label7 min read
How to send a demo to a record label (and actually get a reply)
Most demos are not rejected. They are never heard. The difference between the two is almost never the music — it is the thirty seconds of friction between the email arriving and the track playing.
A label inbox is not a queue of hopefuls, it is a queue of files that each cost something to open. A 90 MB zip costs more than a link. A private stream that asks for a password costs more than one that plays. Every unit of that cost is a chance for your demo to get pushed to "later", and later is where demos go to die.
What actually happens in the first 30 seconds
An A&R listening to a demo is not judging your sound design. They are answering one question: does this record belong on our label, next to the last four things we put out? That question gets answered from the groove, the tonal character and the arrangement decisions — all of which are audible within half a minute. A track that takes two minutes to reveal itself is not deep, it is just late.
Format: what to send, and what never to send
- A private streaming link (SoundCloud private, Dropbox stream) — it plays in one click, on a phone, without downloading anything.
- A 320 kbps MP3 if you must attach a file. Nobody needs a 24-bit WAV to decide whether they like a record.
- One track. If you have three, send the best one and mention the others exist.
- Never: a zip. Never: a Google Drive folder that asks for access. Never: a link that expires in seven days.
The email itself
Four lines. Artist name, track title, genre and BPM, and one sentence about why this record fits this label specifically. That last sentence is the whole game: it is the only part of your email that proves you have listened to the catalogue rather than pasted the same message to forty labels. An A&R can tell the difference instantly, and one of those two emails gets opened.
Five mistakes that get a demo deleted unheard
- Mass BCC. Forty labels in the same email tells every one of them they are your fortieth choice.
- An unmastered mix sent "so you can hear the raw idea". Send it finished; nobody is imagining the master for you.
- Uncleared samples. A recognisable vocal from a commercial record makes the track unreleasable regardless of quality.
- A follow-up after four days. Give it three weeks.
- No contact details. It happens more often than it should, and there is no way to sign someone you cannot find.
None of this makes a mediocre record good. What it does is remove every reason to stop listening to a good one — which, given how many demos never get past the first click, is most of the battle.