How to Submit Your Music to RECORD LABELS in 2024!

hi I'm Scott and I run other record labels which is a platform for record labels it's a podcast where I interview hundreds of independent record labels and we just talk about running a record label and I thought I'd make this video for you Independent Artists independent bands who find themselves wanting to pitch themselves in their career and their music to indie record labels hoping to get a record deal or you're maybe planning on pitching or you have pitched I want to highlight 10 things that you really need to keep in mind when you're pitching to

record labels and these are probably mistakes that you've made in the past I know they're mistakes that I've made as an independent artist that was pitching music many many years ago to record labels I've made most of these mistakes multiple times so let's go through them real quick and I think you're going to find this really helpful foreign if you're an independent artist I have some resources for you even though I normally help record labels I do want to make sure that some of the tricks and secrets that record labels use is something that Independent

Artists could use if they're not on a label and they're just kind of self-managing their own careers I'm going to make today's episode into a checklist for you just so that you don't have to remember everything I'm saying and you can download that checklist right now for free by going to otherrecordlabels.com pitch that's otherrecordlabels.com pitch let's dive in number one know what you want you need to know what you want when you're pitching okay I got this email yesterday and it was from an artist and they they said they had a new album done a

new album coming out and they sent me links and the Very they signed it off by saying we hope you like it and it's like is that your pitch like is that your ask is that you just hope I like it so what if I listen to it and go yeah I do like this and delete you know what I mean it's like it's so surprising how many artists don't specifically ask for something I don't know what it is like maybe you're just trying to be koi minimal professional just like chill all about things and

not be like a beggar I get that I've done that too but you have to really be specific what with what you kind of expect out of a record label partnership because it becomes this turn off for record labels because what we see is we see an artist who's going to need a lot of hand-holding and that just seems like a lot of work and because there's not a ton of money in the music industry at all for especially for Indies this relationship has to be kind of symbiotic and fun and and intimate between the

artist and the label so have the specific ask what you kind of want out of that relationship and then ask specifically so have a specific ask and then ask for that specifically so if you were this band that just sent me this email and said here's my record I hope you like it right now that ask is that they just they just hope I like the music but what they need to do is they need to dive a little bit deeper and ask and it can't just be hey we want to be signed to your

record label or we think we'll be a good fit on your record label maybe that's true but you need to find out if I'm actually signing artists at this time and don't just ask for a record deal but propose like a specific symbiotic relationship let's say maybe you are looking for a record label to press vinyl and distribute vinyl to Independent record stores in America or maybe you're contacting a European record label and you want them to just make cassette tapes to distribute to Europe on your behalf and you're going to handle the digital or

maybe there's a record label that does um YouTube really well and they do streaming platforms really well and you're like I'm gonna press my own vinyl I'm going to pay for all the manufacturing I'm going to pay for all the recording I was just wondering if you could help me with playlisting because you're really good at it so have a very specific ask moving on number two provide the right information not too much information just the right information what is that as a record label we need to know the state of your upcoming release or

the state of your career are you right now writing are you recording do you have a record all already done are you actually and this is one of the things I see all the time is that they tell me that they have a record coming out in a couple of months as if I don't get on this bus right now I'm gonna miss it that's kind of stressful for me to deal with I kind of want to hear from an artist who says hey I have an album that's done we're maybe working on artwork right

now it's mixed it hasn't been mastered that's okay here it is I have no plans and I don't know when I'm gonna release this I'm just shopping for a label right now that for me is like way more relaxing if an artist pitches it that way because then I'm like okay we have time to sort of figure this out but if an artist is like I just released an album then I'm like great call me in three years like when you make the next record but if they're like if an artist is like I'm a

really good songwriter and I want to make a record like gone are the days where record labels are just signing young Taylor Swift's who walk in off the street and we're like we'll develop you over the next five years and then release a record it's kind of better for us as labels to know how many records you've released if you've been on any other labels where you're at in your career and and then in line with the expected expect stations we just talked about okay number three and number two kind of leads into number three

which is come with something ready I mean ideally that's best if you if you walk in there and are just like hey I'm moldable I'm young I want to have a career I don't have any songs or I have songs but I haven't recorded anything for independent labels it's like you know what I'm sorry we're not a developer we don't have like millions of dollars to invest and lots of time a lot of Indie labels just want to hear something we want to be able to work with something I personally can work better with eight

songs nine songs ten songs four songs one song it's like yeah this is great I can get on board let's work on this project so come with something ready to go don't contact a label too early in your career you might think I want to label to kind of develop me from the ground up but it doesn't really work that way very much I mean there's exceptions to the rules but you may actually just need time on your own to develop your craft to build an audience and then approach a record label even if you

are recording your own album when you're in that writing and recording stage age and maybe even in that mixing stage that's the time when you can research record labels start to build up your press kit start to write a bio and get the information together and research what labels you're going to pitch to then when the record's mixed or even mastered that's a good time to start pitching number four talk like a human talk normally this isn't a cover letter this isn't a resume give the record label a glimpse of who you are as a

human being and as an artist talk about what's important to you I actually like to know like where these people are from it helps when they give their age to that gives I mean that's kind of personal information you have to give your age but some people do that just gives a little bit of context as to where they are in their life where they might be in their career I like to see pictures I like to see videos of them performing I just like some personal information reading something that feels like a super commercial

press release just isn't a great first impression it's not a bad thing it just doesn't feel very personable so just be normal don't write a memoir keep it short and minimal but but don't be too overly professional number five is go easy on name dropping if you have worked with some popular celebrities or popular mix Engineers or mastering Engineers or producers or musicians or maybe you've toured with someone or opened with someone sometimes name dropping is good and I'll give an example in a second but other times it's kind of cringy especially when it's not

really connected to your music like if you open for a really big artist one time it's kind of like oh well maybe that was just like lucky that the promoter needed a local act or you know I don't really know did they pick you or was it just kind of a coincidence or did you go on like 10 bands before them did I've seen people say like I've shared a stage with XYZ and it's like yeah like maybe you went on at five in the morning and they went on three days later at nine at

night you know what I mean like that's kind of mean but you know what I'm saying just be careful with name dropping I'd rather you not name drop unless it's completely relevant to me like if you want to name drop like if we have a mutual friend that's good if you've worked with artists like literally worked with artists who have been like if one of my artists produced your record that's good that's a really good use of a name drop because I'm like oh I trust them so if they're if you're building Rapport that's good

but if you're just throwing out celebrity names to try to like catch my attention that often you can a lot of people can see through that you know what I mean so just make sure it's relevant the name dropping is relevant and helpful to the conversation number six this is a big one guys allow a lot of time in the music industry we have this term called lead time and that's generally between the time of when an album is mixed and mastered and ready to be pressed onto vinyl or to be uploaded to the digital

Distributors and then between that time and release day that is like the length of lead time and a lot of labels are working in like three to four to six month lead time in fact because of the delays in pressing vinyl if you're making merch like CDs and tapes and vinyl and t-shirts and stuff you need like closer to six to 12 12 months lead time and so one thing you can kind of keep in mind is like don't pitch to a record label if you want your album to come out like this month if

you're planning on the record coming out in a couple weeks or even in a couple of months then the label's like oh that's cool but like we can't help you because labels have a schedule already in a lot of cases labels have a 12-month schedule at the very least they have the quarter planned out like the next couple of months and so they can't just like disrupt things and so you can here's a safe assumption a safe assumption would be you can expect your album to come out about a year from when you first contact

them why well because it's going to take like a month of like back and forth emails getting to know one another and finding out what their expectations are and maybe signing a contract and planning for a release that takes up a month and Manufacturing takes a long time and then fitting into their schedule and so for me it just makes a lot of sense especially if you don't have a record fully done yet or mixed or mastered then it's like by the time the deal is finalized and and the relation relationship is sealed and you

start planning on the release and then you allow that lead time buffer it really makes sense that it's like 8 to 12 months from when that conversation happens to when you could see an album come out so just plan ahead for this if you want an album to come out really soon and you're pitching to labels um that's that's not great I've had people like pitch to me and saying like this album is coming out next month if you want to get on board and help with the release and it's like whoa you know what

I mean that's like somebody's saying hey I'm getting married next weekend do you want to be the groom you know what I mean number seven pitch only to hyper relevant record label okay what I mean by this is a lot of artists I've done this before I do this with other things I'm promoting we do this technique where we just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks right and that's that feels good for us because it feels like we've been Uber productive it feels like we've done our due diligence by pitching to a

thousand different people and all we need is just one or we just need one percent that'll be great great but I just don't think that's a great way to pitch your music and it kind of comes off on professional and I think what's better is to do some intense research and to look at record labels that you think would be really relevant and to would be accepting of your of your music and of your Vibe and your aesthetic and you're like you know what these people get me I get these people I admire this label

I'm I've been aware of this label I already own records from this label so just be very hyper focused when it comes to who you pitch to and don't waste your time pitching to labels that would have no interest in you and and then even if you got a record deal from them you'd be like I don't know if I want to be on that label so narrow it down it's better to just send to like five or ten labels as opposed to like 50 or 100 labels that are not relevant to you at all

and when you are pitching to these relevant labels share the why behind why you're pitching to that label like maybe you have been a fan maybe you had a t-shirt of this label growing up in high school and and that this label uh and and the music they released is has has influenced you all through your teenage years or your college Years or whatever you know what I mean have a really specific reason why but this leads into Point number eight and that is don't offer labels more of what they already have don't offer labels

more of what they already have okay let me explain this if an artist feels like their music sounds like Bon Iver if they've copied Bon iver's music they're going to pitch their music to Jack Jaguar which is Bonnie Bear's label and that's just not how the music industry works there are very few labels out there who are like wow this artist was successful let's go and find a carbon copy of this artist so we can just repeat this success over and over the labels I talk to on my podcast do not feel that way at

all in fact an artist is successful because of their original ethos of looking for artists with uh who are great songwriters who who have a great stage presence great performers great singers great lyricists whatever it is this artist was successful because their core mission statement found them it wasn't because they were looking for a certain type type of artists to fit a certain predetermined mold aside from maybe major major labels nobody is looking for the next dot dot dot you know what I'm saying it's like if you feel like you're the next Justin Bieber or

you're the next Taylor Swift or you're the next Kendrick Lamar or whatever it's like labels aren't looking for that that's not to say you can't be influenced by them or maybe even follow their own trajectory but you've got to do your own thing a r people get excited about new sounds they get excited about exciting sounds I can't tell you how many record labels I've talked to who get pitches uh that sound exactly super copied super influenced by their biggest artist on their label and it's just you guys you shouldn't do that and if you

sound like a super popular artist pitch to a completely different type of label who doesn't have an artist like that already on their roster or evolve your sound more to make it more uniquely you number nine don't pester this is very simple you can follow up okay follow up once and do it maybe about two to two to three weeks later two weeks is a pretty safe bet but just one after that you can assume they've listened or they're not interested or they're too busy game over after two weeks and you followed up and then

another two weeks and you don't hear that's it I mean you you sending a third email a month later that's not going to make the difference and get you a record deal I mean listen maybe there's examples of otherwise and maybe some other labels will be like no no keep pestering me until I respond I'm just bad with email maybe that's the case I think generally um we don't really want to be pestered secondly we don't want to be dm'd unless we specifically ask for that look for the demo submission email and send it there

don't comment on an Instagram photo and say hey I sent you a DM please check your DMs get back to me you know the DMS by the way go to this like secretly hidden spot same thing on Facebook it goes like into our messages and then it goes into like a certain spam folder it's like literally hard to find and and I find them like months and months later and then it's like somebody's just saying hey check out this and it's like sending a pitch to someone's phone like when they're standing in line at the

bank like it's just not a great place DM's is not a great place for pitches in my opinion maybe you have success and another thing you know you know being kind of picky here and I hope I'm not coming off me and I'm just trying to be honest and helpful but like the other thing too is like when you get a no or you get a no thank you it's not really the record labels responsibility to then forward you on to a more relevant label or to offer you advice and I mean one time I

had a somebody send me um a great pitch and I at the time it was good music it was really good but I just it was more of what I already had and I was looking for something new at the time or maybe it was just that I wasn't signing anybody I was just busy it was just not a great time and So I responded very nicely I was encouraging I mean I don't know if I loved the music but I was I was just I tried to be very encouraging and highlight the great things

about their pitch and the great things about their music and then they kind of bounced back right away and thanked me and they were like do you have any labels you could recommend that I would send it to or do you have any advice on how I could further my career this is tough and again I don't want to sound rude but it's like record labels are focused on doing what they're doing we're really really busy all of us are busy doing our thing it says to write an email to someone and say no because

I know listen I don't get a ton of pitches but I know uh some really big labels get some of them get hundreds a week some of them get like a dozen a day and so you can't respond to those I mean you can hardly listen to them let alone responding specifically to each one and so when somebody does respond to you you're very lucky it it most often won't happen so don't kind of respond and try to engage unless they're very engaging and want you to respond don't put more responsibility on them if it's

a no from them just respond say thanks you know what I mean um it's not really their responsibility to kind of pass you on to somewhere else I hope that's not a rude thing to say finally number 10 is to be organized keep track of who you've pitched to you could just use a Google sheet and just say I pitched to this person on this date and they either responded or they didn't respond just so you're not like pitching twice to people that's happened before in fact there's this band that pitches to me like once

a month they send the exact same pitch completely irrelevant it's it's really funny the pitch but like they send it once a month like maybe I should respond I don't know if I responded maybe I should respond and say no thank you but they pitch all the time once a month it's like a newsletter it's funny keep your pitch emails like really nice and tidy very very simple and easy to navigate send barrier free streaming links so don't send like a Google Drive where I've gotta click through ask for authorization or a Dropbox folder and

then I'm there okay another wave files what I got to download them or no no send like a nice SoundCloud private SoundCloud link that I can stream the songs from your album don't send multiple SoundCloud links like make a playlist Maybe if you're already on Spotify but even with Spotify it doesn't work because not everybody has Spotify so maybe you could do like a a secret band camp link and make a compilation of your tracks that way but don't send MP3s don't embed MP3s don't send any download links I mean for people who are getting

tons and tons of pitches they can't just download all these mp3s and then add them to iTunes and listen to them that way a barrier-free streaming link is all you need to send remember less is more if they want more they'll reach out to you and ask for more okay I want to um give you a bonus tip and that is just to keep pitching you're gonna hit a ton of Walls and More walls than doors it's going to be super discouraging but I'll tell you this I in addition to like running the podcast other

record labels and and my own label I've been an independent artist but my as myself and I'm I'm working on a record right now and I'm I have a lot of friends at record labels and I'm actually thinking about like pitching my next record to a couple labels that maybe would want to partner on the vinyl or maybe um we'll handle like European sales or something and I pitched like when I started making music it was only back in like 2002 and I remember pitching to emails like via the post uh like sending CDs in

the mail pitching to labels and and sending CDs back in 2002. that's 20 years ago like us more than 20 years ago and in between like I'm still pitching the labels and so in that time my music has evolved my understanding of how things have evolved now I'm not saying it's going to take you 20 years I hope that's not discouraging just keep pitching and after this one if you didn't get any responses go make another record and Pitch the next one and guess what get yourself and your music to a place where record labels

are pitching themselves to you I hope you found this helpful I'm going to put today's checklist into a nice little neat and tidy checklist that you can download at otherrecordlabels.com pitch and you can also download this like be your own record label toolbox that I created for Independent Artists just to kind of help them learn from some of the strategies and secrets so to speak that record labels used to promote their releases that you might find helpful when you're self-releasing your own music thanks so much for watching