[Colourofspring]

Hi folks,

I've been doing some research online and have come across sites such as Taxi etc who will pitch your songs to artists. From your experience what companies are good to use? I have an album of songs that received some airplay and I am now ready to pitch these songs to artists , any advice on how best to pitch them to recording artists would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[S.T.C]

Be very careful , your songs will have to be very good,to stand any chance.I paid for a tip sheet, got some positive replies ,one ,i thought was going to wet themselves ..in the end only a lesser known Swedish DJ asked me for anything..and i failed to deliver.

[MartynRich]

Personally I think most of these sites are so over-subscribed and the competition so fierce that you would be very lucky to get anything placed at all with these companies. I believe the stats for Taxi show something like only 0.6% of submissions ever getting placed.

You would better off trying to network directly with producers and media managers in my opinion.

[Sing4me88]

What could be valuable from the likes of Taxi is their feedback service rather than pitching service, that is if your aim is to make £$ from your songs through placement. The industry heads will give you a frank and honest assessment of whether your material is up to scratch. Of course if you're only writing for yourself that won't matter but if you're looking for placements your songs will have to have exceptional potential and fit the bill/listing. Without diminishing the value of the opinions on the forum, this feedback will essentially be the only one that matters as you'll get a warts and all critique of your material and will be told whether using pitching services is a waste of your money based on the quality of your stuff. Based o the feedback you can then review whether your body of work is up to the grade needed/expected and look further into pitching if it is.

[Boydie]

Sing4me88 is spot on IMHO - it is not about the pitching service you use it is ALL about whether your songs have a commercial value for a particular pitch/opportunity (and I conciously didn't say whether your songs are "good enough")

The days of submitting a demo tape/CD of an album of songs you have already written/recorded to a publisher, label, artist to decide how best to use them seem to be gone

The chances of one of these existing songs being a perfect fit for an artist or pitch are quite slim, especially if you have written the songs "for yourself"

You will be up against the "best in the business" when pitching songs - and these guys will have access to studios, session musicians, experienced co-writers and most importantly would have done their homework dissecting the billboard top 40 to ensure what they are writing is what the industry is looking for - or they will receive a pitch request a write a song specifically for this opportunity

It is much more common for a publisher to "reach out" asking for a specific type of song - so the good writers either already have a catalogue of songs that fit what the industry is looking for or they will write one to the brief

So, my advice for you would be:

1 - post your songs (1 every 2 weeks in accordance to the website rules) in the feedback forum and ask for specific feedback on the commercial viability of your song - indicating who (artist, genre etc.) you would intend pitching it to. This will get you FREE advice from some members that have experience in the industry and also general advice / feedback from other aspiring writers

2 - join GISC - the Guild of International Songwriters & Composers. I think it is around £80 for a year's membership and they offer a "song critiquing" service to determine the commercial viability of your songs. This is the cheapest way to get proper industry feedback on a batch of songs

3 - ONLY when you have a clear idea of who you are writing for and your songs have a chance of standing up against the competition would I suggest considering a pitching service. The good ones are quite expensive and the cheap ones rarely lead to anything (and some question whether the leads are actually legit!)

[EveWilliams]

I think It's worth joining Nashville Songwriters Association International at this point. It costs about £18 a month but you get song critiques and cowritingvl opportunities.

I have worked in A&R and I'd be happy to take a listen.

Of the services out there I like Music Gateway as they really are out there looking for opportunities and they give helpful feedback for £9 a month. I wouldn't expect to make a fortinecour of it.

Of the feedback is positive, try the Music Publishers Association online directory. You can search by genre and it tells you which publishers are currently accepting submissions.