Call for Composer Demos

Repeat: This is NOT to Get Your Work

by Lukas Kendall

Hello aspiring film composers! We at Film Score Monthly would like to get copies of your demo CD or CDR -- be it a general sampler, music from a specific project, or anything in-between.

Please take note: this is NOT for prospective employment.

This is to use as a giveaway item for our store for customers ordering over $50 worth of merchandise (not counting subscriptions and postage/tax).

We have a small assortment of items which we offer as free gifts for such orders, but we have run out of many of them in recent weeks. (Go here for the list of available goodies and the complete policy: https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/specialsGifts.asp)

To put it honestly, we want to obtain your music for free to give to collectors to reward them for making purchases with us. But wait, we aren't really vultures -- don't call the trade unions on us. (By the way, composers don't have a trade union.)

The way we see it, this is a win-win-win situation: You (composers) get your music available and your name out there (many "industry people" regularly buy from us). Maybe you can even get feedback from die-hard collectors who know what they like in film music. And if you are serious about being a film composer, you know that the most important thing is making connections to get yourself hired, and you ought to be handing out demo CDs right and left anyway.

As for our customers, they get added value, and get introduced to hopefully the next generation of composers. And as for us, we sell more widgets, which helps us finance more classic albums from Williams, Goldsmith, Herrmann, et al.

So! I hope aspiring composers everywhere are sold on the idea, and send us UP TO TEN CDs or CDRs -- BUT NO MORE (of whatever music you want, as long as it's yours) along with a brief cover letter so we can keep track of you to:

Film Score Monthly
Dept Freebie
8503 Washington Blvd
Culver City CA 90232

1) We don't know if we will offer your CD individually by your name, or if we will just have a single-choice "composer demo CD" from which we pick a CD by random to send to customers. It depends on the response.

2) Make sure your contact information is on your CD or CDR (duh). Add an email address if you've got one. That way people who get your music can hopefully email you some feedback.

3) For more on becoming a film composer, see our longstanding and only slightly condescending article at http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/features/beacomposer.asp.

4) We make no promises as far as evaluating your music ourselves. We will probably be too busy packing boxes.

5) Don't send us more than 10 CDs/CDRs for now. We don't want to be deluged.

6) You don't need to be local -- you can be anywhere all over the world. For that matter, it does not matter how "unknown" you are, whether you are still a student, etc. If you have music, send it!