Getting your music in the right hands????

So after years of writing decent songs, I think I have come up with a something special in a song. What advice do the people here have for that situation? Do you just throw it up on the web (ie. Soundclick...) and hope for the best???? Or is there a more tactical and intelligent way to go about this?

I do have one contact in the biz that I am hoping will take the time to give this a listen, but I want to give this song the best effort I can. Thank you for taking the time to offer advice.  

Just "throwing it up" won't get you anywhere. You have to promote it and to the right people. It's like hoping that some A&R guy happens into the bar you're playing in tonight.

Thank you to all who posted comments here. I really really appreciate the time and effort you took to post suggestions. This is exactly what I was hoping to find/learn.

Currently my budget does not allow me to subscribe to services like songlink or taxi. I am looking for that to change very soon, but until then,  I will have to find another way.

I hope to have the SR form and material mailed in tomorrow. After that, I want to move on this song. Do something...

Thank You!!!

So.... go to the local book store. Ask the clerk to help you find: The 2010 Songwriter's Market Guide. (or whatever version is the latest)  It will set you back about $25 (just a reasonable guess)

In it you will find thousands of listings under different categories. Publisher, record companies, managers, booking agents, and so on.

Each category...such as publishers will typically list hundreds of companies that deal with music publishing. Information will include the artists and songs they have had some sort of hand in helping. It also lists contact info and names with email & phone, and address to contact them. Most importantly, it tells you what genre they like to work with. If you write country, you sure don't wanna waste time contacting a hip hop publishing company.

You'll need to comb through the chapters and the listings to find the ones that seem most probably to accepting your music. You have a better chance with the smaller "mom & pop" publishers than the industry leaders.


A word of warning: There are sharks in those listings too. They will send a glowing letter back telling you how much they love the music and have an artist ready to record it...and all the money that will flow in........then they pop the news that your demo is not good enough to send to the artist and it will cost you only $xxxx.00 to get it demo'd better for the artist......don't fall for it...... enough said....!

Or the one I love..... I got a letter from a "publisher" who told me that he was putting together a double album (back in the days of records) of the "Best unknown songwriters from Nashville" and I could have 2 spots on that album, that was going to be sent to hundreds of radio stations across this fair land...... for the low low price of only $2500 per slot. And that was back in the day when $2500 was actually worth something. SCAM!

But don't let that stop you.... know they are out there and move ahead.  I did have 13 songs signed by publishers (legitimate ones) but they never published the songs...... the contracts expired and I got the songs back. That's also very likely to happen.

You are very likely to have your songs picked up by a publisher in that manner..... and that publisher is likely to be a smaller publisher, that will either set on the song and do nothing with it, or get it to a local band who might record it and cut about 1000 CD's to sell at gigs....either way... you won't make any money.

The bigger publishers that can actually get the song to a major artist are much harder to place with..... as they are very discriminating about the songs they sign..... a very high bar. They will only sign stellar songs.

Expect lots of rejections and "no's"... if they even bother to give you any reply at all...... that the business we're in.

Get the book...and good luck.