music business | No CD’s Please!

No CD’s Please!

Whilst checking through my copy of The Unsigned Guide, (a book I recommend everyone who is serious about music purchases) I decided to look through the recording companies section to see if there were any new companies around I should be aware of and if my address details where up to date, when I read the Sony Music entry I saw this comment under its details.

“Sony BMG no longer accepts physical CD’s. They have now set up 2 A&R blogs via the above web addresses, where bands and musicians could set up demos.”

“Now that’s no surprise” is what I would expect you to say, especially since I have been saying this for the last few years repeatedly. What this does do though is enforce the point that you need to start on your own to grab their attention.

“But they take demos online, so they have made it easier for us to get to them!”

Record companies real problem with cd’s was always they do not have the time to listen to every demo that comes into the offices, now that they have made it easier for people to submit demos the likely hood is that even more demos will be submitted so where will they get the time to listen to even more demos??

The truth is the way to get to a recording company has been put quite simply on the EMI entry.

“EMI Records suggest you submit your material through an established industry source (such as a manager, lawyer, publisher or producer) who has had previous contact with the company.”

Now there were two key points in that statement which were “established industry source” and “previous contact with the company”. Now the issue still remains how do you get to an established industry source and how do you know they have had previous contact with the company, more importantly how do you know that the contact with the company was good and they are not avoided by this or any other company?

First things first you must do some research, one of the ways I found management many moons ago was to look at successful acts in my genre and find out who managed them. What ever you do you need to put down your guitar or switch of the logic software and do some reading. There are routes to find every reputable management, production and publishing company out there, BUT the question still remains; how do you get them to want to be involved with your project?

You still have to build something desirable, but you must prove it to a certain extent. Develop a strong concept because you will find good management or representatives actually know more about what is good then a recording company will, so convincing them maybe harder. I speak about things such as concepts and desirability because creatively you may be creating the new sound that some in the industry may not recognise, but what they always recognise is something that will sell!