Christian Rock Listing Question

[dtrain1234]

NEW LISTING -- CHRISTIAN ROCK SONGS and BANDS in the wide range of Switchfoot, Creed, Live, Jars of Clay, Relient K, etc., needed by an Indie Label with major distribution. They would prefer receiving submissions from established artists/bands that are sitting on finished CDs and are in need of distribution, but will also accept songs for possible placement opportunities. A fresh approach to your lyric themes, strong memorable hooks and melodies with current radio hit song appeal are necessary. Nothing too overtly Christian please. Male or female vocals are okay. Broadcast quality needed. This listing was recently run as Dispatch #D100219CR, so if you submitted to that listing, please send in new songs this time around. Please submit one to three songs online or per CD, include lyrics (and photo/bio if applicable). All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than Tuesday, May 11, 2010.
TAXI # S100511CC

Saw that listing and I am wondering if "Jesus Heals Every Pain" would be a good fit and do you think it would go through?

http://www.myspace.com/darinlmartin

Thank you.

[bigbluebarry]

Hey Darin,

I gave your song a listen. I don't think it's on target for the listing. It doesn't sound like any of the bands listed. They also said nothing too overtly Christian and the title/subject matter of your song is about as overtly Christian as you can get. I would suggest not submitting your song for that particular listing.

hth,
- Big Blue

[dtrain1234]

OK,

Thanks for the reply. Are those keywords some of the things that I should be looking for when trying to decide if I should send a song through? What genre would my songs be good for? Maybe Gospel?

[bigbluebarry]

Hey Darin,

Yep, you definitely need to look for the keywords in each listing when trying to decide on whether or not you have music to submit to them. Though each listing is it's own separate entity, there are some general guidelines you can follow when trying to determine whether or not to submit your music to them.

If I personally were going to submit to this listing, here's what I would do...

1) First off, I look to see if there are any bands listed as "a la" references. In this particular listing, they mention Switchfoot, Creed, Live, Jars of Clay and Relient K. If they don't list any "a la" artists, I would probably look at the current billboard charts for the particular genre to see what's "hot" at the moment and cater my material around that.

2) Since they listed some "a la" artists, the next thing I would do is try and determine what each of those bands/artists share in common with one another that would prompt this company to group them all together in a listing. Looking at the 5 artists they listed, the ONLY common trait that these 5 share, in my opinion, would be that although they are comprised of Christian members (though I'm not 100% sure about Live being a band of Christian members), they are known just as much outside of the Christian marketplace as they are within it, as well as their lyrics deal with issues within the Christian faith but they would definitely not be considered "preachy" or "evangelistic" in nature. Musically speaking, those bands are rather diverse, and really don't sound anything like each other. The only other common thread I see is that they had "radio ready" material.

3) After going through the listing to see what they're looking for from a musical perspective, I then go back and see what other important info is in the listing. In this case, they mentioned that they would prefer receiving submissions from established artists/bands that already have CD's available, but that they would accept songs as well. Though the listing says they would accept songs, it's pretty clear to me that this company is looking for an artist who's already got everything except a record label/distribution deal. Since I don't meet their first qualification of being an artist with a CD, I'd read a bit more and see what else they say.

4) Upon further reading I notice that it says that they want songs that have "current radio hit song appeal." So the next question I have to ask myself would be "Does my song sound like it would be a hit on the radio in TODAY'S market?" If it does, then I might consider submitting it, even though I'm not an artist with a CD, since they said that they would take songs as well.

5) The last thing I notice in this particular listing is that is says "Nothing too overtly Christian." At this point, I would have to look at my lyrics and see if I mention Jesus or God. If I do, then I'm not going to submit the song for this particular listing. Well, actually, I think you could probably mention God in the song, depending on how you do it. For example, "She prays to God every night..." would probably be ok for this listing but "God can heal your pain" would probably not.

So after going through those steps, and looking up any potential songs I have in my catalog, I'd make my decision on whether or not to submit to this listing. Another step to take would be to do EXACTLY what you did for this one. Post your song on the P2P section and get some feedback from other members. You'll usually get some good advice on here from people who genuinely want to help you and see you succeed.

Now as far as the genre of your songs goes... I listened to them both again tonight. I'd say that "Jesus Be Revealed In Me" is kind of leaning a bit towards the Praise & Worship realm to me. While "Jesus Heals Every Pain" has more of a classic rock feel with Christian lyrics.

hth,
- Big Blue