No, You Can't Email Me a Song...

As many of you know, I host a talk radio show about the music business called Music Business Radio.

And, as many of you know, we take demo submissions from musicians who want their music played on the radio and feedback from our guests.

Here is the address to send a CD to:

Tuned In Broadcasting, Inc.
ATTN: Music Business Radio
1310 Clinton St. Suite 200
Nashville, TN 37203

Notice that it's a physical address.  And notice that I asked for a CD.

Still, I get messages every week asking if people can send music via an email attachment...

No, you can't.  If I were taking email attachments, I would have let you know.

"But you can burn a CD from the file I send..."

Yes, I could, but that's really your job.  My job is to play your music on the air and get it in front of music industry people who will critique it for you, not get it in a format which they're able to play.

This is a radio station, folks.  We play music on CD.  That means you need to get us a CD, if you want your music played.

Yes, I realize that's a bit more work than sending me an email with a file attachment.  Yes, I know there are more environmentally-friendly ways of distributing music.  But right now, we play music on CD.

I write all of this because I think it's the sign of a much bigger problem...one that may very well be keeping you from being where you want to be in the music business.

IF YOU WANT TO SELL MUSIC, YOU MUST THINK LIKE YOUR CONSUMER AND GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT IN THE WAY THEY WANT IT.

Write it down.

This isn't about you, it's about them.  People aren't going to jump through hoops to consume your music. They're lazy.  Make it easy on them.

I could go on and on about how to do this, but to keep this short, here's one example...

"Making it easy" is especially important when it comes to selling your music.  This means you need to do so via the currency your customers have in their pockets...which is usually a credit card.  If you're "cash only" and they don't have cash, you might as well be asking them to pay in gold doubloons.

And if you're "no checks" and they only have checks, you're in the same spot.

Make it easy on people.  Take checks, take credit cards, take cash.  And if people start approaching you with gold doubloons, find a way to take those too.

And when folks in the industry tell you they want your music submitted in a certain way, give it to them in that way.  There is usually a reason for it.

Comments

[Dave Booda]

plus, having your CD hanging around a radio station is never a bad thing. I got a myspace friend request from the girl at Lightning 100 who opens the CDs, it was great!

[Mia]

THIS is hilarious.

[b]

It must be nice, having the means readily available to be able to assume the ass-pretzel-backwards position most preferred by the Man for sucking out artists' souls while simultaneously grinding the empty shells that remain into the dirt.

"This is a radio station, folks. We play music on CD."

Ha! While radio will most probably last longer than me and any pittance of a chance I have at making more than a painfully modest living at music, the question remains: How much longer? Not much, I'd wager. CD? fading even faster.

"IF YOU WANT TO SELL MUSIC, YOU MUST THINK LIKE YOUR CONSUMER AND GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT IN THE WAY THEY WANT IT."

Misleading, at best, and pure fallacy at the other end of the spectrum. Ah, serve the servants, but everyone's in charge. My read: self-serving bulls--- and a close relation to the modus operandi which inspired the advent of the death knell for the record biz as it was, and as some hanging on are still attempting to be. ah, an ode to inglorious futility. Record biz, as distinguished from music [biz]. Even in its prime, the biz failed miserably at determining what would succeed nine out of every ten times. Who are you to tell me what anyone wants? I digress.

See that? That's right. It's the next generation of the masses, not even bothering to wave goodbye to the old guard. Why bother? Those few greedy, parasitic gatekeepers, once holding the keys to the few means of accessing the kingdom - radio, tv & the press - those gateways are no longer the sole means of gaining entrance to the kingdom. They can not even lay claim to being the best or most effective means of gaining such entry anymore. What is becoming the ever diminishing niche that fits through those otherwise increasingly ineffective and useless gates - that which fits the ever shrinking definition of mainstream. And with the generation thereafter, the biz as it was, along with the oligarchic powers thereof, will be nothing more than a footnote along the way - outdated and irrelevant.

"I write all of this because I think it's the sign of a much bigger problem...one that may very well be keeping you from being where you want to be in the music business."

The bigger problem is more accurately tagged as being YOURS. "I could go on and on about ...this, but to keep this short," see above re: radio & cds. Music and those who create it will ALWAYS be around. Radio? The CD? Not so much. Don't forget to "write it down."

Wake up. you're just playing the part of another arbitrary barrier to entry, easily circumvented. And as more people (artists & customers alike) abandon radio and the cd, that arbitrary barrier will be more easily circumvented with each passing day. And, while you're waking up (or not), the increasing number of artists without the CDs are gonna go hit their laptops and surf themselves up some alternatives to the absurdity that is your line in the sand.

"This isn't about you, it's about them. People aren't going to jump through hoops to consume your music. They're lazy. Make it easy on them."

f--- your idea of people. inspiration does not beget laziness. Quite to the contrary, I submit. I am impelled by what inspires me to do what I do. It consumes me. If, by some grace of God, something that I do or create inspires someone, happy day. I'm not the second coming. Heck, I'm probably more in the department of the never-coming. I chose my lot and I will remain true to it. But, "Make it easy on them"? What does that mean in the context of an artist creating? You're correct in that it is not about the artist. predominantly. In the same token, it is not about the consumer either. It is about the art. All else is second, at most.

To continue is to devolve into harangue, if this has not already.

Sir:
I sacrifice for my art. In doing so, I am left without the means with which to comply with your rules of submission. It may well be beyond your job description to accept music via contemporary formats. It may well be that, in allowing the creation of my art to consume my every living moment, and penny to my name, I have pushed that which you ascribe to my job description (paying for the service and/or equipment necessary for CD [/dying] formatting), beyond my means. As it appears, we both stand to wither in parallel.

Sincerely yours in music,
b

[Alisha]

Hey David!

This is a great post. I like that your sticking to your guns about keeping music in a physical format, not the easy DIY digi way. I work for a publication called the Musician's Atlas where we run free feature listings on thousands of radio stations for independent musicians to contact and learn more about. I think your show would be a great addition to our database. Would you be interested in being included in our Atlas? If so, shoot me an emial: alisha@musiciansatlas.com. Hope to hear from you soon!

[Jay]

thanks for some useful tips and pointing out the kind of mentality may help musicians/songwriters get their music heard and noticed.