12 Tips on How to Premiere Your Music on a Metal Website
We don’t talk one-on-one much, do we? Hi, my name’s Chris, and I’ve been Emperor Rhombus on MetalSucks for a while now. I’ve also written for Kerrang!, Revolver, The Pit, Invisible Orange (remember Scab Casserole? That’s me), Rolling Stone, and Noisey. I have over a decade of experience as a rock journalist, with metal as my primary focus.
In this time, I’ve done a ton of premieres, which are some of the more fun and rewarding things I get to do, because I’m either breaking a song by a big band, or giving a smaller act some coverage, which feels like fighting the good fight. But premieres are consistently problematic for me, because it often seems like bands and/or their people aren’t aware of the requirements and expectations that go with them.
So, here are 10 helpful tips for you if you’re looking to premiere a song or album on a metal website, and on MetalSucks specifically. And for the record, I’d watch this video by former MetalSucks writer Finn McKenty before thinking that a premiere is even a good idea:
Still down? Okay, here we go…
The song/album needs to be exclusive to the site
A premiere needs to work for us as well as for you — unless you’re a massive band, there needs to be a reward for us in the form of clicks. So please make sure that your track is exclusive to us for 24 hours after we post it, or that the album is exclusively streaming on our site until its release.
Have a private embed or an unlisted YouTube link ready
This is the most common question I get: what format should a premiere be in? The easiest is probably an unlisted YouTube link, which we can usually plug right into a post. Next is an embed code for your track/album that’s private to us. Remember, exclusivity is key. Meanwhile, don’t ask us to actually host the file on our site or YouTube channel unless we’ve talked that deal out well beforehand. Rarely is that possible, at least for the sites I’ve worked for.
Send us a hi-res, color band photo
Guys, I know. I know your black-and-white ultra-blurry band photo looks awesome, and feels Lynchian and mysterious. But that shit dies on social media. A color photo of the band that’s at least 1000×1000 pixels is really preferable. It looks better for you AND the site. Color. Can’t stress that enough.
Make your band photo stand out in some way
That said, does your photo have to be five dudes standing in a line? HELL no! Have fun with your band photos, and we’ll love you for it. Band members at an ancient graveyard? Great! The band dressed as toppings on a giant pizza? Fucking brilliant! We love a fun photo, so long as it’s in color, and hi-res.
Do a Q&A as part of the premiere
Look, if you’re not a band who’s getting a feature written about them, doing a Q&A is the next best thing to a full-on interview. It also allows us to fill out your premiere. Most smaller posts need 300 words or more for SEO purposes, so this gives journalists an easy way to pad their premieres. AND it gives you a free interview!
Make the Q&A either with ‘the band’ or just one member of the band
Getting everyone’s opinion is important, yes. But when we send over five questions, and every member of your sextet has responded at length to each one, it’s tedious. Plus, with most bands, a lot of the answers are the same, because you’ve been working together on this project for months. We want that word count, but a 1,000-word premiere is a bit much.
If you can’t do a Q&A, offer a significant quote about the song or album
Again, this is about word count and making sure the band is represented. Two lines about a song is fine, but a solid 100 words is better. This one isn’t exactly dire, but it’s helpful.
Bother us relentlessly if something’s not right
Metal journalists are as flawed as any other individuals, if not more so. Assume a baby with broken fingers is writing your premiere. If your premiere doesn’t go up on time, or something is wrong with our embed, or if you haven’t heard from us for a while, holler at us. Find a way to call us, if you can. We’d rather field a million confirmation e-mails than fuck this up and hurt our relationship with you.
Drive traffic to the site — not to the YouTube link or streaming service
Similar to the exclusivity note above, when you send out press releases or post about the premiere on social media, please drive traffic to the premiere article, not YouTube or streaming services. That fosters a good relationship with your premiere host, and will make journalists think that featuring your band is a good idea. And it’s also helpful because…
Don’t be surprised if a site takes down your premiere because you didn’t make it exclusive or drive traffic to them
Look, if you didn’t already know, being in a metal band, running a metal website — it’s all business at a certain level. So if a journalists takes the time to write up your track and then premiere it, and then you make the YouTube link public and steer all traffic towards that instead of the post, they’re going to feel had, and probably pissed off, and they’ll take it down. Help with the give and take, and we’ll do the same.
Warning: it might not end up on Facebook
Facebook is where a lot of metal sites get their traffic, even if it’s a haven of angry dads selling weird veteran T-shirts. And because of how the algorithm works, posting something that will without a doubt do poorly on Facebook hurts our reach and engagement. So if you’re in a smaller band, we might promote you on Twitter or even Instagram, but Facebook just might not happen. It’s nothing personal, it’s just how these sites work.
Feel free to send us notes or tweaks!
Once again, we are far from perfect people. If we’ve misspelled something — doesn’t even have to be a band name or whatever, if there’s just a dumbass typo — hit us up. Also feel free to send us notes about, say, the headline or the photo. A premiere is a two-way street, and if you feel something is being twisted or poorly construed, please contact us directly. We may not jump at every request — if you demand to be called the greatest band of all time, we’ll probably roll our eyes — but within reason, we’re 99.999% of the time down to make a change, if we’re contacted.
