The Internets Are Big, But People Find Obscure Shit On My Blog Anyway
I don't check the email address I set up just for my blog very often, but I figured I should today, for whatever reason. Anyway, aside from an invitation code for Google Analytics which I signed up for like six months ago(as if habitually checking my blog stats wasn't enough, now I can have pretty graphs and loads of mostly-useless information), I got a random email from this guy:

Sorry for the mass email, but I need to get this out all of you as quickly as I can. [record label] is going to start doing servicing to Blogs and Online magazines. We are about to service the [band name] record and I want to make sure you all get a copy.

All I need from you is a few piecies of information to get added to the list:

Name of site
URL
Average Viewers / Month
2 or 3 line description
Address to Send records

If I have already hitten you up about reviews, then please just send me the other information. The viewers and description are key to getting added for the list. Hit me up asap so I can set aside [band] promos.

Word
Greg

At first I'm thinking - spam already? Even when I set up this email address masking script so it wouldn't get read by spambots? Then I look a little closer and realize he's offering to send me a cd of a band I wrote a three-sentence mini-review of earlier this month. Free cd? Hell yeah. Wait - is that going to put me on some direct mail marketing list? Probably. Am I ok with that if it's for indie(ish) bands? Sure. Am I going to lie about my monthly traffic (wow, six hits this month already?) to get this cd? Yes. Will I whore out my blog to do promotion for this band? Um....I'm not going to commit to anything there.

It's also kind of funny the way he worded things. Who's going to be able to tell if he threw a few hundred email addresses on the BCC line, or if he's emailing you directly? And why not just start off with something like "Hey, I noticed you mentioned this band on your blog recently..." before jumping straight into promoter-speak douchebaggery. Are you sure you want to "service" my blog? And what exactly do you mean by the word "hitten"?

Anyway, I've probably spent too much time thinking about this already, and it's really not a big deal. I think that means I need to do some more album reviews, or revisit some earlier ones... I should have time later this week, I think.
- posted by vcmc @  5/16/2006 02:42:00 PM