New Tools for Bands & Artists

New Tools for Bands & Artists: How to Get the Most Out of Darker Side of Music

We know how much noise bands and artists have to cut through just to get coverage — and how frustrating it can be when a submission disappears into a void with no reply. Over the last few months, we’ve rebuilt a big chunk of Darker Side of Music specifically to fix that problem from our end. Here’s what’s new, and how to use it.

Submit Your Own Review Request — Directly

You no longer have to wait on an email reply to get your release considered. The new Review Submission form lets you submit your release straight through the site — album details, links, artwork, the lot — and it goes straight into our editorial queue in a properly formatted draft, ready for one of our writers to pick up. It won’t publish itself, and it won’t jump the queue, but it does mean your submission is seen immediately instead of buried in an inbox.

Get Listed in the Artist Directory

The Artist Links directory is now open for submissions. If you’re not listed yet, you can submit your own artist page — official links, socials, streaming, the works — and get discovered by readers browsing by genre or scanning the A–Z list. If you’re already listed and something’s changed (new label, new socials, split up, whatever), you can update it yourself rather than waiting on us.

Your Gigs, On Our Gig Guide

Touring or playing a one-off show? Your dates can go straight onto our Gig Guide, which readers actually use to find shows near them. It’s one of the more visible parts of the site — a good place to be if you want your tour dates in front of people who are actively looking.

A Contact Form That Actually Gets Answered

We rebuilt how messages reach us. If you get in touch — about a review, an interview, a correction, anything — replies are faster and nothing gets lost in a shared inbox anymore. If you’ve had a message go unanswered from us in the past, this is the fix for that.

Wider Reach for Your News

When your story goes live on the site, it doesn’t just sit there — our new social system pushes it out across our channels automatically, so your coverage gets seen beyond just the site itself.

A Shot at the Charts

We’ve launched proper charts on the site — auto-updating rankings that track what’s getting attention, with trend badges showing what’s rising. It’s a new, visible way for your music to gain traction organically: strong reader engagement can push a release up the charts, putting it in front of even more people who might’ve otherwise scrolled past.

Why We Built This

You’ll also have spotted the new logo — inspired by Marianne, my partner in Darker Side of Music and in life. Her creative media background has genuinely shaped where this site has gone, including the push to move away from generic third-party plugins and build custom tools tailored to this scene and this community, like the ones above. Every one of these tools exists because we got tired of good bands and good music slipping through the cracks — not because the music wasn’t good enough, but because the process of getting noticed was clunky, slow, or just too easy to miss. If you’ve got a release, a show, or a link that belongs on Darker Side of Music, there’s now a direct, reliable way to get it in front of us — and in front of our readers. Got a submission ready, or a question about any of this? Reach out — we’ll actually get back to you.

Mike & Marianne