No confidence in the ability of the song
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 smc distribution 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 figure. 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). 8. Send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) if you want your tape or CD 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, and youre 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. 9. Your name, address and phone number should be 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 are a fate they don't deserve. 10. 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. 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. One People "The first song Franklin ever heard from Val was a reggae tune she had recorded called One People. He really liked the positive message and the infectious chorus. Franklin talked her into doing a rewrite and making it a Pegasus Project tune. They wanted to share a positive message of how we all are part of one global family. This song was shaped from a number of African musical influences, including the Tuku style. The huge chorus backup vocals were done in two days of recording using seven different singers." Note that the description includes information on the style, what it's about, why it was written and how it was recorded. Their site also includes lyrics to all the songs. Your demo will introduce you to the eyes and ears of many music industry professionals. Take this introduction very seriously. It's your job interview. It should look good, have something important to say, and say it well, there are a lot of other applicants for the job. The pros are looking for the best. Be it!