Lately, as my mailing list has grown and my twitter following increases, I’ve been getting emails from some of you. The crazy part is despite the writing I do, I still get some of the most ridiculously crappy emails you’ve ever seen in your life. Today I want to quickly highlight two such emails and I encourage the folks that sent them to write down any complaints, put them in a letter, address an envelope, and then crumple it up and throw it away. There’s no helping you if the kind of outreach you’re doing is EXACTLY what I say NOT to do.
Here is the first email I got (I happened to see it on my phone first):
Seriously? They haven’t even changed their default mail name from “Yahoo! Mail” – and, oh yeah, they SPELLED MUSIC WRONG. Are you serious? How does this person expect me to respond? Here are a few things that went through my brain:
1. NO!
2. YES, I am able to, but I won’t.
3. What the hell is “muaic?”
4. Dear Yahoo Mail, I wasn’t aware that non-living computer entities were even self-aware, much less writing compelling “muaic” that I may or may not be able to listen to! Yes PLEASE tell me more!
Look. If you can’t write a complete sentence, give up now. If you can’t do an inkling of homework BEFORE you reach out to someone, give up now. People will tell you to follow your dreams – I am telling you to stop immediately following your dreams if you can’t even follow simple protocol – you’re wasting everyone’s time. I’m more compelled to open spam emails than garbage like this.
Alright, moving on to email number two (which is about as effective as sending someone a number 2). This person can at least write sentences and has included their name. Big improvement. However, they COMPLETELY miss the point of one of my FIRST key elements of marketing your music: they make it all about them. I’ve blurred out the info but take a look:
Do you see why people aren’t listening to your music? Do you get it? If I sent you an email that never offered any sort of worthwhile content or didn’t want to genuinely help you, would you ever open it? No, you wouldn’t. You’d sigh heavily, throw your sandwich across the room and run to cry under your bed.
Action Step: Re-write these emails in the comments and see if you can do better. Remember, your goal is to get the person to listen to your music, but you want to be relevant to the person you’re writing to. For this exercise’s sake, pretend it’s someone who works as a music supervisor. If you need to, refer back to my post about what to focus on when reaching out to people cold.
Hey Andy I just finished reading your article about the 2 crapy emails and I also read the article about “What to focus on when reaching out to people”. I also noticed you talked about Licensing Music. As an Artist why is it important to get your music Licensed?
Here’s what’s happening, I took your advice & went to a video game cooperation, and I asked if they might need any music for video game placement. Amazingly they shot me an email, I uploaded my bio, a song & a photo of my latest project, and then I sent it over, but I got no response. Do you think their standards are too high? And should I send a follow up email? Thanks.
Quite simply it’s great exposure and usually pays well.
Your initial outreach worked – I’d love to see the email chain (you can delete the contact info for privacy sake) if you don’t mind sharing! What did their email say? Did they ask for your bio and photo – and why would that be necessary for music in a video game?
Also, not getting a response doesn’t mean they’ll never contact you again – they could simply be busy and may get back to you later.
Hard to tell though without seeing what the discussion was.
[...] and therefore don’t care about every day. They are flooded with emails like the ones you’ll find here. What makes you [...]
Andy, I send out alot of email for artists seeking songs, but I’ve never “cold” emailed somone. So here’s my shot:
Andy,
I’ve was reading the bio section on your blog that read “My passion for independent music marketing and development goes…” and I thought that matches my level of commitment with music – PASSION. I feel (as I assume you do) that in order to make an impact in any career you pursue, you should have an grander desire than simply seeing paychecks from your work. You should try in earnest to put forth the best product/service you can to your consumer…regardless the time it takes. This passion is representative in my songwriting and (if you have the time) I would like to share with you my passion. Feel free to contact me via my email address and let’s talk. Thank you for your time.
[...] and therefore don’t care about every day. They are flooded with emails like the ones you’ll find here. What makes you [...]
Thanks for posting this Andy.
We found this blog from a link at Hypebot while doing research on this subject and very much appreciate advice concerning how to approach someone like yourself.
Excellent advice for those looking to get in the muaic…er…music business! :)
We currently have a song that has several Number 1 positions, Top 10′s, Top 40′s, etc. on various Indie Charts on the net and we will soon be needing to put his kind of advice into action from what it looks like.
Take care and thanks again for this post.
Regards,
In This Decade
Glad you enjoyed! Would love if you spread the word about me to your friends!
@andylykens
andylykens.com
Honestly, sending out emails to companies does work.
The problem with most emails is that they are written poorly. Reading a poorly constructed message makes the sender look less intelligent. Talent doesn’t matter of a person is perceived as having low intelligence.
Also, most emails come off as begging for a deal. Senders never really tell a story with their messages. They just beg for the recipient to listen to music and contact them back. Recipients do not like begging, sob stories, or desperation.
I have successfully used email campaigns for years to get new deals. Have I generated millions of dollars and partied with celebrities? No. But I have been able to find work and increase my music licensing income.
What senders need to do is to ask about more information about the company and permission to submit music. Recipients do not mind giving a brief overview and letting senders know if music is accepted or not. Getting a rejection letter is actually a good thing. That means that someone has read your message and it has resonated with that person. The worst response is no response.
Develop your message carefully. Tell a story. If you are bad at writing, pay someone to write a message for you. Never beg or complain. And always ask for permission to send material. These simple steps will at least help to get your messages read. If you have the talent, you may even get a deal or two.