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 Sending out a demo for the first time |
Written on 15 July 2005 by MatthijsB |
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Sending out a demo is not just simply sending an email or cd to everyone you might think is interested. It is a lot more! It's about putting yourself out there, showing of who you are and what you can do and you probably have less than 1 minute to let them know you exist. You must be able to present yourself in a decent and proper manner, the first impression is utterly important. Want to know how you can get heard, it is quite simple, but you just need to know what to do.
Please note this demo guide is especially meant for artists active in the electronic music scene, things could be different for pop/rock artists, but quite probably a lot of things will be about the same.
Do you have what it takes?
First of all, are you sure you have what it takes? A demo should contain music of proper quality and most of the times it should have interesting melodies as well, depending on the genre you prefer. Anyway, the quality of your music is of the biggest importance, if a track has a good theme to it people will like it, but a serious label would quite probably throw it away if it sounds like crap qualitywise. On the other hand, there are a load of releases which aren't interesting at all but they still got released.
How come? It's the quality that does the trick! If a track sounds bright and transparent you'll keep those A&R managers interested. So first of all, make sure your tracks are up to todays quality standards. A way to check if your music sounds okay is by simply comparing it to other music. Check out some signed artists in the simular genre of your track. Listen to what they do in their tracks and learn from what you hear. If you think your tracks aren't of decent quality you should try and look up tutorials about music production. There is more than enough interesting reading material out there.
The quality of my music is supurb! How can I get myself heard?
So you think you have what it takes, you're ready for the second part. There are several ways of getting your music played in the clubs and the big parties. And some methods are way easier than you might expect and others take luck or some extra butt kissing. The music bussiness is quite a closed circuit of friends and people whom share the same ambitions. Getting big, wether you're a dj, producer or just a singer for that matter. You need to have friends!
A way of getting friends is requesting feedback on your latest track from upcoming dj's (Not the big guys - they don't have time for you!), in return for the feedback you can offer the dj your track exclusively. The exclusiveness should be mentioned, DJ's love to have exclusive material, without any exclusive tracks they don't have a special portfolio to present themselves to the public. I recommend you to abuse that fact, tell them they can use your track in their livesets exclusively (but meanwhile you send your music to a few other well selected dj's as well!), they'll love that and will surely grant you your feedback. This will help you improve you production skills and get you heard within no time!
If the dj's actively dj at parties or internet radio stations you'll probably see your music being mentioned in their tracklists very soon.
If you know a talented upcoming dj personal (or any kind of important person in the music business), contact him and let him hear your music, if he likes it, others will follow! Remember, if he's a friend, he'd love to help you out getting your music heard. Just as an example, in my case, my dj friends just loved to help me out. Remember, good dj's have even better friends, in my case my song ended up on Armin's table within a week. He didn't do anything with it in this case, but I hope you got the point. I got several great and upcomming dj's in my MSN messenger contact list all because of him. This is why you need to get friends/contacts. DJ's and labels also are more likely to listen to your music if it's somebody else then yourself telling them it sounds great. I got every contact I have now because of other dj's playing my music. Make sure your friend will mention your name and preferably your MSN email adress too when they talk about your music. The other dj's will contact you if they like what you do! This way your contacts will grow rapidly. Make sure you catch up with them every once in a while to keep there interest in your music.
You thought you'd done it? Well you were wrong, contacting dj's is far from everything. You won't get signed if you just let dj's play your music, so sending your music to record labels is just as important. First of all you need to know which record labels you should contact. This is quite easy, just check out some music which sounds similar to yours, then have a look at the labels which released those productions. Have a look at their website, does it comply with what you like a record label to represent? If the attitude of the label suits you, go ahead send them a demo cd or preferably an email (there are very good ways to do this which will be explained later on). I'm taking you have found a record label you like already. It doesn't matter if it's a huge renown label or just a small intimate label, both can sign your work or dismiss you just as easily.
Now the time has come to impress the A&R managers of the labels. Remember that nobody is waiting for you to send your material. What you have to do is getting noticed. If you don't interest them within the first minute (less time is preffered;) ) your chances are next to zero percent. Try and start to think like a marketic strategist. How can I interest and impress the A&R manager within 10 seconds. You need to sell your product! There are very easy ways to accomplish this. For example: if you know an artist over the internet or in real life who has released on the label you want to contact, tell them he pointed out their label. They'll instantly think: "Hey, we signed that great artists, maybe his friend is just as good or even better! Let's have a listen". It might not be 100% percent true, but this method is almost 100% waterproof. On my first demo's I sent out, I got instant replies on messages like the one given above. Out of the other emails I sent virtually none replied. This makes you wonder now doesn't it? If you don't know anyone on a label your contacting you can just as easily try. You'll just need a little different approach.
The demo email
You read it: The demo email. Why not send a demo-cd by regular mail? Well I'll tell you why. It will cost you more money, it will take labels more time to listen, and they probably don't even give crap about your printed letter, and if that's the case you'll almost never get an answer. On the other hand, email is free, fast and simple, for you and the label. I would recommend anyone to send labels an email.The chances of getting back at least one line of text are a bit bigger also . If a label has an email on their site, send your demo to that adress (even if it says they won't listen! chances are they will  ), if you can find/get emails of the a&r managers directly then use those emails. If you know the name of the person you're sending your message to, say something like: "hi <namehere>, I've got a demo for your label!". If someone sees their name in the subject it instantly makes the message more personal and thus more interesting to read.
Now here it comes, remember, this is the place to present yourself, if your email is long and boring they'll skip it. So make it short an simple. Just say hi and something like: "I've got some tracks which I think would be excellent for your label" or "<artist friend here> pointed out your label to me". You could also mention the artistname you use and the and tracknames, and then just put in a link to the files, or preferably a webpage (want to know why? - read on!). And then just end your letter properly. I do not recommend to attach your songs to your email, it could be their inbox can't take big emails, and if it can, it is very annoying to wait a long time for an email to come in.
The demo webpage
Of course you should construct this site before you send your email . But once you got the labels looking on your webpage you can be sure they will listen to (some of) your works. This is still a part of presenting yourself. The link to your webpage included in the email should be an exclusive webpage for the labels only. Make sure this page is located on a reliable host, as well as your mp3 files. Also make sure your webpage loads quick and looks interesting. The demo page should include several things:
- A short welcome message to the exclusive (!) demo page
- The demo tracks (preferably 2 to 4, in full length and high quality)
- A short biography
- Your contact information (your email is of vital importance, your adress not required)
The key is to give them enough information about who you are, but not too much. You need to show them you're ably to make more than 1 quality production, but you shouldn't try to get them to listen to 10 tracks. 2 tracks is the bare minimum when you're getting started. Once you're getting a reputation you can license single songs to labels. The biography of course is just to tell them how much you love music and to show a bit of who you are. Then there is the contact information, they should have this already, but you can never be sure enough. Make sure the page tells them it is exclusive for their label only, labels love that stuff almost as much as dj's do. This page gives you the possibility to tell them who you are what you (want to) do without overflowing them with information all at once. That's the key of the whole thing, you should at least be pretending to be interesting and just give them all the information you want gradually in small quantities.
I believe this covers about everything, good luck getting signed... And if you do by using this guide, please inform us all! I did it, you can do it too! Regards - Matthijs
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