Getting Reviews Online

Dec 9

Written By Marc Soucy

(note: NO A.I. has been used in the creation of this post. This is 100% my writing. Thank you for reading!)

GETTING MUSIC REVIEWS IN 2024-2025

In this day and age, what with AI creeping into everything and scams and misrepresentations popping up seemingly everywhere, it’s understandable that there can be skepticism about what you read. I certainly feel that same skepticism. I am constantly weighing what someone says or writes against my other knowledge of the facts, and when those are lacking I do some research. You should too.

That said, the process by which I get so many music reviews so quickly is a bit of a mystery for most. I want to explain it to you. Maybe you will find this useful somehow, if at least only to better understand a small corner of our new global music paradigm, and today’s marketing in general.

I, as Marc Soucy, recording artist and composer, have worldwide music distribution for the STIR series with a company called Symphonic Distribution. They evaluate, legally clear, and distribute the audio song files and legal information to practically every streaming and download platform in the world. They do provide other services, but getting reviews is not one of them. For that, I have to submit my music to others: music promotion services.

Music promotion services vary a lot, and the results and experience for me personally has been extremely so. I have been using three such services: Groover, Musosoup, and SubmitHub. All three have huge numbers—hundreds in fact—of playlist curators, music journalists, bloggers, and other influencers that they have a direct conduit to. These individuals and teams make a part of their living managing playlists and collecting small revenue streams for their efforts. I pay small fees to them for their time, but never am I asked for money to get a good review. That hasn’t even come up ever. If the influencers don’t want to cover my piece, they simply don’t. If they don’t like it, I usually don’t hear about it. They do by necessity an extreme level of multitasking and work very fast to be able to survive financially. This makes the result kind of spotty to be honest.

I’ve seen a lot of examples of “coverage” having been thrown together with not enough attention to the actual music, or to the spelling and grammar for that matter. Copying and pasting has happened too often. Here and there though, people who consider themselves true music journalists make the effort, and I really appreciate them when they do. Their coverage has been superb for me, and these are the articles I quote on my website and in my promotional efforts. Every word is quoted verbatim and I provide links to the full original reviews anywhere it’s technically possible. (Some platforms don’t let you do that, like Instagram).

I have not ever been “panned” or had negative comments other than the song isn’t “what they do”, or is too long or too dramatic and emotional for their platform.

I’ll take that as a compliment. — Marc