Just because you are a beginning songwriter, it doesn’t mean you have to be left out of all the fun just because you don’t have vast amounts of money to spend. There are numerous opportunities for you to contact industry representatives and potential collaborators without breaking your budget.
LEND A HAND
If you do a web search, you will find that there are numerous song pitch and music showcase conventions across the United States on a regular basis. Many have websites, so you can email them and get on their mailing lists. Actually, most are in dire need of free staff, and most gladly give you free entry for a few hours of work. This leaves you free to contact industry types between shifts, and often while you work. I got to run the tape machine for one tip session, got to meet and chat with an award-winning writer, and learned a lot by not only listening in on his critiques, but he also had a lot of good advice for the submitters of tapes in his session. Many conventions give volunteers first crack at submitting tapes, too, so you can listen quickly to your critique, then run off to help with the door or wherever you were assigned. At South By Southwest, a huge music showcase, I worked as a cashier at one venue at night, and then was able to attend all the seminars I wanted during the day—and got paid an hourly wage as well as given free admission to the festival. If you work as a roadie backstage, like many were lucky enough to do, you often get to meet some of the bigger name artists at the convention, and, although they may not be interested in using your songs themselves, many are kind in giving good advice and may even provide a few good leads of where you can submit your work. Hang around the panels after a discussion, and you often get a chance to not only chat with actual A&R or Publishing people, you may even be able to get an address of where to submit a tape—I have even been able to hand one off to a rep because he liked a question I posed at a panel he was also attending.
Many local studios, too, depend on volunteer work to keep in business. Call around, and you may very well find some that could use you occasionally for studio musician duties or perhaps do a little cleaning, office or phone work. Some will even pay cash, but many offer studio time in exchange for hours worked. The really great payoff, though, could be the chance to play on a really good artist’s demo, or the chance to hand that person a card or demo for consideration if you are just there lending a hand with the engineering or roadie duties. Many have been hired by visiting talent, too, because of their performance in the studio, so this can very well be your ticket to better opportunities, not just slave duties for the odd wee hour studio block. Give it a try!
