Europe, Uk, Music - Sending Out Demos - Some Simple Advice By Glenn Williams (Lazyswede Productions)

If you'd like to take advantage of Glenn's considerable knowledge of the Music Industry and you have any questions as an up and coming band or musician, please send an email to lazyswede@thisistheworld.com . He'll do his best to help in any way he can.

There are thousands of demos posted daily to record companies and radio stations and managers etc. The chances of them all being heard is so small that sometimes it hardly seems worth bothering. In many cases, the problem is simply to do with the packaging of the product.

I must admit, I was also once guilty of sending out a CDR or a cassette with just my telephone number scrawled on the disc with a short note telling them where I could be contacted if they wanted to sign me up (I personally soon realised in my case it was never going happen).

Once upon a time, back when I was just a lad (that's enough of that, I'm not that old!) it was much easier. People were just interested in what you sounded like but that's all changed - they want to see a professional looking package which is going to catch their attention before they even listen to the music (I must admit some do sometimes slip through, but that's not very many).

Don't go sending them a 40 page dossier about each member of the band and what they had for tea last night or if they were a biscuit what sort of biscuit would they be, they don't give a damn about that! Keep the biog sheets as simple as possible but as informative as possible. Don't bore them so they lose interest!

Don't go telling them that you sound like someone else or that you have based your music on someone else's - they don't want that - they want something that's original. Now we get to the actual CD. Don't send them a full album if you can help it - not right away. Choose a couple of the best tracks you have recorded and put the most dynamic song at the beginning.

Get them interested enough so that they will want to listen to the next one or two songs. Then, and only then, if they get back to you they will normally ask you if you have any further material you can send to them. If and when that happens, Good Luck!

One other thing; make the label on the CD eye-catching if you can and be sure to print your email address on there too. Jewel cases and CDs can part company! If that happens and your CD goes astray without contact details, they quite simply won't know whose CD it is. When I first started sending out CDs in Sweden (where I used to live) I was lucky if I even got a reply. I would just post the packages off to every record label I could get the contact details for. It ended up costing me a small fortune.

I had a re-think about what I was doing. Instead of wasting money on postage, I started to contact the record labels by phone or by email. I asked them who I should send the promos to and if they would be interested in receiving a copy of the CD. More often than not they said yes, even though their websites stated: We are not accepting any new material! continued below

www.thisistheworld.com Get in touch. Email your Articles, Stories, News, Fiction and Poetry to be published on www.thisistheworld.com to: contributions@thisistheworld.com

Europe, Uk, Music - Sending Out Demos - continued Some Simple Advice By Glenn Williams (Lazyswede Productions)

Like I said before, for me, as a musician, nothing came to fruition but I made some great contacts and new friends and eventually these contacts started to give me some great advice. And now, many years later, this advice is of good use to me.

So take me as an example - contact them first so they will be expecting to hear from you and remember, just a few songs, an eye catching CD cover with a label showing at least your email address and an informative but short biog of you the artist/band.

If you'd like to take advantage of Glenn's considerable knowledge of the Music Industry and you have any questions as an up and coming band or musician, please send an email to lazyswede@thisistheworld.com . He'll do his best to help in any way he can.

Europe, Uk, Music - SIT UP and Listen to Riley by Cilla
	Dave Robertson, Riley song writer has a way with words. You can just hear a ghost of a twang of his Liverpudlian accent come through. Just enough to melt one or two hearts, I suspect. And the tunes? Well, I can't stop listening. They stick in your brain. Sit Up, the single from their new EP is, to me, their most memorable song. The lyrics are simple; like the Sunday morning when you woke up .. Read more...

Europe, Uk, Interviews - Riley and Emma Rugg by Cilla
	In October last year, Hulls most talented female singer/songwriter Emma Rugg accompanied the brilliant West Midlands band Riley on a 5 day visit to Oneonta, Upstate New York. With the backing of Mi5 Recordings mi5recordings.co.uk and in association with BBC Radio Humberside's Raw Talent the British performers were to play in an Mi5/Vines Restaurant Acoustic Concert. Read more...

Africa, Poetry - Mosi Oa Tunya

	by Michelle Dee Clark Smoke that thunders, masking the coming storm Young men of Chinoyi disappear Men and women tortured for telling the truth Tyrannical regime, that's what they fear And who, are they? Read more...

South America, Articles - La Patagonie Argentine

Anne Levy La plupart d'entre vous le savent, sommes rentrés depuis bientôt trois semaines, avons bien sûr interrompu la canicule.Dès le lendemain de notre arrivée, un violent orage éclatait, il n'avait pas plu depuis 3 mois sur Marseille, la température tomba instantanément de 10 degrés. La presse même accueillit notre retour. Les faiseurs de pluie étaient rentrés, même chez eux, leur don restait intact. Lisez plus...

North America, Articles - My September 11th 2001

	Moses Serruya I'd spent the better part of my working life in Wall Street, having migrated over on the software developer slave trade back in the early 1990's, so Manhattan was in effect my second home, and I had often cause to visit clients in various floors of the nearby twin towers. Read more...