How to pitch a ghazal to a small label

How to pitch a ghazal to a small label

This guide is written from the other side of the inbox. BeatRootRaga hears every track sent to it, and most of the ones turned down are turned down before the second verse, for reasons the artist could have fixed in an afternoon. The song was not the problem. The pitch was.

Settle the rights before you press send

The first thing a label checks is whether it could release the track at all. A ghazal has words, and the words have an owner. If you wrote them, say so. If the poet is in the public domain, name the poet. If the poet is living or recently dead, you need the rights holder's permission, and a label will ask to see it before anything else. A demo that arrives without this answer goes to the bottom of the pile, however good the singing.

The second check is that the track is unreleased. Labels release music for the first time. A ghazal already on YouTube with a thousand views can still be mentioned as a reference to your work, but it cannot be the submission. Azadi Records' demo portal, to take one published example, asks artists already signed elsewhere to say so, and accepts covers and remixes only when the artist holds all the necessary rights. Most labels have the same two rules whether or not they write them down.

Pick the label by its catalogue, not its size

A label's catalogue tells you what its audience came for. Send a ghazal to a label whose releases are hip-hop and the honest answer is no before anyone listens, because the label has no listeners for it. Spend ten minutes on the label's releases page. If nothing there is within a mile of your song, the label is not the problem and neither are you. The guide to independent labels for ghazal and semi-classical music lists the ones whose own sites say they release it.

What to send

One track. A label can hear in one song whether there is a second conversation to have, and five songs say you could not choose. Send the best complete take you have, in the form the label asks for. BeatRootRaga takes an MP3, WAV or FLAC up to 100 MB, or a link; Azadi's portal asks for a single MP3 or WAV under 50 MB. A rough recording is fine when the song is there. A label that produces will hear past the room; a label that does not will tell you.

With it, a message of a few lines that answers the questions the listener is already asking. Who wrote the words and whether you hold the rights. Who composed it. Who is singing and playing.

Then where you are and what you have released before, if anything, with one link. Add a line on the sound you have in mind for the release, if the recording is rough. That is the whole message. A biography can wait for the second conversation.

What to leave out

• Follower counts and view counts, unless the label asks. They say nothing about the song.
• Comparisons to famous singers. The label will make its own.
• Lyrics pasted in full, unless the label asks. Name the poet and offer them.
• A request for feedback. A small label cannot review every demo and will say so.
• Pressure. A release date you have already announced is your problem, not the label's.

What a label listens for

The song, before the voice. Whether the composition carries the poem or sits on top of it, whether the melody can be remembered after one hearing, whether the form is a ghazal or a film song with couplets. Then the voice, for honesty more than range: a plain, true rendering of a sher beats an ornamented one that misses the meaning. Then the recording, last, because it is the one thing a label can change.

Labels also listen for fit with what they already have. A catalogue is a conversation between its releases, and a new track has to belong in it. This is why the same demo can be refused by one label and welcomed by another on the same day. Neither decision is about quality.

How to read the reply

A yes is rarely a contract. It is an invitation to talk about the song, the credits and the agreement, and nothing is recorded or released before the agreement is signed. Ask the questions in the label versus distributor guide at that stage: who owns the master, for how long, what the split is, what the label is putting in. Until you sign, the track stays yours and you can take it anywhere else.

A no with a reason is a gift; most labels cannot afford to give one. Silence is the common reply and it means the same thing as a no for now. Azadi publishes an aim of reviewing every demo within thirty days. BeatRootRaga hears every submission and writes back when a track fits, and does not promise a date. Send to the next label on the list after a reasonable wait, and do not send the same track to the same label twice in a year unless it has changed.

Before you send: a short list

• The words: yours, public domain, or permission in hand.
• The track: unreleased, one song, best complete take, in the format asked for.
• The label: its catalogue has room for this song.
• The message: who wrote, who composed, who performs, where you are, one link, one line on the intended sound.
• The follow-up: a reasonable wait, then the next label, not a second message.