Digital Rodeo | your country community

Tue. April 29, 2008 There are so many songwriters out there that want to make it big in the music business & for all those songwriters, there are people waiting to take advantage of the inexperienced ones.
I have to tell you that I have been fooled by a few myself along the way.
You send in your song or your Lyrics and they send you something back saying that you have a great talent but either your melody is wrong or not up to their standards and the only way they will represent you is to remake the demo. For a small fee..ranging from $250 to $600.00 they will make you a top quality demo and help you market your music. (sound familiar?) How do you weed legitimate services out from the ones who will put music to anything for the right price? As one writer put it to me...these people write for other people because they can't get a hit themselves. I'm not saying they are all bad, I am sure there are a few good ones out there to work with but in my experience this is what has happened. Usually they want music half your rights to the song, some or all of the publishing rights and your money...you wait a month or two get your song back thinking you will have a great song and the music does not even fit the lyrics at all. You are very disappointed and when you try to reach them either you can't get anyone on the phone or they tell you that this is how it's done and they are the pros so live with it. Then what happens? They have the rights to your song, the publishing rights so you can't even do anything with it..they have your money, and the song goes in a drawer never to be heard of again. What do they have to lose? They got paid, if you get the song cut they make the money and if you don't they are out nothing.

Here are some tips to weed some of the bad ones out.

1.Ask for references of people they have worked with
2. check the better business bureau
3.see if they are a registered publisher
4.have they had any hits under the name they are using? (note many use different companies or names with 5.the excuse of why they use different ones) do they have hits with the one they are using with you?
6.find other artists who have had a good experiences and get company names from them
7.do not sign anything giving away publishing rights or anything else until you hear the final demo and are 8. happy with it.
9. don't pay all the money up front...have them do a scratch demo first to see if you like the music to it
10. research the Internet
11. If you are a lyric writer, send it into another company and ask for a review or a reputable company.
12. have some other people look at it who have some experience who will be honest with you.
13. make sure your music is copyrighted before sending it.
Just remember that music can really be a dog eat dog business...protect yourself and your investments.
14. Make sure the entire deal is based on your approval or it is void
15.Make sure there is a reversion of rights after a certain period of time
I hope these tips help some of you from making some of my mistakes....Tamra

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