Submissions

If you want us to listen to your promo release to consider for review or airplay, send it to:

The Editor
Ed Pinsent
THE SOUND PROJECTOR
BM BEMUSED
LONDON WC1N 3XX
UNITED KINGDOM

Please make sure you have read and understood the terms and conditions below.

Please bear in mind that The Sound Projector is largely a one-man operation. We will try to find time to listen to your submission, but we don’t like to make promises we cannot keep or raise expectations unfairly, which can often lead to disappointment.

Terms and conditions

  1. Reviews are not guaranteed. Review, feedback or airplay for any unsolicited material is not guaranteed.
  2. All unsolicited items become the property of The Sound Projector and as such will not be returned to you.
  3. We’re only interested in reviewing new and current releases. Do not send your back catalogue for submission.
  4. We don’t review everything we’re sent.
  5. We cannot acknowledge receipt of your submission.
  6. We will not reply to follow-up emails.
  7. We will not reply to emails enquiring about the suitability of your submission.
  8. We cannot be held liable for non-delivery of your CD by Royal Mail.
  9. We cannot be held liable if delivery of your CD is delayed by HM Customs.
  10. Send at your own risk.

What music does The Sound Projector like?

For the genres and styles of music we tend to listen to and review, please browse:

For further clues, feel free to use the Search box, and the Tag cloud.

Acceptable formats for submission

  • Vinyl LP (12″ or 10″)
  • Vinyl single (7″)
  • CD
  • Mini-CD (3″)
  • CDR
  • Cassette

Small runs (for example a CDR in an edition of 50 copies) are acceptable.

Please do not send the following as submissions:

  • Music hosted on Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, YouTube, etc.
  • Download codes for any of the above sites
  • Unpublished work – i.e. home demos or work not intended for public consumption
  • Submissions without artworks
  • Releases in an edition of one copy
  • Mp3s or other audio files
  • Digitally-published works
  • Digital downloads
  • Links to any of the above, sent as an email

Citation

If we review your music under Recent Arrivals, you are free to quote freely from this site for publicity purposes. Please observe the following courtesies:

  • Please link back to thesoundprojector.com
  • Please quote the reviewer’s name
  • Please include the date

Why no digital?

The Sound Projector began in 1996, before digital publishing was quite as widespread as it is today. Since then numerous platforms have sprung up, enabling musicians to publish significant amounts of material without even having a single “physical” release to their name. The Sound Projector is not unaware of these developments; it’s an understatement to say that we are living at a critical moment.

The trouble is that for The Sound Projector to accommodate coverage of all of that creative activity as well as physical releases would require a considerable increase in staff resource to run the magazine / website. We are already being sent a large number of physical releases.

If we make an exception for one digital publisher, we have to allow it for everyone. It is feasible that TSP could devote itself to covering digital releases exclusively, but that’s pretty much a complete reversal of a policy that’s been working very well for 15 years. The artists, distributors, creators, labels, and publicists work with TSP on the understanding and expectation that TSP covers physical product. If this were to change, the community of musicians who produce physical product would then find themselves alienated.

We appreciate there are several grey areas, including records that exist both as physical product and digital download. In such cases, if we’re sent a physical copy, it will be considered as a valid submission.

We realise this position may not be tenable for much longer and that at some stage digital publishing will be the only viable option available, especially for unsigned bands and musicians. We also appreciate that there are considerable advantages to digital publishing, including the efficiency and convenience; the ease of means of distribution; the fact that it’s greener for the environment to produce mp3s instead of pressing 1000 copies of a CD. And of course, it allows the artist to retain a deal of artistic and financial control over their material.