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Hi all There have been a lot of questions recently about proper ways to make submissions to publishers and other industry folks. Here is the text of an article I wrote based on my experiences when I became a publisher/placement agent for other artists:Get Your Submissions Heard / Make the Publisher’s Job Easierby Charles P. Hurowitz, Hopeful Dreamer Music (ASCAP)© 2004 Charles P. HurowitzI am a songwriter, recently turned publisher/music placement agent. It is so interesting to see the world from the other side. When making a submission to a publisher, a label, or anyone in the industry think about making their life easier so they’ll be more likely to listen and respond to you. Here is my view of how to make a good submission package:1. Start with a neatly typed one page professional cover letter including: a. All contact information. An e-mail address is a must in today’s world.b. Very brief bio/background, reason for submitting, where you got the publisher’s name.c. Track listing for the CD including track numbers, titles, all writer’s and performer’s names, PRO affiliations, and song genres. Tempo and male/female useful too. (*)d. Information about the current publishing status of the songs. Also, do you own the rights to the master recordings, free and clear? (a must for Film/TV placement!) (*) Use common sense... If you are submitting 3 songs, this should fit on the page. If the other party agreed to listen to 20, then attach a separate page.2. Include a set of lyric sheets for the songs submitted. This should not take the place of the track listing on the CD case and track numbers should be with song titles. Proper copyright notices should be on each lyric sheet along with contact information repeated. The lyrics for each song should be on a separate page and the pages stapled in the order of the tracks on the CD. Keep lyric sheets to one page each. “Repeat Chorus” is preferred to tiny font or multiple pages. Use the largest reasonable font that fits (Arial 12 point is a good example).3. Send a CD with 3-4 songs unless permission was given to send in more. If you need to send a CD with many more songs, indicate on both the letter and the CD case the best 3-4 for the submission. Put all contact information and a copyright notice on the CD using a typed label or a printer that prints directly on the CD. Handwritten information on a CD looks amateurish and if the writing is hard to read it’s a deal killer right away. Putting the track listing on the CD is OK (it can’t hurt), but think about this: Once someone plugs the CD in to the CD player in their car (where much listening is done), they can’t see that anyway…. That brings me to #4….4. Send the CD in a full-size jewel case with the contact information and track listings/genres there too. Your letter may not always make it to the car, but the CD and case generally will. It’s good to be able to glance at the song titles while listening. Full-size jewel cases make it possible to file the CD on a bookshelf and be able to access it later. Make sure that the spine of the jewel case is labeled with something that will make it identifiable when filed on a bookshelf… i.e. your name, genre, etc. Many publishers, music supervisors, etc. hate the slim cases. 5. DO NOT send cassettes. It’s a CD world now! If you need to send a cassette, first ask permission but remember it gives the impression that your recordings will not be the highest quality audio. 6. DO NOT send home-made sounding rough demo recordings if the listing uses terms such as “master quality” or “radio ready”.Remember, everything gets separated: letters, lyric sheets cases, discs, etc… That is why repeating information everywhere is so critical. Just imagine the volume that a publisher or label receives. Things are NOT all handled in a neat and organized manner all the time.This is all about making the publisher’s life easier which makes them more likely to play your CD. If two CD’s show up, one with three songs and one with twenty, which do think might get the first listen? Think about the person on the other side of your submission. If they get three songs on three separate CDs, do they really want to spend their time swapping discs at 65 mph? And if they love your song and have an opportunity for it, think about how much easier it is if they already know if publishing is available and have the lyrics right in front of them. Also, is the e-mail address you provided one that you check frequently? If not, is there a cell phone number? It’s frustrating when a publisher gets a great CD and can’t get in touch with the sender. Sometimes opportunities are very time limited.True stories: I made two placements in TV for other artists. One CD originally came (from France to the USA) with handwritten scribble on the CD and I couldn’t make out the artist’s email address. I am an exception and decided to listen anyway. The material was great. I had to track down the artist through directory assistance in France! He was lucky. Most folks would have thrown the CD in the trash and this placement on a TV show would never have happenedIn the other situation, I got a call from a music supervisor that he wanted to use this artist’s song on an HBO show. I was furiously emailing him for days and getting no reply. He was on tour and not checking email. I had to Google him on the web and find others to track him down. We almost missed our window of opportunity.Looking at life from the other side has taught me a lot about my own songwriter submissions and mistakes I may have made in the past. Happy pitching! Musical dreams can come true.Charles P. HurowitzHopeful Dreamer Music (ASCAP)

Hey Casey, thanks for postin' this - good to know!cheersHummin'bird

Useful post, Casey. Thanks for putting out the effort to share your experience.Nomi

Hurowitz.Thanks so much for the great bit of advice you posted.I'm currently following it to the letter as I'm in communications with an ad agency in the US who might want to use my music.I made a terrible mistake in the beginning of sending inappropriate music, in a flat CD case with no cover, only tracklist on the CD etc.. but I'm now making ammends .BTW: When a someone like yourself requests a CD from an artist, are they looking for variety or consistency on the CD. The guy I'm sending to has mentioned one song of mine so should I be sending stuff in that style or a wide variety to show off my versatility I really don't want to mess this one up. Thanks

Quote:Hurowitz.Thanks so much for the great bit of advice you posted.I'm currently following it to the letter as I'm in communications with an ad agency in the US who might want to use my music.I made a terrible mistake in the beginning of sending inappropriate music, in a flat CD case with no cover, only tracklist on the CD etc.. but I'm now making amends .BTW: When a someone like yourself requests a CD from an artist, are they looking for variety or consistency on the CD. The guy I'm sending to has mentioned one song of mine so should I be sending stuff in that style or a wide variety to show off my versatility I really don't want to mess this one up. ThanksHi 53"Mistakes" may not be as bad as you think... Mainly, we are talking about tilting the odds in your favor, kind of like knowing the cards already on the table when playing blackjack...Ah, the versatility question... Mainly, publishers are not looking for versatility (unless they are hiring you as a staff writer). They need to be able to categorize you a rock, pop, male, female, soft, hard, etc... If you send a CD with different genres, it may get lost in the shuffle. I've made this error a lot because my songs are all different. (Once you build a relationship, it is different).Now, for an ad agency, you may have more freedom, especially if you've already made contact and they have expressed interest in your music. More info is needed for me to answer... How did they express interest? Was it a simple OK to submit, or a positive reaction on a particular song or songs?For cold submissions, it is usually better to stick to one type of music. CaseyPS I am in the process of loading all songs into iTunes so I can categorize, sort, etc... Unfortunately many in this industry are not up to date on the technology...

Quote:I really don't want to mess this one up. It'll also help to not think of this as a "one time only opportunity". They don't keep a list of rejections and then screen out your future submissions based on that list. If they don't take your material at this time, wait for a while (three or six months) and approach them again with different material. Of course, doing this with a large list of places to submit to both increases your chances of success and a makes each submission a little less critical. Good luck with this and hopefully hundreds of others. Dave

Great point, DaveOne thing I did when I was a TAXI member (not a member now), is save the names of companies I was forwarded to...Then, if nothing happened for a long while (maybe over a year), I would email them to see if they were accepting general submissions. Just a reminder to everyone... NEVER contact the company to whom you were forwarded to hassle them as to what happened to the forward... That will only piss them off both at you and a TAXI... Simply wait a year, and send them a general inquiry as to submissions. Casey

Thanks for the replies Dave and Hurowitz.I wasn't contacted through Taxi for this. The guy in the US actually searched me out on the internet after someone in the UK advised my music to him.The mistake I made was that I thought he had heard of my music through some singles I released around 2002 and so I sent him a stack of alt rock tracks with vocals. As I'm sending from Europe the post took ages to arrive so he asked me to email him one particular track and from that track (an instrumental that I had shown on Video-C with a video I'd made to accompany it) I realised that he was after very different material.He used the emailed tracks for a planning meeting with his Director and now I've just got to wait to hear back from that one. The CD I'm sending is a follow up so he can have additional tracks to choose from in the future.The guys been really cool about it all and has been really friendly in emails. The marketing company is a pretty big player so I really, really want to make this work in my favour.I'm pretty stoked that the guy went to all the trouble to search me out. I never thought industry people did that kind of thing.PS. Hurowitz, When I've had stuff forwarded for listings, I've usually no idea what company it's for. It's usually vague like "big Library Music Company"....where did you get the names from?

Quote: From 53mph: PS. Hurowitz, When I've had stuff forwarded for listings, I've usually no idea what company it's for. It's usually vague like "big Library Music Company"....where did you get the names from? I haven't been a member for quite a while. When I was and you got a forward, they told you the name of the company. They may have changed that. Maybe too many people were bothering the recipients. casey

Quote:PS. Hurowitz, When I've had stuff forwarded for listings, I've usually no idea what company it's for. It's usually vague like "big Library Music Company"....where did you get the names from?Huh? The listings are vague like that, but the forwards always have had a company name so far...are you sure about this...cause then I think someone at Taxi would've screwed up.