---

1. THE REVIEWER – FRIEND OR FOE?

As with everything else, the key to getting good reviews is good research. Watch some of your favorite magazines and collect author names and address. If a reviewer included a band in a similar genre as yours consider sending them your work too. And be certain you address it to that writer or otherwise there’s a 90% chance your CD and press kit will be used as a doorstopper and nothing more. If you send something, go right to the source.

Next? Follow up, follow up, follow up! Let’s stress this point one more time…follow up! Sending out press kits and discs then doing nothing is pointless. Save your funds and your time if you expect reviews to ‘just happen’. Give the reviewer time to listen to your work, of course. Two weeks is a good time frame to make your first contact and when you do ask if they’ve given your music a listen. If they haven’t asked when they might get to it. It doesn’t hurt to add the reason for your curiosity is because you’ve read their work and like what they’ve said about other acts (if that’s true). All artist, even writers, have egos so a little stroke is good as long as you’re being honest. Be prepared for them to ask about an article you liked and be ready to paraphrase a few of their comment back to them. Again, flattery is great but it should be sincere.

If the magazine doesn’t review your work or doesn’t give you the glowing review you hoped for keep your anger in check. You don’t want to alienate a news source by being a temperamental pain in the butt to the staff. Besides, perhaps the next reviewer that comes to that magazine might be someone that loves your work but it’s too late if you already burned that bridge. Just remember, no one can be all things to all people – yeah, you too.

---

2. GET MORE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE TONIGHT

There are numerous yet simple ways to get your numbers up. The first suggestion is a links trade. Find other musicians and sites that share the identical (or similar) genre that you perform in. Link to them first and then ask if they’d be kind enough to link back to you. If you get a rejection don’t take it personal. Stay polite. A tip when searching for sites to link to is to see if they have a visible links page. In other words, is there a page devoted just to links. If not, you’re doing a lot legwork for nothing. Also, if they contain links upon links you might want to think twice. The more links they house the less likelihood someone will notice yours. If you’d like to take some of the guesswork and legwork out of linkage you can buy a program called Arelis (http://www.axandra-link-popularity-tool.com/index.htm). But be warned. It’s not cheap. It is however loaded with cool features that can save you time scouring the net.

Remember too, the more information you write in your links the better chance of being found on search engines. Let’s say your band is called CuttingEdge. You could link to the word ‘CuttingEdge’. But if you add the words ‘CuttingEdge - An alternative hiphop indie group from Nevada’ you’ll turn up in more search results (hiphop, indie groups from Nevada, etc.). Of course there’s always the tried and true meta tags too which can be added to your html. There are many free meta builder sites on the web that allows you to punch in keywords about your site and builds the html for you. All you need to do is copy and past it into the header of your webpage html. Of course you could always pay companies to give you better positioning in searches but usually that means big bucks. Starving artist rarely have money for take out food let alone website promotion. So instead of hiring a ‘placement team’ consider the following when looking for ways to get more listeners to your site that are free and simple.

---

3. LOOKING FOR A MUSIC ‘DAY JOB’?

Here’re a few sites that offer musician’s freelance or steady work in the field of music. This is strictly an F.Y.I and not an endorsement. After all, only you know what’s right for you. Note: Many of these sites have different terms of service so be certain to read all the information contained.

Applause - http://www.cnvi.com/applause/

Entertainment Careers - http://www.entertainmentcareers.net/

Guru.com – http://www.guru.com

Music Careers.com - http://www.music-careers.com/

My Music Job.Com - http://www.mymusicjob.com/jobseekernew.php

Showbizjobs.com - http://www.showbizjobs.com/dsp_jobsearch.cfm

Ultimate Talent.com - http://www.ultimatetalent.com/

---

4. UNUSUAL WAYS TO CONNECT

There are always the tried and true ways of making connections. You can always send out demo tapes to other performers or the reviewer at your local paper but consider breaking out of the norm sometimes.

Alt-country singer/composer Steve Mardon recently got a plug from the Boston Globe by sending his CD to the ‘living section’ editor instead of the music editor. After reading the column on a regular basis Mardon had the ingenious idea to that his music might be something the columnist would enjoy. His hunch paid off giving him some local publicity and all it cost him was a CD and postage.

In a similar, although not identical scenario, performer/composer Sir Millard Mulch, took time to talk to a young teenage fan who enjoyed his music. Instead of dismissing the young enthusiast Mulch spoke with the boy and sent him a CD for free. Years later that boy ended up working for Steve Vai and passed Mulch’s music along to the well known guitarist. Vai loved Mulch’s tunes so much that he offered the chance to sell his CD’s though his on-line store.

Like most things in life it’s really not what you know but who you know. If you’re one of the many musicians who see fans or reviewers in terms of dollar signs you could miss a bigger picture and a bigger opportunity down the road. Have you given any of your work to a charity event or cause? Have you taken the time to answer a fans email? There’s something to be said for treating people well on the way up. Sometimes they can give you a boost years later just because you took the time to treat them right.

---