The guide to submitting demos

A&R Submission Guide

“Good” music has always been a phrase that doesn’t make sense. After all, music is subjective and everyone’s music is good. right?

How it works

“Good” music has always been a phrase that doesn’t make sense. After all, music is subjective and everyone’s music is good. right?
Well, in the music industry this isn’t always the case. Especially, if you’re looking to get signed to a label, there are certain standards and guidelines to keep in mind.

Don’t let this intimidate you or your music career. Most record labels below don’t accept unsolicited music submissions. However, you can still get submissions to them, and the A&R managers; and one of the key elements is having a great song.The big record labels are actively looking for 3 things. A great song, unique artist, and a good story.

They just can’t seem to turn these three things down. Most importantly, major record labels and publishers like to see that you have done something to help make yourself known.

This can be on a very small scale like the city that you live in. This is the perfect place to start. If you can get your song to go viral in one small town, they can make it huge in many small towns.

Guide to Submitting Demos to A&Rs and Labels

Is Your Music Good?

The first part of any successful demo submission as making sure the music sounds good and fits your genre. If you fit into a current genre that is trending, compare your music to popular songs there and see if you fit.

Build a Local Presence

When we work with smaller artists, we always recommend building up a local following so you have some die hards fans that will support you to the end. Labels love seeing solid fans that come to your shows, want to take pictures with you, and repost your content on social media. Having this tight following is essential for progressing into the next step of your career.

Play Shows

A great first step in building a local following is playing some shows and building relationships with local venues. Venues will help you get gigs with larger artists who can help propel you into a larger local audience. Opening for larger artists is an essential way for performing artists to continue growing their following.

While this is an optional step, playing a show helps ensure that people will actually like your music. It’s a good indicator to which songs people are interested in hearing, and which ones they aren’t. Think of it as a test or an experiment, you might even get new ideas in the heat of the moment.

Using TikTok to build New Audience

TikTok is one of the most popular platforms for building a viral audience on social media. Through creating clips of your music and connecting with other creators, there are great opportunities for artists to expand their reach on TikTok. Aside from reels, you can also connect with TikTok Playlists who can branch your music out to other creators.

Submit Demos Directly to Top Labels

When our executives sign up as a recipient to evaluate music we issue them, and their team a login for the entire label. Every A&R manager or executive has a list of team members that works them. They report daily on the music that they are discovering, show stats and contact information. It is actually much harder to reach their team members than it is to reach them directly. We offer the AVENUEAR Music CRM to all of the labels we work with.

A Music CRM is a customer relationship management system which a music professional administers and interacts with musicians, typically using music and data analysis to study large amounts of information. We have created the first tool that offers A&R managers, record labels, publishers, music supervisors, curators, producers, and influencers the ability to accept, manage and share music.

Get A Producer

Although it can be frightening to place your music in the hands of someone else, a good, experienced producer can enhance your music in many different ways.

First of all, it’s always good to have an outside perspective when it comes to your own music. Someone who will facilitate those hard decisions we have to make as musicians sometimes. Like, should I add more instruments to a track? Should there be less? Is it too fast or slow? Having a reliable source to help make these decisions will not only speed up the process but ensure that you have a good quality product that can be shared.

A producer can also ensure that you are being true to your craft. Whether that means they’ll keep you accountable when you don’t feel like working, or they’ll help spark that creativity that doesn’t always come. A producer that knows your vision and philosophy will facilitate the process, which isn’t always easy, of making music and make sure that you are using your abilities to their full potential.

Producers are connected. Say that you have a track where you envision a full band playing but you don’t know any musicians that can make this vision come to life. That’s where the producer comes in. A producer knows many musicians for many different situations, after all, they have experience making music and have built connections in the industry.

Although producers can be expensive, you may be able to find a producer who will work for a reduced cost, or even for royalties.

Create a Website

An important step in building your online presence is creating a website and displaying it for potential publishers and for labels. Having a stunning website is a great step in showing labels that you are independent and can manage your own marketing efforts to an extent. This helps take pressure off the potential label and will give you some leverage.

Record Labels

Universal Music Group
Interscope Records
Atlantic Records
Warner Music Group
Sony Music
Artist Records
Elektra Records
Jive Records
Cash Money Records
Republic Records
BMG Music
RCA Records
Island Records
Def Jam Records
Virgin Records
Universal Music Publishing Group
EMI Music

Universal Music Group Demo Submission Policy

Get your Music Mixed and Mastered

This is often an overlooked step by musicians when making music, especially when it comes to mastering. We already established that “good” music is subjective, but that there are still many standards that songs must follow. Especially if you want your music on Spotify or on the radio. Professional mixing and mastering is a good way to ensure your music sounds great, is up to standard, and is like the cherry on top of a sundae.
Research Different Trends

Many artists don’t like to compare their art to anybody else, while it is important to not compare there is, however, a certain value in seeing what is out there. Find out what people are listening to, are there certain similarities between these artists? How can you integrate these trends into your music? I’m not saying to completely rip off other artists,(this rarely works) but instead to learn and even find inspiration in what’s happening currently.

Hire Photographer & Videographer

Once you get some shows lined up, it’s time to get some solid photos of your fans enjoying your music. We also recommend building real relationships with your fans and encouraging photos with them. This will help you build up a nice portfolio of content to use across social media and PR.

Build an Online Presence

In the age of social media, there has never been a more important time to have internet presence as an artist. Having engagement on social media will not only make you look great to potential labels and publishers, but also help you continue growing your audience exponentially.

What is the AVENUEAR Music CRM?

AVENUEAR is here to help you bypass the many steps. You can directly submit your material to major A&R managers and executives on the platform. Should you have to pay for this? Absolutely not! We have set up a free tier of our service that lets you try out our CRM system and see how it fits for you.

We have created a unique song submission website that enables independent musicians such as artists, writers, and producers the ability to connect directly with our teams personal and business contacts. Our A&R managers and executives on AVENUEAR’s music submission website are contractual with AVENUEAR. This means that we have a signed agreement with the A&R manager or executive that is guaranteed to evaluate any, and all material that is submitted to them via AVENUEAR.

In addition to our free service, AVENUEAR offers a FEE based submission process that delivers demo songs directly to our A&R managers CRM inbox and much more. Why does AVENUEAR charge for these submissions?

AVENUEAR charges for a direct CRM inbox submission to the chosen A&R manager or executive similar to shipping a package via UPS, FEDEX, or United States Postal Service.

Our platform requires maintaining of servers, security and management. All of this for the sole purpose of bridging the gap between unsigned artists and record label executives. We connect and deliver your material to the music executive of choice. When a user purchases a pro account and submits a demo song to an executive there is a cost for the delivery.

Start Submitting Demos

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