You just finished a smashing new track and want to send it to a record label! But you don’t know how or you did it in the past but never got a reply. Here’s a guide to send the perfect demo submission in just six easy steps!
Step 1 – Selecting the Tracks
First thing you want to be sure of is that the tracks are finished! Are they? Then pick a maximum of two of your best tracks. It’s very annoying for record labels when they receive an “Hi, this is my album and I want to release it on your label”. Chance of signing your album like that are about a million to one. Besides, if you send two tracks and the record label really loves them they are likely to ask you for more on their own, which is when you can send the other tracks you have lying around.
What to Do?
Select your two best tracks of the moment to send to the record label.
Quote to Make Your Day
Step 2 – Preparing for Sending
Time to prepare the tracks for sending them out. Make sure you send a full length track in a considerable rate, preferably 192 kb/s but the absolute minimum is 128 kb/s. The “please-f&$k-off-level” of the A&R Manager rises incredibly fast when he receives a demo of 2 minutes, asks for more and ends up with a crappy Nintendo/Super Mario sounding tune.
What to Do?
Render your finished track as an MP3 in a minimum of 128 kb/s!
Quote to Make Your Day
Step 3 – Uploading
The times that you had to send a CD with full biography and discography to a record label are far behind us. Nowadays, we use this little thing called the World Wide Web, you might heard of it somewhere. All record labels have a general email address where you can send your demos. Believe it or not, this is how 99,9% of the tracks get signed nowadays. So, it’s time to upload the music to the internet. Feel free to place the files in a RAR or ZIP file which is secured with a password for safety. We don’t want our music shared on Torrent sites, P2P’s or one of the million music sharing forums.
As you might know there are a million file sharing sites out there, like YouSendit f.e., which are entirely free to use. Here’s the top three, from the labels perspective;
- YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com)
Good: A reliable and fast to download from website
Not so good: Files have a limited uptime of 7 days - Zippyshare (www.zippyshare.com)
Good: Reliable, fast up/download speed
Not so good: Easy to find in Google. - Speedyshare (www.speedyshare.com)
Good: Easy up/download
Not so good: Limited uptime, depending on the number of downloads
Important: Do not upload your track to your MySpace or Soundcloud account to use for demo submissions. Labels want the track to be exclusive and not online for several months!
What to Do?
Upload your finished 128kb/s MP3 to one of the above mentioned file sharing sites.
Qote to Make Your Day
Step 4 – Picking the Right Record Label(s)
Ok, so the tracks have been picked, rendered and uploaded to the internet. Now it’s time to send it out right? No, not yet! First it’s important to consider which labels you’re going to send it to. No need in sending a hardcore track to a progressive label, or to send the latest electro floor filler to a lounge orientated label. So where do you send it to? Three tips to find the perfect label for your music;
- Consider your own taste. Which labels do you love and would you love to release your music on?
- Compare your track to other music already released. Does it match certain points of other tracks? Then it might be worth sending it to the label where that tune got released.
- 3. Consult other producers/musicians to find out which labels they find trust worthy and do their job well. There are way too many labels in the world that promise you all the gold in the world but never pay.
What to Do?
Find the perfect label for your music, pick a maximum of five labels to send the tracks to and continue with Step Five.
Step 5, Writing the Email
We’re nearly there! Just one step away from sending the demo. But, as you might expect, I saved the best for last. It’s time to write the email, but what on earth do you write to a record label? Most important thing is that you email each label individually! It’s highly irritating for each and every record label, who all want their music to be exclusive, to receive a mass email that was meant for Label A, mentions Label B and was sent to Labels A-Z. Get my point?
Alright, now what to write in that email? Basically the structure of the email might look something similar to the format given below.
What to Do?
Write a friendly, easy to read email for the A&R Manager of the record label.
THE EMAIL
Step 6 – Sending!
Alright, time for the final step! Are you ready for it? Hit SEND!
Final Tips
After sending the demo, don’t expect an answer within the hour! All labels get tons of demos a day… the bigger the label, the more demos they get! And if they reply but don’t want to sign it, don’t lose faith. Just that they don’t like doesn’t mean it’s a bad track. Keep on making your music and doing your thing, if the music is quality labels will sign it eventually! Just remember, make music because you want to and like doing it, don’t aim for that Beatport number one position because trust me, you’ll lose all the fun there is in making music. We want quality, not quantity!
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By Celwin Frenzen
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Wow, this might be how it works at a Dutch dance label, but I can’t imagine anything further from the truth if you’re in a band with real instruments. Honestly, I can’t believe an e-mail with “Hey man, please send a contract to sign it.” works for ANY label.
Is Andrew a real person? I think not, real persons like Andrew cannot spell correct English.
Also, I would recommend against the “Hi there” from the last image and any kind of friendly approach – these are business people you will be talking to, and you want to keep it strictly business. If you later make friends on the label, all is fine, but keep your distance before knowing who you’re writing an email to… even if most A&R managers ARE your age.
@encore
No mate Andrew is not a real person
it’s the kind of email that matters! And from experience I know most A&R managers in the dance scene (in which I work) don’t mind the “Hi there”. But for the sake of being professional you’re right, a formal “Dear Sir/Madam,” is probably more appropriate! Most important thing about the tutorial are the steps though. The fake emails from Andrew are just to explain that’s NOT the way to send a demo haha!
Also it helps to have you demo stand out from the hundreds that are screened. You can do this by getting your songs mastered first by a company like http://bigsoundmastering.com
Nice tut. Cheers.
Although you forgot to add how Andrews perseverance & determination finally paid off!!
I like the subtle blend of information and humor.
I would also propose that we push the envelope a little regarding mp3s. I think 192Kbps should be an absolute minimum in the day and age of the internet only getting faster. I get that 128 was a standard for a while but I think we should start going in the direction of quality again.
I also agree with encore. I would have liked to see some spelling errors in the screenshots, they were a great addition to the piece.
Thanks. Great article.
Hey dude,
Andrew here again. I’ve got another song you will definitely want on your label, because this one is going to be a smash hit. My mate Barry reckons it will reach number 1 and he knows what he’s talking about because his dad owns a record shop.
Please send me contract asap. Unfortunately I can’t send you the song as I don’t want anyone to steal my ideas.
Hahaha lol, good one mate!
@Björgvin thanks mate
appreciate it! 192 is good as well off course, as long as people don’t send WAV files!
@Simon thanks
and Andrew’s work didn’t pay off haha 
Hey Celwin! do you know a bit about what labels think about the soundcloud dropbox to receive demo’s? With that it’s still possible to send it exclusively to a label and I have seen a few labels using it but not a lot yet
Hey Natal!
Good question
you can often see if labels accept demo submissions via Soundcloud on their website and/or Facebook/MySpace page. Most labels have a page that tells you how they accept demos (this is also where you’ll find the email address of the A&R manager), if they accept Soundcloud they’ll most likely have a link to their Dropbox on there!
Hope it helped
Cheers,
Celwin
This has inspired me somehow. Thank you!!!
When it says “Quote to make your day” you didn’t realize that meant “DON’T DO THIS!” You thought that was his real advice? LOL!!
Good stuff here. Love the qoutes of the day.
This is great!!!! I realize that that above you mentioned the top three file sharing website. Yet another useful one that allows you to send up to 300 megabytes is:
http://www.sendspace.com/
True, allthough when sending only 1 or 2 files in the prefered 192kb/s MP3 format, 300mb isn’t really necesarry! Good site though for uploading!
This is all excellent advice. I turn away the majority of demos I receive due to people taking “Andrew’s” approach, or simply not following directions on my demo submission page.
As an owner of a label, I’d like to add that you should only submit to labels that are into your sound – meaning that if a label is only releasing minimal techno, you probably should not send your glitchcore hip hop demo to them. Nothing more annoying as a label owner than saying “only looking for x, y, and z” and getting nothing but “a, b, and c”.
http://www.nudephotomusic.com/demo-submission-guidelines
That’s kind of what I meant with:
“Compare your track to other music already released. Does it match certain points of other tracks? Then it might be worth sending it to the label where that tune got released.”
Very interesting article. But right now I think that in as much as it is very important sending in the perfect demo it somehow now all depends on the material you are sending. How good does the song sound. Most A and R’s are not bothered about how professionally done your demo is. All they want to feel is the music, which can never be disguised by creating a professional demo or sending in the perfect polite message. In the end it all boils down to your music. If it is not good then no matter how perfect your demo submission is it is just a waste of your time. I’d advice one spends more time on the music and the rest will follow naturally. Anyway overall it is a good and very informative article learned a lot from it definitely. For those wanting to submit there demos to some very good independent labels and music publishers well here are a few good ones I could come up with.
Hosbeg Records and Music Publishing they are fairly new but great http://www.hosbeg.com
There is also kitchenware records another fantastic independent label which is home to great indie bands like the Editors.
Better still there is taxi music, which is a sure way of getting a deal providing your music is good. And maybe we could also look at hitquarters
True! It all comes down to how good your music is, but fact is that a lot of labels won’t even bother reading a demo submission if it says: “Hi, please listen to my demo. You can download via http://www.sendspace.com. Thanks, Andrew”…
They delete it instantly!
Celwin, check out the demo submission website I recently launched. http://pleaselistentomydemo.com !!