I just got one of these emails from different companies that distributes lists to various things like record labels, bloggers, radio stations and so on. The problem with these lists is that it’s just a list. It’s handy if you don’t want to spend time going around on the internet to find the info there (yes all these lists contain is info that is online).

The reality is that you need the background information around an address to understand how you should approach them. Just take a list and send out a generic mail to everyone will not get you anywhere. I do that sometimes and the results are very slim.

I just help one of my bands secure a video premiere. Sure they have some highlights, but not that many they just started. But with my knowledge, I know that there is around 3 or 4 that actually would premiere the video. So I send in total 8 emails and used a submission service (yes I paid a small amount to get in front of the queue) and got 6 answers back a premier and a blog post for the cost of 6 dollars.

The trick was that I knew what was interesting for these blogs. I have been on their site looking what it looks like and have checked out how they wanted material and what kind of links and info they needed. Did I need a list for that, not really! I know which ones that people count as good and have a reasonable amount of readers. But the big part was that I knew what was making them tick.

Even if you buy the list of 3000 bloggers you have to get through 3000 pages, and if you do that well then you can skip the list you will do the work anyway.

Most of the time also why these list doesn’t work is mainly since the material you send in doesn’t have a story. Of course, if you put in Imagine Dragons new single to 3000 blogs asking them to write, you will get a lot of answers. Mainly because Imagine Dragons have a great story and many of the readers want to read about new music from them. Still, if you had the premiere of Imagine Dragons you can contact much better sites to have a premiere with.

Most hope that their good music would fix the problem with the story. But it’s not, there is too much good music out there so there will be that you look for the story first. So here comes the chicken and the egg. You need a story to get your music out, but you cant get the story since you don’t have one and it’s here you need to professionals, they have favors and trusts from the first ones to start building. That is hard for a new artist to replace.