Chapter 16:Finding music bloggers in your genre

In the music industry these days, blogging has managed to become the word on everybody’s lips, with artists wanting to be endorsed by the best bloggers in the business, and bloggers wanting to be in contact with the people who make the music directly.

Securing coverage on blogs is becoming just as important as securing coverage in print media and artists appreciate the genuine aspect of blogging, as well as the cool persona that bloggers have developed for themselves; they don’t have to please an editor, so what they write has the potential to be more evocative and significant.

Blogs are constantly popping up and evolving, meaning that there is always potential out there for you to be featured by bloggers that fall into your niche. When it comes to identifying bloggers, it is important to look for the ones that enjoy the type of music that you play.

Due to the sheer volume of blogs out there, many artists are fooled into thinking that shortlisting the bloggers in their genre is like looking for a needle in a haystack, however, it is much easier than what it seems and doesn’t take nearly as much as time as what you probably imagine.

Google similar artists to yourself

Whilst this shouldn’t be used as a means of copying other artists, taking a look at the coverage that other artists in the same genre as you have achieved is a good way of seeing what outlets are available.

Note what kind of things each individual blogger tends to like writing about more and what topics they like to cover and take it into consideration when you get in touch; don’t be generic as blogs are very individual, so you should approach the writer in the same way.

Blog aggregators

Quite possibly one of the best little tools to make its way onto the internet, a blog aggregator is an extremely easy way of finding blogs that fall into a certain niche.

A good blog aggregator example is Hypem.com and once you are logged onto the page you will be able to see some of the best blogs in the business and the ones that are directly linked to what you are looking for. All that you have to when you land on the site is simply type in a band that you categorise yourself as being in the same niche as and the results will show you a list of blogs are related.

Don’t be scared to ask

Having a good fan following has its perks and one of them is being able to ask them for instantaneous feedback on topics. As fans of music, chances are that they may follow blogs that you don’t know about and could potentially fit in with.

Put a message out via social media asking your fans whose writing they like to read and what blogs they enjoy; using this method of research is also allowing you to give the fans what they want by collaborating with outlets that they already read.

Be social media savvy

Twitter is a fantastic way of sourcing blog writers and by simply typing in your music genre, you will be thrown up a whole list of users who are talking about it, writing about it and also have blogs on it.

Even if your search doesn’t throw up immediate blogger results, go through the people that users who are talking about this music are following; chances are that they will have people on there that can be of good use to you.

Search for writers and not just blogs

Many writers will not just be exclusively affiliated with one blog, so googling something like ‘rock music bloggers’ will feedback results to you of people who write about rock music and where they do it.

Visit the blogs that are in the results list and take a look at the recommended pages that also appear. Many bloggers will follow other bloggers via their site, so take a look at follow lists on blogging platforms to see who the writers think are worth following.

Think out of the box; don’t just go for the most well known blogs

There are many blogs that are prolific and operate with a great level of prestige that has been built up quite literally from scratch. However, it is important not just to target the market leaders in blogging and also cast your net over the smaller, less established outlets; everybody has to start somewhere and the big, highly regarded blogs were once just an unknown web of words, too.