Stamp of approval...

Getting your Indie CD reviewed, whether in print or online, can be quite a challenge. You have to be aware that your CD and its accompanying press kit will be arriving along with countless others, and that the odds are largely against you. There's no guarantee that anyone will actually listen to it, let alone assign it for review.

When I send out a package, I know that there's a certain amount of luck involved. I'm fully cognizant of the fact that there's every chance that my album might be doomed to sit unopened in an anonymous pile of similar submissions, or be unceremoniously tossed into an already overflowing waste paper basket, after a perfunctory audition. I also know and accept that an editor may well indeed give it a fair and open-minded listen, and decide that it's crap, and pass on it. It might be that you caught him on a bad day; it could be that he picked the wrong track, and that the previous one would have knocked his socks off. Or... it really might just be crap.

Either way, you have to accept it, move on to the next victim, and not take the rejection personally. Conversely, you have to really enjoy and appreciate it when you actually do land a review. I certainly made sure that I took the time to savour the following review from the Scottish-based website Penny Black Music . I caught him on a good day, apparently.