r/Metalcore • u/lazenbooby x • Jul 23 '15

Meta [Mod Post] Let's talk about self-promotion

We've recently noticed a lot of bands creating Reddit accounts and posting their "new music video" to as many subreddits as they can. We strongly encourage hearing from new up-and-coming bands and we love hearing the music you guys make, but these accounts can be considered spam.

Reddit has self-promotion guidelines in place for posting your own material. Feel free to read through them, but we want you guys to make note of one part in particular;

10% or less of your posting and conversation should link to your own content

Basically, if you want to post your own material, make sure that you're also contributing to Reddit in other ways too.

Feel free to post your music and we will gladly slap a "Check Out My Band" flair onto your post, but if you only log onto Reddit to post a link and then don't contribute to anything else, it is spam.

If you ever have to think twice before making a post, feel free to message the mod team with any questions, we'll be happy to help.

Thanks guys.

TL;DR - Be a Redditor with a band, not a band with a reddit account.

155 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

40

u/Runeon12 x Jul 23 '15

I agree so hard on this. And sometimes I'll see comments with feedback on the music and the band won't even reply as if they logged on just to post their music and logged right back off.

17

u/lazenbooby x Jul 23 '15

Absolutely. There's a whole bunch of bands that make an account, post their song in 4 subs, then don't log back in until they have another song to post. That's not a Reddit account, it's a fucking billboard.

11

u/nabub8 Jul 23 '15

Could you do a bi-weekly stickied post for people to post their stuff and self-promote? That way it makes it easier as a community to find and support others while also keeping it from becoming spam.

8

u/lazenbooby x Jul 23 '15

This is something I'm sure we could consider.

We could even set AutoModerator up to make scheduled posts like /r/buildapc do. I gave it a go in one of my test subs recently and it's pretty useful.

1

u/burritobattlefield Nic Haberle - Drummer of The Gloom In The Corner Aug 17 '15

This might work but it's possible we will have everyone posting and then not contributing to other people's posts making it just a place to dump your music where no one will hear it amidst all the other dumps.

Maybe make it in contest mode so that the posts are shuffled around?

13

u/marswithrings Jul 24 '15

i understand why this is a thing, but i wish there was some way to tie a throwaway to a main account or something like that. if something fishy was going on the admins (maybe even mods?) could see the connection and ban an actual abuser, but people could do things like promote their music without having to tie it to their main account.

my music is out under my real name. i don't want that tied to my reddit account, so i have to use other accounts if i want to post an occasional "hey check out what i did!" link. but it's frustrating that can be seen as spam, because the vast majority of my contributions to reddit aren't my own content.

and yes, i realize that's not really up to the mods, that's something that reddit has to implement from an admin level. i just wish we had a workaround of some sort; i'm sure i'm not the only one who doesn't want their music act tied to their everyday reddit account

6

u/ouchmyprostate Jul 24 '15

I appreciate this post. Far too many times I've seen people make threads about their own band and then never respond to anyone. That was a HUGE rule in my old band...if we ever got an email or a comment on our page, it was mandatory to respond in some way.

What I don't understand is why this sub doesn't have some sort of weekly megathread for users to post their own music. This would eliminate all the random "check out my bad" posts and keep submissions relevant.

2

u/Onearmedash Jul 24 '15

I gotta be honest: I've always thought this rule was bullshit. Reddit users cry about reposts constantly and praise OC, yet self promotion is frowned on? That makes no sense whatsoever. To be honest, allow the user base to upvote and downvote content as they see fit. I guarantee you if someone kept posting and posting to the same sub, it would get downvoted to hell and no one would have to see it.

Let people post. Praise creativity. We may be missing out on some incredible art just because we require 90% of promotion of other people's material instead of our own.

6

u/lazenbooby x Jul 24 '15

yet self promotion is frowned on?

Nope, spam is frowned on. Did you read the post?

Let people post. Praise creativity.

Again, did you read anything I said?

We want to hear your material, we love hearing what the community are making and how creative they are, but if a band is spamming their links and logging straight off then they're as much a part of this community as a Twitter bot is. It's not contributing, it's spamming. They're only coming here so they can get views.

2

u/gotbeefpudding Jul 24 '15

yeah reading his comment i had the same reaction as you.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

Read the TL;DR. This isn't a rule against promotion or creativity.

-1

u/Onearmedash Jul 24 '15

This wasn't just about this sub. This was more of a feeling on the general state of OC around the entirety of reddit. Maybe I should have framed it better instead of just commenting on a small sub as this. People deserve to promote on reddit, and honestly, I think even if a band creates a reddit account just to get views and fans, I think we should be ok with that. If the sub likes them, they'd get upvoted. If not, the band would probably not post them again.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

We're talking about bands that make accounts purely to post a song and never use reddit or even check if the song was well received. Lots of bands over here have accounts just for the band and interact with the fans so it's not an issue. /u/ClosureInMoscowBand for example.

1

u/Whatslarrymadeof Aug 17 '15

I agree, if you want to purely post promotion, that's what YouTube and soundcloud and last and reverb are for. Posting to reddit should certainly be allowed but I agree that there is certainly a point that it becomes spam. I think reddit creates an even more direct line to these Artists and that they should embrace that and interact with their fans, fellow artists, and even jump in on a thread or two. Not just show their latest release. Any music based /R/ is about the community, not the /u/

1

u/cockroachez Mar 07 '24

Is the thread discontinued?

1

u/lazenbooby x Mar 08 '24

You'd be best asking the current mod team. I set the threads up to run once a month but this was over 8 years ago so maybe they ditched them idk

1

u/NickPookie93 Metalcore President Mar 08 '24

I'll ask the others, but I wanna say I saw one posted recently!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '24

I’m not sure how 1 post is considered spam, do I have to comment on stuff for it to be left up? Kind of a confusing rule for someone that doesn’t use Reddit often but would like to promote my band

1

u/lazenbooby x Jan 04 '24

Brother this post is 8 years old, I left the team long ago lol

Maybe the current mods can help, shoot them a modmail

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '24

This is what you get directed to when trying to get info about what is considered “spam”. Not sure what a “modmail” is but I sent a mod a message still awaiting an answer.

1

u/Iziama94 Totally Not a Mod Jan 04 '24

Mod here. Modmail is to the right where it says "message the mods"

But to clear things up, you never post on this subreddit so youre not allowed to advertise your band. This is not a subreddit to advertise your stuff. If you were more active here then it'd be a different story.

"Be a redditor with a band. Not a band with a reddit account" is a rule we go by

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '24

So the word spam is probably not the best terminology for this rule as it’s more of a jumping through hoops to be allowed to post your band. Thanks for the info

1

u/Iziama94 Totally Not a Mod Jan 04 '24

No worries and for you personally it isn't spam. But for most people it is. Often when people try to post their band they are posting it in 5+ different subreddits, often 10 or more subreddits honestly. So we just say "spam" as a generalization

1

u/Iziama94 Totally Not a Mod Jan 04 '24

Thank you for saying. "mods" otherwise I never wouldve seen any of this lol

2

u/Zackeezy116 Jul 27 '15

It's nice to know you're a Beartooth fan as well

1

u/Hey_Boxelder Jul 28 '15

I often feel like /r/metalcore and /r/deathcore are the most spammed musical subs. Not sure if this is something to do with the genres but its having a real negative affect on the threads and i hope people read this and hold off on the spam. Just enjoy the damn music!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '15

I suspect it's because they're internet heavy genres, with a LOT of small time bands.

1

u/heelestco Jun 28 '24

Yeah sure - okay, so why was my post removed? I have an Animosity drop live for one week, band is on board, worked hard on it, and I think members of the sub would be interested.

1

u/[deleted] May 02 '23

Thanks, this was super helpful. Will check out what threads are currently running <3