Introduction

How do I get my tracks signed? That is probably one of the most asked questions EDM artists and producers have asked for years now. In fact, it’s pretty much been THE question anybody who wanted to make money at music has been asking since the first record was sold (if not earlier). The foundation of the music industry (the business end, not the creative one) has always hinged on finding ways to get music out to the masses in such a way that they will pay for it and thus help the artist, composer, lyricist, and let’s face it… the manager and anybody else who represents the artist makes money. In this article, we venture from the happy and calm creative side of things to the blood, sweat and tears side known as “making it.”

I guess the best place to start is to explain why I am writing this article now. To be frank, it is because I am shopping my music around right now. Earlier this summer, I sent demos out to forty labels. I had about six of them respond to it. None of them wanted to sign what they heard, but they did like what they heard. All this means that I need to go back to the drawing board a bit and that’s where this article comes in. I figured that as long as I am learning how to shop tracks, I should take a few of you along for the ride as well.

In this article, I hope to point out some common sense things regarding demos. In writing this article, I asked roughly fifteen different well-respected labels for their own input. Of those, six responded including Baroque, Lost Language, Finger Lickin’, and Anjunabeats. Their input as well as a few concepts from Rick Snoman’s The Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys and Techniques make up the foundation of this article.

When You Are Ready

Knowing when you are ready to send a demo is vital. So many of us get excited about our music and the praise our peers give us. That in and of itself does not mean that you are ready to hit the big time and have your music released by an established label. Many times our own ears and those of our peers are not fully or properly trained to recognize what sonically makes the difference between the music we are writing and what is currently charting well in the market.

Right now, the market is overly saturated with music. The fact is that with the advent of quality and relatively inexpensive (or even pirated) computer software, anyone can make dance music. In the olden days, you had to have at least a reel-to-reel deck and a huge stack of records if not room full of hardware synthesizers, but that just isn’t the case today. This is further compounded with MP3 distribution and the fact that many people simply start their own virtual label if they can’t get their music signed. What this means is that as a producer striving to break into the market, the odds are heavily stacked against you doing so. Sure you could start your own label, but then you have to run a company while making music. That isn’t something you should take lightly.

When I asked the labels how do you know when you are ready to send in a demo, the response was unanimous. Justin Rushmore, one half of Soul of Man, director of Finger Lickin’ and A&R manager, stated “When its at a standard when its ready as it is to be released, mixed down, the lot!” Keith McDonnell of Baroque suggested that you “Listen to it quite a few times, don't get excited after a good studio session and send it straight out…as you may come back a few days later and wish you hadn't!” You have got to be able to stack your demo against any other label released material available in your genre and say in all honesty that your music is as good or better than what you can currently buy.

As John Pitcher of Lost Language told to me “Ask yourself is it good? Is it as good as a record? Would I play it?” Not only do you need to be proud enough of your music that you would play it in your own set, but your music has got to sound good enough that the label execs you send it to will play it out. If you want to submit a demo to Bedrock, keep up with Digweed’s charts. Compare the tracks he is playing and then and only then if the quality of your music matches what he is playing are you ready to submit a demo to Bedrock.

Making a Good Demo

The question that first attracted you to this article was probably “How do I make a killer demo?” Well, Dan Myles from Ajunabeats summed things up quite poetically:

“As for all of your questions I can simply say that the only thing that matters when sending a demo is that the music is @#$%ing amazing… The only thing that would ever make us sign a record is if the tune we hear is amazing and fancy packaging etc doesn't really come into the A&R process.”

I don’t think anybody could be more blunt about it. Your demo has got to be amazing. It must blow the minds of the label A&R people. If you’re an A&R rep for a label like Baroque, you can expect to receive thirty or more demos in MP3 format each day. That’s not even counting what comes via post daily.

So what makes a demo amazing? It all comes down to one good track. Time and time again that’s what these A&R guys told me. There is no way around it. They want to hear a great tune. It is your job to give them that.

Assembling a Demo

Okay, I am going to assume that you have at least one good track that is totally amazing, you have your local buddy DJs supporting it and the crowds all love it. It is time to get this track to a label and out on vinyl, CD, or some digital format. Here’s the quick format for a demo that will hopefully work:

• Select the best one to four tracks that you have made.
  Clean them up as much as possible. Make sure the audio is mixed as well as you can with your experience, talent and equipment. Do not put more than four tracks on the demo. Some labels don’t want to spend time on more than one track. Since A&R people have such a short time to listen to new music given the volumes of it they receive, more than four tracks will only increase the chance that your demo will not get listened to. So, if you can, just send in one track at a time. Finally, if you can’t communicate how amazing your production skills are in one to four tracks, your skills are not going to be up the standard labels are looking for. Get really critical of your work. Get others to be blunt with you regarding it as well. Take your time in choosing since this may be the first and only chance to convince the A&R people at each label you submit to that you are worthy of a release.
• Put Contact Information on EVERYTHING.
  What you send in to a label needs to look clean professional. ALL of your contact information (address, phone numbers, emails, website, etc.) should be on everything you submit to the label (CD, CD case, bio, press kit, cover letter, etc.). You need to make sure that this information is on the CD itself as A&R people constantly complain about getting a demo without any contact information on it. Things get thrown into piles, across desks, in the back of cars, and so on. You cannot count on your demo package staying in one nice stack of information.
• Make the demo look nice, but not overly designed.
  Also, even if you are a professional graphic designer, don’t present the A&R people with a finished, well-designed demo. These people are not going to want to see something that looks like it has been sitting on the shelf at Best Buy already. If you are not a graphic designer this applies double for you. A bad design will convey a negative image from the start. In fact, the A&R people do not want to see a fully designed demo package specifically because they feel that it can taint their opinion of your music. Make it simple. Make it clean. Leave it at that. Don’t get fancy. You want to sell your ability to write music. You are not trying to sell them a CD.
• Consider writing a bio… or not.
  Lastly, don’t sweat the bio. It is bonus information for A&R people and in the end serves to clutter up their desks at night. If they like your music, they will contact you (if they can find your contact information) even if you do not have a bio. If you do write a bio, keep it short and make sure it talks about you in a way that isn’t just bragging and name-dropping. What they would like to hear is where you are from and what you have had out on the market already. Keep it to 100 words or less. Have several people read over it before sending it out to help limit any grammatical errors and make sure to list a website on it if you have one so they can get more information about your and your music.
• Consider doing both an electronic and CD versions of your demo.
  In researching labels for me to submit my demo to, I came across some wanted MP3s, some wanted CD, some wanted DATs and some just did not care. You should consider at least doing a CD and an online version of the CD in the form of a web page and MP3s that is not linked into the rest of your site. This way you can send the labels that prefer CDs a CD and the one that prefer MP3s the URL for your online demo. Whatever you do, do not email them an MP3 directly unless their web site says you can. You could fill up their inbox and keep them from receiving other important emails or their server could automatically strip the attachment out as part of their anti-virus procedures. One last thing regarding MP3’s, do not under any circumstance send in any MP3 that is encoded at less than 128 kbps. The quality will be too low for them to get a good listen.

Submitting the Demo

Outside of the club scene, getting your demo in the hands of A&R people can be somewhat difficult. For legal reasons, such as ensuring that your material doesn’t end up on the market without your permission, many of the larger labels cannot accept unsolicited material. That is they have to request a demo from you. You cannot simply send the label a demo. If you have ever seen the movie Airheads, you have seen what it’s like trying to submit a demo to such a label.

With dance labels, things are more relaxed. Most labels do not have a policy of not accepting unsolicited demos. What that means is you can send in demos to your hearts delight. I think two of the contributing factors are that the labels are run mostly by DJs who love to get new material for free to keep their sets fresh and that these labels tend to be a lot smaller with a very limited number of staff people who can be dedicated to seeking out new material.

When you submit a demo, you need to ensure that you leave a good impression with the A&R people. More often than not; A&R people will appreciate an email from you asking if they would be interested in hearing your material. You can share your bio and online demo in this if you would like, but keep it short and sweet. If they respond, send the demo out immediately.

Do your best to submit the demo in the formats they request on their web site. If they want to see CDs, give them CDs. If they want MP3’s, give them MP3’s. The only time you may want to consider not doing that is if you are sending a bunch of demos to labels overseas that want CDs or DATs. In that case, you should contact them first via email and see if they would like to hear your music first. Make sure you include your MP3 demo URL though so they can grab it if they want to. The only reason I am saying this is that if you are sending a CD demo overseas from the U.S., it could cost you as much as $4.00 per demo. In my case, I estimated it would have cost me about $200; which is a rather large chunk of cash to invest with an uncertain and probably low return expectancy.

I will mention three things that should be obvious here because despite the fact that they are obvious, they are too important not to mention. First, pick your labels very carefully. Make sure that in your opinion that your music fits the style they release. The labels are more than capable of making this assessment themselves, but remember their time is important and if you submit a trance track to a drum and bass label, you just wasted the demo, the postage, your time and the A&R people’s time. Second, you can find out how labels like their demos to be submitted and any mailing and contact information pertaining to this on their web site. Three, the easiest way to find a label’s web site is through a Google search, but there are other places to search like The DJ List (http://www.thedjlist.com/), Progressive Sounds (http://www.progressive-sounds.com), Discogs (http://www.discogs.com) and just about any site that keeps a list of labels and their releases.

Following Up

Submitting the demo is the easy part. Following up is hard. I say this because it really is easy to drop a package in the mail or email out some links. Follow-up requires you to start building a relationship with the A&R people. I am having a hard time doing this myself. It takes time and it takes commitment to do.

About two weeks after you submit your demo, if you haven’t heard anything back from the labels you submitted demos to; you should send a follow-up email or phone call. It doesn’t have to be very lengthy. All you need to say is something along the lines of “A few weeks ago, I sent you a demo via mail. I just wanted to make sure that you got it and see if you had had a moment to give it a listen.” Don’t be pushy and don’t waste their time. The fastest way to make an A&R rep not like you is to ask if they got your demo two days after you sent it out and then emailing them every day. Make the one contact email and leave it at that. If they are interested or have the time, they’ll get back to you. If you get any response at all, it will go one of three ways:

• They hated it and it doesn’t meet their standards.
  If this is the case, you probably won’t hear from them. A&R people would have to spend all day sending these emails out in this case.
• They liked the music but they aren’t going to use it.
  More often than no, if you hear something, this is what you will hear. If you do get this message, you did well. It may be that your music doesn’t fit their style, their release schedule is filled up for the year, or while your music is good it is still lacking one or two things. If you get this email, feel free to do further follow-up and explore why your music is not being signed. Be very polite. Do not push for an answer. Ask for a few pointers either regarding where your demo was lacking or where you should be shopping your demo. Just do not waste the A&R rep’s time.
• They loved it and they want to release it.
  Congrats, you’ve broken through and gotten your foot in the door. Now the hard work gets harder. More than likely, only one of your demo tracks will be signed. You should not expect to get a five-album deal. In case you have not noticed, the dance labels sign mostly singles and producers tend to be more like free agents or contractors who work with multiple labels. Oh, and since this will be your first release, do not expect to see a dime from it, even if it is a hit. Much of your first few releases will need to be for free or very low pay as you are an untested “product.” All of this will depend on how the label does business and treats their artists.

Wrapping Things Up

Well, that’s about all there is to say at this point. There are so many factors into making and submitting a demo that makes writing a guaranteed to work how-to guide impossible. This should however, give you a foundation to explore and build on. To sum things up, here is a short list of what you should and should not do:

What to do:

• Work on learning how to write music until you can consistently write at or above the current quality of the market.
• Put no more than four of your best tracks on both a CD and a “secret” web site to use as your demo. In fact, if you can, just send off one-track demos. That will save the A&R guys time and forces you to really pick your best work.
• Put your address on every item in your demo package.
• Contact the A&R people at the labels you want to send a CD to prior to sending it to be nice and always treat them with respect even if they hate your stuff. If you are submitting MP3’s, make this initial contact an email and just send in your demo.
• Be patient, follow-up in a few weeks, but don’t expect to get a response from the labels you send demos to.

What NOT to do:

• Do Not forget to put your contact information on the CDs you mail out or on the web site you send them to for MP3’s. In fact, make sure your email is attached to the MP3’s ID3 tag.
• Do Not harass the A&R people. This will never result in a positive effect.
• Do Not submit an MP3 with a bit rate lower than 128 kbps. A&R people will not be able to determine your sound accurately from that. If you can, encode at 256 kbps or higher.
• Do Not send out unfinished or substandard tracks.
• Do Not send a demo off expecting to get feedback on how to improve. If they contact you, then it is all right to ask for it, but do not expect it.
  

I have but only one other parting thought to leave you with and that is something that Justin Rushmore of Finger Lickin’ shared with me:

“Generally in the ten years of running a dance label I rarely find demo music
of a suitable standard to release, it tends to be more a case of producers
wanting feedback. I have only ever followed up and released two demos in
ten years and I get sent about ten to twenty a week! The best bit of advice is get it to a finished standard.”

A&R people have to listen to hundreds or even thousands each year. They are the experts as to what will be profitable for their label to release and what will not be. They know good music when they hear it. They also are going to be responsible and follow-up on the demos that meet these criteria because it is their job to do so. Get your music up to a finished standard, send it in, and accept what comes. If you get a track signed, a request for a remix, or even a friendly rejection letter you should be proud. Something you sent them caught their ear enough to get a response from them. If you don’t hear anything back however, do not loose hope, keep plugging away and keep sending out demos to other labels.