Members hermok Posted January 5, 2003 Members Share Posted January 5, 2003 labels in the US. Like EMI,Sony, columbia... We are planning on sending over our demo. And I know its a long shot.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted January 5, 2003 Members Share Posted January 5, 2003 Originally posted by hermok labels in the US. Like EMI,Sony, columbia... We are planning on sending over our demo. And I know its a long shot.. Long shot is an understatement. You might as well throw your demos in the trash at home and save the postage, because that's where unsolicited material generally winds up without so much as being looked at for more than two seconds, much less listened to. However, if you want to do it anyway, all you have to do is type in the record company's name on any search engine and it will give you their address on their websites. Before you do, though, take this yes/no test: I have sold at least a thousand CDs in a year or less. Y/N I have more than one CD out. Y/N I have a substantial following and play out regularly in a 500 mile radius. Y/N I have been positively reviewed by newspapers and/or national magazines. Y/N I have been invited to open for major concerts. Y/N I have a booking agent with connections or access to other agents who have them. Y/N I am prepared to travel to support a CD and play 300 dates a year. Y/N I understand that if I do travel, I will need a road/stage manager, a road crew, my own booking agency, a bus driver, a tour bus, etc etc all of which comes out of my pocket either at the front end or out of record sales, and that I will have to sell X number of CDs per show to break even on my expenses and still get paid for performing. Y/N I understand that I may have to hire my own PR firm to get any kind of publicity. Y/N Iam prepared to, after signing a record deal, allow the record company to replace some of my band members whom they may deem as weak or unmarketable, including myself. Y/N I have an attorney to represent me in all contractual matters. Y/N I have studied the record industry and have a good understanding of how record companies, distributors and publishers work. Y/N If you answer yes to all of these, you may have a chance. For every one the answer is "no", the chances of you getting signed lessen considerably. But it can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HoHum Posted January 5, 2003 Members Share Posted January 5, 2003 That's not the way to do it, it won't get you anywhere. Save the money are CDs and approach it like this... First do research out here, go to Google.. it's not hard to get address' and phone numbers to major labels but what you really need to do is find out who at those labels look for new talent, namely the A&R dept. By spending a few hours searching the net you can get some names of execs and who does and does not deal with your kind of music style. Once you get a few names, CALL THEM, call the main number to the Label and ask for so and so's office. Get them on the phone, leave a message with the secretary or machine and make sure to leave your NUMBER, call back if they are not there etc... eventually you will talk to who you are trying to talk to. The first line of defense is now penetrated, now it's up to you. Be VERY nice, tell them exactly where you got their name and ask them if you could send a demo, MAKE SURE you tell them you wanted to get their APPROVAL first, they'll respect that and more times then not they'll say sure. Don't sound desperate and don't tell them your music is better then what's on the radio!! The main thing is to be very nice and to the point, if they say they are not looking for any material right now, ASK them if they'd mind if you check back in a couple months etc... approach it this way, call as many labels as you can and in time you will see it's not as hard as people think it is to get your music heard. What's hard is getting your songs cut or your band signed but again, getting your music heard is the first thing you need to do and it's VERY doable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted January 5, 2003 Members Share Posted January 5, 2003 Check your local library-ther are books like "The Songwriter's Market" That come out every year that have submission formats, addresses, contact info. and solicitation guidelines. I think there is another book like "The musician's guide to record label submissions" or something.....Hold on... here ya go! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0898795443/qid=1041793139/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/104-4064280-4596717?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582971234/qid=1041793139/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-4064280-4596717?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 These may be in your local library-Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hermok Posted January 6, 2003 Author Members Share Posted January 6, 2003 Thanks guys! I tried searching the web but with no luck. No addresses on the websites. I guess I have to try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ace_TX Posted January 6, 2003 Members Share Posted January 6, 2003 if you send anything to a major label that they didn't ask u to send them....it will end up in the bottom a a trash bin they don't take demos that people send them because of legal reasons, plus you know how many people try to send them demos probably hundreds a day lets say you wrote and recorded a song, sent it to a major, then a few months later you hear a verse or an instrumental that you made with Nelly or somebody rapping over it then u gonna say they stole it etc... it will be more rewarding for you to have your own label, produce your own cd and work hard and get it distributed yourself ... once you get known locally and actually sell records...majors will come at you and you can finally get paid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted January 7, 2003 Members Share Posted January 7, 2003 Some places will accept unsolicited material-The books I posted can guide you through the process-B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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