I find myself in a bit of personal quandry. Every once in awhile I get an e-mail from an unsigned band or a PR person asking for me to check out material for review.So far most of the stuff that comes through is pretty damn good. I've been turned on to bands like Hemoptysis, Legacy of Disorder, and Ana Kefr to name a few. But occasionally I get an e-mail from a band that's struggling to make themselves seen and heard and I can't bring myself to review their work. At least in print where it goes out to the public.
One reason is the band is a part of a genre I generally don't like. Sometimes I get e-mails from people that have obviously never seen the site and the music is out in left field. But then I get an e-mail from a band that seems to be intriguing enough to check out and it's really just not very good at all upon listening.
So here are my questions in regards to this and maybe I can get some feedback on the proper course of action or preferred direction.
Do I respond back at all? I mean, how many other websites got the same e-mail and does it even matter if they get a response that says no thank you?
If I should respond do I tell them no thank you and why not? As in constructive criticism or just say no thanks. I mean I really do want to tell some of these bands what I think but then I don't want to be an asshole that thinks too much of myself to give back more info then is needed.
So though I've been around for over 3 years I've only taken TDM to the next level over the past 6 months therefore I'm still not 100 percent on proper etiquette for stuff like this. This is where you come in. Give me some input on what direction I should take on not giving press out in the comments below por favor. Gracias.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
A Question of Edicate: Rejecting Band Submissions
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6 comments:
Personally, I try to respond to every email, and if the band isn't something that I normally would listen to (the band Hemoptysis you mentioned is one of them) and I tell them that. Either they don't answer or (in Hemoptysis' case) they respond with a 'thanks anyway.'
I don't get that much on the submission side yet, only one or two albums a week, so it's not a problem to go through each one. If you were getting a couple a day, I could see how it would be an issue.
My problem is actually listening to the music I'm sent. I have a list that keeps getting larger but thus far I only get to about one album every other week or so. The list is growing faster then I'm listening. That is the problem I need to figure out...
I try to sample the music and if it's something I'm not interested in, then I just don't bother. Most bands go to one site and send them an email and then go down sites on blog rolls and send them the same thing. Don't feel ashamed of not getting back to them because if their music sucks then they need to get used to rejection anyway.
Etiquette????
Oh yeah, AND my two cents. I think these people should know why you're not giving them the time of day.. I'm sure a lot of people would think "oh, he just hasn't read my e-mail yet?" if you were to just ignore it.
Let them know they suck and to stop wasting their parent's time and money, because you know - it doesn't pay to suck.. unless you're a whore, but then your daddy gets all your money anyways.
I am starting to get more and more submissions, so I've been thinking about this a lot myself. I'm a little different in that not that much of my content is dedicated to reviews, but I'm hoping to change that this year, so I'm keen to keep people submitting stuff.
I wrote out a standard acknowledgement letter, which basically says, thanks for sending me your shit, I get way more submissions than I can ever write about, but I'll give your stuff a listen and I'll let you know if it appears on my site. I make sure to address it to the person who sent it (no "dear band" shite) and make the first line personal. So far, that's working for me.
Thanks for the feedback everybody. So the majority so far is to at least answer back with something. Good to know.
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