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Coverage Guidelines
Please send all promotional materials to:
Christian Clemmensen
Filmtracks Publications
18425 100th Ct SW
Vashon, WA 98070
USA
Most of the albums reviewed at Filmtracks are graciously provided by agents or
representatives of the composers or performers, independent promotion companies, or
record labels.
Among the labels that have supplied Filmtracks include Varèse Sarabande,
Sony, Universal/Decca, Disney, Silva Screen, Hollywood Records, Lakeshore, La-La Land, Reprise/Warner,
New Line, RCA, BMG, Milan, Film Score Monthly, Intrada, and many more.
Because of the site's longevity and high traffic levels, Filmtracks receives far
more music than it can possibly cover (20 promo albums for every one reviewed).
Filmtracks accepts promotional products through online file-sharing sites. Due to
the site's use of audio samples to supplement the coverage, however, these tools
must offer a download option to be of use (as opposed to simply a streaming option).
Digital promos must contain lossless files
unless no lossless commercial purchasing option exists. Likewise, digital promos
must contain a PDF of the booklet unless none is distributed with the product
commercially. In all cases, CDs will receive a higher probability of coverage than
digital promos.
Most importantly, if you would like to know the odds of receiving coverage at
Filmtracks for your product, contact the editor and you will receive a very
realistic assessment about your chances. As detailed on the contact page, however,
be patient in receiving a response from the editor.
Once a working relationship is
established, your e-mails will be automatically sent to the forefront of the
editor's inbox for quick response. If you are not satisfied with only review
coverage, an advertising contract is always an option. Bribes from record producers
have been attempted in the past, but they are not always effective!
Also Note: Because of his distance from Los Angeles, Filmtracks' editor does not
mingle with or interview composers or any other entity involved in the industry.
Therefore, you (and the readers) can be assured that all of Filmtracks' reviews are
completely unbiased.
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Originally published in November 1995, Filmtracks.com was officially launched in
October 1996, serving the movie soundtrack industry with its first library of
original online reviews. Almost two decades and hundreds of millions of page
views later, Filmtracks remains the most visible elder statesman of the soundtrack
genre on the web. It is solely owned and operated by veteran writer and webmaster
Christian Clemmensen from the America's Big Sky Country (the states of Montana,
Wyoming, and Washington).
Filmtracks has always existed at a crossroads between the movie and music
industries, with soundtracks attracting both movie-goers and music enthusiasts
alike. There are two different but consistent crowds of visitors at the site:
first, the 3,000 to 5,000 hardcore soundtrack collectors, and second, the tens of
thousands of casual movie and music fans each day who come to the site seeking
album or artist information, opinions on movies, lyrics, sheet music, and more.
Based on internal surveys, these viewers tend to be between the ages of 18 and 32,
60% male, liberal-leaning, and habitual movie-goers.
As a content site, Filmtracks features about two million words of unique review
material. Extensive information about each album covered at the site prompts
significant user participation, with hundreds of thousands of forum comments and
millions of votes submitted throughout the site. The reviews and attached comment
areas receive almost all of the traffic from the casual movie-going fans, while the
home page, primary "Scoreboard" forum, and internal search engine receive
consistent viewership from the hardcore soundtrack collectors. The site's objective
is to continue providing content that bridges the gap between both types of
viewership.
Within the soundtrack genre, Filmtracks' traffic is substantially greater than that
of younger sites offering similar content. The initial burst of interest in the
site was fueled by hundreds of links to individual reviews from the Yahoo!
Directory in the 1990's, as well as recognition from Entertainment Weekly, CNN, and
Variety Magazine, among others, within the first five years. Since then, Filmtracks
has continued to build upon its core followers due to its industry-defying
longevity. When the economic downturn of the late 2000's caused the site to rely
upon visitor donations to survive for a few years, its base readership remained
strong and enthusiastic about its continued legacy.
Any longtime reader of Filmtracks can testify that the site's sense of humor is one
of its main attractions. Because of the constant flow of mainstream movie-going
traffic into Filmtracks, as well as lenient rules of participation in its forums,
there is an affable and accepting personality that defines its confines as
substantially as its intentionally and distinctively retro designs. As with any
large site, bizarre human behavior is inevitable, and such depravity is embraced to
the degree that it does not interfere with the site's operations.
Please enjoy your stay at Filmtracks and, if you appreciate the site's goal of
supporting soundtracks in an era when they are declining in mainstream popularity,
you are encouraged to donate (see details here) to
ensure continued coverage of great, obscure music in the
genre. For those promoting music in the field, please consult with the instructions
regarding promotional materials on the left side of this page, and, as always,
contact the site at any time. Due to the huge quantity of e-mail that comes
in to the site daily, it may take a few days to receive a response. Many thanks to
these promoters and all soundtrack enthusiasts for their continuing involvement in
this fantastic niche genre of music!
All reviews at Filmtracks are written by Christian Clemmensen, the site's founder
and sole owner. Born in 1975 in the San Francisco Bay Area and now a resident of
Vashon Island in the Seattle area, Christian obtained a B.A. in Organizational Communication
(with a minor in English) from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1998 and an
M.A. in Speech Communication (with an emphasis in Technical Communication) from the
University of Washington, Seattle in 2000. His musical background includes a decade
of formal piano training and performance, as well as another decade of study in
motion picture scores.
While maintaining Filmtracks as a part-time occupation, Christian has also provided his
expertise as a web lead, graphic designer, programmer, and system administrator for large
organizations in the public and private sectors. From 2003 to 2012, he helmed all of
these services for a group of General Motors auto dealers in Montana and Idaho. In 2013,
he joined the Marketing & Communications department of Western Wyoming Community College
as its Webmaster and contributed as an adjunct instructor of courses in web development,
the student newspaper, and public speaking, his experience teaching communications courses
dating back to his days at the University of Washington in the late 1990's. Upon returning
to the Seattle area in 2015, he served as Director of Web Services in the Seattle College
District, the Strategic Advisor of Web Content for Seattle Public Utilities, and Senior
Web Producer for the City of Seattle.
Christian developed his technology skills in Mountain View, California during the "dark ages"
of the Internet (a.k.a. 1995) before applying these skills at
employers in both Seattle and Missoula, Montana shortly thereafter. His freelance website
projects have included political campaigns, small businesses, and special events, though
he retired from private consulting and freelance web project work in 2012. An enthusiast
of wickedly crafted rhetoric and poignant public performance, he also enjoys writing, professional
baseball, laughing at odd human behavior, digital arts, American political
skulduggery, extreme Lego creations (10,000 brick minimum), and debating theories
about the nature of the universe with his wife, Stella, and sons, Caelen and
Sjoren.
If you are a friend, current or past associate, or longtime Filmtracks reader,
don't hesitate to send Christian an e-mail or an invitation request at LinkedIn. (Please
introduce yourself in your invitation if you are a Filmtracks reader, because most of
the people who send invitations are simply trying to sell something.)
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