PRESENTING YOUR DEMO
© 2002 by John Braheny - Reprinted with Permission
Here
is a checklist that will maximize your chances of getting
heard and respect the listener's time:
Place your best and most commercial song first.
If you have a strong up-tempo song it's a good bet to start
with that. If they don't like the first one, it may be the
only shot you get. If you're sending a cassette, put all the
songs on the same side and put the label only on the
"play" side.
Never send your original master tape or CD.
You may never see it again and it's not fair to saddle its
recipient with responsibility for it.
Always cue your tape to the beginning of the first song.
You don't want the person to start listening in a bad mood
because you just wasted his time making him rewind your
tape. When you make your copies, leave four seconds between
songs. Most cassette decks have an automatic search feature,
which finds the silence between songs, stops the
fast-forward and automatically starts playing the next song.
Obviously, this isn't a problem with CDs. If your CD
contains more than the first four you want heard, clearly
mark on the on the CD and printed insert, which ones you
want them to hear.
Send a lyric sheet, neatly typed or printed.
Letterhead is impressive. It says "This is my business and I
take it seriously." Some don't like to look at lyrics while
they listen, but most do. It's a time saver to be able to
see it all at once and to see the structure of the song
graphically laid out on the page. Lead sheets (with melody
and lyric together) are not sent out with demos. They're
good to have at the point where a producer wants to record
your song and you want to be sure he/she has the correct
melody, but since the current copyright law permits
tapes/CDs to be sent for copyright registration, their
importance has diminished. Lead sheets are bulky to mail,
it's too difficult to follow the lyric and visualize the
song's form, and many industry pros don't read music anyway.
It also pegs you as a songwriter over 50 who has no
experience in submitting demos since this practice went out
of style about 25 years ago.
When you type out your lyric sheet, separate the sections of
the songs with a space and label each one (verse, chorus,
bridge etc.) at the upper left side of the section. Do not
type your lyrics in prose fashion. Lay them out with the
rhymes at the ends of the lines so the structure and rhyme
schemes of the song can be seen immediately.
Make sure there's a copyright notice
(© 2003 I.B. Cool, All Rights Reserved) on the bottom of the
lyric sheet and on the tape or CD label. Technically, this
isn't necessary but it alerts everyone that your song is
protected, whether it's registered or not.
Cover letters should be short and to the point.
Let the music speak for itself and avoid hype. A
professional presentation will do more to impress someone
than "I know these are hit songs because they're better than
anything I've ever heard on the radio," or "I just know that
we can both make a lot of money if you'll publish these
songs." Avoid the temptation to tell your life story, and
don't explain how you have a terminal disease, you're the
sole support of your 10 children and if these songs don't
get recorded they'll all be homeless or worse. In fact,
don't plead, apologize or show any hint of desperation. It
only gives the message that you have no confidence in the
ability of the songs to stand on their own.
Here's what should be in your cover letter:
a. It should be addressed to a specific person in the
company.
b. It should state your purpose in sending the demo.
Are you looking for a publisher, a producer, a record deal
for you as an artist? Do you want the listener to pay
special attention to your production, your singing, your
band, or just the song? Is it targeted for a specific
artist?
c. List any significant professional credits that
apply to the purpose of your submission. If you want your
song published, list other published or recorded songs,
contests won, etc. If you're a performer submitting an
artist demo, resist the temptation to grab at weak credits:"
I played at the same club that (famous star) played. Tell
them what drives you, what inspires you. Keep it short. List
real sales figures. Don't lie.
d. Include any casting ideas you might have if you're
pitching to other artists.
e. Ask for feedback if you want it. Odds are you
won't get it but give it a shot.
f. List the songs enclosed and writers' names in the
order they appear on the tape/CD. (Lyric sheets should also
be enclosed in the same order the songs appear on the demo.)
g. Thank them for their time and attention. h.
Include your address, phone number, Web site URL and e-mail
address (if you have one).
Send a self-addressed
stamped envelope (SASE) if you want your tape back.
There are two schools of thought about this. On the pro SASE
side, if you don't want to lose all those tapes/CDs, you
can't expect to get them back without it. There's another
school of thought, though, that if you say you want it back,
you're assuming they won't like it. There's no guarantee
that you'll get them back even if you do send a SASE, in
which case you're gambling even more money, and worse could
happen than your tape or CD sitting around a producer's
office.
Your name, address and phone
number should be on the tape or CD, box, and on every lyric
sheet.
It
seems like such a common sense request. In fact it would be
embarrassing to even suggest that you might forget to do it
if I didn't see it happen constantly. The problem on this
end is that, between listening sessions at the office, the
car, and home, it's so easy to separate the tape from the
box or lyric sheet. Once they've gone to the trouble to find
your hit song, not finding you is a fate they don't deserve.
Be sure you have adequate
postage.
Also, don't send your tape in an ordinary stationery
envelope. It's risky because rough postal handling could
force the edge of the tape box through the envelope. Use a
special envelope with an insulated lining. Some people also
prefer the soft "bubble" tape box because it doesn't have
sharp edges and it's lighter to mail. CDs have an obvious
advantage in this respect as there are very lightweight
sleeves available for them. Having said that, jewel boxes
are preferred because , hopefully, they can stack it on a
shelf and read the label on the edge if they decide to keep
it.
The main thing to remember is to make your demo submission
as easy as possible to deal with.
USING THE INTERNET: YOUR DEMO AS AUDIO FILE
An
increasingly popular strategy is sending your demo as an
audio file. It's rare these days that a record company,
producer or manager doesn't have a high-speed Internet
access line. Obviously, many of the above suggestions don't
apply to sound files.
Giant Records A&R Executive, Craig Coburn says (footnote:
Music Connection Magazine Vol. XXV #1 01/01/01): "In the
future, I would love to see people soliciting the record
labels - whether it's artists, managers or lawyers - using
the internet. I'd like them to send me a letter asking me to
check out their web site rather than sending me the music.
We're not getting that many electronic submissions yet and
I'd like to. When I'm talking to people, I encourage them to
send MP3's The Quality of MP3 is not exactly up to the
quality of a CD, but it's absolutely close enough for an A&R
person to hear the music and to know if it's something that
excites us or not."
The most popular formats are MP3 and RealAudio. The fidelity
is not quite CD quality but still adequate to show them what
you do. There are a couple different procedures for this:
Send an E-mail with the audio file attached. Follow the
suggestions listed above for cover letter (Include phone
number(s). Also include your Web site address so they can
click it and go directly to it. When they get to your site,
they'll hopefully find additional bio material, photos and
lyrics.
Just send them an e-mail intriguing enough to get them to go
to your site and hear your music there.
Indie marketing guru Tim Sweeney suggests that because of
the limited amount of time someone may want to spend at any
site and the degree of difficulty their online access speeds
may present, it's important to help them decide quickly
which of your songs may be of most interest to them. You can
help by providing a short description like this one provided
on the site of Franklin Spicer and Valerie Ford's Pegasus
Project, a soft jazz, world music group. |
