Music Bloggers Discussion on Getting Your Band Reviewed

Checked out Pianos earlier tonight for the Indie Night School event to hear a panel of bloggers talk about how they go about picking bands to post on.  I figured it'd be pretty empty upstairs at Pianos, but the place was full and it turned out to be a pretty interesting discussion although I think it would've been better if there were some of the bigger MP3 blogs (Tofuhut, Fluxblog) or perhaps just some of the bigger music focused blogs (Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan) represented.  While I believe the chances of most CDs getting covered at Prefixmag.com are slim, I would guess that the odds of getting covered by many of these blogs might even be lower since most don't cover 4-5 bands a day like most of the music review sites.  One of the panelists said he got about 50 CDs a week, which is not that much less than what I get at Prefix.

I had to run to the Little Brother listening session halfway through the blog discussion, so I did miss the second half.  The first half that I did catch covered things such as are EPKs (electronic press kits) and emailing MP3s acceptable.  Yes to EPKs, Yes/No to MP3s via email seemed to be the consensus.  I wanted to stay, but I was dying to hear the new Little Brother album.

Here were the panelists that were listed...

- Daily Refill http://dailyrefill.blogs.com
- Oh My Rockness http://www.ohmyrockness.com
- Ultragrrrl http://www.ultragrrrl.com
- The Modern Age http://www.themodernage.org
- Gothamist http://www.gothamist.com/
- Melody Nelson http://www.melodynelson.com
- Jenyk http://www.jenyk.com
- Aeki Tuesday http://www.aekituesday.com
- The Simple Mission http://www.thesimplemission.com
- Underground Fairy http://undergroundfairy.blogspot.com
- Verbose Coma http://blog.verbosecoma.com
- The Deli Magazine http://www.thedelimagazine.com

Comments

[Bol]

I've gotten a whopping 5 CDs now in 22 months of blogging. I consider it a testament to my gulliness.

[dave park]

yeah, it's probably your gulliness. less street bol. nice bobby brown vs. sleater-kinney review today

[Matthew]

If they had asked me, I definitely would have gone! I'm sure the same is true of Tofu Hut and Stereogum.

[dave park]

It's crazy that they wouldn't invite Fluxblog, Tofu Hut or Stereogum. I definitely read and enjoy some of the blogs that were at the discussion, but if if the discussion is about how bands can get reviewed it would've made sense to have some of the most visited MP3 blogs represented.

Overall it was an interesting discussion, but having a big MP3 blog up there it would've made things better. Maybe next time?

[stereogum]

I would've gone! Wasn't invited.

[dave park]

Sorry to hear that stereogum. Hopefully the next type of music blog discussion will include you. You definitely run one of the best ones out there and I think people would be interested in hearing from you.

[ian]

Frankly, I get TOO many CD's. I didn't really start my blog to be a shill for record labels but i feel obligated sometimes when they send me stuff or ask me to post links though. I'd be fine without getting one CD to be honest so maybe I need to be more brutal in ignoring the tsuff I'm not into. There's plenty of stuff for me to talk about without getting promos/freebies anyway.

[Tom Sean]

Hey Dave, Hey Matthew, Hey Stereogum (don't know your name),

This is Tom Sean. I'm the guy from The Black Spoons who organizes the Indie Night School sessions. All I can say is: Crap! I would have loved for you all to have come. I invited John from Tofu Hut, but he was busy that night. I tried to post as many places as possible re: the event, but I guess not enough. I'm so sorry I didn't get to speak with you all beforehand. That would have been awesome. Please let me know if you'd like to come to the next one, on the house - it's not about media this time, but still interesting. We're going to cover management, and speak to Tom Sarig (manager of Blonde Redhead), as well as the managers from VHS or Beta, Morningwood, Capitol Years, Dressy Bessy, The Cloud Room... You can find my contact info through www.theblackspoons.com

Hope to hear from you,
Tom Sean

[dave park]

Hi Tom Sean. Thanks for the response. In terms of blogs, Prefixblog isn't really big or established, so I don't think we should've spoken at it. I just thought it was weird how some of the more well known and frequently updated music/mp3 blogs like Stereogum, Fluxblog, Brooklyn Vegan wouldn't be speaking at more things like this. There was also a discussion held at Columbia a few months back and I thought it would've been cool to have their perspectives.

In any case I still thought it was an interesting discussion and it seemed to be well run. The magagement session sounds good too, I'll definitely hit you up if I can make it. Thanks.

[Tom Sean]

Hey Dave,

Yea, the god's honest truth is that I'm new to the world of blogging - which is a big part of the reason (a) I wanted to hold the event (it's more fun to moderate a panel that I'm curious about) and (b) there were such notable blogs missing (since I'm still getting familiar with everyone myself). I know the Columbia event you're talking about (I'm a grad student there, but unfortunately missed that one). Hopefully, we can do another Indie Night School on media in the near future and expand the list of dramatis personae.

[dave park]

I think your overall panel was still pretty good Tom. The Columbia thing was pretty nutty, but I actually found a good part of it boring and my editor was even on the panel. Looking forward to see what other Indie Night Schoole events you run in the future.