The following tips will help you get coverage on BBC.
1. WE COVER BOSTON-BASED BANDS
If your band or the band you're representing is from outside Boston, this is not the blog for you. We occasionally cover bands that started in Boston but relocated elsewhere, but mostly we focus on bands playing regularly in Boston.
2. WE COVER INDEPENDENT ACTS
Sorry, Aerosmith, we know you meet rule #1's criteria but you're a little big for our britches. We stick to bands playing around the club circuit at places like Great Scott, The Middle East, TT's, PA's, O'Brien's, Rosebud, etc.
3. WE DON'T PUBLISH REVIEWS
Our purpose is to inform, not to criticize. Our content is largely focused on telling readers about shows they should check out and bands they should have a listen to. The only area where we "review" is our C.D. On Songs column. If you are looking to be reviewed, we encourage you to submit a song for this. (Click the link above and scroll down for submissions instructions.)
4. GET TO THE POINT
Make our job easy. When emailing us, list the relative information clearly and keep it short and sweet. Tell us a little about you, list your upcoming local show(s), provide links to your various web presences, attach a show poster or band photo that we can include in a post, and whenever possible, include a link to download your music.
Use the subject line wisely! We get a lot of emails. When we're skimming our inboxes, your email will stand out if your subject line tells us exactly what's inside (ex: 8/12: The Hot Fizz / Lemonbelly at O'Brien's). It might get lost if it doesn't (ex: New local band). Also include a link to the Facebook event if one exists.
Offer a +1 for your show so that we can try to see you live and become more familiar with you. This further motivates us to write a show preview, even when we can't attend.
5. SEND US MUSIC
Ever tried writing about a band without having heard them? Yeah. Not easy. In fact we probably won't do it. So send us some music. If you don't have your music hosted on your own site, use Bandcamp, SendSpace, SoundCloud, or another free service where we can download it.
Here's why sending us a streaming link is risky: We all have day jobs. We might get your email when we're in the middle of something and can't go listen to streaming audio. (Some of us might even have streaming media blocked.) Remember, we get a large volume of emails, so by the next day yours is buried under all the others. If you'd sent a download link we could have already added your music to our iTunes and listened to it a few times through. But now your email is lost in the great black hole, and we might not get back to it.
Also let us know if it is ok to post a song for download. Readers are more likely to come see you if they have a chance to hear you first. If you don't want to allow a download, have your music on ReverbNation, SoundCloud, or another service that enables embedding so that we can embed a player in our post.
If you want to give us a physical copy of your CD, do so in person (at the Rock 'n' Roll Social, perhaps – more on that below). Otherwise we prefer receiving music via email over physical copies by mail.
6. SEND US OTHER MEDIA
Have a new music video? Send us the embed code. Have some recent live photos? Send us a link to the online gallery. (Make sure you tell us the photographer's name so we can credit them!)
7. GIVE US TIME
Again, we all have day jobs, so if we get a submission about a show happening in two days we may not be able to get something posted in time. Give us at least a week's notice. If you give us a lot of advance notice, follow up in the week leading up to the event to remind us. Often we prepare posts over the weekend for the full week ahead.
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Here are a few supplemental general tips we think are worthy.
Come to the Rock 'n' Roll Social! This monthly event (which we attend) is extremely valuable for local bands. It's a chance to be in a room with other local musicians, music bloggers, radio hosts, etc. There's lots of meeting, greeting and networking going on, you can physically hand a copy of your CD to people who might play it on local radio shows or write about it on their blogs, and from our end, we're a lot more likely to care about your band if we've made a face-to-face connection with you. The Social is held on the second Tuesday of every month at the Model Cafe in Allston. It's scheduled for 7-10pm, but a lot of people linger afterwards.
Have a respectable web presence. If you're unable to have your own band website, use the tools that are out there like ReverbNation, BandCamp, etc. (The Lights Out have a strong web presence – see the top of their homepage for a good reference.) Have a Facebook page for your band, and create Facebook events for your shows. (Coordinate with the other bands on the bill so that you don't have multiple events for the same show!) And, as far as that dirty M word goes... we HATE MySpace and we do our best to avoid it. You need to have more than just a MySpace page to be taken seriously. A little tough love for ya there.
Have good band photos and/or other artwork! Put some thought into it. Avoid cliche band photos involving railroad tracks, brick/graffiti walls, chain link fences, etc. Come up with a concept or do something interesting. Five guys standing there is pretty stale. Five guys standing there each looking in a different direction is pretty lame. Do something.
Need professional band photos, show posters or a website? Here are some good local people we recommend:
Kelly Davidson: band photography (promo, live)
Joshua Pickering: band photography (promo, live)
Johnny Arguedas: band photography (promo, live)
Nicole Anguish/DayKamp Creative: graphic/web design
Jesse Salucci/Creative Outlaw: graphic/web design
Jessica Sun Lee: graphic/web design
