PS: Yeah, and David, this is going to be my last answer as I have my guy that I’m meeting with in the studio and he’s just arrived and he’s here a little early so we still have a few more minutes. Also to let you know that if you need a little more time and there’s a couple more questions you need answered we can find some time later in the week.
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DA: Oh thank you so much. Um, okay.
PS: So back to your question, back to the question you just asked, if someone came into the studio and recorded some songs, they’re a singer/songwriter, where to go from here with that recording?
I walk out of the studio with this quality recording, what do I do with it?
You know, the current thing I would do if I was a singer/songwriter, one thing I would do is get a video camera and lip synch to, make a video out of each of the songs and put them up on YouTube. I mean, do that. I guess that it’s SoundCloud. I don’t know, I’ve never used it. It’s a way of posting the music up online and sort of create a little bit of web presence so that you can direct people―say “Yeah, go hear my song on SoundCloud.” Um, I’m not sure if I would go get the recording pressed into a CD, but if you have the money it would be great to print up 200 CDs, because really a present-day calling card or business card is to give out your CD. “Yeah, this is who I am, this is how I sound, I’d love to play at your venue, so there is still good reason to press the CDs as a way that you can have a little bit of artwork on there, a picture of you, your information on how you can be connected with, all of that is good stuff.
To have CDs and think that you’re going to sell them, actually it’s a better stance to say you’re going to give them away, and just try to get people interested. But I would make the video―I’m trying to think if there’s anything else I would do…
DA: Is that recording going to be my ticket to get in the door at a major studio which can market me at a higher level?
PS: Okay, well it’s certainly worth trying, but it’s not like it was. Like when I made my first record, when I made my first record, you know, these are straight ahead jazz records, so the very first record I made was called Dance of the Universe, You Make Me Want to Sing―Dance of the Universe was the name of our band, You Make Me Want to Sing. I had that record, I paid for it, it was an actual LP, I paid to get it made. We sold it around town, we broke even.
I sent it to a record company… I played on a record with Charles McPherson, the jazz saxophonist, it was for a record company called Xanadu Records. I handed the guy my record, said I’d love to record a record, so it was a calling card. I gave it to him, he called me a couple weeks later and said, “Okay I want to sign a record deal with you.” So it worked. But I don’t know, that kind of thing happening now.
The bottom line is if the music is just off-the-Richter killer, yeah, all sorts of things are gonna happen, to be honest. And the songs have to be killer songs. They have to be beautifully executed, and they just have to be great songs. And if you have that, the chances are something’s going to happen. But it’s hard to be all of that, hard to have really world class songs and to be a world-class player singing them and performing them. There’s just a lot of really good stuff but it’s all in the white noise of where everything else is at, so that it gets lost.
So that’s why I was kind of painting this picture of a more nuts-and-bolts approach to getting it out there. Because most of the time, even just to get that thing heard by a record company, I’m not sure―seems like the modern day way of that happening now is you hire a lawyer and that’s the person that’s going to take it around, so you’re already out money trying to make this happen. So that’s a world that I don’t totally know. I mean I’ve had people that have tried it and they’ve done these sort of services like Taxi where they try to get their music placed for commercials and movies. But I’ve never heard of anyone I know, and I know some talented people, where that really worked out in a streamlined way.
Hey listen, man, I need to get going.
DA: Okay Peter, I won’t delay you any longer.
PS: I think your questions are really great, David, and I thank you for the interest.
DA: Okay, take care, Peter. ’Til later.
