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heya,I'd like to represent at the rally my core competences, and that is instrumental music with guitars/stringed instruments.basically there are two cathegories:1. electric guitar styles: rock, punk, metal, poprock, blues...2. acoustic guitar styles: classic guitar solo, steelstring guitars arranged, exotic instruments like greek bouzouki, solo/sparse arranged steel string guitar tracks.my question/problem:I could do one cd for each cathegory - but then I have two cds which both show guitar tracks, so I ask myself if it wouldn't be better if I have all guitar tracks (electric & acoustic) on ONE disc - simply because it is easier to hand-out.what do you think - what makes more sense? one disc with all styles (and about 10 tracks, only one track for each style), or two cds, one for each cathegory (and with 2 tracks of each style)..?my intend is to approach music libraries with my tracks.I'm looking forward to your thoughts.thanks,martin

Martin,I've put together one CD of the material that represents my strengths and interest. I took the approach of describing each track (Somewhat using the description in the TAXI listings)I do agree that it makes sense to specialize, but I also think it makes sense to be versatile as well. I have 14 tracks on my CD and depending on who I'm interacting with, I'll point out which tracks may be of most interest to them.I also had these professionally reproduced so it is a great looking package. I subscibe to the idea of a good first impression.Chuck

thanks, chuck....any other opinions...?thanks,martin

Martin - I have to agree with Chuck. We used one cd last year, and then on the cover of the cd highlighted which songs were appropriate for the person we were handing it to. Even though that is perfectly acceptable, I felt that looked a little amateurish. Last year many of the panelists mentioned that having this allows them to put the CD in and play it, and they can look at the printing on the j-card or cd case while listening. Also remember to make your contact information prominent on the cd and the case. After finding this information in my notes from the rally last year, I am making one cd and each song has a very short 1 line description underneath the title. Each will be labled (full production with vocal, instrumental production, solo piano).I hope this helps! See you at the rally - Anne

Quote:thanks, chuck....any other opinions...?thanks,martinI've been thinking about my stuff and what I think I might end up doing is having a CD with tracks that are available immediately for music library licensing and another CD that better represents me as a composer, containing tracks from real television and film projects - something to show what I've done or have been doing.I'm wanting more presence in music libraries and I'm also heading towards the process of looking for some kind of representation... a composer's agent or whatever. One CD for each application seems the best way to go for me.

ALso bear in mind that you won't require a large number of the specific "pitching" CDs (maybe 20 to be on the safe side). The "networking" CD is the one that you will hand out to folks you meet (maybe 50 to be on the safe side). Your "pitching" CDs should be in full-sized jewel cases. The "hi, how are you" CDs can be in smaller cases or envelopes.

Quote:ALso bear in mind that you won't require a large number of the specific "pitching" CDs (maybe 20 to be on the safe side). The "networking" CD is the one that you will hand out to folks you meet (maybe 50 to be on the safe side). Your "pitching" CDs should be in full-sized jewel cases. The "hi, how are you" CDs can be in smaller cases or envelopes.I hear that the first time - I thought it's in general a good idea to put the cd in a jewel box so the listener actually can *read* the titles while listening...?

It is but if you're talking about CD's you just hand out to your fellow members...to show your peers what you've been doing...maybe find co-writers etc...then this is not such a big deal.For industry people you'd definitely want jewel cases.Having all your guitar tracks on one CD would be alright. It's always a bit of a judgement call.