Making a Demo for Music Supervisors Question

[rdance]

Trying to figure out the best way to make a CD demo for film/TV music supervisors. I noticed when I went through the M.S. directory in Music Connection Magazine, that many of them will not go to links or listen to MP3's embedded in an email...they want a physical CD mailed. So...

My main focus is guitar instrumental tracks. I usually write them about 2:00 in length for Taxi purposes.

I know that if you even get a M.S. to listen, you only have a 10 or 15-second chance. What I thought I would do is give them the most impactful 30 seconds of a dozen or so guitar tracks. What do you think? Should I go shorter, longer?

Next question is, I also write complete songs with lyrics. It seems like I should send them the whole song on those...what do you think? Something shorter?

Lastly, I notice that when I go to other production libraries just to listen, there is often a soft voice that says "demo" about every 10 seconds, so no one can rip the track off. Do you think a MS will find this annoying or distrustful if I add this to my demo?

Thanks for any advice. I find these Taxi forums very helpful and supportive.

The Crawdaddy
(Richard Dance)

https://soundcloud.com/richard-dance-music

[DesireInspires]

Go for it.

[markjsmith]

I would just put your best 6-10 tracks no edits on a cd. I think cd's with edits or a voice coming on every ten seconds saying "demo" are kind of aggravating. That being said the best introductions are in person. If thats not in the cards, a TAXI forward is a very favorable introduction to quote our friend Chuck Schlacter.

[pboss]

Because a CD holds a fair amount of data, you have the option of offering short snippets where you include the portion with the most impact, like you describe, and then you can always include the entire song in another track, and note this in your track list in the CD case. Some listeners will want to hear the whole idea and how you develop it, and the story, if there's lyrics.

One way to try to protect shorter snippets is to cross fade one into another. But that still leaves you with the question about how and if to watermark/or put "demo" voice-over on the tracks. Whatever you do, metatag the heck out of it, and put the CD into Gracenote before sending. All metadata does not stick to Gracenote, but if you burn from iTunes and they open in iTunes, it seems like the metadata usually gets conveyed via audio CD.

I feel like legit music supes and library owners will contact you if they want to sign a song. For anything on the internet, protection of tracks is more important in a sense, because anyone can just grab it and throw it into their little corporate video that will play in a pitch that never sees the light of day. But then again, do you care about that, and what is your goal? Some big libraries or aggregators of libraries put longer versions of songs online without a voice-over protection, but the quality is usually a little lower on bit depth.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too hard, but just get great sounding tracks into reputable hands.

[rdance]

Thanks for the great advice Patty and Mark!

[pboss]

In retrospect, the strangest thing is that different people want different presentations of material. One of my first Taxi Rally fails was when I was told, "Oh, I prefer to have a montage of songs". So, the next year, I prepared my demo with exactly that, whereupon I was told, "I can't tell a dang thing from montages - I want a whole song, and many songs on a CD, so that I can see if those few really good songs were a fluke; I can always click to the next track". Whereupon I wandered to the bar and ordered a cold one. My lesson learned was, come prepared. That can mean perhaps bring a few types of demos or formats to have the luxury to hand someone something that works for them, if you want to go that route.

Of course, your question is more about mailing demos out. I completely agree with Mark about the other avenues of contact. You can save that money and time, and invest in attending a conference and building relationships, or contributing to your own musical knowledge, skill or gear. In the end, if you can make great music and be a sane human, your challenge will be to make enough tracks fast enough, and not cold calling. That said, once I got a call because my disc happened to be on a TV producer's shelf (pretty much a one-time thing since I never sent demo reels out).

A few music supes said recently that Spotify (because of its ease-of-search), YouTube, and SoundCloud were their favorite places to find new artists. I almost feel like the physical CD has become a dirty word. But I just saw a music publisher say yesterday that you should also have a few CD's for (some of their) music supes that still only take CD's.

Either way, good luck

[Cruciform]

Don't watermark your tracks with an audible message/beep/silence/whatever. The first message you're giving the supe is that you don't trust them. If someone is going to rip off music, they will. But by potentially alienating supes right off the bat you stand to lose more in lost opportunity than you would risk from someone using your music without paying.

Just my opinion, others will have alternate perspectives.

[mazz]

In my opinion, it's best to be yourself and present to them what you want to be perceived as. If you are a songwriter then give them songs for sure.

The thing is, you have to also package it by putting yourself in their shoes. We all know you need to capture them right away so if your vocals don't start in the first 5 seconds then you have probably lost them. The aesthetics of demos are different than a full CD track, only because you want them to like you and want to dig a bit deeper into your songs. You can always do a cool intro on your album later.

Don't do snippets because that doesn't show any chops in developing an idea. It's like "what are you hiding?".

Make it easy for them to "get" what you do. They want to know you and who you are. This is a relationship business. How can you get that across with only a CD? It's pretty difficult. That's why cold calling is hit or miss.

Read up on music supervision and what those folks do and how they find their music and put yourself into their mind. Thinking like a musician is good in the studio and on stage, the rest of the time you need to think like your clients and how they do their business.

Good luck,

Mazz

[rdance]

Mazz, good point about getting to know clients and developing personal relationships/friendships. Cruciform, that's kinda how I felt..you confirmed it. Patty, like your idea about making your own mini-score with AVI footage...enjoyed yours. How do you use other's footage without infringement?

Thanks again to all who responded...very helpful. Buena suerta to you all.

Crawdaddy
https://soundcloud.com/richard-dance-music

[pboss]

...making your own mini-score with AVI footage... How do you use other's footage without infringement?

You don't. It's kind of cool, though, on YouTube, for example, they are allowing content makers to chose if they want to monetized content or link to their own site for sale as options. I think for scoring practice in your own studio, writing new music to existing footage is an interesting idea. Some people have written new music to existing well know scenes, in order to demo to a client. It also depends on the copyright terms, like the creative commons, for more indie kind of things.