A band’s demo and any accompanying info are equivalent to their business card. In most cases the main objective of a demo is to act as an accurate reflection of the band and its music with the intention of creating some kind of interest.

This interest may be from the general public or the music industry, either way your demo will often be your first means of contact with people. With this in mind it is essential to present it in a way that reflects you and your music but most importantly it is the songs that count. Everything else is secondary so it is wise to choose your tracks carefully…
 

Choosing the songs

The tracks and the running order that you choose for your demo are extremely important - more so than you may think. The following are a couple of tips on how to programme the songs:

1. Do not put more than three songs on the demo. You do not want to over expose yourself on first contact - if somebody is impressed by what they hear they will ask you for more material
2. Put the songs in the following order, track 1. - your best song, track 2. - your second best song, track 3. - your third best song. You want to interest the listener straight away thus encouraging them to continue and listen to the other tracks. A lot of A & R have so little time that they may only listen to 10-20 seconds of each track. With this is mind, choosing songs which have an immediate impact is recommended. If your best song is a slow building tune that lasts for over five min’s then consider holding it back. If you are asked for more then you will get the opportunity to let them hear it then.

Having chosen your track listing you need to prepare any accompanying material that will be sent with you demo. Something that can play an important part in getting your demo heard is the packaging and presentation. This is not always the case but it is much better to present the demo in an original fashion - this gives the recipient a better idea about the band’s persona and where they are coming from.
 

Your demo needs to look well produced. You do not have to pay lots of money for impressive printing to achieve this. Try and be a little bit different with how you package the CD. People need to know that you are serious so putting in the effort to make it look appealing will make this more apparent. Don’t be afraid to make your own packaging - this allows you more artistic expression and will make it more original. This in turn will make it stand out from all of the others, which is ideal.

Information. You need to include certain details on every demo that you submit. Make sure that the name of your band and more importantly a contact telephone number or email address is written on both the packaging and the CD itself. In a lot of cases CD’s will get separated from their covers so it is important that you do this. Imagine if somebody likes your music but has no way of getting in contact with you or finding out who you are!!
 

The most important part of your package is the demo itself and your contact details. However some people like to submit additional information to give the recipient a better idea of what the band are about and the image they portray. This is sometimes helpful and you should consider including the following along with your demo:

A biography. This is a piece of text that tells people a little more about the band. The kind of info you should include in your bio is, a bit of history on the band, high points in your career thus far (big gigs/support slots), names and roles of all members, future plans and perhaps a description of your sound (or at least how you see it). When writing your biography try and keep it under a page long. People don’t like to receive packages containing numerous sheets of paper to tell them how great your band is. Be concise and to the point and don’t elaborate on anything too much. If somebody wants to know more they will ask you. At the bottom of your bio try and include some quotes from reviews and press that you have received (if any). It is good if you can back up what you are saying with the opinion of the music press as well!

A photograph. Again, do not send a whole photo album. Pick one photo and include that in your package. The photo can be a live shot or a still of any/all of the individuals in the band.

With CD writers being so cheap some bands are beginning to include all of the above information, music and text/photo’s on one CDR. This is known as a dual mode CDR and means that your music, bio and photos are all on the one disc and will never be separated from each other. Using such a format means you don’t have to send a large package to anyone. All you need to send is a CD, which from the recipient’s point of view is ideal.

The only disadvantage to this method is that a computer is required to access the info on the band. A lot of the people you send demo’s to will be on the road a lot of the time and tend to listen to demo’s in the car or on a personal stereo etc.

Remember the above advice does not apply to the artistic nature of your CD, these are suggestions on how to approach the production of your demo package to make it stand out along with some things you should not forget to include.

Once you have a promo package ready and if you have not already done so, you need to put together a list of contacts. Whatever your demo is for you need to put some time into researching who exactly you are going to send them to. For example, if you are sending them out to record companies then there are a few things you need to consider:

Which record companies are you going to contact?? You may already have an idea of which ones you want to contact. Perhaps they are the ones who release the music that you enjoy listening to and you think your music would interest them. If you aren’t sure about who to contact then you need to think about a number of things. Independent of major label?

Do you want to get interest from a large label who have the means to offer you a massive deal or are you more interested in going with an indie label whose ethos is more similar to your own. Think about this. Also, there is no point submitting your demo who does not release your genre of music so find out about the labels that would be interested in your sound

"Targeting labels is super important........and it doesn't hurt to explain your choice"
Matt Thornill, XL Records
 

Once you have established which companies you are going to approach you need to then find out which person in that company you should send your package to. Try and find out who is responsible for music of your genre and who is most likely to be into what you are doing. Look on websites, ask other bands and get in contact with the companies themselves to find out. This can make a big difference in how your package is treated so it is worth the research before hand.

Finally, once you have your list of contacts together go through it and check that you have spelt everything properly. The name of the record company and especially the name of the individual you are sending it to should be correct. This is easily done and is worth doing to be sure. If somebody receives a package and their name is incorrectly spelt it gets you off on the wrong foot and suggests that you may not have made any effort in researching your contacts.
 

All that is left to do now is get them sent away. A lot of the time a company will not respond to your contact or confirm receipt of your package. Do not worry a lot of them simply do not have the time to respond to every package that comes in.

If you want you can follow up with a phone call. This serves a number of purposes. You can make sure your package has been received, find out if it has been looked at/listened to and whether or not there is any feedback. If it hasn’t yet been dealt with then your call may prompt them to listen to it and get back to you.

If you do decide to follow up your package then make sure you leave some time between sending the package and contacting the recipient. You don’t want to hassle them into looking at it so leave a week to ten days before you get in contact with anyone. A common thing to be remembered in the music industry is to expect disappointment. You may not get any positive feedback or results from your effort but what is important is that you keep going. One of the main qualities for success in the music industry is determination so just stick at it and the next time could be totally different...