The Ripple Effect receives stacks of CD’s and gazillabytes of digital files every day. Trust us, we want to hear your music. We aim to post our reviews in a timely manner, usually 6 to 8 weeks from the time of submission, but there are only so many of us. That means it's impossible to get to every disc that comes our way. To increase your chances of getting exposure on The Ripple Effect, understand these guidelines:
* Not all submissions will be reviewed. We have to totally love what a band is doing, feel it in our souls, to write a review. The goal of The Ripple Effect is to spread the word on the music we love, not every CD that comes to us. We're not critics, but music lovers. If the CD is mediocre or generic, if we don’t feel it, we won’t review it. The upside to you is we won’t publish a negative review. The upside to us is that we save our souls.
*Repeat. Not all submissions will be reviewed. We're not a review site, we're a music loving site. Don't bitch at us if we don't review your album. Please be professional. It means it didn't strike our hearts. That's our prerogative.
* No Digital Files lacking information. Send professionally completed, produced, finished products or exceptional demos. MAKE SURE YOUR DIGITAL FILES HAVE BAND NAME AND SONG TITLES. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a great song on my "to review" playlist only to find that it is "Song 1" from an un-named band. We can't review an album if we don't know the band name or song titles, now can we? I've thrown out tons of good music because of this mistake.
* We love vinyl, so feel free to send it in. Full albums, EP's or singles, it's all good. Did we say we love vinyl?
*Just to clarify: we place emphasis on the submissions that demonstrate a significant effort and quality. In order, we will always review vinyl first, then CD, then digital submissions. D.I.Y. efforts are always appreciated and taken seriously here at the Ripple.
* In general, for first contact with us, send us streaming link, not a download. If we like it, we may request a download for review.
* Write us when you submit, introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you. People we like tend to get their CD's placed on the top of the stack.
*To Submit to the VINYL OF THE WEEK Column, just drop us a line about your project.
So why put up with these guidelines? Quite simply, The Ripple Effect is growing exponentially. We're over 3,000,000 individual readers. We’re listed as one of the top 10 Music Sites in the world, ranked as one of the Top 5 music sites by GuitarWorld Magazine, and the number one ranked music site by Jemsite, home of Ibanez Guitars! When we get behind a band, we get behind them 100% and cross-reference the reviews like crazy in many different forums to help spread the word. Our posts are syndicated across the web on such major sites as Guitar World, USA Today, en Blog, paperblog, and the MOG Network. Also, getting reviewed in The Ripple Effect nearly guarantees your music to be played on the vastly popular Ripple Radio Show, one of the featured music shows at Blogtalkradio.
We don’t wish to discourage you, but we all need to understand the limitations of what we can do. If you’d like to send us your music, drop us an email first. Tell us a little about your musical style so we can assign the best reviewer for you. Be nice, make us laugh, and we'll love you.
Peace and best success for your music. – The Ripple Effect