5 Ways Great Timing Stacks Music Blog Coverage In Your Favor

I’ve had many a band come to me thinking they could overcome the one major factor that determines whether their band will be covered.

What’s that factor? Timing.

When you are unknown band, you are already faced with the major challenge of no one knowing who you are. As a result, you have to give extra benefits in them covering you. You need to stack as much as you can in your favor. And timeliness is the best way to do that.

Here’s a few ways you can maximize timeliness.

Promote Your Album 3-4 Months in Advance of the Release Date

This one catches a lot of bands. They can’t imagine waiting three or four months to release the record they’ve been working on for the past two years. The media is not on your timeline however. They are on a timeline with rapid deadlines, intense competition and a preference in covering bands they already know. You need to factor in the time it will take for them to become aware of your band and in some cases meet the media deadlines of their publication. You’re also going to face a lot of ebbs and flows with media’s ability to get to your music. By factoring in those extra months, there’s bound to be some really tough times to gain their attention and times when it lightens up and you can find a way in.

Read: How to Release Your Album (Even if You Don’t Have a Record Label)

Release a Single in Advance of the Album Release

Here’s the good news if you can’t wait to release your music. You can release a single in advance. Please note however, if you are a hip indie rock band targeting hipster blogs, you will have to create a fresh Soundcloud timestamp upon release of the record, by uploading a new single a day or two before the official release. If it sounds like a pain in the ass, it is. But this is a determining factor with the bigger blogs. The good news is that smaller and mid size blogs don’t hold such a rigid time frame. And if you fall under Americana or folk, they won’t be as concerned about when the single was uploaded as they will be the release date of the single.

Read: 3 Reasons Why to Release a Single

Trending News Topics

Although newer is better, sometimes you can recycle an old song for a new topic. For instance, as I write this in October 2016, everything is about the current election and blogs are posting anti-Trump and pro-Clinton songs daily. Maybe you have a new song that could connect with a topic in the news that interests the outlet’s readers.

Pop Culture News

Pop culture is one of my favorite angles to use, but again, more often than not it’s about timeliness. For instance, look at the Stranger Things phenomena and the bands like S U R V I V E who came out of it. The key with using a pop culture angle is to look at future releases of tv, music and film to see if there’s something you can connect. This way you have time to pitch the media well in advance of the release so when the timing hits you are still newsworthy. It’s much harder to jump on a bandwagon once it’s left the station.

Genre

Your genre of music can also play a factor in the success of your release. For instance, psychedelia is trending right now in music, so that opens opportunities for bands who fit within that genre. And it’s still relatively early in the trend so bloggers will be open to the pitch. On the other hand, electro and synth pop is at the end of the cycle so you’ll be competing against the best of the best in that genre because bloggers are ready to move on. This isn’t to say you should make music to fit within a trend, but it does give awareness to the opportunities or challenges you could face.

5 Ways Great Timing Stacks Music Blog Coverage In Your Favor