate with rising acts you respect, or get some experience on stage and grow your presence locally.

7 It’s a simple truth: 99% of bloggers hate getting music via Twitter. Along with lines at the DMV, airplane food, and stubbed toes, music submissions on Twitter are among the most unpleasant things in life to a music blogger. If you’re not close to a blogger and certain they won’t get pissed, avoid tweeting music at them altogether, and definitely don’t DM them. (Personally, I don’t mind being bothered on Twitter, so spam away.) One good tactic (if you’re trying to make music bloggers hate you) is to wait until you see two of them going back and forth on Twitter. At this point, that old “two birds, one stone” should pop into your skull and bounce around like a rubber ball in a fish bowl. Whether or not you know/care about the topic of conversation is irrelevant. Jump into the convo, @ing them both and using your loudest tweeting voice to make sure you are engaging. Hop in quick with something like, “I TOTALLY AGREE YOU GUYS ARE BOTH SO RIGHT!” Then cut to the chase: “btw if u have a minute check out my new video.”Congratulations, two more people on the internet hate you.

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Of course you think this single is going to blow up, but that doesn't mean anyone else does. This is where fans come in handy—if we hear about an incredible live show or great new song from a third party source, it's proof an artist has already cleared an important first hurdle: getting someone else to like their music.

It's good to have confidence, but most artists think that their music is great. The key lies in getting other people to believe that. If you've got fans, you won't need to brag because you'll have people talking that kind of talk for you.

We're saying all of this to say this: stop emailing us and telling us that your music is the best and that we're assholes for sleeping on your shit. It's a bad look, and if you're trying to convince people to listen to your music, that's not the way to do it. Instead, focus on your fan base, engage with them, and convert them into fans who are willing to spread the word for you. Once you've got that type of fan base, the bloggers and music industry early-movers will take notice.

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If we’ve never heard of you, we probably aren’t going to download an entire album’s worth of songs and spend an hour listening to the whole thing. You’re better off sending through your best song. If we love it, we’ll listen to more. Another good option is to stream your tape on an easy-to-use player like SoundCloud. Suggesting a few key tracks as a starting point is always appreciated.

For bloggers, consuming a lot of music is part of the job, but try to make that introduction as brief and simple as possible. If you don't you're likely to get skipped over.

Oh, and no download links. Nobody downloads music in 2016.

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Things to avoid:

- DMing people you don't know every time you drop a song. - Texting links to your new mixtape. - Self-promoting in the comments section. Any comments section. - Multiple emails to the same people in the same day about the same thing.

That kind of stuff. Don't do it. It's annoying.

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Firstly: A simple "Hey John" to start an email is much nicer than a, "To whom this may concern." Even if you're emailing your song to 500 different writers, we want to at least feel as if we're special. So send individual messages rather than a blast when you can, but if you really are going to send a mass email, please, for the love of God, learn to use the bcc button.

Secondly: Spell the site or author's name right. Pigeons & Planes is a weird name—we get that. But don’t reach out and say, “I love the blog, I’m on there every day” if you’re going to fuck it all up and add a “d.” I don’t know what a pidgeon is. This applies to author names too. If you’re going to address someone personally, take a second to double check their name first.

If you're going to make the effort to personally reach out to blogs, sites, magazines, and writers, try to get familiar with them first.

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The most common lie a music blogger sees on a daily basis: “YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS.”

The logic of this understandable; if you really want people to listen to your music, you have to be confident in it. But there is a tactful way to be proud of your art, and this isn’t it. And if a blogger reads this, listens, and doesn’t love it, you are now a liar.

Instead, try an approach like this: “I put a lot of effort into this one and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I hope you like it.”

13 If you do get posted by a blog, help spread the link. Tweet it, post it to Facebook, include a link to it in your next email blast. It's simple positive reinforcement for positive behavior. It's sad but true: many bloggers care about visits. If an artist generates a lot of visits, many blogs are going keep posting that artist.Some blogs don't care about visits, and in that case, there's no harm done. Win-win situation. No blogger will ever say, "Damn this post did really well; last time we'll ever share that kind of stuff."