How to sell your songs –
Music publishing expert J.-M. Wegener spills the beans
Jens-Markus Wegener, the MD of Imagem Music, the world’s leading independent music publisher with offices in Berlin, London and the US answers five questions from indieberlin readers as part of the "Ask The Expert" series.
Q: If you’re just starting out in the music publishing world, is there a particular sector/niche or style of music that you would say is a particularly good one to concentrate on?
With songwriters it seems that there is a tendency towards good melodies again. If you can find a talented writer who’s able to come up with wonderful melodies with great top lines, that’s something that’s very much in demand. There are a lot of people who have the facilities to do good sound recordings but you can’t substitute a feel for great melodies.
It’s a gift. It makes sense to look for people like that. And self-contained artists, bands,
always look at the personality
of people. It’s people who are
willing to work very hard and
are never satisfied with what
they’ve done are the people
who will make it, it’s not so
much the style, they’re
changing all the time. There’s a
tendency towards strong personalities
again.
Q: As a songwriter trying to
write for other artists, I’ve often
been advised that I need to
record the songs in a
professional studio with a band
– as close to a finished product
as possible. Is that true, or is the
song in a raw version – for
example a single instrument –
piano or guitar – and voice
enough before you send it to a
publisher?
To be honest it depends on the
style that you’re writing in. If it’s
pop oriented music you should
have a good sound recording
quality but if you have an apple
computer with a good little
setup and software that’s fine.
No one accepts it anymore if
it’s just you and your guitar with
a very low budget mic. It’s true
that a good song is a good
song no matter how it’s
recorded but you need a fairly
high level.
It doesn’t have to have a
really polished production but it
should already carry the typical
sounds that it would have, how
it would work if it was put out
as a record, because even if you
have a publisher who’s very
experienced and does find the
quality of the song, you still
need to have that quality to
place it with record labels.
You don’t find A&R people at
labels who accept music which
isn’t on a fairly high sound level.
It should sound quite close to a
record.
And if you have a song that
you think should have acoustic
instruments in it, you have to
use professional musicians.
Nobody will accept a recording
where you can hear all the
mistakes. And that makes it
expensive, either you have
some friends who are
professional musicians or else
you have to hire them.
I prefer to tell people, well,
invest your first money in an
Apple computer, Logic Audio,
all that, then try to set up some
basic studio equipment, good
speakers and a big screen,
which makes it a lot easier to
work.
Q: I’d really like to sell my songs
for other bands to use, but I
have no idea where to start.
What do you recommend for a
good but unknown songwriter
to get his songs heard by a
publisher?
I do really believe in trying to
get cuts through a publisher,
because that’s what we’re
meant to do, and instead of
trying to reach out for the
record company, unless you
really know people there, if you
don’t know anybody at the label
and you’re unknown, I wouldn’t
do it.
The chance to be heard there
is very very low, and not just
because people there don’t
listen to the stuff.
Most of the A&R try to listen
to everything, even the
unknown stuff, but they get so
much music, it’s good to use
someone who has a good
reputation with the record
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