Pretty Much Amazing was started in the summer of 2007 by Luis Tovar and since then he has welcomed many other music geeks to join him in his quest to spread the love and call the bullshit that is sprinkled throughout today’s music. The average PMA reader comes in many shapes, sizes, and with many credentials, ranging from Artists and Repertoire executives, hipster DJs, and everyone in between.

In the two short years it’s been on the internet, Pretty Much Amazing has introduced a successful podcast, popular recurring columns, and commissioned popular releases.

CONTACT

If you want to contact me, you can do so at this address: pma dot editor at gmail dot com.

Here are the general rules:
1. If you’re going to send me music — do so by dropping your music via my dropbox.
2. If you want to send me press releases — email me
3. If you want to set up a contest — email me

Pretty Much Amazing has writers in both the Los Angeles and New York areas, if you’d like to invite us to a show, party, screening, or event — email me.

DISCLAIMER

Pretty Much Amazing does not encourage or advocate music piracy. Pretty Much Amazing does not, nor will ever post full-albums. Pretty Much Amazing promotes good music and posts tracks for fans to sample. Pretty Much Amazing encourages and believes in buying music. Pretty Much Amazing acknowledges the importance of the Music Industry and the thousands of jobs it administers. Pretty Much Amazing encourages its readers to patronize their local music store, iTunes, InSound, and eMusic.

Note: Everything posted here is posted out of love for the music.  Go buy the music you like. Support your favorite artists by attending their shows.

WHO IS PRETTY MUCH AMAZING?

Luis Tovar — Editor/Owner/Best Guy You’ll Ever Meet

Regular contributors

Chris Barth – Twitter
Jeff Lind – Twitter
Genevieve Oliver – Twitter
Adam Offitzer- Twitter
Ana “Half Note” Khachatrian – Twitter
Melina Bast – Twitter
Elle Hunt – Twitter
Bo Djogo – Twitter
Daniel Siegal
Jason Oberholtzer – Twitter
Josh Cabrido
Karina Moreno
Kenya Jones – Twitter
Kyle Monson – Twitter
Ricky Schweitzer

WHY CAN’T I DOWNLOAD THIS SONG?

Some of you have been asking that question for a while now. If you haven’t noticed, some of the tracks covered here aren’t all available for download. No this isn’t a technical malfunction or a mistake — this is, indeed, intentional.

But Why?

As Pretty Much Amazing gets bigger, it becomes an easier target for the RIAA (and other groups) to attack. I’m sure you don’t want this blog to be shut down as much as I do. But just because you can’t download the song on PMA, it doesn’t mean you can listen to it. Oh and don’t worry, this rule only applies to “major” releases. You guys will still be able to download “indie” tunes, and remixes and covers from PMA.

PRESS

Weblog Awards – Best Music Blog Finalist (2007)
The New Yorker – “Music blogs — the really good ones, like Pretty Much Amazing… are the true keepers of serendipity, which is the one crucial ability that continues to elude computers. I, for one, welcome our new cybernetic overlords.”
NY Post’s Popwrap – “PrettyMuchAmazing is one of those little website crumbs of deliciousness I visit every morning.”
The Hype Machine – “Top 50″ Music Blog
Technorati – “Top 10k Blog”
Toronto Star – “indispensable music blog”
Published in: The Chicago-Sun Times, USAToday.com, Routers, The Printed Blog
Cited Frequently by: BBC’s Chart Blog, Pitchfork’s Forkcast, New York Magazine’s Vulture and Rolling Stone Magazine’s Rock & Roll Daily.
Featured on: Billboard Magazine, People Magazine, E! Online, and BBC Radio 1.
#41 on Web100.com’s INDIE 100

QUICK TAKE: Pretty Much Amazing legitimizes music blogs by discouraging piracy while still giving readers the latest music news, reviews and more.

Music blogs get a bad rap. With their blatant pirating of music through full album leaks and unauthorized downloads, they’ve been partially blamed for lagging record sales. But you can’t accuse Pretty Much Amazing (or PMA for short) for the downfall of the record industry. Unlike other music blogs, PMA doesn’t provide full albums for fans to steal. The blog posts full tracks from time to time, but major releases are only available to listen, and there are links to download songs. PMA focuses primarily on independent and alternative music, but when Kanye West and Britney Spears tracks started leaking in late 2008, PMA was there to cover it all for ardent music fans. When Kanye and Britney aren’t making headlines, indie/alt artists like Santigold and Vampire Weekend steal the spotlight, and the blog’s album reviews, contests and pmaCAST podcasts round out its robust music coverage.

My Yahoo’s RSS Feed Pick for July 14, 2009 – “Expose yourself to alternative rock from the obscure to the popular.”