News and Press Release

Submission/Rejection Criteria

A well-written release can dramatically increase your sales, greatly enhance the image of your business or products and expose your company to over 1.7 million musicians on Harmony-Central. Given the amount of quality information coming to the site daily, a poorly written press release will not stand a chance. Low word count, uninviting text, limited details and poor quality photos are all reasons why press releases get rejected.

Criteria for Submission

Must be significant product news, i.e.; new product announcements, products now shipping and significant product upgrades.
Must be significant company news that may affect the user community (mergers, etc).
Event announcements (clinics, auctions, open houses etc).
The press release should be of print quality (see tips below).
Include MSRP and/or street price, in addition to a release date.
Plain text or Word documents only.

Criteria for Rejection

Announcements of sales events
Announcements of events that have ended.
Artist endorsements and product installs.
Web site upgrades.
Contests (contests on Harmony-Central are for paid advertisers only).
Poor quality press releases with insufficient detail.
Press releases that show strong bias or degrade a competitive product.
Other examples would include changes in personnel at companies (new hires, promotions) and press releases that look like advertorials.

Credibility is the one thing that can win the customer's heart and pocketbook at the same time. Nothing builds more credibility than a well-written press release that gets picked up by Harmony-Central and other media outlets.

Please take the time to read through Content Essentials and 10 Basic Tips below to give your press release the best chance at publication on Harmony Central.

Content Essentials

There are eight essential elements that every press release should have in terms of content and appearance:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: These words should appear in the upper left-hand margin, just under your letterhead. YOU SHOULD CAPITALIZE EVERY LETTER.
Contact Information: Skip a line or two after release statement and list the name, title, email address, and telephone/fax numbers of your company spokesperson (the person with the most information). It might be a good idea to give your cell number since copywriters often work on deadlines and may not be available until after hours.
Headline: Skip two lines after your Contact information and use boldface type.
Dateline: This should be the city your press release is issued from and the date you are mailing your release.
Lead Paragraph: The first paragraph needs to grab the reader's attention and contain the pertinent information to your message such as the five W's (who, what, when, where, why).
Text: The main essence of your press release where your message should fully progress.
Recap: At the lower left hand corner of your last page restate your product's specifications, highlight a product release date.
Pictures: Include a 300 dpi (800 x 600) jpeg of your product if at all possible. Text gets read, pictures get noticed. Send both front and back panel photos if the information warrants.

10 Basic Tips to Ensure Your Release Gets Published

Make sure the information is newsworthy. Our goal at Harmony Central is to keep our community informed about the latest in music gear of all kinds, from guitars to recording software. Our news service is not meant to be an outlet for announcing sales, giveaways, promotions, artist endorsements, CD releases, studio installations, or corporate news such as promotions and new hires. It is the Editor's final call whether or not something is appropriate for our readership. We will make an effort whenever possible to give an explanation as to why a release hasn't been posted. If not, feel free to ask in a follow-up email.
Tell the viewers that the information is intended for them and why they should continue to read it.
Start with a brief description of the news and then distinguish who announced it, not the other way around.
Ask yourself, "How are musicians going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?"
Make sure the first 10 words of your release are effective. They're the most important.
Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
Deal with facts.
Provide as much contact information as possible: Individual to Contact, address, phone, fax, email, Web site address.
Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a release.
Make it easy for Harmony Central copywriters and editors to do their jobs.

If your submission meets these criteria and you're ready to send, CLICK HERE.

Last updated: May 22, 2006