Eric Taft

After polishing your tracks and booking your shows, promotion is one of the hardest parts of being a successful band or musician.

Not everyone has the budget for a big time PR firm so sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. But where do you start?

When it comes to music blogs, publishers want new content all the time but it has to fit their style and theme of their site. So to get you started I put together a list of 9 local music blogs that focus on Washington D.C. and Maryland local music.

Research these blogs, learn the style of the writers, find out what they like to hear, craft a good email and start being your own PR firm.

D.C. Music Download

This blog publishes very frequently (a few times a day sometimes) about bands and local musicians in the D.C. area. They also put on shows occasionally. They do everything from interviews, photos and tracks to live show and album reviews. They have almost 1,500 likes on Facebook so getting featured here could really amp up your exposure. This is definitely one of the top blogs on this list that you’ll want to spend some time cultivating a relationship with.

Website: http://dcmusicdownload.com/
Submission policy: http://dcmusicdownload.com/contactus/
Facebook | Twitter

Pasta Primavera

This blog is run by Baltimore native Laurent Hrybyk. He posts a lot of indie rock and punk bands from the Baltimore area, but he doesn’t limit himself to local stuff. The content is posted pretty infrequently but maybe if you had something amazing to offer it would earn a post. 🙂

Website: http://www.pastaprima.net/
Submission policy: Pasta Primavera is a Baltimore based independent music blog run by me, Laurent Hrybyk. If you wish to submit something to me please send it to info [at] pastaprima.net.
Facebook | Twitter

New Dust

New Dust describes itself as a blog the covers electronic, indie rock and vintage music. They post about once a day so you have a good chance of getting included if you put together a nice outreach email. Even though they cover some well-known national acts, they say in their bio that they are always looking for good underground and undiscovered bands so pitch them real quick on why you’re unique, your ties to D.C. and send them the best track you’ve got.

Website: http://www.newdust.com/
Submission policy: http://www.newdust.com/about
Facebook | Twitter

Local Music Maryland

This blog focuses more on promoting local Maryland bands through social media. Their blog is mostly populated by their Twitter stream. Your best best is probably to reach out to them through Twitter or Facebook and share your story. They do publish about events in the area so this is a good place to promote your next show in Maryland.

Website: http://www.localmusicmaryland.com/
Submission policy: Email Jason@LocalMusicMaryland.com
Facebook | Twitter

Listen Local First

This site is bent on promoting the local music scene of D.C. They pay special attention to shows and events so definitely reach out to them before your next live appearance. They have a good amount of partnerships with some local venues as well so you could reach out to those for some shows in hopes of getting LLF interested in your music.

Website: http://www.localmusicmaryland.com/
Submission policy: Email listenlocalfirst@gmail.com
Facebook | Twitter

Fuzzy Logic

Another D.C.-based blog run by one girl, Megan. Every week she highlights upcoming shows in the area, a gold mine for promoting your upcoming bill. The music she covers is pretty eclectic and she has a fairly strong Facebook and Twitter following. Check the submission policy below and start the conversation on the right foot.

Website: http://www.logicfuzzy.com/
Submission policy: Preferred format for music is Soundcloud/Bandcamp. If I love what I hear and want more, I’ll request mp3s. Tell me about you, why you think I’ll love you, and please be sure to get the name of the blog right. 🙂 Email all submissions to info@logicfuzzy.com.
Facebook | Twitter

Brightest Young Things

This site might be a little more difficult to get the attention of, but they are focused on D.C. entertainment and music so you might just have a shot. What’s more, they have an event submission section so even if you don’t get featured in the blog, at least head there to promote your next couple of shows. Make sure when you’re pitching more professional sites like this that you give the staff/editor something real juicy to sink their teeth into. Tell them why you’re unique and describe your sound to them, but keep it short and sweet. The easier you make their job, the more likely they’ll be to respond, or, more importantly, write about you.

Website: http://brightestyoungthings.com
Submission policy: Register to post an event or check out the the two DC staff editors on this page and try reaching out to them.
Facebook | Twitter

The Deli

The Deli has a presence in a lot of major cities and luckily D.C. is one of them. This is a great site to take advantage of because they are pretty serious about submissions and they make it sound like if you are located in one of the regions they cover (like D.C.) they’ll pay some special attention to your music and get it in front of their editors (fingers crossed). They say they cover pretty much anything but do your research and see what kinds of artists they publish and the kinds of things they say about them. Try to match your submission and outreach to their style.

Website: http://washington.thedelimagazine.com/
Submission policy: Go here.
Facebook | Twitter

DC Music Live

I included this site for a couple reasons. They seem passionate, they post semi-frequently and they are a local music blog with some focus. Lately they seem to cover bands that have been in the D.C. circuit for a while and even though they list a good number of genres in their menu, they seem to be folk/rock heavy lately.

Website: http://dcmusiclive.com/
Submission policy: http://dcmusiclive.com/about/staff
Facebook | Twitter

Wrap Up

When you’re emailing these writers, remember these few simple rules and you’ll have a much better chance of your music being picked up:

• Be humble
• Be yourself
• Keep it short and sweet – you should be able to say everything you need to in about 5 sentences
• Link to your site, soundcloud, social media, etc. – make their job as easy as possible
• Follow up after a week if you haven’t heard back – it never hurts!