Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

5 IMPORTANT STEPS:
1. Producing music is not the hardest part of
landing a record deal
- Networking/Branding
- Professionalism
- Emailing
- Contacts
- Building Relationships

2. Finding a home
- Finding a label that suites you & your brand
- Working with an A&R or team that actually
backs your tracks with real promotion
- Not relying on anyone, even if you’re told the
promotion is amazing, you don’t rely on it

3. Connect with indie Labels

- Don’t always think you need a huge label to
help succeed your career
- Small indie Labels can have just as much
impact as any other label, it all matters how
the network & promotion is executed

4. Connect with Artists on your favorite Labels

- Build a relationship slowly, be humble & nice
- Try to work with them over-time collab/remix/etc
- My Tritonal Collaboration
- My Hardwell Original being edited

5. Know who you’re speaking with

- Do research on the Label(s) you’re emailing
- Find out who’s in charge or founder/owner
- Try to connect on pages like LinkedIn
- Research their most popular genres they’ve released

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Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

DO NOT DO:
1. Do not present your self in emailing as if they know who
you are
- In other words remain humble
- Do not use words like “Yo” “Hey Man” “Yo bro”

2. Do not make an offer within your email

- If you sign this I can do...
- Can you add a 5k budget for a remix pack when...
- When you sign this we can...
- I can’t wait for you guys to hear this & sign it...
- Everyone loves this song I bet you will also...
- Huge no b/c they don’t want everyone to have
already heard your song, they want exclusive

3. Do not bulk email send

- No BCC undisclosed
- No CC other emails or artists & Labels
- You’re emailing one direct contact only
- You need to direct the subject line at them
ie: Song Title [Enhanced Demo]
- This could ruin your relationship forever with one
mistake

4. Do not be impatient
- Labels sometimes take up to 2-3 weeks to respond
- You need to send your track & let it sit for a while
- Do not send your track to another label while
waiting to hear back
- They may come back wanting it & then the
other label you submitted wants it also, now you
have ruined your relationship forever with this
Label

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Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

CHECKLIST TO DO:
1. First things first, is your song 100% finished?
- Send Mastered and finished tracks only
- Labels do not care about your WIP or Premaster
- They want a finished product ready for release
- Always attach a playlist of multiple mixes
- Ie: Radio Edit, Extended Mix or Original Mix

2. Uploading the correct format

- Only upload mp3 320kbps
- If & when the label signs your track they will
request further ie: WAV or AIFF

3. Attachments & Links

- DO NOT attach your MP3 within the email body
- Utilize upload websites to send your private links
- Soundcloud
- Enable Download < IMPORTANT
- Private link only - No public
- Be sure to select private link not public URL
- Dropbox

4. Track ID3 Tags

- Is your track named correctly?
- Important as Labels receive thousands of
songs per week, if they need to find your song
they better be able to search it after
downloaded
- Show Example on Hard Drive of MP3 vs. Wrong

5. Social Media
- Is your brand online? Do you have a place for these
labels to look you up?
- Make sure your online presence is professional

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Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

COMPOSING YOUR EMAIL:

1. Find the right emails first
- Usually listed on a Labels social media pages
- If you can find an inside contact from your
networking, run with it - but be careful!

2. Subject line:
Examples
- Shanahan - Stars & Moon [Revealed Demo]
- ATTN: Revealed :: Stars & Moon - DEMO
- A&R Name :: Shanahan - Stars & Moon

3. Email Body - Good Examples:

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Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

COMPOSING YOUR EMAIL:

4. Signature
- Keep your email signature short & professional
- Kind Regards, Best Regards, Thank you
- Brand name under neath
- Social Media Links under brand name

5. Email Body - Bad Examples:

6. Always thank the Label

- Simple signature or sign off goes a long way
- Do not just paste a link into a email
- Labels will blacklist you & its all over

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Emailing Labels & Networking A&Rs

USING EMAIL TRACKING:

1. YesWare (Just one example)
- Sometimes tracking your first batches of emails to see
when they open them or if their email is even active
cant be very effective
- Using software in the background of your emails to
track can help you keep your contacts active

2. Sending emails at a specific time

- Remember that not all Labels or Companies are
within the same time zone as you
ie: I am from the USA - I would be sending an
email while I am sleeping to a label that is in
Netherlands
ie: My time 4am EST I would send an email for the
label A&R in Netherlands to get at 10am there
time
- Using software like boomerang or yesware
can make this happen for you

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