First of all, let’s dispense with the word “demo”. Stop using it. What you have made is a promo. These days, the word ‘demo’ has acquired connotations of “not as good as it would be if we had a decent budget and could play our instruments properly”.
Having sorted that one out – the format on which you should present your promo recordings is ‘both’ – and it’s entirely context dependent.
If you’re trying to get interest from a print publication, venue, record label or a radio station, then generally speaking, they’re still working very much in the realm of physical CDs. If you want attention from an mp3 blogger, potential manager, promoter (particularly one in another city), then you should certainly have ready some mp3s for them to access and download.
But as someone who gets sent an awful lot of promos, I have a few tips that might help you see it from the recipient’s perspective.
CD as calling card
If you’re going to a music industry conference or convention, then your best bet is to take CDs. These are your business/calling card. Shake hands, and pass over a CD.
Generally speaking, I’d avoid jewel cases in that instance, because people have travelled and will not want to stuff their bags full of brittle plastic boxes for the journey home. Clear plastic sleeves are the way forward.
Having said that, packaging, design and artwork are crucial. Nothing says unprofessional like a hand-scrawled CD-R with no cover art. If nothing else, then a picture of the band, the name of the band, a track listing and some contact details. But you can do better than that.
MP3 Manners
If you’re not meeting the person face to face (for which I would always use CDs), then you’re dealing with the etiquette of the mp3.
First things first – do NOT email people an mp3 in your first introduction to them. Even though inbox sizes have increased dramatically in the past ten years, you are still providing digital clutter, slow email download times and potential annoyance. Best thing to do is have the mp3s in a place online where people can download them at their convenience.
Ideally, this would be your own server, but if you do not have that facility, you can use free (and ‘freemium’) file upload and transfer services such as YouSendIt, Rapidshare, Sendspace and MegaUpload.
But you may want to check if people even want that. There’s a huge difference between building a relationship with someone (which, yes, takes time, energy and effort) and doing an email blast saying ‘Hey blogger! Download my music and talk about it on your website!’.
Why are you sending these to me?
Like I said, I get an awful lot of promos. Don’t quite know why, or what I’m expected to do with them. I don’t review music here, I won’t give feedback about a recording, I hardly ever talk about specific musicians on the internet (and almost never from an unsolicited demo). And yet – every day – I get CDs in the post and mp3s in my email.
It’s appreciated, of course – but I feel like I’m not holding up my end of the bargain (whatever that might be) and so each one feels like an unfulfilled obligation. Of course, a lot of it is awful – but some of it is amazing. Part of me wants to hear everything in the world ever – and another part of me just feels guilty about the massive ‘to be listened to pile’ that I share in common with pretty much everyone on the planet in a similar position.
In radio, they call it ‘CD clutter’. The music programmer’s desk is always just a formality. It holds up the pile of music that comes in.
So my message would be that you may be better off carefully targetting specific individuals who show a genuine interest in your work than carpet bombing anyone and everyone who looks like they may in some way be connected with the wider music industry.
Particularly when it comes to ‘promo’ recordings.
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10 Comments
I’d like to point everyone in the direction of SoundCloud (www.soundcloud.com) for easy sharing/distribution of MP3s. I know one of the guys behind it, they’ve worked super hard to make it a really elegant solution for moving big audio files around and getting feedback.
Excellent point. I was about to amend the post when I realised I had completely overlooked SoundCloud. Strongly recommended – particularly for moving files between collaborators on projects.
I’d suggest Bandcamp too – looks about perfect for this sort of thing:
http://bandcamp.mu/
:-) This advice could easily compel me to write some songs with lines such as Good Manners Cost Nothing, There’s No Substitute For Hard Work or even the marketeers favourite, Swap The Blunderbuss For Shotgun! I have a further question though, which I’d appreciate pointers on please which builds on this and the previous post. Is the world of youtube links built on parallel etiquette? In other words, if you’ve a promo video, how does getting the word out about that possibly differ from the advice above?
Andrew,
I’m a big fan of your writing. Your ebook is required reading for anyone I work with. While I agree with most of this post, I have two slight disagreements.
I was one of the four partners at Paste Magazine for several years. We got about 18,000 discs a year while I was there. And I have been personally handed more discs than I can count. And, like with you, I get more every day.
1) I disagree with your take on jewel cases. I strongly recommend jewel case with tray artwork. The reason is simple. Anyone in the music business, and reviewers in particular, has two stacks of CDs on their desk. One is for stuff we MIGHT listen to and one is for stuff we WILL listen to. When I hear about an artist that seems familiar, I scan the MIGHT stack and move the disc to the WILL stack if I find it. The point is that I scan the SIDE of the stack, not the cover. I would actually have to pick up the stack and work through it to look at the covers. It is much easier and faster to just scan the side looking for the artist name. Anything other than a jewel case with a printed tray card will not be seen in a quick scan of the side.
Everyone in the industry I know who gets more than a few hundred CDs a year works pretty much like this. I’ve watched reviewers on the phone with a publicist, running their finger down the side of a stack on their desk, only to proclaim that they don’t have a copy of the disc, even though they might actually have it.
2) I’ve thrown away a lot of CDs at places like SXSW because I didn’t have room in my luggage for the flight home. But I don’t think getting rid of the jewel case is the answer. Instead of giving me a disc when I’m standing in a club or a coffee shop or whatever, ask for my card and tell me you’ll send me a CD later. Then mark the envelope “requested material” so it gets past the intern and goes straight to my desk. When I open the envelope, it will be the only disc in my hand and I’ll be sitting in front of my laptop if I decide I want to hear it then. If not, I’ll at least put it in my MIGHT stack instead of throwing it away before I get back to my desk. (From there, see point 1.)
Keep up the good work Andrew.
Joe Kirk
NoiseTrade
I’m personally not averse to using the “demo CD” description. I think a promo CD descibes a CD that’s purpose is to promote a full-length CD or some other professional-grade recording. In contrast I think a demo is the early attempts of a new artist looking to show a selective few people what he or she can do. I don’t mind calling my song and CD “demos” because that’s what they are, raw demonstrations of my songs.
I find it best to make contact with your target and find out what they want – CD or Mp3. It can be a good way to break the ice and demonstrate that you want to make the person’s life easier. I include my bandcamp URL in my signature so they can have a quick listen and decide whether to engage with me further. This has actually lead to some meaningful and useful relationships with people out in there and has saved me a lot of time and postage costs!
+1 Matt . I’ve the same use for Demo CD…
Hello i¨m M.DAVID BREO i´m the vocalist and guitarist of skyheaven I send this email because in Colombia they don¨t support the rock music I would like you listen to my music in : http://www.myspace.com/gardenofparadiserock
Email: axl19802@hotmail.com
I have three songs, I would love that you were the person to heard my music and could be a guide for me and this way of creating music I need your help , as I have mentioned before this country they don¨t promote this kind of music I hope that you pay attention to me. Thank you for your time, and I wish I could hear from you soon.
M .DAVID BREO
BOGOTA COLOMBIA
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