Black Velvet is a non-profit-making printed rock zine that concentrates on promoting the bands it loves. Black Velvet is a quarterly independent zine (issues hit the streets every February, May, August and November) that has its own individuality.

If you're a band that is interested in submitting material for review, the best way is to check out recent issues to decide whether your band will fit in.

A lot of bands (and labels) seem to send CDs without even checking an issue out. We urge you to check a recent issue out before sending a CD.Not every CD is reviewed so it's best to check that your styl of music is covered in Black Velvet first. However, we do cover a lot of good rock music.

TO BUY THE CURRENT ISSUE BY PAYPAL:

UK RESIDENTS (£2.60 including p&p):

We feature both signed and unsigned bands. We review albums, singles, demos, videos, DVDs, books and fanzines.

Copied CDRs with no sleeves/cover will not be reviewed. Don't send something that looks lame. Is that how you send it to a label when you're looking for a deal? We want to see that you're serious about your band. Make it look good. Yes, it's the music that's the main thing, but if you don't put much of an effort into it, then we're not gonna put an effort into reviewing it.

Local bands - Do NOT hand deliver your product to our address. Please mail all items by post. Anything hand delivered will automatically NOT be reviewed. We wouldn't come around to your house unannounced so please dont come to Black Velvet HQ unannounced. Thanks.

We do not review MP3s or vinyl

You don't need to send us free promo goodies when you send the CDs. It is the music that counts. We don't smoke so don't want free plastic lighters. We don't eat chocolate so don't want free chocolate. We do like velvet though... so... ok, go on then, send us some nice velvet clothes... or money to buy some. This won't guarantee a good review though. The only thing that will guarantee a good review is some good music.

With regards to MP3s... we don't have the time to visit every site that is emailed to us to check out audio files. Please do not email us saying 'check out our website'. The best way to get our attention is to send us a CD or demo by regular mail with press pack. We've always got a pile of CDs here and they get priority to any mp3s you might want us to listen to. All CDs are listened to by the editor. If possible include a biog & colour original photo. Please do not send photocopied pix or badly scanned or creased photos. Please do not email photos without prior arrangement.

NB: Not all material is reviewed. As stated above, we prefer to concentrate on the bands we love rather than those we don't. If we don't like your playing ability or your style, we may not review you. Space is tight and we prefer to promote the bands we love, the bands that inspire us and make us sit up and think 'wow'.

Black Velvet is packed with reviews of signed and unsigned bands from all over the world. Every issue has 40 bulging pages.

For Those Who Have Been - Or May Be - Reviewed

With the invention of the internet, it seems that some bands want to publish our reviews on their site. Obviously this is only natural, but the more this happens, the more it may hurt the longevity of Black Velvet. You see, if people can read it on the net for free, they’re not likely to send off for the zine, are they? We need readers to cover our printing costs.

If you want to quote a review that's been in Black Velvet, if possible please only print a couple of lines from the review - at least until the issue is sold out. Once an issue is sold out we don't mind. You can put our reviews, interviews on your site - but please do so only when the issue is sold out. If you do put something up on a site, please can you let us know in advance. It's always nice to know where our work is appearing. Please link to BlackVelvetMagazine.Com too.

Our Black Velvet Magazine Advertising Rates are as follows:

Outside Glossy Back Cover - email editor@blackvelvetmagazine.com

Colour A4 Full page - 303mm (height) x 216mm (width) - £80 / $160
Colour Half page - 151.5mm (height) x 216mm (width) or 303mm (height) x 108mm (width)- £40 / $80
Colour Quarter Page - 151.5mm (height) x 108mm (width) - £20 / $40

UK advertisers, make cheques payable to Black Velvet or send paypal. US and foreign advertisers, send securely sealed and hidden cash or paypal only.

Send paypal payment to shari@blackvelvetmagazine.com

Issues hit the streets every Feb, May, Aug and Nov. Ads and payment should get to us before the below deadlines:

Feb Issue - Ads & payment deadline = Dec 20th
May Issue - Ad & payment deadline = March 20th
August Issue - Ad & payment deadline = June 20th
November Issue - Ad & payment deadline = September 20th

Advertisers names & links will also appear on the Black Velvet website in the contents section when that particular issue is on sale (ie. for three months), for no extra charge.

Please email to check that there is space available. Ad space is on a first come first served basis and the nearer to the deadline you enquire the less chance of the space you want being available. Although the deadlines are listed above, if the space has gone prior to those dates your ad will not be accepted. The sooner you reserve the space the better.

Your ad may appear on a page like this (below left: a half page ad on page 2 of an interview, below right: 4 quarter page ads on the inside back cover):

MySpace

Black Velvet has a profile on MySpace. You can find Black Velvet by going straight to www.myspace.com/blackvelvetmagazine

Add Black Velvet to your friends list!

Twitter

Black Velvet has a page on Twitter. You can find Black Velvet by going straight to www.twitter.com/blackvelvetmag

Click to follow Black Velvet!

Live Journal

We also write on live journal. If you want to read what we write, head to:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/blackvelvetmag/ or click on Livejournal in the menubar above.

Read what goes on behind the scenes of Black Velvet Zine. Add us as a friend if you have a livejournal yourself and leave comments! Even if you don't have a livejournal yourself you can leave comments. Make them nice, though!

Reader Participation

We like it when we can get our readers involved.

- Send us pix of you with bandmembers for The Star & I section

- Send us pix of you holding Black Velvet and we'll put the pic on Black Velvet's MySpace page

- We have a new section entitled 'Me Me Me & My Rock CV' which is another section just for YOU. Or it is if you are involved in the music biz or do something related to rock music, whether it be a full time job or just a hobby. We want you to answer the questions in the issue and you'll get featured. We want to hear from promoters, clothing store owners, press officers, street team organisers, venue managers, photographers, independent label owners, and more, so we can find out what you do and why you do it.

- Email us or post on the Black Velvet MySpace telling us what you like - or don't like in Black Velvet.

You can either email or snail mail things to us. If sending photos please make them 300dpi.

If you are in the UK and interested in writing for Black Velvet, email editor@blackvelvetmagazine.com with some info about yourself and a couple of sample reviews. We are not always in need of writers but will keep your email for future reference if there is no current need. Let us know the following:

- how old you are

- where you live

- whether you have any experience, ie. have contributed to a zine before or not

- whether you take photos as well as writing reviews etc.

- what your fave bands are and what types of rock music you like (ie. hard rock, pop-punk, emo, glam etc).

Please note: You must be able to spell well! If you are a bad speller please do not apply.

Contributing to Black Velvet is a voluntary position. Black Velvet is a non-profit-making zine so we can't afford to pay you - although if you review CDs you get to keep the CDs, if we ask you to review a show, we will get you into the show for free etc.

Please only contact us if you are a hard worker and do not take forever to write reviews. We are only looking for contributors that can get reviews to us in a decent time-frame. Most contributors start on CD reviews, so we can assess your work before moving on to gig reviews, interviews or anything else.

We tend to prefer contributors that do not contribute to a lot of other sites/zines as we'd like you to be devoted to Black Velvet! We also like contributors who are able to promote Black Velvet as well - whether it be handing out flyers at shows or telling your friends on myspace how rad the zine is!

We currently do not need any photographers - although if you are a writer as well as a photographer then get in touch. We especially like people who can write lots of CD reviews as we get inundated with them!