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01. What is Music Waves?
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Music Waves (MW) is a website that appeared on the web at the end of 2001. Its philosophy has always been to guide the visitor - regardless of his or her level of knowledge - through a range of styles and bands related to rock and metal.
MW is created and maintained by a team of enthusiasts working voluntarily during their free time to constantly enrich its content. MW is supported by numerous partners (labels, promoters) which allow it to remain at the forefront of current events. So don't be surprised to read reviews of albums not yet released in stores.
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02. How long have we existed?
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MW was born in 2001 from the idea of Guillaume "Torpedo" to create a site that reflected what he was looking for on the net: a site mixing news and archives, gathering as many albums as possible and allowing each one to be directed to the style(s) that suits him.
The first version called "Metalwaves" was made at the beginning of 2002 in Flash and only listed the albums with their commentary composed of one or two lines.
The second version, still in Flash, has been enriched with small news, a bit more comments and information about the authors themselves. A forum has been created.
For the next version published at the beginning of 2003, the technology used changed from Flash to .NET. This evolution allowed the project to gain in ergonomics while keeping the same philosophy. The comments became reviews, the partners started to show up and send their productions. It was at this time that the first columnists joined the team and MW started its development.
At the end of 2003, version 2.1 appeared, then a year later, version 3, the current version which has been reworked many times to adapt to the constant evolution of the net. A mobile version appeared at the beginning of 2019 and the English version at the end of 2019. So don't be surprised to see only a small part of the old reviews translated, the work is huge and it will only be finished when in many months.
Throughout its evolution, MW has kept the same spirit as at its beginnings but has strived to present an ever more professional content. The reviews of the early days have - almost- been entirely rewritten and exchanges between enthusiasts are always privileged.
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03. How does MW work?
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MW functions first and foremost as a community.
Many means of communication are made available to members who wish to share their knowledge. Where some sites stop at current events, MW offers the possibility to find progressive pearls that existed 10, 20 or even 30 years ago.
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04. Why fixed reviewers?
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Unlike most sites of this kind, not everyone can make a "primary" column here (Front page). We consider that several criteria are necessary to make a good review such as experience or objectivity. The opinion of someone who will have listened to ten albums will obviously be different from someone who will have listened to more than a hundred.
Then we have a particular working method. We try to describe the work as well as possible and to give a personal opinion only at the end of the review after having argued and presented the positive and negative points.
The role of the reviewer is thus essential because he acts as a barometer. Everyone will be able to identify with the tastes of one or more of them.
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05. Why short columns?
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Making short columns is not a question of time but a question of choice.
Being concise and precise sometimes proves more complicated than describing everything in detail. We consider that the Internet user is in a hurry and that a short and exhaustive explanation, accompanied by an audio or a video file, is better than a detailed track-by-track description.
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06. How to be reviewed on MW?
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Until the beginning of 2016, in order to have his album reviewed on Music Waves, all you had to do was send his CD to the editorial staff. The CD served as a "reward" for all the work the reviewer did. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible. It is now necessary to contact us at promotion@musicwaves.fr before sending or requesting a review via a download link. But why this change?
The first reason comes from the too many CDs received. In spite of our large team, we are so much in demand that we cannot write all the reviews. In addition, we receive a lot of albums that don't fit into MW's editorial line or whose content is really too weak to spend time on them.
Another reason comes from the fact that music is more and more dematerialized and that receiving a CD-R burned from MP3 makes no sense. In the same vein, the majority of CDs received no longer find takers - following the digital switchover - and pile up in a corner.
Finally, and this is the most problematic, the financial aspect has become a blocking point because maintaining a site like Music Waves has a significant cost (hosting, charges, etc.).
All this led us to refuse from now on automatic CD sending and to propose paying services in exchange of reviews. If these remain in a very reasonable price (30€ for a review + a banner for a month), we understand that this way of proceeding can surprise in a world where everything seems accessible and free. It is simply a question of the survival of the site.
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07. What is a "Nudge" review.
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A review labelled "Nudge" is a review written in exchange for a fee from the band or the promotion agency (see FAQ "How to be reviewed on Music Waves").
We proceed as follows in complete transparency: before launching the writing process, we ask for a download link with the sound (in mp3 if possible) of the production we are putting out for the staff to listen to. If we don't think the proposed content will get the average score, the process stops there. If, on the other hand, we feel that the content deserves to appear on our pages, a reviewer takes charge of the review and carries out the same work as he or she would for a "classic" review.
We don't any prospecting, and all "nudge" reviews have been and are carried out after being contacted directly via our e-mail.
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