Is there a place to listen to Songwriter demos?

Pepper249

New member
I'm planning an extended trip to Nashville -- just to hang around and see what its all about.....I'm gathering some songs I wrote and I want them to be as good as I can get them to be and maybe pitch them to a few publishers if I happen to meet any of em.

I read a book - the Songwriter's Guide to Nashville - and in it the author states that the demo has to be simple -- one or two instruments and very strong vocal...this book is 3 years old though -- i wonder if things have changed?... then I read another book that says the demo has to be much more then that...almost radio ready.

Is there a place on the web where songwriters pitch their songs so I can listen to them and get a feel for what a songwriters demo is really all about? (i'm not an artist) .. just a songwriter.

I listen to alot of the songs on this forum but I do not see where there are a whole lot of them that are in the format of songwriter demo....... there really is alot of talent in this BBS! I love reading that post and listening to the original music you folks come up with......... Patti :)
 
Hi Patti,
Well.............

The only site I know of that is based out of Nashville...
and run by songwriters who pitch constantly....
and who claim to know what is good and what is not good for the Nashville market...
is TuneSmith...click here... ....


Networking seems to be the way to go...
Good places to hang out in Nash-Vegas would be Douglas Corner and the Broken Spoke...

Good luck and take it easy,
Joe
 
Hey Patti – I actually moved to Nashville about 3 years ago after a few years of traveling down twice a year to do exactly what you are doing. Here is some advice from my experience FWIW.

Do your homework and set up appointments with publishers before you actually make the trip. There is a book out there called “Songwriter’s Market”. Get it. It has the names and contact info of publishers in town. When I first started taking trips down here I used this book along with a download from the Yahoo Yellow pages to build a database of publishers. Then I stated calling for appointments. This is pretty hit and miss, and most won’t want to talk to you, but hey, it’s worth a shot. Warning: you may end up talking to some folks who are less than savory. If they start talking about you putting any money up, run like hell. Most reputable publishers will put their own money into a demo & pitching a song if they like it (I know there is one poster here who is paying for some mentoring and is quite happy with the results – so no disrespect meant to him, in fact he is keeping me posted for when I finally get more of my stuff re-recorded).

When you get in town, stop by the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com office. They are really nice folks and helped me out a lot when I visited town. I would suggest a membership too. It’s $100 per year and they have great resources to get you started. They also have critique services by mail and local critiques every other Thursday evening (if it hasn’t changed) where you take a tape in and they (a panel of professional songwriters), with a roomful of other songwriters listen and throw out critiques of your song. It can be rather humbling, but a good learning experience. I would actually suggest joining NSAI several months before you travel down. You will get some very good guidelines on approaching publishers and how to put a standard, professional looking package together for them (don’t worry, it’s not that involved).

A publisher listening to your song is a whole new experience. Don’t be intimidated by it. The first trip I made down here, I hooked up with a publisher that was very helpful (he didn’t sign me, but he was still helpful ;)). On the first visit, he listened to one verse and part of a chorus of the first song, lyric sheet in hand. He stopped the tape and proceeded to rip the song apart. Ditto for the other two on the tape I gave him. By my last trip (before I actually moved down here) he was listening to nearly all of each song. Some of them were new and some of them were rehashed songs he listened to before. I could tell I made progress by the critiques (but he still didn’t sign me ;)). Once I moved down here, life happened (that’s a great song btw :D), between new job, new house, new child, I really haven’t done anything for 3 years (coincidentally the age of my beautiful daughter ;)). I am about to get back in the game again.

Don’t be surprised, if a publisher sees some potential in your writing, they suggest you move down here. That’s what happened to me. They won’t help you move or anything, but depending on you situation, it may be a good move. The downside is there are many thousands of songwriters in this town all trying to get cuts. It only happens for a very small percentage. The upside is that there are many thousands of songwriters in this town all trying to get cuts and only a small percentage get them. However, if you have happened to network with one who gets a break, then you are that much closer and higher up on the ladder (you still have to write the killer songs though ;) :D).

As far as songwriter demos go…you can submit just a guitar (or piano)/vocal arrangement. I would not recommend it if you can do better. However, I also would not go and spend a fortune on recording a demo until you know you have a really good song as you will likely be changing it again and again. That’s why I got into home recording. From what I’ve heard the demo should be straight forward with lead vocal way up front. A four instrument demo is pretty common for country music (guitar, piano, bass, drums). There just should be enough backing music to get the musical point across. Instrumental breaks and guitar solos are a no no (I learned the hard way from the pained expression from the publisher who sat across the desk from me) unless they are absolutely necessary to develop the song in some way (like a short instrumental bridge may be ok). At the risk of sounding self inflated, I will post a link to my one and only song that I took a serious stab at re-recording. I was told that it was a good quality songwriter demo in an NSAI critique (the song itself is another story – he said it was well written but it didn’t jump out and grab him). Oh well I still like it. It’s here in this thread https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74776

If someone offers you a publishing contract, do even more homework. Smaller publishers (which is who you more than likely will be dealing with, at least for a while) can be great or terrible. The upside is that a good one generally work harder for your one song than a major would. Your song has less likelihood of sitting unused in a gigantic catalogue. The downside is that there are a lot of shady publishers and most of them are the smaller one. I was offered a one song deal by a publisher here in town on the above song. After consulting with some folks at NSAI I decided not to sign it. I think (not sure) I made the right choice. However if you never sign, you never get a deal.

Seriously, since I have been in your shoes not too long ago, don’t hesitate to ask any questions either here, pm or my email (link in my profile should work). I don’t know if I’ll have the answers, but I went through this all very painfully not knowing what the hell I was doing and did learn a few things along the way.

Good luck

(sorry…maybe I should have just written a book) :D
 
WOW! Thanks!

I really appreciate the time you guys took to reply.. and, john, just yesterday I was listening to The Gift and thats what made me form this questions about how much to put into the demos (musically speaking).

Tunesmith looks real interesting. I think I will go to the seminar. Has anyone been to one before?

Now that I have listened to the sample demos I would like to get 3 songs demo'd professionally.. I am sure there are hundreds of studios in Nashville -- any in particualr you recommend?

Thanks for all your help... keep the messages coming! Patti PS: Is it warm there? ;-)
 
OOPS! I forgot to say...

John, I think The Gift is very nice.......after I heard it I thought "WOW! I better make darn sure my songs are recorded at least as professionally as this song is! Caue if this excellant song is typical of what is abundant in Nashville I have alot of work to do."

I'm coming there for fun, though -- without any high expectations...I'm getting older and I want to make sure I tried all I wanted to try before I get too old to try it...(is that a song?) :)

Thanks again, guys! Patti
 
Re: WOW! Thanks!

Pepper249 said:
I really appreciate the time you guys took to reply.. and, john, just yesterday I was listening to The Gift and thats what made me form this questions about how much to put into the demos (musically speaking).

Tunesmith looks real interesting. I think I will go to the seminar. Has anyone been to one before?

Now that I have listened to the sample demos I would like to get 3 songs demo'd professionally.. I am sure there are hundreds of studios in Nashville -- any in particualr you recommend?

Thanks for all your help... keep the messages coming! Patti PS: Is it warm there? ;-)

I don’t know of any specific studios to recommend since I record (or will be more) at home. But, there are literally hundreds of them and many good ones. I do know that there are so many studios in town that the competition has made the cost of studio time fairly inexpensive (or at least that used to be the case).

Warning…the following is off the top my head so it may not be 100% accurate…I believe the a standard session the musicians (and there are a lot of good ones around here) usually track 4 songs. That’s how many you should have ready, or split the time with someone else. They usually need charts (I think they typically use the Nashville Number system type charts although I’m not sure). I don’t know much about that since I have never charted a song in this manner. This will probably cost you around $300 for 4 songs tracked with basic instruments. More if you want to add bg vocals or other instrumentation. If you want to sing yourself, you may save on the cost of the vocalist (although I’m not sure about that).

The above is only from what I have heard, no real experience, so take it with a grain of salt There may be some others here that know more about this than I do…

Oh and tunesmith looks pretty cool. I may have to check that out myself when I get home. Learn something new every day. :)
 
Re: OOPS! I forgot to say...

Pepper249 said:
John, I think The Gift is very nice.......after I heard it I thought "WOW! I better make darn sure my songs are recorded at least as professionally as this song is! Caue if this excellant song is typical of what is abundant in Nashville I have alot of work to do."

I'm coming there for fun, though -- without any high expectations...I'm getting older and I want to make sure I tried all I wanted to try before I get too old to try it...(is that a song?) :)

Thanks again, guys! Patti

Heh…thanks. :blush:

There are some amazing songwriters here in town. I am learning. There is a lot better than this running around Nashville. But I do it because I love and have this strange, unexplainable, insatiable urge to do it. So I want to get better at it even though I’m an old fart :D.

If I ever get a cut that would be alright too ;) :D
 
Thanks!

Yes, i will take the songs to a studio there most likely if I can not get them done as good as "the Gift".. I gave my own home recorded version ( I am VERY new at home recording) to the guy at our music store (who has been in the business a long time). After looking at bit moved and a little upset he told me the one song was very deep...very very deep.... and he hooked me up with someone with a much better home studio to record for me at no charge...I don't mind paying for something thats going to be really good though...and I can not sing as great as I want the demo to be.

So, maybe if I ever get rid of this Larengitus I can get something done and post it.

And that number chart the studios prefer?? I read about that and it scares me...lol.... patti :)
 
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