Reviews/ Magazines and more... How do? -\(0_o)/-

[Melb_shredder]

Hey guys. I've gotten some info from friends/ industry guys/ engineers etc on this locally, but noting from international guys. So I'd love to get the Sneap forum perspective on this.

My band Orpheus, is currently recording our album etc, under an Aussie indie label. So that's great for us here, but it doesn't really help internationally. We have watched other Aussie bands take a hit from not planning out release stuff well to propser O/S etc. And I was wondering what advice you would give in terms of getting this thing rolling on international levels?

E.g. Which sties would give good exposure/ good to get reviews done. What magazines would be good for exposure etc? Who could help with this stuff and so on. We are aiming mostly for Europe, given our genre, but also trying to go the US route as well, as I think it would take well on both ends.

The fact is, it's hard not to get swept under the rug when you live on the gigantic dessert in the middle of the ocean. So if you have any ideas, suggestions. Please throw them this way. Orpheus would greatly appreciate.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Melb_shredder]

come on guys! 35 views, someone has to have some input! XD

 

[Curse9]

Let your lable send promostuff to relevant magazines like rockhard, heavy!?, powermetal.de and so on. Crawl the internet for de adresses.
Do hard work and hope to be recognized by someone. There are masses of bands outthere!
I realised over the years, contacts to the right persons you meet on festivals are the only thing that really helps. Knowing people personally allways do the job! That is the price because traveling to festivals is not that cheap, I don't know where you live, so it might be more expensive. Time allways matters!
I don't know if that helps you that much.

Cheers

 

[Melb_shredder]

Australia dude haha. Yeah it's ridiculous!

 

[Melb_shredder]

^^^ fair call I guess dude. And seeing as I you've been through all of this before. Do you have a suggestion??

 

[Ermz]

At the same time those reviews still function as promotional material, whether or not the reviewers are on the ball. Bands like Chris' unfortunately don't have many other avenues of promotion, since labels over here lack.... everything.

 

[smy1]

The 5 steps to getting reviewed/interviewed in every metal magazine in the whole world:

1. Contact advertisement dept in magazine
2. Inquire about ad rates
3. Buy ad at feasible price
4. Ask for editorial work (aka story/interview) and review - you will be put in touch with one of their journalists who will most likely send you standard new-band-questions via email.
5. Answer the interview and make it interesting

That's it. If they like you they'll give you more printspace for the buck.

Everything else is the demo-band route that never works (except for that ONE band that keeps propagating the myth about "good music always rises to the top eventually").

 

[Melb_shredder]

^^^ That's a little closer to what I was looking for! Yeah, we are probably aiming to buy some space in magz etc. a la kerrang/ terrorizer all those fucks that the popular kids read haha! Thanks again dudes XD

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Digital distribution and teh intarnets, baby. Make yourself visible, make yourself interesting and most of all, make your music as easy as possible to acquire. There are fuck tons of online ezines and such that you can offer a review/interview to, and when you get such site to publish your interview or review, make sure they include an iTunes store link or such.

 

[Sacha]

As said above you can simply search online and send out packages to the bigger sites, it's easy enough to find blogs / magazines with searching. If they'll run a story on you or not is another matter...but it's worth a shot!

Another option is to hire a publicist, if you don't have time / contacts and your label won't / can't do it. There are quite a few companies out there geared towards just Metal, just check their references and prior work of course.

 

[schust]

having personally gone through this recently - i can say the internet is SATURATED WITH MUSIC! believe it or not, HARD ROCK and METAL. just sending a CD to an online zine or similar does not guarantee a review/exposure these days like it did 5 or more years ago. you really have to know someone. label affiliations with most of these zines seems to be stronger than it was a few years back, meaning - unless you're on one of those labels (eg roadrunner records), forget getting a review anytime soon - and don't expect a fantastic review next to the latest and greatest release from label XYZ. some do indie reviews, but i'm still waiting on a handful of CDs sent out in June! granted, i'm a nobody, but still...lol. i think if you are serious about getting your name out there, find someone that knows the game already, pony up some cash and most importantly make sure they have a proven track record.

 

[GoofPig]

I had a list made up of all promo stuff - i'll see if i can find it.
otherwise, speak to one of the dudes on the MetalObsession.net website. They'll be able to sort you out with a review etc.

 

[Plasmaterial]

Speak to the guys from Be'lakor.

They have a HUGE following considering they are more or less are a D.I.Y. band. Also helps that their music is fantastic and positive word of mouth has spread throughout the MDM scene.