With the New ACURSED out finally on ( My first digipak!) CD, Most of the last week has been sent sending out Promotional copies of the three new CD's= Iron Lung, Born/Dead and Acursed ( who actually, remarkably reported they practiced for the first time in years a few weeks ago, could they actually play a show this decade? Stay tuned!). I have never felt this really does much for selling records, but does heaps for the band ( and labels)) visibility and also often spreads the music and ideas to places that they wouldn't reach normally. It's just part of the deal in promoting the music and why I do the label.
With DIY Tour routes shrinking to basically major cities on the coasts and midwest, the closure of a remarkably high percentage of the independent record stores around the country and most labels doing micro-pressings compared to the 1990's and having to raise prices to break even,(making running a show distro a more risky proposition and the records themselves that much harder to find.) there's just a little less outreach, while at the same time a flood of information at your fingertips. Often I hear from people " well everybody knows about it" forgetting that there's a much, much larger casual listenership of hardcore and punk than the smalll, active one that follows the releases and tours....and if you look at the list, a GLOBAL fanbase for punk and hardcore....
Anyway, people often ask me for a list of where I send stuff for review, so here's part one of a top 50 I'll list, in no order. Promotion is hard, it's a bottomless pit of people who will take Free CD's and somewhat expensive to do, and the address and contacts change frequently... and yes promos do end up re-sold, it's a fact of the game, but still I see it as an essential part of doing a release... The general rule of promotion is 10%- you should send out 10% of your pressing as promotion. Not everyone can afford to do this, but here's a bare minimum, in no order of some great places to send your releases:
1& 2 = Maximum Rock'N' RollPO Box 460760
San Francisco, CA 94146-0760 USA TWO COPIES ARE ESSENTIAL with CD's they give one copy to the reviewer the other for their syndicated and Online Radio Show . With the Print reivews, they give a copy to the reviewer ( like me) to take home and spend a bit more time with- You get a better, more time intensive review this way as the MRR HQ can be full of people and hard to get reviews done. THe other copy is used for radio, top ten listens and their record archive. If you're just going to send out 2 promos, send 2 to MRR, as a lot of places-particularly stores in Japan, use it as a resource to base orders.
3. AL QUINT PO Box 43 Peabody, MA 01960 USA Al is long time editor of Suburban Voice fanzine which now seems to primarily exist as a blog and column in MRR. He also does the great Sonic Overload radio show
4. RAZORCAKE PO Box 42129 Los Angeles, CA 90042 USA taking up the mantle left by the death of FLIPSIDE and then some, Razorcake covers all permutations of punk, garage and hardcore and has searchable reviews, as well as progressive webprescence online, something MRR is in dire need of.
5. SHORT FAST AND LOUD 225 Lincoln Avenue, Cotati, CA 94931 USA run by the people at Six Weeks Records while I wish it was more indepth in content, it's a great source of reviews ( albeit unsigned and sometimes biting) for the thrash/hardcore/ punk community.
6. PROFANE EXISTENCE MAGAZINE PO Box 18051
Minneapolis, MN 55418 USA. Longstanding anarcho punk headquarters! Doesn't review EVERYTHING sent, but if your style matches their focus of crust/ DIy hardcore, ber sure to send 'em a promo.
7. OX Fanzine Ox-Fanzine, Postfach 11 04 20, 42664 Solingen,
Germany One of the "big three" of German Fanzines, they deftly walk between reviewing both "mainstream" ( I.E. Fat Wreks)punk and DIY Underground release.
8. TRUST FANZINE mail to: Trust Verlag, Dolf Hermannstädter, Postfach 11 07 62, 28087 Bremen, GERMANY dating back to the 1980's this is another major German fanzine that reaches all over Germany, a country with one of the hugest fanbases for hardcore and punk worldwide.
9. PLASTIC BOMB FANZINEPostfach 100205, 47002 Duisburg , GERMANY of the big threee, this is probably the one with it's nose closest to the ground for DIY/CRUST type stuff ( or at least neck and neck with TRUST), but all three are important and by extension of mailing to all three, it's like the role of MRR plays here, and like I said reaching the massive amount of punk fans in Germany.
10 &11. WFMUP.O. Box 2011, Jersey City , NJ 07303-2011 one of the country's leading free form stations. They are also host to the Long running Pat Duncan show, the caveat : To reach the Pat Duncan show You need to send him a SEPERATE Package to his attention.
12. EQUALIZING DISTORT RADIOCIUT FM C/O Music Director
91 St. George St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2E8 CANADA. Great weekly radio show, that also has online reviews and a print fanzine. REally nice folks who will also update you even when they play your stuff!
13. CLOSE UP MAGAZINE P.O. Box 4411, SE-102 69 Stockholm, Sweden a regularly released Swedish Metal and hardcore fanzine that while in Swedish, is the biggest extreme music magazine in Scandinavia.
14.FLEX YOUR HEAD RADIO use their contact us page to get the address. While no longer having expansive site of links and info, they still have the radio show weekly- and since 1989!
15.PASAŻERPO BOX 42, 39-201, DĘBICA 3 POLAND long running but somewhat less frequnetly published polish hardcore and punk fanzine, makes up for it by being thick like a book when it comes out.
16. DOLL MAGAZINER.I.P
17. SHORT.FAST.LOUD: Stu Harvey, c/o Triplej,
GPO Box 9994, Melbourne 3000 AUSTRALIA. Australia-wide punk rock radio show of all stratas on the ABC.
18. DECIBEL MAGAZINE1032 Arch Street, Third Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA while a primarily a metal Magazine, they do cover all sorts of extreme music and a number of free lance writers work for them that might be better contacts.
19. KDVS KDVS 90.3 FM, ATTN: PUNK DEPARTMENT, 14 Lower Freeborn,University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616 USA Freeform radio out by Sacramento, they have a dedicated Punk department and are friendly to DIY releases.
20. AMP MAGAZINEPO Box 1070, Martinez, CA 94553 USA while seemingly publicist driven by that larger strata of pro punk labels, AMP still does reviews indie, DIY releases and does reach the BORDERS/HOT TOPIC mall circuit where other DIY music has no outlet to reach ( and kids have no access to stumble accross and find) so whatever, send'em a promo.
21. PUNK AND OI IN THE UKPO Box 158, Leeds, LS27 7XP, ENGLAND Website /portal with interviews, tour dates and info and remarkably thoughtful reviews.
22.ANTI-EMO EMPIRE P.O. Box 5392, Milford, CT 06460 USA
Weekly streamed and live Radio in CT.They send out Regular playlists.
23. ATTACK FANZINE Krogh - Edgrensgatan 27 - 671 50 Arvika - SWEDEN Long running webzine and news portal.
24. TERRORIZERDark Arts Ltd., Unit 36, 10-50 Willow Street, London EC2A 4BH, UNITED KINGDOM " TERRORIZER is the world's number one magazine for extreme music of ANY kind"
25. KALXKALX Radio , University of California, 26 Barrows Hall #5650 , Berkeley, CA 94720-5650 Another free form giant, with everyone from Jesse ( Blatz) Luscious to members of JEWDRIVER behind the microphone.
part 2 later this week!
2 comments:
There are a lot of reviewers at Razorcake me being one of them. You can send review material to a person's attention if you think that person will like or know more about the music being sent. Otherwise it could be reviewed by anyone. So check out the magazine or website first before sending.
Thanks a ton for this. I'm putting out a new record next month while promoting the last few copies of a record I put a few months ago (that I think you reviewed in MRR, and I only sent one copy of, whoops!) and need info. on GOOD places to send stuff.
I'm adding you to my blogroll.
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