How to get your CD played on TELL THE BAND TO GO HOME

CD Submission Guidelines:

Supporting Canadian (especially independent) artists is one of my most important goals. If you have an upcoming show in Winnipeg or a CD coming out, feel free to send me a disc. Of course, submissions are welcome from artists and labels around the world.

Artists wishing to submit CDs are encouraged to do so. HOWEVER, I am extremely busy and might not get to it right away. If you have the time to follow up, a polite email reminder usually gets me moving. No CD is guaranteed airplay. If I don’t think I can play something, I’ll try pass it along to another DJ who might.

REMEMBER. The show is a singer/songwriter show. I do often play bands and music from a variety of genres. If you’re wondering if I’d like your music, let me know where I can access songs or clips online and if I have time, I can have a quick listen. However, these listens are quick, and you may want me to hear more than a few seconds to make up my mind.

You may send CDs to me:

At home (quickest, most direct) please email me for address or send CDs to the station

OR:

At the radio station (the way the station likes me to do it, however, the station “in” box is extremely big and so it takes longer for them to sift through the pile and get your CD to me. Also, you run the risk of having your CD filed, go missing, or put in the wrong mailbox, etc.)

Tell the Band to Go Home
C/O Jeff Robson
UMFM Campus Radio Offices
Room 308 University Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
R3T 2N2

Unfortunately, I get a lot of bad CDs submitted. Many of them are inappropriate for my show (eg: don’t send me your traditional Celtic CD, I WILL NOT PLAY IT), and many are just plain terrible. It’s a bit too easy these days for anyone to make a CD, and it seems like everyone does. Unfortunately, that leaves me with less time to listen to new discs (more discs takes up more time, but I don’t have more time, so I just listen to less), and it makes me less likely to want to listen, because, as the motto for Six Shooter Records says, “Life is too short to listen to shitty music.” We love that motto.

So, here are some tips that might help you (or at least help me to keep some of the crap from landing in my mailbox):

How to make sure that I will listen:

1) Get a good publicist. GOOD publicists are surprisingly hard to find. If you want the best, hire killbeat music. I listen to EVERYTHING that Ken Beattie sends me, because I trust him and know that he’s not going to waste my time. He also communicates clearly and efficiently with me, and he responds to my messages, even though he’s one of the busiest people in Canada, I’m sure. I don’t know how he does it, but it impresses me, so I want to help him and the artists smart enough to hire him.

2) While you may not be able to judge a book by its cover (debatable), I can almost always tell a good CD by its cover. DON’T DO THE ARTWORK YOURSELF. Stick to music and leave the art to someone who knows about that. Again, if you want the best, hire A Man Named Wrycraft. Yes, he’s put his stamp on some stinkers over the years, but I always listen to them, because he takes his time to make the package look great. If you care enough to make the cover look great, there’s bound to be some great music in there somewhere (sometimes, but not always)

(more to come…)