About Your Music

 

I have been reluctant to post this, but the situation hasn't improved, in fact it has got worse. I Don't Hear A Single marches to its own beat, it has no outside influences and is free for everyone, but people may not realise that I have a real life job, so time is limited that I can spend on IDHAS.

It has become incredibly popular in the limited genres that it covers and so takes a lot of work. I deal with artists, labels and PR daily. Most of the music that I select to review is discovered by me discovering it under my own steam. I listen to a lot of music, most unsuited, to get to the reviews that I do.

I also introduced Listening To This Week 9 months ago to aid artists who only recorded single songs and made it submission only, so there are a lot of submissions to go through too, as well as answering 200+ emails a day and messages via many other channels. Plus, some of you may know that I help out at a well known label. 

When I review an album, I mention it on the IDHAS Social Media and then it is left to the artist to build on any attention. Some do, some don't, but that is the artists choice. Constantly sending single after single is never gonna work for the site. This place is about opening a door for artists, it is up to them what they do after that.

Over 7 years, the site has got more and more popular, it is currently up for three awards, but it covers a very limited remit. I wish artists would look at what it does before submitting anything, because so much music that is sent is completely different to what is covered. 

I made the decision not to be on Spotify, Apple Music etc because I find them soulless places and the type of music and artist that we cover won't achieve much interest in the streaming melee. I made the decision earlier this year to stop replying to people who just sent me a Spotify link. If you want help with your music, then at least look at what IDHAS does. 

There is an even bigger problem. I understand that an artist's music is precious to them and that they will only be interested in what happens to their music. But multiply that interest many many times and you will get some idea of the amount of reminders I get and I have no problem with that.

What I will no longer accept are passive aggressive emails because I haven't yet covered an album. This happens much more frequently and I will now delete the album from the review folder if I receive such nonsense. IDHAS is not a business, it doesn't work for you and it is not a PR agency.

As I said, I march to my own beat. I won't review anything that I don't like and in a single month, I can cover around 25 album reviews, compile 4 Listening To This Weeks and 2 IDHAS 10 Song Mixes. There are currently 123 albums that I like that I would like to review and this rarely goes down. As 25 are reviewed, 25 more come in.

I tend to edge towards first time reviews, but I do have favourite bands etc and any album they release is gonna interest me, unless of course I don't like it as much as others that need to be reviewed. Most of my time is spent listening to music and so writing about it has even less time.

I love what I do and the people I know and meet. Most are wonderful people who share the love of music that I have and are grateful of any attention that IDHAS gives them. But people who are not patient and won't play nice will be given short shrift from now on. The one take I can provide is that IDHAS is not just about you, it is about everyone and most importantly, the music.

On with the show!

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