Okay, I’m going to get real in the post. I apologize if I offend anyone but I feel like I need to be honest because I think we all need it.
There are two things that really annoy me as a blogger/music writer.
1) People who add me to their email blasts without my permission and
2) People who don’t take the time to write a proper introduction email.
Often, the people who add you to their email lists without permission are spammers, and there’s not much you can do about it. And I know that there’s probably not much I can do about those who don’t write polite email introductions, but I can at least share a bit of advice about why I think it’s important with you.
When you send out emails to bloggers or music critics, I want to make sure that you know there is a right and wrong way to do it. As a music reviewer/podcaster/blogger I receive a large number of submissions from artists, record labels and promoters. There are some message that are polite, well-written and that catch my attention and then there are some that are terse, rude, unprofessional and immediately turn me away from the project.
If you’re writing me an email and I don’t know who you are, it wouldn’t hurt to introduce yourself, maybe write a little bit about your background.
I also need to know why you’re writing me. You may think it’s obvious that you want a review or interview when you send me an email with nothing but a link to your song, but it isn’t. Maybe you wanted feedback or maybe not. Who knows. State your intentions and don’t waste reviewers’ time by making them guess what you want.
Some tips for writing a good introduction email:
- Introduce who you are and what you do
- Pay the person you’re writing a compliment along the lines of: “I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time and I really enjoyed the post you did recently on writing a proper email introduction.”
- Tell them why you’re contacting them.
- Thank them for their time
- Give them your contact information
- If you’re submitting your album for review, make sure you include links to the files via dropbox or wetransfer as well as the press release (DO NOT attach the files to your email)
The email may take longer to write, but trust me, it’s worth it.
If you’d like more top on writing to reviewers, bloggers or radio stations and what to send them, The Album Checklist includes a section on this topic plus tons of other tips and advice for recording and promoting your music.
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