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I hope to finish off a few of my country songs in the next couple of months. When I look at the listings it seems that the submissions need to be pretty much exactly arranged in the required style.My question is, a great song is a great song so do you need to spoon feed the artists a&r and/or screener with the exact style of production.For a song that can span country categories do I actually need different versions.I understand that some country songs will obviously not work across the genres.So I am asking about songs that would.Has anyone much experience of being rejected for "wrong style" when you thought the song would definitely work for that artist if it was produced/arranged differently.Do the screeners use a little imagination?I can understand and accept why they might be strict here.Just wonderin?

Tough question. But asking someone to use a little imagination on your song is not far from admitting that everything is not quite as requested.My personal feeling is you need to have everythibng as close to the request as possible. That does not mean you should not gamble once in a while. In fact, I believe you should frequently gamble on listings you are not 100% accurate on, let's say 15% of the time, if you have what you feel is an outstanding piece.Eventually something will get through or you will get cured of gambling.

Quote: My question is, a great song is a great song so do you need to spoon feed the artists a&r and/or screener with the exact style of production....Has anyone much experience of being rejected for "wrong style" when you thought the song would definitely work for that artist if it was produced/arranged differently.Do the screeners use a little imagination?Hi JD In today's world your demo must sound like the style it is being pitched for. No one in the industry will use their imagination and hence the screeners can't either. It is even more true in country music where the "bar" is very high... that is your song must really excel to get noticed.So, unfortunately, it would be a waste of your money to pitch songs do not sound like the targeted style. If you want to pitch country you need to either produce country demos on your own or use a professional demo service. Casey

Thanks for the input.I think I will have to tweak the demos to suit.How much tweaking? The main "grey area" for me is the fills.I have read that you should not even have those fills on anyway just leave it open and let them hear the chords as they will want to stamp their signature sound on it.I have also read that you should put them on.I can see that if the fill is melodically a part of the song you should take the time to put it on but if the song requires a fill that does not pull the attention too much i.e. it is a fill and not an answering phrase then is it worth it.Steel, banjo,electric and fiddle versions?Is it worth putting on the fills?