Planewalker .:.:. Waveform Wizardry

Having submitted over a hundred demos to record labels and eventually getting signed to Geomagnetic Records, I’ve learned the hard way how to get on a record label. Now the task must be performed again on behalf of my new group Chaos Control, as the market is different and the current label arrangement will probably not work.

Getting on a label is not as hard as you might think, although if you don’t do things the right way, it is next to impossible. Follow these steps and if you have good music, you should be on a label in three months or less.

1. Make a List of Appropriate Labels

Take a notebook to some music stores in your area. Go to the genre section that is most appropriate for your music and make a list of at least 20 labels that are releasing music in your genre. Take that list home and plug each label name into Google one after another. If the label has a website, get the phone number and address of the label. Then, use a spreadsheet like the one in Google Documents to organize the information. You will need to make columns for the following data fields:

a. Name of Label
b. Phone Number
c. Receptionist Name
d. Name of Press Kit Reviewer
e. Preferred Press Kit Format?
f. Physical Address
g. Reviewer Email Address
h. Initial Contact Date
i. Press Kit Sent Date
j. Follow Up Date

The idea here is to get as much information as possible about each label and the important people you will need to create relationships with at that label. Whether or not you get signed by this label, it is important that your time calling these labels is not wasted and you at least have a name to give to the receptionist the next time you call. Some of this info will be available on the label website, some of it will not.

2. Call the Labels

This is perhaps the most overlooked and also most critical step.

a. Create a script for what you will say when someone picks up the phone. This will help you stay on the ball, collecting all the information you need even if the receptionist tries to stonewall you. To do this, you will need your Elevator Pitch and a set of written questions based on that spreadsheet you wrote out before. The script will go something like this:

i. To whom am I speaking? (write down name)
ii. (one-sentence elevator pitch)
iii. I am calling to ask permission to solicit a press kit to your label for consideration as a new artist. Who do I need to speak with to get this permission? (write down name)
iv. May I speak with this person?
v. (explain what’s in your press kit) Is it OK to send this?
vi. Would you prefer it in physical format, electronic format or both?
vii. What physical/email address should I send it to?
viii. Is there some kind of code I can put on the package/email to indicate that the press kit has been solicited by phone?
ix. By when should I expect to receive a response?
x. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Now, please realize that many labels will act all annoyed that you called them and will tell you to just go look at their website. This is because labels get flooded with demos and calls from idiots who don’t know the solicitation protocol and it is the receptionist’s job is to stop those idiots from wasting the label’s time. If you are following this protocol, this does not apply to you. The proper response to being stonewalled like this is something along these lines, “Yes, I’ve been to the website but I am calling because I want to send a solicited press kit, not an unsolicited demo. Please understand, I want to be sure my press kit gets into the right hands and actually gets reviewed. I need permission to send it and moreover, who to send it to and what format to send it in. Can you help me with that please?” This ought to get you in the door and to the proper department head.

The most critical thing you need to do while you are talking to these label people is to get their NAMES, write them down, and USE THEM. Use them every other sentence if you can. This is the best way to warm up cold people, and will give you the power to cut right through to them the next time you call. Moreover, once you have their names you will have begun developing a relationship with them. Few people take the time to do this and they will be much more likely to remember you if you treat them like human beings.

3. Send Out Your Press Kits

A press kit sent to a record label should have the following elements:

i. a professionally mastered CD with 3-5 songs in a jewel case
ii. a one-page bio that reads like a story, not like a resume
iii. a 4×6 color photograph of you or the group
iv. any press clippings you may have
v. your discography

If you don’t have any press clippings or a discography, that’s fine. Just send the first three things. All of it should be on loose leaf, 8 1/2″ by 11″ paper and should look as professional and nice as possible. Pay to have someone else write your bio and manufacture your CD if you can afford it. Your name, phone number, and e-mail address should be on all 5 of these items. They should be packaged in a padded envelope that is addressed to a specific person at the label. Always include a short personal note or cover letter addressed to that person, saying that you enjoyed speaking with them and that you look forward to hearing back from them soon. This makes a BIG difference.

Why is it important to do things this way as opposed to just throwing a CD in a jacket and mailing it off to the label? Because presentation really does matter to record labels and will make the difference between you getting signed or not. Imagine getting 100 or more demos a day. This is what happens: the packages addressed to the label in general get put in a bulk review pile, and the packages addressed to specific people at the label go straight to those peoples’ desks.

It’s someone’s job to open all the packages and sort them. Demos go into one pile, press kits go into another pile. Demos without contact information on the CD are thrown away and are never listened to. Demos in sleeves go into a pile while demos in jewel cases wind up on a shelf. The reality is that when you call to follow up with the label in a month or so (see the next step) they will probably not be able to find your demo if it was in a jacket or a sleeve because it is buried under a heap of other demos and papers and it is simply too much of a pain to go digging through it.

Even if someone listened to it and liked it, they may not be able to remember your name and if they can’t find your demo, they can’t contact you or listen to it again. The bulk of it gets tossed to the circular filing cabinet to be sorted for the last time at the recycling center.

The moral of the story is: use a PRESS KIT addressed to a specific person at the label, not just a demo, and put your CD in a jewel case with a labeled spine. Just doing that will more than quadruple your chances of being listened to by anyone other than the demo reviewer. The magic ingredient to your success with a label is to deal with individuals at the label, not the label as a company. Every bit of correspondence should be personalized and designed to make it really easy for the people that review your press kit to organize it with all the other demos and contact you.

4. Follow Up

This is yet another critical step. If you took the time to call the label, get a name, send a press kit to a specific person at the label, and ask when you should expect to receive a response, you will have recorded a follow-up date on the spreadsheet. Some of the labels will respond to you very quickly. Others will take weeks or months. Some, even most, will either never respond to you or will not respond until you call to follow up. As the responses start coming in, put a “Y” in the follow-up column for every label that gets back to you with feedback.

Don’t take the feedback personally as it comes in. Most of the time the label will just say it’s not what they’re looking for at this time – other labels may go so far as to criticize your music. Listen to the feedback but don’t take it personally. Make a list of responses and don’t seriously consider what any of them say until you’re totally done with the follow up process. You’ll probably find that different labels will say opposite things about the same part of your music – proof that the value of music is mostly subjective. If two or more labels say the same thing, however, it’s probably something you should consider looking at in detail when you are done with the follow up process.

If you get an offer from a label, don’t just blindly sign off on the deal if they offer you a written contract. Get a music lawyer to look it over. Make sure the label has a publicist or at least a publicity plan. Ask how they’ve gotten publicity in the past. Make sure they have a distributor that can reach your market. Make sure that you get something in the contract that says if your music is not released by so and so a date, the rights revert back to you. Don’t get stuck in a situation where the label owns your rights and never releases your music. It’s the worst possible situation for an artist to be in.

If they don’t offer you a written contract that you sign, they do not have the rights to your music, which is good for you because if there is ever any question, you will be the rightful owner of the copyright as long as you registered for the copyright before the music was released. Verbal contracts are not enforceable when it comes to transfer of copyright in any state of the USA.

As time goes by, pay attention to those follow up dates. If you don’t hear back from the label by that date. Call them again. Ask for the receptionist (you should have the name) that you first spoke with. Ask the receptionist (using their name every third sentence) if the person who was supposed to review your press kit (again you should have the name) is available to speak with. If they ask what it’s about, simply say that it’s regarding a press kit for (name of your group) that was sent (however long ago).

You might get stonewalled again at this point, especially if you are talking to a different receptionist. The receptionist might tell you, for example, that they will get back to you if they were interested. The proper response is something like this, “I understand that you have a protocol for unsolicited demos. However, this demo was solicited and I am continuing a conversation with (name of demo reviewer). Would you please transfer me to his/her desk or at least allow me to leave a message for him/her?

Most of the time, all you will get is a voice mail or be allowed to leave a message. Wait a week for a response and if none is forthcoming, call again and go through the same thing. Keep calling every week until you get a response and do not be intimidated. If you got permission to send a solicited press kit, you deserve at least a short email from the person who was supposed to review it. Realize that some people will not get back to you until they realize that you are not going to go away until they respond to you. If they still haven’t listened to your music it will encourage them to do so, and if they have listened and liked it but just forgot about it, it might get you a record deal!

Don’t stop following up with labels until they respond to you. If someone is running a record label and are accepting demos, and if you take the time to politely solicit them for a press kit review, you deserve a response! However, steel yourself and be prepared to deal with some serious ego and attitude. Don’t let it get to you. Many of these people are seriously stressed out and you bugging them is only adding to their stress, so they might lose it on you. Still, never lose your cool and don’t be intimidated. These people are no more important than you are, but are probably a lot busier and stressed out. Be kind and understanding. Listen to them but be persistent.

5. Evaluating Feedback

When you’ve gotten feedback from all of the labels, congratulations! Even if none of them took the bait, you’re learning how to fish! You now hopefully have the names of at least two individuals at each label and some professional feedback to review. Take a look at what each of them said, and if two or more people said the same thing, pay attention to it and maybe ask a few more people if they agree. If there seems to be a consensus that you could be doing something better, make an effort to learn how to do it better in future efforts. If you want your music to improve in quality, you will need to be a little open-minded to what other people say about it and make efforts to keep what works and throw away what doesn’t, replacing it with new ideas that might work better.

On the off chance that you got a record deal that you like on your first round of mailings, congratulations! You made it! Now all you have to do is follow through and give the label what they ask for. Stay in regular communication with the label. Try to coordinate release dates with press efforts.

6. Round Two

After you’ve evaluated all the feedback you’ve gotten and made your next group of three to five songs, it’s time to go through the whole process all over again. Revise every item in your press kit and include your newest music. Whether you got a record deal or not, unless you signed on to an exclusive deal with a term, it is in your best interest to keep shopping your music out to labels every time you have enough material to put a demo together.

Just because a label turned you away the first time does not mean they won’t love the second press kit you send them. In fact, you are MUCH more likely to be signed the second time or the third time you solicit a label because you will have advanced in your artistic vision and will already have a conversation going with them. It might take going through this process half a dozen or more times before you manage to get a deal, depending on the quality of you music, press kit, and people skills, but if you take each time as a learning experience, you will get better each time and eventually you’ll get good enough at it that you’ll land the deal you seek.

Good luck and happy fishing!

Filed under: Business Tips - Music Tips
by planewalker