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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: feel free to ask

Here's a question that was asked in the Guestbook at my web site. This comes up a lot in my workshops and online, so I thought I'd post it here...
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Hi Robin - I have recorded all my songs onto a cassette tape at home, how do I get that tape into a record producer's hands?

Hi Graeme - Here are a couple things I've found that might work for you. First, make sure your songs are recorded well. They don't have to be big productions - just you and a guitar or piano will do - but it's important that the sound quality is clean and clear so people can really hear the song. try to get as much of the groove or feel of the song into the demo as you can. If you can burn a CD, it really helps. Cassettes are still used but not very much. Then - VERY IMPORTANT -copyright your song! You're in the U.K. so I'm not able to help you with that but I'm sure you can get information about that on the web.

When your songs are sounding good and you have copyrighted them, take a look at a website like http://www.garageband.com. People - mostly other songwriters, musicians, and just folks who like to hear new songwriters - will listen and review your music. Some people will say dumb things but you can ignore them. Other people are very good at telling you what they like (or don't like) about your song. If you find that more people like your song than not, that's a good indication that you're on the right track. I strongly suggest that you review other people's songs for a while. Find out what works for you and what doesn't. Listen to their demos and compare them with yours. Some will be big productions but others will be simple. AND when you have reviewed a certain number of songs, you can upload one of yours for FREE so it doesn't cost anything if you're willing to put in the time.

After you've done garageband.com, if you feel ready to go on, take a look at The MusicBroker at http://www.themusicbroker.net/ . This is an A&R service like TAXI (http://www.taxi.com) but it costs less. Take a look at the opportunites for submitting your songs to producers, publishers, record labels, and music libraries. You can see these for free at any time. (Same for TAXI.) You can submit your songs to Richard Jay at The Music Broker and he will give you a critique. If he accepts the songs, you pay a yearly fee to pitch them to anything on the list for a year. If he feels your songs are not ready, he'll tell you and will return your money. You haven't got anything to lose that way.

Good luck!

Robin

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Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.

Copyright 2005 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.