8 Tips on How to Get Featured on a Music Blog

Promoting your music can be difficult for independent artists. Getting featured even in a small blog can make a huge impact on your fan base and popularity

 

Ever seen a random stranger on the street, pointing at something, and how everyone starts looking over there. That’s exactly what bloggers do to you. They make you relevant and visible. Once they write about you, they bring you in the spotlight for their audience.

 

You will be thinking that all I have to do is to send the bloggers a copy of my new single and voilà, they will hear it, love it and write about it, right? Not so much. Just because you recorded the best single of your career so far, doesn’t mean its a sure shot way to getting reviewed or interviewed by a blogger. The distance between your song and their ears is longer than you expect. 300-400 emails long. That’s how many emails a decently read blogger gets in a day.

 

Now don’t give up yet, you came here for a reason and we are not going to let you walk away so easily. Here are the few tips you can use to get yourself on a blog

 

Yes, you cant send your awesome rock single to a blues blogger and expect him to love it. So research the genres the blogs work with. Every blogger have their pick they work with. And if you approach the ones that work with the same genres of music you work with, your chances get much higher to be featured on their blog.

 

EPK –  Electronic Press kit is musician’s or band’s CV. It should be creative and Up-to-date. Check out our blog on how to make a killer EPK here :

https://www.karmaduke.com/how-to-make-an-epk-that-blows-the-press-away/

Be your friendly neighbourhood spiderman Star. There are more chances that your local blogger will be happy to meet you, take some cool selfies with you and write about you. Contacting your local radio station is another good idea. A free CD of one song from your album can make the audience curious enough to search you and listen to the whole album. Talk to your local podcaster or vlogger for a small bit on their platform. They need new and exciting content on the daily basis and if you can provide them with some new content or an energetic interview, they would like to have you on their podcasts or vlogs. They might even ask for a repeat performance

 

4. Write the Hook.

There’s a reason you spend hours writing a catchy tune or a refrain in your song, to hook the listeners. The same way, all you need is to grab their attention so that you get that necessary click to open your email. Make it interesting, creative but keep it small and professional as well. Try to provide them with something Exclusive, like an exclusive bit of your single, or an exclusive Q and A, a quick tour of your studio set up something you have not released or done before.

 

Write up what makes you special, What makes you different. Give them a reason, why they should write about you? At first, it might seem harder than writing a song, but it’s not. We get it, no one likes to talk about themselves. So, take a deep breath, and think about what got you into music, what encouraged you to start writing songs. Write about your best live performance or the inspiration for your new song. Put yourself out there in words. Making it personal makes the blogger believe, how genuine your are. It also provides him/her with some insight about you, making them comfortable with the idea to write about you.

 

Exercise those thumbs. You heard it right, keep them moving. Social media can be a great tool to promote yourself.  If you won’t, why would anyone else? Follow other musicians or bands that work with your genres. Post about your new singles or EPs, video snippets from your old performances or dates for your tour and where you will be going to be after pandemic ends. Ask your fans to follow you and keep them updated. You can get creative, make a small video post for them thanking them or singing for them. Social media can make or break your image. So don’t stop posting and keep it relevant.

 

“Sharing is caring”, we all learned that in kindergarten, but this is the time to use it. Share some free shows with your fans. Free performance at the local nightclub can bag you some nice amount of new fans. Invite the local bloggers to those shows. You can use platforms like Twitch or Facebook to go live. Market those free gigs on social media and watch your fan base grow. This will also create the hype you are looking for and it gives the blogs something cool to write about you.

 

Now there’s a huge chance that your email might have been overlooked or missed. Give them benefit of doubt. Send a follow-up email after a few weeks. It can be discouraging at times, but remember, rejection is just a necessary step in reaching to success. On the other hand, you should also know when you give up and not waste too much effort and time chasing just one blogger.