I felt the need to write this post because so many artists fail to send me music correctly. This can be an annoyance to DJ’s, bloggers, podcasters, or anyone else on the receiving end of your delivery. You need to make the process of downloading and listening to your music require the least amount of effort. If this becomes difficult for the receiver, you may very well miss an opportunity to have it heard. Here a are a few dos and don’ts to take note of when sending your music out.
1. Label your mp3’s properly. Artists who rip their music from CD’s, end up with files that look like this, “01 Track 1“. I don’t know what the name of this song, and if I can’t connect it to the original email, I won’t know who the artist is either. Always rename your files so that they can be properly identified by the recipient or if they happen to be passed around.
The name of your mp3 files should look something like this. ..(Name of the song_Artist name.mp3). You should also tag your music. Tagging encodes additional information into your mp3 files like, the album, year and genre of music. You can do this without additional software but there are a few out there that make this process easier if you’re dealing with multiple files. Here are a few.
2. Unless you’re asked, don’t send send your entire album or mixtape. Dj’s and bloggers usually get a large number of submissions. And they don’t have time to wait for large files to download then sort through a number of songs to decide which one to play. Send your strongest single first. Only send the download link of your entire project as an option. If the receiver likes your single, then they can then chose to hear more.
3. Don’t send links that expire. I get this all the time. An artist sends me a link to their music and once I click on it, I receive a message that the download link has expired. Because of the large volume of submissions, it may take several days until your intended receiver gets the chance to download your file. Please avoid doing this unless you’re absolutely certain that the recipient will download the file within a few days.
Avoid these bad habits and you’ll be sure to give the receiver of you music one less headache and increase your chances of having it listened to,
