Where to send your released music to get reviews and/or plays?

[Sendy]

Yes, I know I can just google it, which I'm doing, but I'm asking around here to see if there's anyone on KVR that does music journalism on the fringe who could review and/or play my album. Otherwise, it's basically 4-6 years of work wasted as nobody will hear it. As some of you guys have an idea of what I do, I'd be grateful if anyone has any suggestions. Any general advice in this area that everybody could learn from would also be good.

Another thing: I suck at promoting stuff

[funky lime]

Be active online. Not just forums... Blog about stuff. Share patches and techniques and insights. Do YouTube videos. Don't just spam your music out there; give people a reason to click your link, and a reason to want to click it again in the future (regular updates!).
As far as forums, posting your music may get you a few listens, but it's important to establish a presence. If you post an honest review of someone else's music, they might just be inclined to do the same for you.

Find a podcast or a blog about electronic music, and consider emailing the person in charge. Podcasts are a great way for people to discover new music in specific genres.

If applicable, find the local scene for the type of music you make. Go to shows, find the hot spots, get a gig, etc. Some honest-to-goodness face-time with a real human being in the flesh is more interesting and rewarding than a "like" on some social media site, and it can lead to connections with other people in the scene. As they say, it's not what you know, but who. (whom?)

Consider submitting some music (an EP, perhaps) to a netlabel, possibly releasing it for free. There are a couple netlabels I am into where I will pretty much give at least a quick listen to every release they put out. I've discovered some great obscure artists this way.

You probably knew all that, but perhaps it helps to hear it in words that aren't entirely your own

[jancivil]

Yeah, my friends who are more well-known than I am (and get press or even a wiki article) always were out performing, on tour, and manage to socialize a fair amount.
It's the same in any art, like if you want to make a film and get on the festival circuit you aren't going to be at home or even have a home for quite a while, you're out pushing and persuading and going thru changes.

Still, the musos have day jobs of one form or another, unless they managed to get with an act that sold, and that means a life touring.
If it's just about getting more plays maybe there's a forum other than this and like lime says, a little netlabel that's a mirror for you.

I got wider exposure from being associated with one [netlabel] and a small pile of CDs out of being on a compilation [AXE].
I still have a few people that remember me from the 80s-90s, which again is thru association and working for someone with a following (which meant touring. The world.).
I have a general sense that a person in their room by themselves making music for music's sake, with no scene or activity to place it in is not terrifically interesting to very many people.

If I cared more I would send CDs to alt press in my area, but that per se isn't going to do anything without getting out with some kind of live schtick.

[Chapelle]

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[Robmobius]

You could do a few tutorials on YT, as well as promote your own music there. That's worked for quite a few people

Do you DJ? If you do try and get down to some local clubs.

[Sendy]

...

[Sendy]

Thanks for the ideas and links to further reading. At the moment, I am a carer for two, sometimes three members of my family (though the Government only recognizes one per household), so getting away can be tricky. I'm also a bit of a shutin, partly due to just plain isolation and breakdown of society, and partly by nature. Not really an extrovert. The plus side to caring is that while I'm often needed on standby, I get a fair amount of free time sometimes to make tunes. I don't consider myself a performer, but with a bit of encouragement and experimentation (which will cost money), I'm pretty sure I could do a liveshow of my music, even though it's generally what I consider to be "musique concrete".

I have played in two very small local bands before. My main takeaway from that was astonishment at how petty and egotistical people are in that lower echelon of the music biz. We've got bands you've never heard of ripping on bands you've never heard off, because one is slightly more popular than the other. Great fun in the dressing room, lots of passive aggressive superiority. Maybe it was partly to do with where I live, on the Isle of Wight.

Another thing is that here nights out are either mainstream autotuned r+b and whatever's on the radio (read: the spiritual death of music) or alternative (which is code for goth/rock). There is no "alternative to the alternative" which is what braindance/IDM really is in this situation.

Blogs and youtube videos - I'm on it.

In addition to lack of exposure, I really miss belonging to a collective of artistic people. KVR has been taking on that role, and if you can filter out the pointless snark and nose-downlooking (which I suppose, in a small way, I'm guilty of myself, so things kinda cancel out, lol), there are a lot of great and creative people here. So there's that

[jancivil]

People are interested 'in a person'; and you're seeing 'do tutorials on youtube' which means a certain sort of willingness to present; collect or collate a persona for consumption. And I would be tempted to say 'blog about every single thing' but everybody and their dog does. I don't know how the connection works from somebody showing patches and this kind of thing to their actual music, though.

I mean the music itself is not enough to break through to too many people. Do you like the idea of becoming interesting as a person? (I don't.)
The people interested in something on a higher plane than that are not in abundance I fear.

I can say this in terms of a forum, KVR: the guy that gets the most views and comments at Music Cafe comments on many, many people's posts there. If I want more plays, that's what I know I'm going to be doing. Most of life is essentially high school.

[Sendy]

People are interested 'in a person'; and you're seeing 'do tutorials on youtube' which means a certain sort of willingness to present; collect or collate a persona for consumption. And I would be tempted to say 'blog about every single thing' but everybody and their dog does. I don't know how the connection works from somebody showing patches and this kind of thing to their actual music, though.

I mean the music itself is not enough to break through to too many people. Do you like the idea of becoming interesting as a person? (I don't.)
The people interested in something on a higher plane than that are not in abundance I fear.

I completely agree, that's a problem I have with advancing further. I'm not an exhibitionist. I think the worlds inside my mind are way more interesting than my life. I don't want to be a celebrity. I want to celebrate music and it's possibilities. (corny I know)

What prompts me to try and work harder at getting "out there" is that I get lots of mail, occasionally from people I consider much more succesful than me and professionals, saying I should be selling my music. So I do. But the thing is, people will say it's great, it's original and polished, it's everything they love, yet getting people just to click that "share" button is almost impossible.

I know there are people who don't gig or do the personality thing who are getting more visibility than me, and I admit it can be kinda frustrating at times. It's tantalizing because when one of my more famous listeners clicks "share", my stats go through the roof. But no matter how much I share other people's music (out of genuine passion, I might add), how much I comment on other people's tracks I like (which I do way more at SC than KVR for some reason)... and no matter how many weeks I spend polishing each track, it feels like nobody wants to openly admit to liking my music, only in "secret". It's weird.

The blogging and youtube videos thing is something I want to do. I love blogging and talking about sound design. I don't really want to appear in the videos and be the focus of them, though. I hate talking about myself. I'm a nilhilist at heart.

But yeah, this is all a huge contradiction. I ultimately make music for me, and I wish more people would do that. All of my influences and "idols" do. It's just, I feel like I'm letting my friends and family down, they have these expectations of me, and, you know, part of me likes the idea of impacting the music scene, even if it's just in a tiny way.

[Tricky-Loops]

Maybe it was partly to do with where I live, on the Isle of Wight.

Isn't it a party location like Goa?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival

[jancivil]

One difference that we might tend to forget or believe it's changed because of the internet is that making CDs, physical packages, to send out, canvassing reviewers would tend to generate some writing, some reviews. I reflected on my past and recalled this one CD I wrote and performed for... The guy sent it out to the usual suspects of that particular milieu (Rock in Opposition, avant-rock, European following.). I thought little of the actual object but a couple of people went nuts over it.

I was a junkie at the time but if it was my project and I was a functional human - I was once somewhat ambitious - that could have been a calling card.

Today, sometimes someone will hit 'share' on Facebook but nobody cares, the same five people give a like if it's not buried so they never see it. if there's discussion about it it appears in more feeds and people like talking so more people hop on the bandwagon. I like to to some extent but I don't start out with a post talking about it. I'm self-conscious.

[Sendy]

Maybe it was partly to do with where I live, on the Isle of Wight.

Isn't it a party location like Goa?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival

That's one yearly event, and probably a little bit out of my league

What can I say about the Isle of Wight? Pretty much all of it has been shut down in the last few years. Including libraries and public toilets, and also a lot of music venues, etc. The music scene is incredibly small and shrinking, and extremely lacking in diversity. Just meeting someone who knows of one of my influences, or just likes electronic music that isn't EDM, is like finding a needle in a haystack. A needle with a tiny wormhole on it, that leads to a pocket dimension where nothing exists except the end credits to every film ever made. It's that kinda rare .

Jancivil - thanks for the input. I will send some physical stuff out. Perhaps they appreciate the effort in these days of Soundcloud demos. I also have a few internet radio stations who I think might like my more chippy stuff, like Slay Radio.

In summary: It's what John Cleese's character in Clockwise said - It's not the daunting odds stacked against me that hurts. That's an easy feeling to live with. It's the hope. That tiny glimmer of hope that always returns.

[Tricky-Loops]

Maybe it was partly to do with where I live, on the Isle of Wight.

Isn't it a party location like Goa?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight_Festival

That's one yearly event, and probably a little bit out of my league

What can I say about the Isle of Wight? Pretty much all of it has been shut down in the last few years. Including libraries and public toilets, and also a lot of music venues, etc. The music scene is incredibly small and shrinking, and extremely lacking in diversity. Just meeting someone who knows of one of my influences, or just likes electronic music that isn't EDM, is like finding a needle in a haystack. A needle with a tiny wormhole on it, that leads to a pocket dimension where nothing exists except the end credits to every film ever made. It's that kinda rare .

Maybe Dumfries* would be a better place?


* where "Calvin Harris" grew up

(Here in this village in South Bavaria, I've never seen anyone interested in electronic music...they don't even know what a plugin is... Guess why I'm here at KVR?)

[Sendy]

Supposedly there is a little underground electronic music set on the Isle of Wight, they just keep themselves to themselves it seems.

I agree, KVR and similar sites are a good outlet for people like us who live in the cultural backwaters and deserts Though I really do miss how the internet was in the early 00ies. That was a great time to be making and sharing music - lots of positivity and that feeling of belonging to an "art tribe" - which seems almost extinct these days, perhaps because those who would form such tribes are diluted down to almost homeopathic concentrations.