Overheard at the band meeting: “Shit! We paid that publicist thousands of dollars to send our album to critics and bloggers, but nobody wrote about us. How come?”
Well, maybe it’s because in their press release, your publicist included a link to a folder with the generic label ‘MP3’ — like the one above that landed in my email today. Sure, they could have put your name on the folder. Or the album title. Or even their own name. They could have included your cover art or press release in the folder to identify you. But they didn’t do any of that. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
I can only presume they don’t appreciate the fact that I — like everyone who writes about music — get dozens of albums sent to me every day. Sometimes people submit several in one email. So I am constantly downloading albums and EPs and singles by the handful. And I don’t always have the time or the forethought to check the label on every download.
Then, a few days later, when I notice I’ve got a bunch of folders named Songs or Album or Music or MP3s or Tracks in my downloads file, guess what I do? I delete them, and go listen to something with a proper label. So your music goes unheard. And the money you spent on that publicist goes down the drain.
Sadly, this isn’t even remotely unusual. I typically get a few of these no-name folders almost every day. And to be honest, the one above isn’t even the worst example. Sometimes, along with no album title or artist info, the tracks don’t even have titles or metadata. If you think anybody’s going to listen to that and try to figure out who you are and where your music came from, you are sadly mistaken.
Maybe you want to hire a better publicist next time.
Just sayin’.
