Goodnight
Kiss MusicGoodnight
Kiss MusicHello everyone. It is June 9.
Today's Topic makes me MAD!!!! Read on down the page.
New readers interested in pitching songs:
Sign up for our Newsletter, the
first place we announce whatever new projects are under way.
Please never send anything without first reviewing our "How To Submit Material" page and here, at Daily Updates, just to insure
that we are accepting. I invite you to surf through the Past Posted Pages for
articles that apply to anyone seeking information about the Music
Business from a Publisher/Writer/Artist's point of view. "Today's
Topic", a little lower on this page carries some valuable
hints, too. And just for fun, come on and enter our FREE Song
Title Contest. Nothin' to it!
Because I am a Songwriter first, (closely
followed by Publisher and Producer), I get the same letters
others writers do, full of promises and ideas and all kinds of
guarantees about how "Project A" is going to be the
"greatest production of the millennium" or how this
"record company" will "distribute this CD to Film
and Television or Radio Stations for airplay." All they want
me (as a Songwriter) to do is send them anywhere from $250- $1500
to be "part of this incredible record." The last pitch
I got for one of these had a one paragraph "record contract",
and all I had to do to "reserve" my spot was send this
guy $600.
This practice disgusts me. Very few of these companies have ties
with the Major Entertainment Industries. Most of the time, their
"guarantee" to distribute these CDs means throwing them
in an envelope, addressing them generically (i.e., "Paramount
Pictures Music Department"), never taking a meeting face to
face with anyone who can make a decision, etc. They are making
their money (and their studio friends are making money if they
"re-cut" your song) from YOUR payment for your slot on
the CD. ESPECIALLY in the case of the last fellow, who would
place ANYone on his compilation, regardless of song quality, as
long as they cough up the $600. Can you imagine the songs that
will be on this thing? You would be stigmatized just from the
association with a project like this if you tried to send it out
to the real Industries. If there is a gem sent here, it will be
lost among the lumps of coal.
Let me emphasize this point again, in case any of you didn't
catch it in the topics that came before... A REAL RECORD COMPANY
WILL NOT CHARGE YOU MONEY TO RECORD YOUR SONG. Real record
companies who plan on making sales will pay you a mechanical
royalty for each of your songs they produce to a record, i.e.
THEY PAY YOU. (They do NOT suggest that you to make your money
back from selling copies to your friends and family.) Pretty
clear, right? THEY PAY YOU TO PRODUCE YOUR SONG TO A RECORD. If a
song is good enough, and the record company is legitimate, the
writer should not have to pay for recording. The writer has to
pay for demos... and if those demos are good enough to be masters
in certain situations, fine. But to have a song, and have a
"record company" charge you to put it out is ludicrous.
Save your money for the next demo.
Janet
New Information: TO THOSE WHO SUBMITTED
FOR THE CHRISTMAS PITCH:
Well, as of this writing, all Christmas material has been
reviewed. Your tapes and CDs are one of three places.
1. In the box to be sent a letter that it was not right for this
project (provided you sent a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope.)
2. In the box that says "SIGN", which means the writers
will be called, and contracts will be discussed.
3. In the box that says "Maybe", which means the
producer will review with a decision on which box (#1. or #2.)
that tape might go.
The letters concerning the material already in box #1 will be in
the mail by May 28. If you receive a letter, please read it
carefully. Some of you will be invited to pitch us again.
The calls concerning the material in the "sign" box,
will be initiated by June 15th.
The material still being decided on may be up to four weeks after
that.
If you have not heard from one of us by June 30, you may email me
or call our voicemail.
NO MATERIALS are returned. The tape/CD is physically destroyed if
we do not sign it, and other materials are shredded. (We used to
try to erase the tapes and donate them to Songwriter
Organizations, but there is just no time for that now, and we
receive too many tapes to reprocess in any way.) This is for
everyone's protection. Thanks for understanding.
If you are waiting for a response to a tape that was sent in that
is NOT something specifically requested, your tape has probably
not been listened to. Until we finish the two projects we are
working on, we won't be listening to that enormous box of songs.
© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Janet Fisher Goodnight Kiss Music (BMI) Scene Stealer Music (ASCAP)