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IdleRich

IdleRich
Help me out here. I think I may have mentioned that I will be releasing a record shortly. Anyway, I need help on promo cos I'm doing what I can with zero budget but the artist is asking me questions like "Why isn't there a bbc show about the release?" so I can see that there is a slight... gap - I suppose would be the word - in expectations between mine and his.
But, more reasonably (I suppose), he is asking which blogs will be writing about it. Again it's not something I can produce for him on demand, in fact I recognise that any blog that agrees to write about it for any reason other than just liking it is not worth being on. But, on the other hand, I suppose that if I sent the sound to a load of blogs, chances are some would like it enough to write about it. Maybe. I dunno. I really don't know anything about how this works. But I do truly think it's a great record (if that counts for anything) and, perhaps more importantly for this thread, if I do that then I know I've done my best (on that score).
So, my question is, what are good blogs that write about new music? And, I suppose, about this type of music - which I will endeavour to describe below.
The record in question is made by a Japanese guy living in Berlin (and who used to live in London). The sound sort of varies between sort of cinematic psychedelia and more garage-punky psychedelia. The band (Jaguar No Me) is named after an old kids show from Japan I think and the singer used to play bass in Fat White Family.... that's to give you some idea of the type of blogs I'm after, not minimal techno or bass music is what I'm saying. I need blogs that support either "all new music" or "guitar" or "psych" or even "indie" I suppose and I know less than nothing about such entities.
Any help gratefully received. Thank you thank you thank you.
 

borzoi

Well-known member
sounds like the sort of thing that might get some wfmu play, maybe slide in the dms of jesse jarnow @bourgwick or jeff conklin @avantghettonyc and you might get a tweet or ig post and a couple of radio spins. they're both always bigging up that sort of thing. would probably get more eyes on it that way than some obscure blogspot, though i know the latter is still clinging to life in places.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Wicked, thanks for those tips. I dunno who those people are (which is my failing no doubt) but, if you think it's cool to just hit them up cold, I will one hundred percent do that, thank you very much.
You're right, definitely not restricted to obscure blogs... the thing is, I know a lot of record collectors and so on who I think will like this and are likely to buy it and I feel that financially the release is likely to do ok, but Taishi wants exposure as well as sales (fair enough I guess - people make music to be heard) and perhaps I have neglected the side of just spreading it around.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
OK cosign for that... I didn't know it was still extant. To be honest I know nothing about blogs.
 

luka

Well-known member
He was saying finding a few random blogs to write about the record won't help you sell anything. You need to get it into the hands of 'the gatekeepers'. He was very forceful about this so maybe he deleted cos he thought the tone was too impatient and harsh. Basically he was saying if you want to actually sell this record you need to Get Real.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Well the thing is, there are 250 copies, I think/hope most will go to record collectors I know and fans of his former band... this is more like an icing on the cake thing, and also so I can tell him I've done it. Box ticking if you like.
 

RWY

Well-known member
He was very forceful about this so maybe he deleted cos he thought the tone was too impatient and harsh. Basically he was saying if you want to actually sell this record you need to Get Real.

Exactly what Luka has said here - I looked into starting a UK Garage and Bassline label years ago, and backed out when I realised I had nowhere near enough cash to cover the marketing operation that was actually required (rather than just sending a few promos to DJs I thought might play the tracks).
 

RWY

Well-known member
Is your release physical only? Or are you making it available for download on bandcamp?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But we got a few built in advantages like the passionate fans of his former band etc
We're a quarter of the way to profit already just from people finding it and ordering it before it's out.
 

RWY

Well-known member
In that case, I would advice getting the emails of the gatekeepers (radio hosts, DJs, journalists) of the scene this band are affiliated with and sending out a press release with an attached digital promo to them.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Well we got two radio shows... launch special on Friday.
But we gave it to several djs already - Lena Willikens played it on her show I think.
 
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