{"id":1035,"date":"2012-02-08T19:58:46","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T03:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2013-06-28T13:33:18","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T21:33:18","slug":"pay-me-250-to-re-demo-your-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/pay-me-250-to-re-demo-your-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Me $250 to Re-demo Your Song!"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the umpteenth time I have received an email from a songwriter<\/a> who has been mislead by a so-called “publisher<\/a>” showing interest in their songs. \u00a0 It’s not the showing interest that’s bad, it’s the thing they do next: \u00a0they follow up by asking the songwriter to pay them money to “re-demo<\/a>” their song(s).
\n

\"Songwriters<\/a>
Songwriters Circle (Photo credit: AndyRobertsPhotos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFortunately the red flags went up this time and the songwriter emailed me to ask my opinion. \u00a0I told him exactly what I tell every other songwriter that emails me with a similar story; \u00a0run the other way! \u00a0This is how these companies make their money, not by successfully pitching songs to artists, but by making money from the “re-demos”. \u00a0 \u00a0And what does the songwriter get? \u00a0Another demo of their songs and a big bill.<\/p>\n

Pay attention to this: \u00a0if ANYONE asks you for money to pitch or re-demo your songs, don’t do it! \u00a0There ARE professional legitimate song pitchers out there, but they work an entirely different way and the chances are you wouldn’t know about them until you had some kind of track record for successful songs already.<\/p>\n

I always recommend checking out the publication “Songwriter’s Market” for a better chance at finding more legitimate publishers. \u00a0It comes out annually and lists publishers and record labels<\/a> in many genres, and keeps pretty up-to-date on all of them. \u00a0It also has a number of really good articles on the do’s and don’ts of pitching your music, so it’s worth the price just for that. \u00a0You can find the book in your local bookstore, or you can buy it from Amazon. \u00a0If you want to support my website, you can also buy the latest edition through my store by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some other tips when it comes to looking for a publisher:<\/p>\n


\n1. \u00a0Do some research on the web if you’re not sure about the legitimacy of a publisher. \u00a0You want to know how I do it? \u00a0I Google<\/a> the publisher’s name and the word “scam”. \u00a0If there’s any question about them, it’ll sure enough show up!<\/p>\n

2. Join a songwriter’s web communities like those on the Muse’s Muse<\/a> or JP Folks<\/a>, and ask others if they know about the publisher you’re in touch with.<\/p>\n

3. Go to BMI<\/a> or ASCAP<\/a> and look up the publisher’s name. \u00a0If they’re a real publisher, it’ll show up in a database somewhere and at least you’ll know they’ve published SOMETHING.<\/p>\n

4. If anything feels fishy at all, trust your gut. \u00a0Your gut is smarter than you think, and it’s better to walk away than get caught up in something you’re really going to pay for. \u00a0And you can always ask me for my opinion :-).<\/p>\n

Most of all, don’t feel bad if you find yourself with one of those “pay us $250 to re-demo your song” letters. \u00a0These guys have been around for a long time and they are very smooth. \u00a0And they continue to do it because songwriters are so convinced that their songs are great that they’ll do or pay anything that any of these people ask. \u00a0But you don’t have to!<\/p>\n

IJ<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the umpteenth time I have received an email from a songwriter who has been mislead by a so-called “publisher” showing interest in their songs. \u00a0 It’s not the showing interest that’s bad, it’s the thing they do next: \u00a0they follow up by asking the songwriter to pay them money to “re-demo” their song(s). Fortunately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail-bag","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prwoq-gH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}