Sending a Demonstration CD to a record company.

Send a letter with the Demo. saying a little about your band, who is in it, who plays what, who wrote the songs etc. Describe the level of production i.e. 4,8,16 or 24 track; whether the songs are original or covers.

The record company will uually request an itinerary of live performances by the artist so they can see a performance.

Occasionally a record company will pay for a recording session to make additional demonstration recordings. Remember that presentation counts. Type your letter and include a photograph if you can.

If you can't spell, get somebody else to check your letter and any supporting information for you.

Take care with your first recording. It is worth taking trouble to get as good a recording as possible so don't cut too many corners when you get in the studio. Take advice about which songs to put on your demo. The best ones to use are not necessaily going to be your personal favourites!

Limit your demo to three tracks. Anything longer will rarely get listened to and you can use any extra tracks for when your records go on sale. If money is tight, its better to record two songs to a higher standard than to make average recordings of five. You should also consider doing a radio edit of your opening track. First impressions count and most record companies, venues and promoters receive many hundreds of demos each week. You have maybe 30 seconds to grab their attention so get to the vocals as quickly as possible. Ever wonder why so many bands do radio edits of their singles? That's why! Spend too long getting to the vocals and most people's attention will wonder if they've heard 20 or 30 songs that day. So that cool 20 minute guitar intro that you have been working on for six months will almost certainly get your demo out of the CD player and in the bin! Make sure you know what is currently selling well.

Play your rough mix to people other than friends and get their reaction.

Listen to what they say and be prepared to accept constructive criticism. If somebody says they don't like it, rather than telling them why YOU think its good find out what they don't like. It may be something that you can work on and learn from.

Finally, make sure you send the right demo to the right people. If you play light and airy ambient folk-rock. Sending your demo to Earache Records is a bit of a waste of time. Find out something about the label that you're sending your stuff to and make sure you send demos to labels and venues that cater for your kind of music.

With thanks to Veronica Kalmar