Hello my name is Michael and I do music reviews. I have been doing reviews for quite some time although never affiliated with a particular periodical or website. Being an amateur musician myself I was told many times that I need “reviews” for my press kit. However trying to land said reviews was like trying to get my father to loan me $5, REALLY HARD. So because I like music of ALL GENRES and l like to write reviews I started the following page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Music-Reviews/708341272558992
I highly recommend checking out my page. You can see what and how I write there.
And now with request I have also started this blog.
http://musicreviewsbymichael.blogspot.com
Is this for you?
If you or someone you know might be interested please like the page and message me. I REVIEW ALL GENRES, I want to make that clear. I LOVE ALL MUSIC. So yeah if you do classical or even if you perform playing a kick drum with a kazoo and spoons I’m down with that. I will review single songs, music videos, live video performances, EP and LP’s. If you don’t hear back from me right away don’t be discouraged. I do work a day job and have a family if you message me I will get to you. If a week goes by and you don’t hear anything message me again. I do get to every request. Maybe the message got lost in the “internet shuffle” or I was hitting delete to quickly through all the spam. Sorry I am human. lol
Do the recordings have to be “studio quality”?
The simple answer is no. If you have a basement demo or a live single camera video recording that is fine. Now, if I can’t hear all the elements to the song to my satisfaction I will probably decline that recording because I want to be able to give your recording the best possible review. If all I can hear is muffled vocals and a grossly loud drum kit that isn’t going to let me write a good review of the song. That said I am VERY understanding as far as audio quality. Best thing to do is shoot me a message with a link. I will listen and if I can do it I will say so, if not, then I will say so politely.
What do you get?
I do two types of reviews. You can get one or the other or both if you desire. 1. Public - This means that I review your song on the basis of your song. I review the art of it and the talents of the band. I refuse to write reviews that just rip on bands and their songs. I have respect for artists. Say someone sends me a song that deals with a subject that I don’t like. I won’t rip the song. I will still review with respect the elements and the art of the song. I like to review songs not spew any social/political/artistic views on anyone else’s art. When the review is done I post one copy on this blog (which I share on my twitter feed), one to my timeline on Facebook, I message the artist with a copy and I post one on the artists Facebook or Reverbnation (if they have one). If you don’t like it, tell me and we will throw everything away like it never even happened but I will not edit my review with opinions from the artist.
2. Critique of an artists abilities. I have done this a lot and have gotten lots of positive feedback. Sometimes an artist can be so close to their work that they might not see the weak point. Basically what I do is review the song and collect and note the positives but I will also give suggestions on areas where the artist might want to change, strengthen or remove certain elements. No one likes the barer of bad news but again, I won’t rip on an artist or song, I will merely act as a “advisor” on what could help the artist be better. These reviews I don’t make public. I send them to the artist and if they want to put them out they can. These reviews are a dialog between me and the artist and if the artist chooses to share them they can.
So if an artist contacts me what do they need?
1. A link to the song in question be it a link on Facebook, reverberation, youtube, sound cloud or bandcamp. I got to be able to get to the art so I can hear it. Please don’t email me attachments. I being an artist myself I don’t have the disk space to download tons of material and its really easy to have it somewhere online where I can hear it.
2. You don’t have to have a page or profile for the act. If you do then I will post it on your timeline unless you asking for a critique and not a review. Reviews I post to timelines, critiques I message to you, but you do need somewhere I can send it to.
3. Background info, I don’t want a novel, but if you have lyrics great! A sentence or two about the artist and what the song is about that can be very helpful to have to reference when writing the review. Again don’t send tons of info. 2 or 3 sentences of background info MAX! I do this in my free time and for free of charge so if you send me a 15 page bio I will not have time to read it.
THAT’S IT!
Now that being said I love music and memorabilia you want to send me a t-shirt or a cd or sticker in the mail, cool. LOL It’s not going to get you a better review or anything but again I do this for free of charge. I make no money off of it, so if you want to send something to show appreciation cool. If not cool too, the only thing that will affect the review is the song itself. The biggest thanks you can do is to share the page with all your friends.
If you have any other questions just ask.
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