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This is a guest post contributed by John Cronin of The Minimalist Music, a music blog focusing on independent artists.

Every new artist needs to know how to submit their music to music blogs. This article shares some essential tips to help artists prepare for submitting their music to blogs.

What we’ll cover today:

• Blog SEO and what to look out for
• How to find relevant music blogs
• 6 key tips for great music submissions

Blog SEO – what to look out for

Before we get to the article, I want to skip ahead to something I thought was important to look for: Getting a request for a review of your music. There is a key aspect a musician should look for and inquire about when considering music blogs. It’s nothing too invasive but, in my opinion, it is not common.

I want to introduce you to the most important aspect of what makes small music blogs turn into successful blogs, such as Dancing Astronaut. That is what is called SEO.

SEO, aka Search Engine Optimisation, is a very important piece of any blog and not just a music blog. I learned very early in my time as a blogger that views are nice…but active views are even better.

So long story (VERY) short, what are you looking for in a blog’s SEO?

• Bounce Rate: The percentage of views that leave without taking action. The lower the percentage the better.
• Exit Rate: The percentage of exits from a page. The lower the percentage the better. Do not glance over this for this is commonly confused with Bounce Rate. 
• New Users: Viewers that have never been to a page. The reports will typically state how many new users they get per month.
• Organic Users: The amount of viewers that find the blog through a search on any search engine. The reports will typically review how many organic users they get per month. Even if you think you know alot about organic searches, I would always search for the meaning of this subject…The more you know, the better.
• Overall SEO Ranking: The position in the search engine results page – The higher the score, the better but a healthy score is in between 80-100 typically. This is a nifty tool I have recently found and no,I will not share my score… Unless you ask politely and privately.

How to find relevant music blogs

With that said, how does a musician submit their blog to music blogs…Easy, you may think,

“Just google search ‘music blogs’”, you may say.

Well, not exactly. 

I suggest that if you want to see the most success, then download Keywords Everywhere. This plugin allows access to keyword metrics (click link for what that means). 

From there, try to reach out on their social media. If they respond, then ask them about the things I’ve mentioned above. I would then suggest making a list of the ones who do respond and rank them according to their stats!

6 key tips for great music submissions

So I can sit here and say “make your submissions look pretty and that’ll do really well!”

After talking to my friend Joe Carroll, solo artist and lead singer from Heroes in Hiding, he mentioned 6 key points. 

1. A recent photograph of the artist or group that is professionally taken and edited. This will help give a good first impression and catch the eye of DJs and bloggers/journalists 
2. Title and Release Date of Single/EP/Album. Also, include a short paragraph describing the genre and style of the release
3. A quick bio about the artist or group showing off what you’ve achieved to date and outlining your genre/style
4. Also, add in a couple of your favorite artists that have inspired you so the reader can get an idea of what you might sound like. Keep it nice and short though 4 artists max.
5. Add any positive quotes you have received from music journalists or DJs in the past.
6. Add in a link or attach a file so the music can be heard by the blogger, DJ or journalist. Also be sure to inform them of any gigs they might be able to attend.

Even though this article is short and sweet, which if you haven’t heard is basically every article I write on TMM, this information is absolutely vital to every and any artist who are trying to submit a submission to a music blog or community. I cant sit here and tell you what to do, and this article is not meant to do that at all. Allow this article to be a guide for all your submissions and I promise you you will get responses. 

I wish you good vibes and luck, and if you want to send a submission to my website please feel free to. I will try to get back to you no later than every Saturday!