Pitch Me Pitch You
Found this amazing list of how to pitch your band to an indie rock label - http://blogscarymonsters.blogspot.com/2010/08/demos.html
Includes the following gems:
- Be concise… yet make sure you give me lots of info
- Be friendly and charming… but don’t suck up
- Be confident… but do not, under any circumstances, be arrogant
- Tell me why your band is going to sell records… but don’t tell me they’re the next big thing
- Make it be known that you’re not afraid to work hard… but don’t you dare call me at 9pm on a Sunday night
Which inspired me to write my own version of Pitch Me. Except I’m the one regularly doing the pitching. So pitch me on how to pitch? Still…
1. Please do tell me why I should listen to this record…but don’t spoon-feed me what I should be listening for.
2. Please tell me a story of why this was made…but please don’t begin with “it’s the obvious next step in the maturity of an artist.”
3. Make me feel like I’m part of the team that’s going to make this successful…but don’t badger me about what I’m doing to help you every single day.
4. Make me feel like I’m part of the team that’s going to make this successful…but please do NOT ask me what I’m doing after first week when I was the only driver in first week. (Pet peeve much?)
5. Don’t include the entire classical music history in the information on why you did this…unless you do understand that I never really got that early music thing.
6. Don’t compare yourself to someone else…unless you’d rather me just go and listen to their stuff.
7. Do give me relevant information about the piece…but if it includes chord progressions, you lost me.
8. Give me pull quotes if they are relevant…but if they have more ellipses than this blog post, I know you’re doing review by MadLib.
9. Press layouts rock…as long as it’s not a list of what you’d like to get. I’d like to pay off my student loans tomorrow, but that ain’t happening.
10. Please play well…don’t build me up buttercup and then suck.
