Here’s my Tumblr pet peeve. Lots of folks can create content in the blink of an eye, and when sharing a photo, that’s exactly what makes the platform great. Throw it up there with no accompanying text, and let the visual speak for itself. It can be “consumed” in the space of one second.

With a song, which Tumblr makes just as easy to upload, consumption asks for and requires much more from the consumer. So don’t just plaster up a song with zero explanation, OK? Most of us are looking at this stuff on work computers and/or mobile phones, and aren’t in spaces in which we can easily start listening to the music in question. For me, I need to pick and choose what I’m going to listen to, and though I’m following a bunch of obviously well-informed music curators, listening to your rad song is likely going to be later than when I first see it. I’ll get to it when I’m in the car & have my phone hooked up to my car speakers, or when I’m at home and have some solo time to scroll through my feed and actually consider all the music being thrown at me.

Help yourself cut through the clutter, and give me and everyone else a reason to click on the songs you post. Who’s the band, when’s it from, what sort of musical lineage does it spring from – that sort of thing. You’ll make a Tumblr greenhorn like myself mighty happy.