has sending a demo to a record company EVER done something for you?

[zinzin]

just curious 'cause i am very disillusioned about sending in demos to record companies.

did they send you a letter, apart from those "we are sorry, you are not for us" letters?

[murphmusik]

I'm hoping you are asking the record companies first...

Never, ever, ever send anything blindly.

[faon]

Never!!

[min7b5]

Got my first indy deal that way. Sent it cold, exchanged a few emails..

[Barry Jive]

 

Originally posted by zinzin just curious 'cause i am very disillusioned about sending in demos to record companies. did they send you a letter, apart from those "we are sorry, you are not for us" letters?

 

 

Don't get your hopes up for letters of either variety.

[Fonzie]

What kind of label? Small little indy label, or huge corporate label?

 

Check with the little ones to see if they're taking submissions first. Don't bother with the big ones.

[Jttsaz]

way back when we did get a label showcase for a few major labels but nothing really came of it...

[David Hooper]

If you want to meet label people, attend music conferences. www.sxsw.com is coming up soon and a good one.

 

Also check out tip sheets for info on what publishers, music supervisors, and labels are looking for.

[Inazone]

Find out which labels accept unsolicited demo submissions, and be prepared to send a LOT of them out. My band sent out dozens of CDs, usually getting no response or rejections, but eventually we started generating some interest. I think the biggest step for us was sending demos to various websites and magazines for reviews, and not hesitating to pay a little extra to send them to other countries. A few good reviews can go a long way...

[J6P]

 

Originally posted by Jttsaz way back when we did get a label showcase for a few major labels but nothing really came of it...

 

 

That's just how they get free bands, so the beer and food can be better at the party.

 

Has a "showcase" ever paid off? Anyone?

 

 

And to the original question, do not send anything blindly. Try to establish contact.

 

Do you know anybody, that knows somebody worth contacting? Anyone that somebody you may wish to contact may have heard of?

 

Name dropping, and/or introductions give you a good chance to get beyond hello.

[jjbraunius]

Back in the early ninetines I did establish a good rapport with some major A&R folks. Unfortunately when I finally put together my next band there wasn't a single one of them left in their respective positions.

 

Nowadays I am sending solicited submissions and still not even a rejection letter. I guess companies stopped caring. I still believe that sending something might get to someone's ears more than not sending anything.

[fastplant]

I've had a couple labels send people out to see our shows, but nothing ever came of it.

[145]

You have to submit your demo through a recognized Lawyer, Producer or Publisher or the Record Company will not listen to it.

[Scheming Demon]

Yes - got signed twice to medium size labels in Germany.

[spinman]

In my experience, there was no one thing that got my band signed. Some of it was knowing someone connected to the label, some of it was doing a showcase, some of it was getting a buzz worked up between a few labels, etc. There's no one thing that gets you signed. It's a multilateral approach.

 

Expect to do a lot of showcases before anyone from the label actually shows up. It's so weird how these people are. They'll get all jazzed up about you, then suddenly they'll stop returning your calls and emails and that's it.

 

This is why I'm never going to try to get signed again. The ridiculous hoops people jump through to get on a label astound me. Then once they get on a label, they're jumping through hoops all over again to get attention and respect from the label itself.

 

Good luck.

[chrisgraff]

 

Originally posted by zinzin just curious 'cause i am very disillusioned about sending in demos to record companies. did they send you a letter, apart from those "we are sorry, you are not for us" letters?

 

 

There are many other avenues to shop a deal other than sending unsolicited demos. Several underground A&R blogs have been known to generate buzz for unknown bands.

 

But before you submit anything, do a little research as to what other demos are making the rounds. You need to know if your recordings are at least comparable in quality. As you may be aware, there aren't to many opportunities for first impressions, (and forget about second chances).

 

Record companies aren't much interested in acts that are inexperienced playing live. If you don't command a room like (insert rockstar here), then you've got work to do.

 

Lastly, getting a record deal is not all that's it's cracked up to be. I've known several people who had (or still have) "major" record deals. You'd be surprised how many of them weren't that happy about it.

 

Semisonics drummer wrote a book called, "So You Wanna Be a Rock Star". It pretty much sums up the experience of having a deal these days.

[buckshot_plevna]

EMI has my band's demo right now. i'm not holding my breath, but you never know. we got this hookup through some writer who works at a local paper, she's good friends with some guy with some pull at EMI and she's gotten bands signed before...again, i'm not holding my breath, i just think it's cool that EMI has my band's demo. I just hope someone actually listens to it!

[PJMPirate]

Frustrating, isn't it, how there are so many talented musicians that record companies will never hear, while any tone-deaf young actress with a hardworking parent can put out a platinum hit?

 

BTW, SoYouWanna.com has tips for putting a good-quality demo out, IIRC...

[145]

Yes.

 

The record executives will only listen to material sent by a producer or lawyer known to them.

[Scafeets]

I've worked for three major record companies and can tell you there's not much of a chance if you're submitting it blind and unsolicited. There's a lawyer in this thread that suggests having a lawyer or someone else who's connected do the submitting, and there's a lot of validity to that idea. Of course, that comes with the baggage that most "submitters" want a piece of the deal, so make sure you're comfortable getting in bed with that person.

Back in the 60's, my band stumbled into a major label deal by doing a demo and getting a big publishing company interested in it. They got the label deal for us.

In the 70's, I worked at Sire where Seymour Stein was great about listening to unsolicited demos; but we were the exception to the rule. We had a system where every demo that came through the door was listened to by at least two people. If anyone liked anything, it went into a meeting with Seymour. I'd like to tell you we signed some bands that way, but none ever got past the stage of making a demo for us. In some cases, the band was good, but had a lightweight for a manager or some other contractual encumberment. Also, we had to pass on a few bands after seeing them live (because they sucked), or watching how they acted backstage (too drunk, stoned, immature or conflicted), etc. So, getting our attention just got the bands to step up to the plate. Most of them still strike out.

The plain truth is that I spent several years listening to 25 or more really horrible demos every week. After a while, it can make you want to stack the deck by putting the stuff on the top of the pile that comes from friends, associates and known commodities. Most of it will still suck, but there's a better chance of finding something good.

My advice: make a CD without a major label. Get some gigs, start a buzz, etc. If you're at all successful, you'll have a better chance of getting a deal through an intermediary such as a manager, publisher, DJ, friend of a friend, lawyer, etc.

Good luck -- and have fun.

[brassic]

I work in the music industry in the UK (I've worked at a handful well-known independent and major labels, and now do promotion as well as write) so I can only speak about what goes on this side of the Atlantic, but I agree with what's been said about submitting through a lawyer/producer, or over here, a well-respected manager/management company. Get yourself signed on with a manager first. Sure, he/she will take about 20%, but they'll get you the meetings with the A&R and label heads that you won't get on your own. I think it's pretty much a waste of a postage and a CD to send direct to a major label, but as has been mentioned before, some independents will accept unsolicited demos.

 

Music conferences like SXSW or in the UK, In The City, are good to do.

 

You can also get a good buzz through the press, especially respected internet sites such as (UK based) www.playlouder.com and www.drownedinsound.com who will often give the first real attention to unsigned bands that mainstream media like the NME will normally pass by (at first). For example, PlayLouder gave Franz Ferdinand their first gigs and proper press coverage well before they had a deal, and tipped The White Stripes, Interpol, Radio 4 and Peaches way before the fact, while similarly DiS has a great reputation for rooting out up-n-coming bands.

 

Also, not that I'm trying to teach people how to suck eggs, but it's very much worth your while having a good website where people can hear your stuff. There was a really good article about the top five mistakes band/label websites make here

which is worth a look too.

 

As was already mentioned, if you aren't gigging, then no A&R worth his/her salt is going to give you a second look. (Unless you are a bedroom prodcucer/electronic artist type, and even then you'd better at least have a damn good DJ set going).

[fuzzball]

It has worked for me, but I decided to turn them down....look where I am now......afg%^$#@%%.

[droge]

my band sent 2 demos to Epic/Sony: the first one was a live cd at this club--got a phone call from an A&R assistant and said 'we received your cd--thanks, but we'll have to pass at this time'--well to counter that, we sent another demo, this time a studio-quality one, however, w/ our old vocalist--same result!!! The cool thing that came from all this is that they did listen to it and got back to us on both submissions--we can't help but think 'what if we had done a real studio demo w/ our current singer, et.al'--well, it wasn't to be, since the band unravelled steadily from that point on. But, hey, at least we got heard (and rejected), so that kinda gives us some bragging rights, in a twisted kinda way!!! :D

[bleeding june]

first and foremost, i agree totally with making sure the label accepts unsolicited stuff. you do not want to get {censored}ed by some back biting songwriter who will pinch your ideas and leave you without a leg to stand on.

 

if you were to send me stuff by your band, even if it's amazing it would be unlikely i would sign you unless you had the fanbase, organisation, and live abilities as well.

 

a label will always reply if it's what they're looking for- you'd be lucky to get a letter of rejection. can you imagine the cost to a label if they sent a letter to every band that contacted them?

 

having said that, research into what labels you send stuff to. look for labels with similar artists to your band's style- you are much more likely to be what they're looking for. it sounds so obvious but you'd be surprised at the {censored} i wallow through every day that has absoloutely no coherance to our roster whatsoever. diversity yes. completely off kilter no.

 

unless under exceptional circumstances, labels very rarely take on bands that irequire a huge amount of money and time needed to be spent on them just to fill a small venue- my advice would be to gig until your live set is excellent and varied, look after your fans, be professional with everything you do from soundcheck to recording to artwork- it all makes a huge difference.

 

a cd with a picture, a short biog is enough. don't waste money on tarting up your {censored} with fancy design and videos and clothes and gift vouchers and cuddly toys.....you get the idea! however, if you have anything else that you genuinely think will provide the label with a good insight into what your band is about then include that as well.