rawkblog:

Are you a band or musician? Would you like someone, anyone, to write about your music? Here is some advice.

(Note: This is for bands working D.I.Y. It is not a guide to finding a manager, a label or a publicist, though those are potentially worthwhile things and I would look for them in that…

Great stuff here, agree with the majority of it.  Seeing as I write about Japanese bands, I’ll chime in some advice for artists working on this side of the world (even if only a few of them will be able to read it)

1. Make videos for your music.  Not nearly enough DIY artists here do this, but I think it’s an absolutely essential part of breaking into the internet hype-cycle (which is what a lot of these young Japanese bands want, get attention from many places, not just domestically).  Bob from Ice Cream Shout once said “If you want a song to reach people over the computer it has to have a video,” and he’s right.  HNC, for example, has been getting a lot of blog exposure for “I Dream I Dead,” and the fact there is a video going along with it has only helped.   

2. Get off of MySpace!  Please, Japanese artists, embrace Soundcloud and Bandcamp (and I guess Audioleaf, though even that feels like a relic).  I used to be tolerant of MySpace, but now I don’t check it.  Even a Tumblr website works better.

3. David is exactly right when he says we “are all in this together” - even more so here in Japan, because it is a much smaller scene with way fewer blogs/publications.  So keep in touch and keep us updated about new releases - we want to write about them, really!  Keep in touch.

4. Related, but as David mentions, support the blogs/publications that cover you.  This can be as simple as a retweet on Twitter - if The Japan Times writes a review or feature about you, retweet it (and try to get your friends/label to share it too, the more the better right?). 

5. Last, don’t be afraid to branch out.  A lot of indie scenes in Japan can feel really cliquey and claustrophobic - it’s cool if you only want to make music for a small group of people, but if you want it to go bigger you need to branch out of this zone.  Mingle, connect!

I am now really tempted to talk with other Japanese music writers and put together a longer list…