If you’re interested in media exposure – as in, getting your music and your story out to blogs, newspapers and magazines –  you must first determine where you fit into the media landscape. It’s important that you figure out where your potentially fit into news outlets.

As we’ve mentioned many times in this blog, one of the first steps you must take as an indie artist is to narrow down a description of your music in an elevator pitch. Once you’ve nailed that, think about where you see your music fitting into the media.

Here are some steps to help:

Flip: Go to the bookstore or library and look at their magazine and newspaper section. Find the titles that interest you and flip through their pages. Look at the stories they write. Could you see yourself in those pages? Are you and your story a good fit? Why or why not?

Find Five: After you flip through some magazines and newspapers and surf through some blogs, narrow down five publications that you would be most appropriate for. Are you great for Brooklyn Vegan, Acoustic Guitar or XXL?

Follow: Keep your eye on the top publications that you pick. Follow their trends and their stories over time. See what they cover frequently and infrequently. Again ask yourself: where do I fit? What makes me stand out?

Finesse: Once you’re armed with the knowledge about where you fit into the media landscape, and you’ve narrowed down your top five and feel that you fully understand their scope of coverage, track down the writer that would be best fit to cover you. Get to know them. Use your networking skills. At some point, when you’re ready, you’ll want to pitch them your story.

Tell us what you think! Have you found your niche in the media landscape? Where does your music fit in the most? What publications are you reading, and why?

Up next: To trend or not to trend? Should you go with or against the grain of trends in music?

The SongCast Crew