Posted by Article on June 22, 2008, 8:53 am
Board Administrator
Tips for Songwriter Demos
By
Lonnie Ratliff
I am sure that all of your life you have heard people say "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket" and most of the time this is good advice but then we come to songwriting in my opinion you need to throw away that advice and "Bet the farm" as they say, on a few songs you have written that you can afford to really demo well and that you have the most confidence in. If you think all of your songs are great and you can't decide which ones are the best then you need to admit to yourself that you are still learning. A few years from now you will look back and be able to tell which ones were good and which ones were just OK. Sometimes you have a great idea and just have not learned the craft well enough yet to sell the idea but most of the time it will turn out that it just wasn't that original an idea to begin with.
One of the best tools for learning is to invest your own money in a song you believe in and then not be able to find even one artist that will cut it. Once that happens a few times you will start to get a handle on what will work. Later on if you are lucky you will figure out why.
The reason I believe in a songwriter taking their best one or two songs and just doing them up to almost "Master" quality is because being on the production side I know what kind of demos are being pitched and what kind of songs the artists are choosing. Remember just because a singer can sing don't mean they can hear a "Hit" unless you show them with your demo. It is pretty common knowledge that one of the top selling artist in Nashville can't hear a song unless it is demoed exactly the way they record and the demo singer even sounds like them. This is an exception but not a real big streatch. In the last year I have only cut 2 songs where the artist was a male but the demo was sung by a female demo singer or vice versa. You also run across artists that cannot hear past the demo. An example being if the demo has electric guitars and piano they cannot imagine what it would sound like with twin fiddles and steel guitar instead. They just say, that song is too "pop". This is not to blame anyone but just to let you know what you are up against as a songwriter trying to get a "cut"
I believe you are better off by cutting one or two great demos a year that can compete with Warner Chappel, EMI, and the songwriters that are pitching "Masters" from Independent Artists that cut the song a few years back or even album cuts from Major Artists who lost their deal. Sometimes you can get by with a simple guitar or piano vocal but you better have a great demo singer on that demo who can sell the song. In Nashville I pay demo singers from $40 to $125 a song but I am confident that when an artist hears the song they will be able to get an idea of how their record will sound if they decide to record the song. There's a lot of big hits on the radio that don't sound near as good as the demo singer sounded. That is what you are after as a songwriter. Once you get a cut or two under your belt your reputation will help you get some songs recorded but until then you need to have everything as close to perfect as you can get it.
"Click" on link below so you can go check out these first 3 songs of mine and get an idea of what I personally pitch to artists and what the demo singers sound like.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=392838
These 3 songs are about average demos for what is being pitched around town so at least you can tell what else may be on the CD of original songs an artist is listening to when they are looking for songs to record. Just make sure your demo quality fits in and your demo singers are selling your song so your chances of getting a "cut" will go up. I know there are exceptions to everything I have said but it is better to make sure you are competitive at every stage of the game, lyrics, music, demo, singer etc! than just setting around waiting to beat the odds by being that one exception to the rules.
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