Every music artist whether they are as big as Drake or as small as Tibby has been on the grind to push their music out there and get noticed at some point in time. In today’s society the most proficient and useful way of doing this is through blog/website promotion. Hip Hop is run by the media whether you like to believe it or not. Fans are constantly looking for new music, and Blogs and Hip Hop News websites are always their best and most popular option. It is every starving artist’s dream to get featured on these blogs due to their high reputation and ability to simply propel an artist’s career off just one post. One thing however, that alot of starving artists get extremely frustrated with is sending their submissions into these blogs. Some artists feel that they’re submissions are never actually listened to and blogs only ever feature music from artists they are friends with. This is true in some cases, believe me if anyone knows that it’s me. But in most cases it’s probably because the blog saw your email and it didn’t meet the requirements they have for submissions so as a result they didn’t bother to listen to the song. This doesn’t mean your music isn’t good. It just means you have to present yourself in a more professional way that will catch every media outlets eye. The purpose of this article is for me to help you get your music heard. I will give you 5 examples of ways to get whatever outlet you sent your music to, to click on your email and give you a shot, and I will also give you 5 examples of ways to get marked as spam. Believe me I write for 3 media outlets and have a very large spam folder. Now without further ado let’s begin
Probably the most ignored part of every submission email. The subject field is without a doubt one of the most important parts of the submission email and it must be filled out in a way that shows maturity and intelligence relating to the industry. Typically if you follow any blogs on Twitter you will see that their promotional tweets are usually formatted in some way similar to this
A key trick/hint or whatever floats your boat is to format your subject field the same way! More than half the time I get artists that send in submissions and in the subject field it will be either just a soundcloud link or something like “Check my track plz fam”. I have not once opened one of these emails and neither do most journalists. The best and easiest way to fill out a successful subject field is
Submission: Insert artist name here - insert name of song/project/video here (Insert any features/production/director/video credits in parenthesis here)
If you follow that format above then I guarantee a %100 success rate of your email at least getting clicked on
Presentation is key. You can have the perfect most beautiful subject field but if in the actual message part of the email you still decide to put “Check my track plz fam” that’s not going to get you anywhere. What I have learned over the years after reviewing submissions from professional publicists in this industry is how to properly format a submission in a way that cannot displease a single media outlet. Through my learning experiences I have created my own format that I use when sending in submissions for artists I do PR work for, and I have found it to be very successful
The Format:
Short Bio
Description of submission
Submission/social media links
Attached artwork and any other necessary files
You're probably wondering, “What’s so special about all this? Can’t I just send in my soundcloud link and twitter username and be done with it?” If only it was that easy. A short bio is necessary simply because 95% of the time these media outlets have no idea who you are. So, what’s the point of putting the time into writing about an artist you know nothing about? There really isn’t one. Putting in a short bio will give a little background of yourself to your desired outlet and they will be more inclined to check out your track and it will even help them write a more detailed post if they decide to feature it as well. I listed a description of your submission as separate from the bio but it’s probably best to tie them both together under one paragraph. After you explain who you are, explain what it is you're submitting to the outlet. Say what it’s about, tell a little bit about the creative process and be honest about what it means to you. I personally really dig this, and so do alot of my fellow writers for these media outlets. It gives us an idea of what we're listening to and even more details to put in our posts, making them much more enjoyable to write
Obviously you're going to put the link to the submission in there but make sure you put social media links in there as well. Don’t expect a blog to go searching for your twitter handle, I hate to break it to you but you're not special and they won’t waste the time on you since they have much busier and more important matters to attend to. Always and I mean ALWAYS attach the artwork to your submission. The number one pet peeve for media outlets is searching the internet for artwork necessary for a post as it is a very tedious and time consuming task. Unless you are a major artist, blogs will not spend time looking for your artwork and you should send it to them to spare the hassle of even making a brief search. Little things like this go a long way and it is very much appreciated and will better your chances of getting featured
Sometimes artists will send in 50 submissions to 50 media outlets and they will only get chosen for one and be extremely c*cky and arrogant about it and won’t even thank the outlet for the feature or even hit them with a retweet. Too many artists nowadays have the “Kanye” or “Hollywood” mentality when they are still receiving 50 original plays on their Soundcloud and buying the rest. Believe it or not blogs see this, and if you followed all my submission guidelines above and then you go flexing on Twitter, the other blogs you sent submissions into will see this and then choose not to feature you based on the fact that nobody likes artists who are c*cky without a valid reason to be and some people don’t like c*cky artists in general
The best type of artists are the ones that once you drop a post about their music, they will message you or mention you on social media thanking you and then promote your post as well by hitting that retweet button as a way of sending promo back to you. If you are humble and appreciative like these artists then you will not only catch the attention of other media outlets but you will also have a good chance of building a relationship with the one that posted your music
We have already covered how presentation is key and how your attitude can completely alter the success of your submission. Now what about small things like grammar? They mean alot more than you think they would. One thing the music industry loves is people appear educated and walk around with a business mindset. No one is going to take you seriously if you're sending in submissions with emojis and “Lol’s” in them. Or speaking in slang and not being able to spell basic words. Take whatever it is you learned in school and apply it to your submissions. In your music you can appear as goofy or dumb as you want to be. But if you want any type of business to take you serious you have to prove you're not just a joke and you're actually a hardworking musician that can be taken serious
If you're at a show with your friends and you see a popular blogger standing in the crowd (Happens alot more often than you think it does), don’t just stand there smoking a blunt and carrying your “Kanye” attitude. Put the blunt out drop the act and approach the blogger with politeness and maturity that any businessman can respect and listen to. If they like your personality and what your about maybe they’ll give you their contact info and there you go, you just made a major connection in the music industry. (Hint: Some body spray might be nice too)
We hear everyday whether it’s gossipping with our friends or reading things on the internet, society loves it when we keep it real and especially when that is shown in music. I’m assuming most artists that choose to read this want their music to be taken serious and to be considered “real” in the rigorous and competitive industry they are trying to be apart of. Well in order to do this you need to simply be yourself. The media loves making fun of fake people, and the Hip Hop industry loves making fun of fake rappers. Take Slim Jesus for example. Admitted he is not “about the life” that he raps and is constantly being made fun of on media outlets throughout the industry. Is that who you want to be? The next Slim Jesus? Well in order to avoid that just be yourself. For example if your a rapper who grew up in a middle-high class lifestyle in the suburbs and in your music you rap about true life events and stories that pertain to you and you don’t try to be a gangbanger or survivor of the streets you are keeping it real on the music side
When sending in your submission if you follow all of my guidelines and send in that music of you being yourself I can guarantee you will get noticed by somebody (As long as the music is good of course). However, on the flipside, if you are a rapper from the suburbs but you rap about gangbanging and living on the streets but then you follow my guidelines, bloggers will see right through that and will put you in the spam folder due to your fake persona or they will feature your music under a post with a name similar to, “Here is what is wrong with Hip Hop today.” Trust me, if you be yourself in your music and interactions and put out consistently good work, you will get noticed sooner rather than never
I made it pretty simple for you in black and white how easy it is to get your music heard in the above guidelines. I would hope that you would not ignore those and would instead use them to your advantage and enjoy the benefits. If you don’t follow the guidelines and get featured, good for you all luck runs out. If not well...I suggest taking another look above
Do not and I repeat DO NOT mention media outlets or journalists in your tweets like this guy
Media HATES that and a few outlets I know will even block you if you do that so please refrain from doing it at all costs. Not only does it look ugly on your timeline but it also shows you do not know how to promote your music (unprofessionalism)
Yes I have received death threats for not posting artists music before and it is pretty pathetic. If you think threatening to take a blogger hostage and murder their families and force them to follow you back on Twitter is a way to get your music posted you are very mistaken and need psychiatric help
Media outlets know how to tell the difference between bought plays and real plays and the same goes for followers. Your not slick, don’t waste the money you’ll just end up in the spam folder
Media outlets hate negativity and if that is all you spread your not a very intriguing artist to follow or support music from. Not to mention, saying how you hate blogs is not a very smart tactic and won’t get you very far when it comes to blog posts
Well there you have it. My guidelines to getting your music heard and taking off, as well as my guidelines for getting marked as spam and turned back to your day job. Hopefully you apply these tips and tricks to yourself and thanks for reading!