Preferred Formats Come And Go

Once upon a time, the preferred format was reel-to-reel tape. Then there was the fun of cassettes, making sure it was the right style the recipient liked, and that it was properly cued up with not too many or no other songs included. Now it is usually the CD, but again, with not too many songs on each, and nothing too fancy, or often even an album you've already put out, or you give your cut the kiss of death. In many cases, submitters prefer to see your work only from your .mp3 file site, and you have little or no way of knowing whether they even bothered to check it out, but at least you didn't blow a lot of money to ship the cut to them. Should you bother to learn how to put things in any of these formats? I'd say yes. Here's a few tips to let you see the good, bad and ugly of each, and some idea of which is best to send to any one particular recipient.

TAPES

Some places actually still like a cassette tape. In many band situations, taking your old practice tapes, erasing them and putting your songs on them in what is a good possible practice order or even your favorite order for playlist is still a great format to give to prospective bandmates. They can stop and start them when they want, unlike most CDs, back them up and work a part the way that is best for them so they can learn riffs. Some machines are even set up to play tapes slower, to make drilling a part simpler. Prospective purchasers of your song can stop and start them to relisten to a certain part, make note of what the tape count was to return to a spot, and you can have the tape set up to start right at the pertinent part of the song, not perhaps at a long beginning if you are worried they might not listen to all of your cute intro your fans love so much at gigs. All of these are a great way to get rid of all those old tapes you might have sitting around you don't want to toss off your inventory as a loss, but would rather at least count as advertising or a no-profit sale, so you at least get the tax deduction and declutter your music room at the same time.

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