How Not to Get Press Here

Mathematically speaking, most likely you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell at getting coverage here. But if you’re a good musician with something to say, you won’t be offended or deterred by the hostile tone of this page. New York Music Daily attempts to be a magnet for good music; unfortunately, magnets attract a whole lot of other shit. Which snowballs, and gets in the way of spending quality time with the good stuff and then spreading the word about it. So in order to minimize the time spent wading through the garbage, this is an attempt to discourage wannabes and posers from going any further. That’s right, posers – get lost.

Stylistically speaking, New York Music Daily covers a huge amount of ground. Take a look around: pull up the  front page (i.e. the ten most recent writeups), or check out the music index. It’s basically a rock blog, with frequent diversions into Americana of every stripe, reggae, the Balkans and the Middle East. The only styles of music that this blog as a rule DOES NOT COVER, EVER, are computerized music (a.k.a. “EDM”),  top 40, showtunes, opera and indie rock (“indie” being defined by tunelessness, whiny off-key vocals, inept timekeeping, meaningless lyrics and an emphasis on fashion or trendiness over artistic content -  you know the drill, Stereogum, Brooklynvegan, ad nauseum). If what you do is serious classical music (or unserious classical music) or jazz, you’ll have better luck at New York Music Daily’s older, more sober sister blog Lucid Culture.

What does your music do? Evoke a mood or explore an emotion? Tell a story, or a joke? Encourage people to question authority, or rebel against it? Offer solace? Give people a good excuse to party or dance? Give you and the rest of the band an excuse to party, or dance? Are you in a band because you can drink for free, or get laid? All of those are perfectly valid reasons to play music, and if yours is good, this might be a place where you can get some exposure. But if you’re in a band because you want to be famous, fit in with your peer group, reaffirm the status quo, get rich (which you won’t, by the way), or…drum roll…because you want to “express your feelings,” this is definitely NOT the place for you. Save yourself the embarrassment and the rest of the world the pain of having to hear about your precious feelings and keep that stuff in your diary.

If you’ve read this far and you’re undeterred, here’s how it works. Send an email (no texts – texters will be permanently banished from this site) with a  link to streaming audio or video to lucidculture [at] gmail [dot] com. Please – no Youtube videos with ads, no Facebook, and avoid Myspace  if you can. Bandcamp, Reverbnation and Soundcloud pages are all fine; your own fast-loading site with no pop-ups is fine too. If you’re strictly a live act and don’t have any recordings, that’s ok. Send an email with upcoming show dates and relevant info and if you’re good, you might get some ink here. If your streaming audio is sufficently intriguing, you’ll receive an email asking for a download of your album or whatever it is that you have available to audiences. If by chance you get an email asking for an actual cd, that means that a rave review is pretty much guaranteed, and that your cd will have a place in the permanent archive here. Which happens maybe a couple dozen times a year, max. Whenever possible, every attempt is made to time coverage here to live shows or album release dates that will benefit the artists involved – the more advance notice the better. .

A few other things you should know:

1. No Facebook links. Facebook is evil and deserves to die and that’s actually happening faster than you think right now.

2. For listings in the monthly NYC live music calendar, the geographical area is limited to the five boroughs of New York plus the honorary NY boroughs of Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ. Occasionally, tour schedules for exceptionally good acts may be posted here.

3. To submit a concert for upcoming concert calendar listings, please include the stage time (the time the music starts, not the time the doors open), date, venue and address, cover charge if applicable, appropriate links and brief description of the artist or event. If tickets are available in advance of showdate, please include the address of the box office, and if you know the hours it’s open, please include that information too. Please don’t submit listings for the calendar which A) feature lipsynching or prerecorded music rather than a live performance, B) cost more than about $35 (if you’re charging that much and you’re scrounging for a listing here, you’re in trouble), C) ticketed events where tickets are not available for cash or D) ticketed events where credit card customers are given preferential discounts over customers paying cash. Thanks!