Tourdates AMM artists 97

Musicians tips - how to get a record deal (with us or anyone else):

We currently get about 4 to 10 cassettes per week (meaning about 300 to 400 per year) - and are able to release less then 20 albums per year. We also have to work a lot to promote the albums that we do release, to make distributors sell them right and pay us etc..Since our label and publishing company only have 6 people working, we do not have the time to even listen to all the tapes we are getting.

Most other legitimate record companies are in the same situation - and if they are big, they usually have even more tapes to listen to.

So before you send us anything, follow these steps:

Ask yourself wether the world of professional music needs you - and why (see table later on this page for some helpful questions)
Ask yourself wether you can survive without making money from your own musical career for several years if necessary
prepare a good demo tape with 3 to 5 songs which shows the musical style and your ability to perform - the demo should be either on cassette or on a CD-R (not on DAT)
get good pictures of yourself taken - both somewhere off stage and on stage
prepare a bio with year of birth and any details about your musical experience
list any albums you have played on and any touring experience you have (and please don't lie - we and most other companies can easily check even with artists that are not signed to our own companies.)

Then find someone that we know to recommend you to us - and have her/him send us a package including good music, pictures, bio and an concept how you want to become successful.

By the way - do not offer us an album which is already sold somehow somewhere and has received good reviews and airplay on a lot of radio stations. If this has happened before the CD became available in music stores, the album has no commercial potential anymore. A journalist or radio DJ can not write about an album for a second time a few months of years after he wrote about it first - and a radio DJ can not continue broadcasting it forever.

But if you are just beginning to get into a music career or have not decided yet - go through the following chek-list and suggestions:

Basic question

explanation

if not ..

Are you an excellent performer that a lot of people like to see singing or playing live - and who can easily entertain people in large groups?

You have to be - if you want to be a star soloist / singer

you might still make a career as a studio musician or sideman or maybe as a composer, but have almost no chance as a bandleaer/star - maybe you should take at least some acting lessons .

Are you good looking or original looking - either from the way you really look or the way you dress?

Not absolutely necessary - but almost normal today with most successfull performers

.. reduced chances even as a jazz star .. you can still become a sideman, composer etc..

Are you the best instrumentalist on your main instrument or the most popular (new) singer in your neighbourhood?

you are competing with everyone worldwide - so you should at least be extremely good either in controlling your voice or in playing your instrument

if you are neither great looking, a great entertainer or instrumentalist, your only chance is a s a sound-engineer, re-mixer, DJ or composer

Are you writing very original tunes or arrangements that are also near enough to commercial tunes, but have an original twist ?

these are needed to make a new artist popular

Look for good songs by others - so what if they will earn almost as much money as you if you become successfull - if your songs aren't very good, forget composing.

Do you write your own lyrics and are they interesting to your peers in your own agegroup?

if they are average or boring, the music has to be even better then when the lyrics are great - and for any kind of success the lyrics have to be at least quite good or catchy

cooperate with a lyricist, if you can ...

Are you sociable - or at least able to watch and understand others while in aconversation with them ?

you have te be - you have to be able to understand your audiences reactions and to be able to work in teams when making an album - and to be a star you have be able not to piss off journalists.

become a hermit or whatever ..

If you write great songs - try to contact a legitimate publisher with simple but clear demo recordings of your songs. Usually whenever songs or ideas are stolen, they are stolen by other musicians or producers. A legitimate publisher is interested in placing songs with artists - and working again and again with good composers .. building the income from their songs and their careers as songwriters.

Since a musician should know as much as possible about the business of music (as anyone else working in a normal job should know about his job and the business around it) , please check out the business pages we have here - and check out some of the main music business publications (books and magazines like Billboard in the USA, Music Week in the UK (not Melody Maker or similar rags who are not really writing about the realities of the music biz), Musikwoche or Musikmarkt in Germany, Music&Media (Pan-European , but subscription only). If you can not really understand everything they write when you first read one of these - continue reading them anyhow and try to ask others about the things you do not yet understand.

Click here to get to the music economics pages

Author: Alex Merck

Last Updated: 3. December 1999

Basic question	explanation	if not ..
Are you an excellent performer that a lot of people like to see singing or playing live - and who can easily entertain people in large groups?	You have to be - if you want to be a star soloist / singer	you might still make a career as a studio musician or sideman or maybe as a composer, but have almost no chance as a bandleaer/star - maybe you should take at least some acting lessons .
Are you good looking or original looking - either from the way you really look or the way you dress?	Not absolutely necessary - but almost normal today with most successfull performers	.. reduced chances even as a jazz star .. you can still become a sideman, composer etc..
Are you the best instrumentalist on your main instrument or the most popular (new) singer in your neighbourhood?	you are competing with everyone worldwide - so you should at least be extremely good either in controlling your voice or in playing your instrument	if you are neither great looking, a great entertainer or instrumentalist, your only chance is a s a sound-engineer, re-mixer, DJ or composer
Are you writing very original tunes or arrangements that are also near enough to commercial tunes, but have an original twist ?	these are needed to make a new artist popular	Look for good songs by others - so what if they will earn almost as much money as you if you become successfull - if your songs aren't very good, forget composing.
Do you write your own lyrics and are they interesting to your peers in your own agegroup?	if they are average or boring, the music has to be even better then when the lyrics are great - and for any kind of success the lyrics have to be at least quite good or catchy	cooperate with a lyricist, if you can ...
Are you sociable - or at least able to watch and understand others while in aconversation with them ?	you have te be - you have to be able to understand your audiences reactions and to be able to work in teams when making an album - and to be a star you have be able not to piss off journalists.	become a hermit or whatever ..