Originally Posted by: ake
1. Presentation. Neatness counts. Quality photos for advertising purposes.
Important!! Self addresed/stamped return envelope for return of your photos and CD. If this is not included we DON"T even review the application. we just throw it away. If you don't even care enough to want your stuff back just how professional can you be?
2. CDs I read on another thread that quality dosen't matter. The reviewers can tell if you got chops. BSBSBSBS. when you review thousands of CDs you only listen to the first 10 maybe 15 seconds. If this first 15 seconds dosen't grab you; its back into the return envelope with the "Thanks but no thanks" letter. Put your strongest stuff on first!! Quality recording is imp. If it sounds bad you dont even get 10 seconds.
1. First off, I would like to say that I completly understand the business aspect of the music industry... you are reviewing these applicants to potentially make money off them. So, in turn, you are trying to get somebody who will represent you in the best way possible.... so you would like to see their marketability through their recording and their photos... that's understandable. But if I were sending stuff to you... why wouldn't I want it back? Because I probably have a billion copies of the cd and a ton of copies of the photos... It's not like I'm sending you my Led Zeppelin vinyl collection... I mean, c'mon man... You can keep my demo and my pictures. Besides... any major label wouldn't send it back even if you did send a self adressed stamped envelope.
2. I understand the 10-15 second thing. If you are promoting a band through radio play that first 10 seconds is critical... most people will simply turn the station if they don't know the song, little-lone if they've never heard it before... So that 10 second period is key in hooking somebody into listening to the rest of the song... What happens when you come across a band that can write good intros but can't sustain a whole song?? But any industry professional that I've ever talked to has said that when listening to a recording... if the person has any talent, they should be able to make a decent recording and make it sound good. But sometimes that person doesn't have a high dollar digital recorder or high dollar editing software. You CAN tell a musician when you hear one.
