How to get your music published online

Stop the email blasts, six pages long press releases, and poverty of information. Here are some guidelines to help you get your music posted up.

With the evolution of technology and immediate access to internet, music has been made even more accessible than ever before. Online communication portals have also created a direct link between record labels, producers, musicians and journalists, bloggers and music critics.

Every week, over 50 songs and music videos are sent via email to our Pulse Music editor. Most times good songs may get lost in the mass of emails through no fault of ours, but rather because the content of the emails lack direction and proper information.

Here are few tips to ensure your music doesn’t miss us or anyone else you maybe sending it to.

1.Title of mail

Straight up, the title of the email should summarize what it is. Here are some examples: 

Right:

• New Music/Video: Princess – ‘Lucky number 8’ (Prod. By Osagie)
• (Music Submission) Princess – ‘City hoppers’ (Feat. Chuey and Anie)

Make it simple. Sometimes some people include a whole paragraph in their mails.

Wrong:

“Princess releases a new dramatic song that’s set to blow your mind, spark your senses and make you say yeah!”

2. Body of the mail

Make it short and straight to the point. Sell yourself in a concise manner. Your mail should include: the artist’s name, the name of the song, if it features anyone, who’s produced the song or video, if you’ve worked with any famous person in the past and most importantly your contact details.

There’s no need to make your email the length of an academic dissertation proposal.

The journalist you're sending this to can expand on the information you’ve sent through research or they can ring you up for follow up questions.

If you’ve got a press release, I would recommend you don’t include it in the body of the mail, rather make it an attachment. Poor grammar and badly written press releases are a put-off.

3. Personalize your mail

When you can it's nice that you personalize your mail. Rather than start you mail with: Dear Admin, Immediate Release, Dear Music Writer, it helps if you start your mail with Dear Joey or Hello Joey. This will of course immediately get the editor's attention.

4. Attachments

Picture: Be sure to remember to attach the high-resolution artwork of your song/video/album in the mail. If you are an upcoming act, be sure to include a good picture of yourself as stock photo websites/ photo banks most media houses may subscribe to are unlikely to have an image of you.

Song: Now it can be annoying for whomever when you attach a large sized document. A 1GB video?! Depending on the nature and house style of the media organisation, it’s more advisable to send an Mp3 link.

5. Links

These are very important. Remember to include the links of your videos and songs in your mail.

If you’ve got a website or blog, include this link as well. It’ll make it easier for the writer to source for information about you.

6. Follow up

You can always send a follow up email to find out the music reviewer's thoughts about your song/email, but don't pester them. Pestering can make them do the exact opposite of what you want.

7. Email blasts

Whoever told you email blasts are a good way to get attention, lied to you. CC-ing every single media house, journalist and blogger you’ve sent your song to can be annoying and frustrating for everyone copied in it. If you need to do this, blind carbon copy (bcc) all parties involved. Please!

Also tweeting at the music reviewer 40 times on will get you noticed, but it doesn’t guarantee that anything will be written about you.