Our mission is to connect talented musicians with music lovers around the world, and encourage and facilitate the creativity, education and vitality of the independent music movement. Nowadays, ‘indie rock’ is increasingly seeping into the mainstream of society (not to mention impossible to get one definition of), but at the same time retains its own special identity because as a genre it incorporates almost every music classification that has ever existed, from renowned symphonies to Delta blues, guitar rock to AM pop, psychedelic, new wave, folk, punk, disco, alternative rock, grunge, reggae, and the list goes on.

Many of the artists we feature – especially in the In Dee Mail series – are as DIY and independent as you can get, with the vast majority of talented bands we pick to spotlight virtually unknown to the music world, even among those who consider themselves ‘indie enthusiasts.’

As Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh) told the NME in May 2010, “it is very exciting time” for indie music. In the summer of 2009, Jay-Z said that hip hop and rap artists should look for inspiration in the ‘indie rock movement,’ something Jay-Z himself has been doing in recent years, and with impressive results.

We will continue to cover artists and bands- and the music they make – even in cases where a indie artist that we favorite, and our readers like as well, signs to a major label (MGMT, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse). The bottom line is the music – is it good? It is original? Is it creative, memorable and enriching? Does the music add real value, and is the quality of music, and the talent of the musicians involved, good enough to warrant coverage on IRC. We could care less where a band is from, what they look like, how young or old they are, what their first language is and so on – all that matters is the music.

In addition, we are always keeping a close ear out for the best new and rarely heard music. Even regular readers find it hard to keep up with all of the songs, albums, bands and artists we publish each week, but they keep asking for more.

During the past couple of years, the quantity and quality of new indie rock music experimentation has resulted in more amazing music than ever before, making it frustratingly difficult for the average music lover to keep up with everything that’s coming out, or available, in fear of missing out on a favorite song, mixtape, new release or band that they might not otherwise hear or learn about anywhere else.

In the spring of 2010, we redesigned the site to make it more accessible, interactive, usable, faster, dynamic and manageable. Throughout 2010, we continued to make enhancements to our content and design, and hope that you will keep coming back as we grow and improve. As 2011 marches on by, we are continuing to make enhancements to the site based on feedback from all of you.

The Growing, Worldwide IRC Family, and Why We Are Different

With some half of a million visitors viewing our posts from around the world every month, and some two and a half million page views, we are genuinely excited, and humbled, to be regarded as one of the most top indie music sites on the web, and an alternative to sites like Pitchfork, SPIN, BrooklynVegan, Gorilla vs. Bear, and so on. IRC is also one of the few sites that make most of the songs we post available as free MP3 download for visitors. Additionally, for our own special playlists – and there are hundreds – we also create song links that are still up and running years later. This is consistently one of the top reasons we hear from the IRC community about why they prefer IRC as their music destination online.

One of the other reasons we think we’re growing so fast is that we have our own approach and format, and we do our utmost to post only the best of all of the terrific music we receive, and leave it up to you to decide what are the top songs and bands. Also, unlike other indie and alternative rock sites, you have a big say in which songs and bands rise to the surface, because we are constantly monitoring our website statistics and other metrics to see what content is getting the most love from all of you.

A great example of this is the Top 10 Songs of the Week series (aka, Top 10). From the #1 song of the week to the #10 song, the determination of what the rankings are come from which songs are streamed and downloaded the most, are hearted the most in our Hype box, Tweeted, Liked and so on.

What started out in 2007-2008 as a way to more easily share music with friends and family, eventually got the attention of more and more music-loving people as each month, and then each year, passed by, so that by May 2010, IRC doubled it’s daily traffic from just eight months prior with tens of thousands of people seeking the latest and greatest indie music, mixtapes and playlists, new releases, profiles and news featuring well-known, unsigned and DIY bands,  from California to New York, Paris to London, South Africa to Iceland, and everywhere in between.

Music is the language of the world. The heartbeat of the planet. The common thread across the world that ties all people together, and which allows all people to express themselves in constructive and creative ways, break down barriers and share the common human experience that has been central to civilization for thousands of years.

On this page:

- Music Submission Guidelines
– Writers, Photographers and Illustrators
- You Guys Rock!
- Band & Artist Promotion & Marketing
- Help Spread the Word!

New Submission Guidelines and Form - Please read carefully

We have profiled independent musicians and bands from around the U.S. and the world since 2007.  IRC is dedicated to also featuring the best new music from more well-known and popular artists and bands.

Much of the terrific music we’ve heard over the years has been sent in to us directly by the artists and bands themselves, or recommended by friends, bloggers, and even the mainstream press. We want, and encourage, talented musicians to submit their music to IRC for review.

Due to the enormous number of music submissions we receive each month, and the incredible amount of time it takes to sort through them all, it has become necessary to create submission guidelines to streamline the process. Without these guidelines,  we simply could not accept any music submissions.

Most important: In your submission form, make sure to include at least one (preferably two) .mp3 link(s) (i.e., http://linmod.mx/cosas/ericoy/ny.mp3) of your music. The music must be from the current or upcoming year. Do not add a link in the MP3 link box that points to a file-sharing site, music downloading service, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, etc.  These are not .mp3 links (see below to learn how to make your own .mp3 files).

Due to severe time constraints, and a backlog of submissions, we have no choice but to automatically reject submissions that fall to provide .mp3 links, and which provide only links to download zips, MP3s or RAR files. This is the most common reason a submission is rejected, so if our emphasis on the .mp3 link is annoying, apologies, but it is necessary as we still receive many submissions that do not follow the #1 requirement of the submission process.

In today’s 140 character world in which anyone can get just about everything they want, a band without .mp3 links to send around is at a severe disadvantage because people are simply not interested in investing their time in music that they cannot save to their MP3 player, phone or computer. But a good band with great .mp3 links of their songs, will get the notice they deserve just by following this critical piece of advice.

If creating an MP3 link is difficult for you, and you don’t already have .mp3 links of your songs, see the diagram below which explains how to create .mp3 links with DropBox in just a few minutes after following a few easy steps as displayed below.

Follow these steps on DropBox to create your own .mp3 links which you need to complete the submission requirements

Once you have successfully created your .mp3 links with DropBox, fill out the submission form below, and make sure to include all of the information requested. Failure to be thorough could mean the difference between getting featured on IRC or not. Please do not write an entire biography in the bio box of the submission form (just a quick overview of the band – at most approximately 150 words); the same please with the favorite bands box – please do not list every band you like – just 5 to 10 max is fine. Finally, without the album title and album release date, we will be unable to publish your profile.

This entire process should take 10 minutes. We are unable to provide information on when or if we have reviewed or will publish your music – we simply do not have those resources at our disposal. If we need additional information regarding your submission, we will contact you. Please keep in mind that we are currently backlogged by hundreds and hundreds of submissions, and are doing our best to get through and come up with ways to make it faster and easier in the future.

Writers, Photographers and Illustrators

If you are a writer and would like to contribute album reviews, write up features about bands and artists or contribute your own concert and other photos, or illustrations, please contact us via Twitter or Facebook after joining our network (so that we can respond directly to you for more information).

This is a perfect way for your work to get exposure to more than half of a million people from around the world each month. We can usually get you free tickets to shows and festivals as a writer, editor or photographer for IRC once you have established yourself – which is basically getting published a couple of times on IRC and demonstrating your reliability and skill.

You Guys Rock!

We just want to say to thank you to everyone for sending your music, regularly visiting  and in general giving us the encouragement to keep doing something that is nothing less than a labor of love. I personally could only dream of this somehow becoming the biggest music and culture blog covering the ‘indie scene’ – getting some funding to expand and offer more for indie rock fans, covering all the festivals and having bands come and do sessions and interviews. Dreams drive the human spirit and keep hope alive.

Help Spread the Word!

We appreciate your help in promoting the site on the web, sharing it with friends and whatever else you can think of. We don’t make any money doing this, so your volunteerism, if you will – like adding any post from IRC to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumbleupon, MySpace and linking to IRC from your own site, etc, is appreciated greatly. You’re participation helps give us the juice needed to keep our faith that this endeavor is all that much more worthwhile.

You can also help by adding links from IRC posts to your favorite social networking sites (like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, etc.) and signing up for the “Feed Me Indie” RSS feed and sharing the site with friends. Thanks to the thousands of you that enthusiastically support and encourage what we’ve been doing in sharing the best music we hear with so many people. It’s such a humbing honor.

If you’re linking to a specific page, please use anchor text like “Animal Collective” or “Best New Indie”, depending on what the content is. That helps everyone out a lot!

We also encourage you to leave comments on posts, reTweet posts, share the playlists and mixtapes on your own web accounts and whatever else you can think of to let us know how we’re doing with the limitations we have (it would be awesome to have a staff like Pitchfork, SPIN, Rolling Stone and others have – maybe someday).

Band & Artist Promotion and Marketing Services

If you are looking for professional promotion and publicity for yourself or your band, including creating press releases, electronic press kits (EPKs), developing websites and online profiles, employing social marketing and search engine optimization techniques, and so on, in a customized way all geared to promote your music to its targeted markets and build a buzz, and your brand, in the extremely competitive world of indie music, send an email about yourself and your music for more information.

IRC on the Web and Top Links:

Follow IRC on Twitter
Add us on MySpace
Become a fan on Facebook
Get the feed and podstream

Why MP3 Links Are Marketing Gold

MP3 links are divine for a number of reasons: first, we don’t have to download, upload and host a MP3 file of song if we like it and want to share it with the publicand there’s no additional drain on our servers; second, a .mp3 link is more secure than an attached MP3 file; and finally, artists and labels who provide their own .mp3 links are able to see for themselves how many hits a particular song is getting when it is featured on IRC.

Bands, artists, or their PR reps, labels and promoters are realizing more and more that providing their own .mp3 links to send around to various bloggers is great because they are more likely to be blogged about, and .mp3 links provide vital statistics to the host of the MP3 link (those .mp3 links that play automatically when clicked on), which are gold nugs for artists and business folks to help tweak their strategy.

We are always excited to hear great music that we have never heard before and sharing it with hundreds of thousands of people. It never ceases to amaze us just how many really talented artists and bands there are “out there” who we’ve never heard of before, and probably would not have if they didn’t send us their music. If you are the really earnest type, you could explore IRC for hours – building your playlists along the way – and see evidence of this yourself.

So many artists and bands that have submitted their music to us over the years have helped to make this a go-to place for new indie music not being covered anywhere else on the web. Additionally, we also serve up plenty of  the more well known and popular indie rock bands, songs and album releases.