We are going to be sending out a good few demos by the end of the week and are doubling that at the end of the month.
Okay so your demo's...
How many tracks are they? What have you got written on the CD? What is on the case? What does the covering letter say? How have you packaged it? Did you cold call and qualify whether the person you are sending the demo to IS the correct person to send it to at that particular label? Did you include photo's and a brief bio on the artist? Did you include anything else?
A demo should be a lot of things, but it should also not be a lot of things. There are all kinds of ways to get a demo into the hand of the right person... What tricks have you considered using?
I have a little experience in this stuff, so here are my badly organised words on the subject.
I will tell you my favourite way of getting a demo into the hand of the right person!
1- Prepare your demo properly... Meaning the demo should be no more than 3 tracks. (Less if your artists is good enough.), the tracks should grab you within 20 seconds, if they don't, it'll go in the bin. Start with your strongest track. Include your artists full contact information on the body of the CD (CD cases can get lost and you don't want that A & R guy loving the track and then not knowing how to contact the artists)... So put info on the CD body. - Also make sure the genre of all 3 tracks is the same, your artist can diversify once he is established.
2- Include a brief bio of the artist, 10 lines or so on their musical background... Keep it simple and don't rant. Also include a photo.
3- Call the labels you think might be interested in the style of music your artists is performing, and check if they release that type of music. If they do, find out exactly who it is you should send the demo to.
4- Call the person you are going to send the demo to and tell them it is coming, tell them you will call to check if they have received it.
5- Gift wrap the demo in something bright coloured so it looks like a birthday present or something, and get a girl with nice writing to write the label, you can even write all the bio and everything on a birthday card so the guy receiving it is intrigued to look and read.
6- Put your demo CD in the disguised package and send it.
Note: In my experience, the wrapping and the fact that what you are sending in does not look like a typical Demo CD (very blah blah) in an envelope, means that it WILL end up in the hands of the addressee and they will open it (because it will look personal), and maybe, just maybe they will smile and think 'if they made this much effort to get this demo into my hand, maybe it's worth a listen'. Maybe it won't make a scrap of difference, but it's better to stand out and be noticed than send in a brown envelope.
7- Anyways, once you have checked to see if your package has been signed for, because you sent it with DHL, you wait a few days and then call the person you sent it to and see if they have received it and if they have had a chance to listen to it. If they have listened to it, ask them what they thought, and even though they will probably reject the demo because it's 'not what they're looking for right now', ask them for constructive criticism, and ask them if it's okay for you to send future demo's to them.
8- Repeat steps 1-7 on another record co.
Those are my tips on getting a demo into the hands of the right person. It pays to do your homework on the label, the A & R guy, etc.
