pretty sure I've done some reviews on my first listen, btw 8) Generally crappy eps when I'm really bored. I did one review by a (now deleted) Drone band, in 8 minutes! I was only halfway through the second song

The requirement is four. Four times. You have to listen to it four times before reviewing. If you listen to it any less, even if you skip a second of silence, it'll be rejected. No questions asked. So four.

This might be a silly, or subjective question, but i've been wanting to review my music collection, and I just want some advice, about how many times listening to something is good before you write a review for it?

The requirement is four. Four times. You have to listen to it four times before reviewing. If you listen to it any less, even if you skip a second of silence, it'll be rejected. No questions asked. So four.

TEN... Ten listens at least, no matter what...

NOW... That being said, this isn't ten times in one day. I might listen to it twenty or thirty times over the course of three or four months... I do like to "let it go" for awhile, come back to it later on, maybe at different times of the day.

I look at it this way: the artist (or artists, bands, whatever) spent a lot of time (and probably money) to put together what he/she/they thought was the perfect album. And if you don't believe me, read some bands interviews! "Ah, man, this album, we cranked it out in the studio for six fuckin' weeks, had Dan Swano up our ass 24-7, rewrote some parts that were crap. This is the best album we've ever done, we got our blood, sweat and tears into it... Yadda yadda yadda." You all know you've read interviews like this... So I feel I'm doing the band a HUGE disservice if I just cranked out some quick tagline (which is why you almost NEVER see Vibrations Of Doom magazine in record label bios for bands.) The artists spent time and effort recording and writing the album; I feel the least I can do is give it the adequate time it deserves.

Some bands will tell you in interviews (shit, they tell ME this all the time) "Ah, I really don't give a fuck what people think; I make the kind of music I wanna make." And that's all well and good, but these same reviewers READ these reviews. I ask a lot of bands "Hey, where have you been reviewed at," and they can usually tell me where they got good and bad reviews at. So don't think they don't read their own reviews, or CARE. They DO... They just might try and be all bad-ass about it, but they DO care. No one wants to put out "their" music and have no one appreciate it. Why would they go to all that trouble; just for themselves?

Now there are, obviously exceptions to that rule, but overall, no one wants to read 100 bad reviews of their album. But we all know tastes are subjective, and even people I know who trust my reviews and love the same stuff I do are generally going to hate a band I love... It happens. If you can adequately tell me WHY you hate an album, I'll respect you for it. Besides, as long as I've been doing this, for every band you tell me you hate, I can find you AT LEAST 50 other bands you can't live without. And if you think I'm kidding, you haven't seen my music collection!

Yeah, attempting to be conscientious in terms of how many times I listen to something before review is one reason labels/ bands rarely get reviews from promos they send me as quick as I'm sure they'd like. I don't necessarily feel like listening to an album multiple times in time for the release date even if it is interesting enough for me to cover at all. Too much like being in a hamster wheel, and prevents me from having week-long sessions of listening only to e.g. Amorphis like I'm doing at the moment. Honestly though, for shorter reviews (that I don't post here) I only listen a couple of times. That's more to give an idea and maybe keep the artists happy.

EDIT: Also, very much agree with what Empyreal said. There's no need to listen to something in full more than once or twice if you can instantly tell it is absolutely horrible - an ability most long time reviewers and listeners probably have if they have any kind of ability to differentiate. Or if it is one of the untold millions of bands that are "just OK" or "yet another band doing XYZ".