GETTING TO KNOW YOU

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After you have a few song demos ready to pitch, its time to develop a list of contacts who will be willing to listen to them. This is the most difficult aspect of music publishing, as literally tens of thousands of people vie for the attention of the industry's decision makers, who can't possibly communicate with them.

There's no one way to make industry contacts, but here are some strategies in brief. Enter your best songs in prominent songwriting competitions (see the online bonus material "They're Playing My Song" at emusician.com); a contest win will often give A & R managers and producers incentive to listen to an otherwise unknown writer. Try to perform at one of the songwriter showcases sponsored by your PRO; industry contacts often attend these and may approach you if they are impressed by your performance and writing skills.. Attend songwriting conferences at which A & R reps and producers are scheduled to participate. And ask any well--connected friends you might have to introduce you to their contacts. Networking is a must.

Several excellent industry directories are available that list contacts' names, job titles, addresses, and sometimes direct phone numbers (see the sidebar "The Direct Approach"). Make a separate list of the personal contacts you've already made, and update it often. Present this list by any polite means possible to those new contacts you want to make. Everyone wants to hear a writer who is already being listened to by other top dogs in the industry. Your list will grow in rolling-snowball fashion.

Unless you're already extremely connected, you'll need to subscribe to tip sheets (also known as pitch sheets) that list which artists are currently looking for songs to record for upcoming projects.

A song typically has to be a hit before it has a shot at being used in a national advertising campaign. The exception is a song that is a "work made for hire," or one written by an employee or subcontractor for a production company handling the ad campaign.

To get an unknown song placed in a TV or film project, you need to know what projects are in development or production. A list of domestic and foreign projects can be found at variety.com. Successful placement is also likely predicated on your living in or near Hollywood, where you can form the necessary relationships with TV and film studios, music supervisors and the like.

Alternatively, seek out a music publisher who already has film and TV industry connections and negotiate a revenue sharing agreement in return for them placing your songs. Just be sure to limit their entitlement to only those revenues generated from the TV and film placements they negotiate (and possibly any album). A good directory for finding film and Tv oriented publishers to collaborate with is the Music Industry's Film & Television Music Guide.

More tomorrow....