Many years ago I was attending a meeting of a songwriters’ association. The speaker, a friend of mine, had procured many major artist cuts of her songs. She was not affiliated with a publisher and did all of her own song plugging. She made regular trips to Nashville to network and to pitch her songs. I have never forgotten something she said during that presentation: “There is a fine line between being persistent and being a pest.”
Take heed young writers and artists. If you believe in yourself and your creative product, persistence is a requirement of success in the music business. But take care not to be a pest. Whenever you call on an a&r person, producer, artist, publisher, lawyer, or other person with your demo, be very respectful to that person and of that person’s time. Your goal if you do not get any interest in the product you have presented is to be invited back when you have new material and if you are lucky to learn any specifics about what this person is looking for. I have passed on deal shopping representation of artists and writers before and they have actually argued with me about my decision. Guess who didn’t get invited back!
Because of my blog and my website, I get a lot of requests from songwriters and artists to help them place their material or help them get a record deal. These days I decline to represent them 90% of the time because I no longer want shop deals in this difficult music business economy. Nevertheless, some of those hopeful writers and artists keep emailing me and messaging me on social networking sites to the point of becoming pests. When what they really need to do is email me when they have new material and ask if I would mind taking a listen.
Recently after several email exchanges I decided not to represent a new writer because networking on her behalf was part of what was needed – and as I said, I do not want to do that any longer – for anybody. The writer wrote me a very kind letter, thanking me for my time. I immediately gave her a couple of names of other people who might be able to help. She was polite and persistent over our two weeks of exploring whether we would work together. Never was she a pest.