As a publicist, I'm the one who has to pitch, re-pitch, and sometimes twist arms to get your cd reviewed in a magazine or on a website. Unfortunately, I'm also the one who has to bare the bad news when a journalist says "no thanks." I asked a magazine editor at one of the most esteemed urban magazines for the top 3 reasons he opts not to review a CD, other than the music is subpar. Drum roll, please....1. The pr person/label sends a mixtape, hoping for a CD review. This happens a lot these days since mixtapes are more popular than ever. But a mixtape is a promotional tool for the most part, not something that's going to garner a lot of ink.
2. The album release date is the same month--or week-- I get the CD. We plan 3-4 months in advance so we need CDs that far in advance too.
3. The cover art looks like something my brother made in collage class.
As an editor at a quarterly publication I can say the #1 reason I turn down an album review is timing. If something doesn't fit in the window of when we're going to be on newsstands it won't make it in.
ReplyDeleteOn the flipside I am constantly amazed at the number of publicists who are so tight with their advances that they turn down coverage because they don't want to send out a CD or a stream early. Wassup with that?