How Music Blogs Cover Live Sessions: Data from 328 Independent Articles (2015–2026)
Our press archive shows that independent music media cover a live session quickly and mostly from abroad: a Tapetown Session drew a median of six outlets, 71% of the follow-up pieces about a session appeared within four weeks of the first one, and 79% of the articles with a known outlet country came from outside Denmark, while only 3% of session articles named an engineer.
Tapetown Studio is a mixing, mastering and live-recording studio for indie and alternative music, founded by Rasmus Bredvig in 2011, and we have released the Tapetown Sessions since 2016. Tapetown has studios in Aarhus and on Djursland, Denmark, and is building a new, large recording studio facility at Friland on Djursland, about 20 minutes from Aarhus, opening in 2027.
In October 2026 we collected every article we could find about our sessions and the records we have worked on: 732 entries in all. This post is what the independent part of that archive says about how music blogs and magazines cover live sessions and records. We think it is useful to any band or label about to send one out.
How we counted
We kept the 328 independent articles that pass the counting rules on our press page: paid placements, press-release copies, artist and label pages and coverage of our founder's own band were left out, syndicated copies count once, and an outlet's country is where it is based. Every number below comes from a script that reruns on the same files, and the full method lists each exclusion and mapping.
What fell out, and why:
Archive entries | Count |
|---|---|
Independent articles, counted | 328 |
Paid or submission-network placements | 62 |
Press-release or publicity copies | 40 |
Artist, label, platform, database, festival or institution pages | 110 |
Other: our founder's own band, not about the session or record, dead links, duplicates, outside the press pages | 192 |
Total | 732 |
The 328 articles were published in more than 120 outlets in 19 countries. They cover 34 Tapetown Sessions, 14 records we recorded, mixed or produced, and the studio itself.
Where the coverage came from
Outlet country | Articles | Share | Outlets |
|---|---|---|---|
USA | 97 | 29% | 21 |
Denmark | 59 | 17% | 11 |
UK | 52 | 15% | 28 |
Germany | 29 | 8% | 11 |
Italy | 9 | 2% | 5 |
Netherlands | 8 | 2% | 6 |
13 other countries | 28 | 8% | 22 |
Country not known | 46 | 14% | 18 |
US outlets wrote the most articles; the UK had the most outlets. Danish outlets wrote 13% of the articles about sessions and 22% of the articles about records, so records lean more on the Danish press than sessions do.
Of the 328 articles, 215 (65%) were published from 2017 to 2020, with 2019 alone at 85 articles in 48 outlets. The earliest counted article is from August 2015: Sound of Aarhus on Tin Can Telescope. Our archive holds earlier mentions of the studio, from 2012 and 2013, but they are news items about band competitions rather than coverage of a session or record, so they are outside the counted set, and our press page counts from 2015 as well.
What kind of coverage it is
Coverage type | All | About sessions | About records |
|---|---|---|---|
Feature or interview | 121 (36%) | 91 | 23 |
Review | 61 (18%) | 19 | 42 |
Roundup or list | 60 (18%) | 39 | 21 |
Post built on the session video | 42 (12%) | 40 | 2 |
Premiere | 29 (8%) | 17 | 12 |
News | 15 (4%) | 8 | 3 |
Sessions and records get different kinds of attention. A session is mostly written up as a feature or a short post around the video; only 19 of 214 session articles are reviews. A record is reviewed: 42 of its 103 articles are reviews. For 26 of the 38 sessions and records we could time, the first article was a premiere or a feature.
Sessions against records
Sessions | Records | |
|---|---|---|
With counted coverage | 34 | 14 |
Articles | 214 | 103 |
Median outlets each | 6 | 4.5 |
Reached five or more outlets | 23 of 34 | 7 of 14 |
Follow-up pieces within four weeks | 71% | 30% |
Article names an engineer | 3% | 21% |
Article names only the artist or release | 3% | 41% |
These are the ten sessions and records that the most outlets wrote about:
Rank | Artist | Session or record | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Record | 2018–2022 | |
2 | Session | 2020 | |
3 | Session | 2019 | |
4 | Session | 2019 | |
5 | Session | 2019–2020 | |
6 | Session | 2021 | |
7 | Session | 2017 | |
8 | Record | 2016 | |
9 | Session | 2019 | |
10 | Record | 2022 |
Seven of the ten are sessions. A session is one video and one or two songs, so it is easy for a blog to embed and write about the same week. A record has a longer run, with singles, the album and the year-end lists, and its coverage is spread over months.
How fast the coverage comes
We store release years, not release dates, so we measured time from the first dated article in the release year (usually the premiere or the release-day post) to every later one. That covers 38 sessions and records and 149 follow-up articles.
After the first article | Follow-ups | Share | Sessions | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Same week | 45 | 30% | 44 | 1 |
1–4 weeks | 44 | 29% | 32 | 12 |
5–13 weeks | 36 | 24% | 20 | 16 |
14–52 weeks | 18 | 12% | 7 | 11 |
More than a year | 6 | 4% | 3 | 3 |
For sessions, the median follow-up came one week after the first article, and 41% came in the same week. For records, the median was seven weeks. Measured by year, 94% of the articles were published in the release year.
The first article was as likely to come from abroad as from home: for 17 of the 38 it was a Danish outlet, for 19 an outlet outside Denmark.
Who the articles name
The article names | Articles | Share |
|---|---|---|
An engineer or producer | 35 | 10% |
Tapetown, but no engineer | 243 | 74% |
Only the artist or release | 50 | 15% |
Session articles almost always carry the series name, which is usually in the video title: 92% name Tapetown. Only 3% name the person who recorded or mixed the session. Record articles are the opposite case: 21% name an engineer or producer, but 41% name only the band and the release. These figures come from the notes taken when each article was checked, so the engineer count is a lower bound.
How long the articles last
Of the 328 articles, 287 (87%) were live when we checked them in October 2026, 38 (11%) survive only as archive copies, and three were blocked or down at the check and confirmed by hand. Age matters: 28% of the articles from 2015–2016 are archive-only, against 13% from 2017–2020 and 2% from 2021–2026.
Few articles link back to the studio. Of the 25 counted articles we checked word for word, 4 link to tapetownstudio.com.
The outlets that come back
Most outlets wrote about one session or record and moved on: 79 of them, or 64%. But 22 outlets covered three or more, and 9 covered five or more. The most frequent was Destroy//Exist in the US, with 48 articles about 31 different sessions and records. Four outlets followed with 16 articles each: The Joy of Violent Movement (US), We Love That Sound (Germany), Sound of Aarhus (Denmark) and Last Day Deaf.
What this means for a band sending out a session
Plan for the first week. Seven in ten follow-ups on a session arrive within four weeks of the first article, and two in five in the same week. Line up the premiere and the first few blogs before the video goes public.
Start with a premiere or a feature. That is how coverage opened for two thirds of the sessions and records we could time.
Pitch outside your own country. Nearly four in five articles with a known outlet country came from abroad, mostly the US, the UK and Germany.
Find the outlets that come back. Nearly one in five outlets covered three or more of our sessions and records. Blogs that already write about live sessions are the ones most likely to write about yours.
Put the credits where writers copy from. Only 3% of session articles named an engineer. If you want the recording and mix credited, write the credit line into the press text and the video description.
Keep your own copies. More than a quarter of the 2015–2016 articles now exist only in web archives. Save a link to an archived copy of each article when it comes out.
Our sessions and live-recording mixing pages explain how a Tapetown Session works, and every session credit is in Tapetown Session Credits.
FAQ
How many music blogs write about a typical live session video?
In our archive, a Tapetown Session drew a median of six independent outlets, and 23 of 34 sessions reached five or more. A record made at Tapetown drew a median of 4.5 outlets.
How soon after release does a live session get press?
Fast. For sessions, the median follow-up article came one week after the first one, and 71% came within four weeks. Records were slower, with a median of seven weeks.
Do music blogs name the recording or mix engineer?
Rarely. 3% of the articles about our sessions named an engineer, while 92% named the Tapetown Sessions. For records, 21% named an engineer or producer and 41% named only the artist and the release.
Which countries' music media wrote about the sessions and records?
More than 120 outlets in 19 countries. US outlets wrote 29% of the articles, Danish outlets 17%, UK outlets 15% and German outlets 8%. Of the articles with a known outlet country, 79% came from outside Denmark.
