Question: Do I have to do a demo?
Answer: NO, a good guitar vocal or piano vocal is sufficient as long as it represents the song appropriately.

Question: What format do I use to submit my songs.
Answer: You should send 3 or 4 songs per CD or cassette with correct lyrics and contact info. You don't want to load them down with to many songs unless they ask for them.

Question: How do I get my songs to an artist?
Answer: Record the song in a form that represents it appropriately. Look for names of publishers or managers on the back of CD's by the artist that you think your song would be good for. Locate these addresses and send your song to them. Sometimes they will send them back and say we don't accept unsolicited material. Don't let this discourage you keep trying. Use your name plus music or publishing ie. Aaron Barker Music, this makes it look more professional. Also, Record Companies don't always want songs when their artists are not cutting - check out music publications, Record label sites, or

Question: Should I Copyright my song before I send it?
Answer: If you send it to a reputable publisher you should not have to worry about it. A Publishers job is to find not only hit songs but hit song writers. A Publisher is more likely to contact the writer of a song they received in order to see if there are more hits where that one came from. Always be sure to include a way for the Publisher to contact you with the package you send.

Music Terminology

ADMINISTRATION The supervising for a fee (generally a percentage of income), usually by a major music publisher, of a smaller music publisher's financial and copyright matters regarding one or more songs or an entire catalog. The administrator does not necessarily own a share of the copyright, although one co-publisher could administer another co-publisher's share.

ADVANCE The payment in advance of royalties to be earned in the future, and recouped by offsetting those future earned royalties against the money advanced. Advances are usually non-refundable.