Getting music feedback is extremely important! Not just to make sure your music sounds the best it can, but also as part of ensuring music marketing success.
Promoting your music, or sending your music to A&Rs, can often fall on deaf ears and seem like the old trope of demos going from a record label executives desk to in the bin.
A lot of music is ignored simply because of the way (and amount) the music is pitched.
But often music isn’t being ignored. Often, it is being listened to and it’s just not good enough for the target audience you’re trying to attract.
If people hear your music and love it – they’re going to support it. So, the first step is making sure your music is banging.
There are 2 reasons why your music isn’t being supported
- Because your music could sound better to your target audience.
- Because your pitch sucks and so people don’t even bother listening to your music.
Steps to take before releasing a song
You should be getting feedback on your music before you decide it is complete and ready for the world.
- Get it “finished” but check your ego and still consider it in demo stage until you have completed all of the following steps.
- Send the song to 20 people you trust to actually listen to your music and give you honest feedback. Try to get feedback as in-depth as possible. This group should be as close to 50/50 of general music fans who enjoy the kind of music you make and music executives.
- Thank all of them for their feedback sincerely and take it seriously.
- Spend a week or so digesting the feedback without listening to your music at all – you want to approach it with a fresh perspective next time you listen.
- Make changes in line with the feedback on your music.
- Write a short description of the track, what you think is special about it.
- Do your research – before reaching out to anyone, find people that are actually relevant. This means executives that work for labels that work with your idols or other artists like you coming up.
- Write a pitch for each executive type you want to hear your music. Make sure it is relevant to the job they do and really outline how you understand their job and why your music is valuable to them.
Who to ask for music feedback
- Other musicians of the same genre as you. This is your first base.
- Producers of the same genre.
- “General” people in your community (friends, family etc.)
- Try a “chunk” of potential fans. Previous fans on a mailing list are best. But, if you can’t do that, a Subreddit or busy social community like a Discord server may work.
- Approach music industry contacts.
- Release your music based on insight taken from music feedback from all 5 previous steps.
What kind of feedback on your music can you expect from an A&R?
People who work in the music industry are ideal providers when it comes to feedback on music because they’re:
- “On the ground”.
- Aware of the current trends (such as with production, sounds, lyrical themes and genres. These all resonate differently with particular markets).
- Usually, decision makers and people who are able to make something happen.
- Difficult to win favour of. Thereby making them more alluring from a psychological standpoint.
It’s tough getting feedback on music from the people who make decisions in the music industry. A lot of their job is spent above the average person’s waking hours listening to music from people they know. Let alone people they don’t!
So, the first thing you need to do is get your expectations right. A lot of A&Rs don’t, in any way, respond to unsolicited contact. It will get ignored and you’re wasting your time.
Trust me, you could have a banger produced by Dr Dre, but if it’s not Dre & his team promoting it – it will get lost. This is the nature of the saturation of music on the internet.
So imagine how little chance you stand if you absolutely don’t know your music is going to be well-received (because you did your market research and got feedback ahead of contacting decision makers).
How I give music feedback
In my career in the music industry, I’ve given feedback to thousands of artists for a variety of reasons. I’ve always tried to give feedback in line with the purpose of my role.
Moving forward, I won’t be doing this. Unless I’m paid directly for it. It takes a lot of time, a lot more time than “just those few minutes” naïve senders assume it will take. Why?
- Most productive people know exactly what they’re going to be doing in a day. Interrupting the scheduled workflow of somebody costs them attention. This disturbs their priorities, which eventually costs them money.
- People who give feedback on music have to listen multiple times to confirm what they’re saying is fair.
- Writing in a way that is considerate of emotions takes an additional proof-read.
Frankly, over the years I’ve realised that I don’t owe this time to anybody. But I am keen to still share knowledge through my blog articles.
Feedback is by its nature critical, praise on music is useless
The intention of good feedback isn’t to show your flaws and indicate that you’re rubbish and you can’t improve. But, it is to show you that you have weaknesses that you may have overlooked. By shining light on weaknesses, it gives an opportunity to strengthen them (sometimes even use them to your advantage).
Now, you may think that feedback is a load of rubbish and that the person giving it doesn’t understand your music. But, what they usually do understand is the mentality of a niche (or sometimes mass) market.
Don’t get paranoid, but if one person has had the bottle to tell you something negative about your music they won’t be the only person thinking it.
Art may be subjective, but if you want to reach a large audience and/or make money, it needs to be marketable. Sorry. 🤷♂️
If you send somebody in the music industry your music, you have to be prepared for their feedback and take it gracefully and learn from it.
How to submit music to a record label and get feedback
When I ran a record label, I received many demos of varying quality. My objective then was to sign records that would perform well in DJ sets, digital downloads and streaming.
So, I needed to ensure that the records were of a high quality and would stick out for good reasons next to other tracks.
Feedback I typically gave then was about song structure/arrangement, mixing, mastering and hooks.
If the track was too repetitive and had no emotional journey, I’d say so.
When the mix was wet, muddy or unglued, I would say so. If your master was smashed/fried or too quiet, I would say so.
Takeaways for feedback on music from a record label:
- Record labels nowadays are really looking for a professional-standard recordings upfront. If your recording and production don’t cut the mustard, this is the area they’re most likely to react to.
- Make sure your recording is professional standard. Understand what this means.
- Make sure your stems are ready and well organised and outline you’re happy for a remix.
- Production is slightly less important for a record label, they can usually re-produce a track if all the above is ticked off.
- Most record labels may work with demos; but usually only from solicited sources, such as music publishers they work with.
- Get feedback on your recording and production before contacting record label staff.
- Record labels really care about hits. Have an understanding of the hitmakers they’re trying to model in their niche and gauge if you are capable of playing on that angle.
- Make sure the song structure is radio friendly. Very few record labels care about anything that isn’t radio friendly. There are exceptions to the rule, but don’t go expecting to persuade record labels away from their fixed mindsets. You work with them, or against them. You don’t persuade them. Sorry. 🤷♂️
What kind of feedback can you expect from artist development services?
Something to be aware of: they’re more likely to be “nice”.
Don’t look to this as a reason to go there. You don’t want nice. Embrace honest. You want to be able to handle modest and then become a better artist because of the actions you take on your assessment of feedback.
BUT – don’t write off artist development services just because they’re nice, either.
Artist developers are there to help you (when they’re not charlatans)
A lot of them are like little therapist besties who help you sort your shit out so you’re actually ready to receive feedback in the way you need to.
When I’m developing an artist, I get much more hands on with artists. I strategise with them about more than just record creation and release. Artist development concerns the entire strategy and development of an artist’s career. It’s essentially setting a strategy that an artist manager would pick up and follow through, finding resources along the way.
Feedback I offer is usually about networking with industry executives, gatekeepers and peers.
Drawing upon my skills as a producer, I also give production/mixing/mastering advice.
The artist’s entire brand matters. From how their photos look, their bios read, their press reads and ensuring that their public narrative fits their sonic brand.
I talk with artists about what their intentions are and how they plan to get there.
Their music might/might not fit their desired trajectory, so we discuss that.
Takeaways for feedback from artist development services
- Work with artist developers who you see as a friend. These are the kind of people you need to lean on semi-professionally but know you can trust them with some personal BS too.
- They’re not quite as close monetarily as a manager should be, but they’re not just social media schedulers either. Developers should be looking after your career direction and helping you develop opportunities. They should work as an interim manager if you haven’t found that person yet.
- Make sure they’re guiding you to the right metrics. A lot of “artist development” these days are social media addicted marketers and are ignoring the actual art development part.
- Consider their feedback in the step 3 part of the 6-part step-by-step at the top of the article.
Feedback on music for sync
When I worked for a sync agent, my role was to help artists prepare their music for Music Supervisors, creative teams at advertising companies and Film Producers.
As always, my first priority was assessing the quality of their music. Even though there are comments made in sync that the quality of the music isn’t always important, 9/10 artists should be thinking about submitting music at the highest quality they can to improve their chances of success in sync (well, in anything).
Top things to think about for sync music:
- The originality of lyrics
- How relevant the lyrics are to typical scenes and adverts
- How well performed the song is in the recording
- The quality of the recording, mixing and mastering
- The quality of the production and overall sound of the record
- How well the artist (or their representative) pitched their song to fit the desired opportunity.
If any of these were out of place, I’d highlight it. I’d advise the artist to hone that skill before trying to compete in the ridiculously highly saturated sync market. Especially if the artist was spending money on services to aid success in that area.
Feedback on music to expect from music publishers
These days I try to combine all types of feedback on music I have learnt.
I try to convey the most well-rounded advice for an artist so they can to do their best.
I now give feedback on how a song might be rewritten for sync. Or, advise a songwriter to pitch their music to other artists to perform and record, as it might result in more success for the song.
The difference between feedback on music I give as a publisher to what I gave at a record label is that I’m far more focused on the song. I’m thinking about how:
- Captivating the hook is, if it’s that sort of music (I’m working with a lot more “hookless” music in sync than before, but it still matters)
- Relevant lyrics are to a scene or spot. It’s a delicate balance between generic and personal
- Lyrics can be changed to hone in on lyrical theme
- Metaphors and similes can be used more effectively
- Creative but still relatable chord progressions and melodies are
- Production of recording(s) sent
- How likely a writer/composer/producer is to be able to work to brief for other projects
Feedback on music: go back to go forward
The truth is, if a song and/or recording is fundamentally bad, then the first feedback I would usually give would be: go back and hone the craft.
If your lyrics aren’t written in a language that evokes emotional resonance or a feeling of “being there”, I’d say so.
Your singing is out of tune – I’d tell you.
Autotune is blatant to the point you sound like Rebecca Black in Friday, I’d tell you.
If your recording and mix sounds like it’s done in Skull Candies with a Poundland karaoke microphone, I’d advise you reinvest in the recording of the record.
Empathy and feedback on music
Empathy is something I take seriously. We’re all suffering in some way and the covid pandemic heightened the evidence of that fact.
I’ve had emails back from feedback that look like those really angry people who kick off at judges on talent shows. One artist told me that “I’m just somebody who sits and wishes I could sing whilst running professional artists into the ground”. 🤷♂️
I want to help everyone, but I can’t. And I won’t.
I have a job to do – and that job is to help 1,000,000+ artists be ready for sync opportunities. To get there, I need to be distraction-free and, unfortunately, not thinking about the single artist.
People ask me what skills they need for A&R. Sometimes I’ve spoken about understanding legality, rights, royalties, analytics and some form of the artistic and technical sides of music as the key skills. 100%. But I think the key skill really is resilience.
The key to the music industry is resilience
Resilience isn’t having armour that all attacks bounce off. Resilience is feeling the pain of the attacks. It’s reflecting on whether you can do better, and then carrying on following your passion even though there are people out there who don’t like what you’re doing.
I’ve had plenty of occasions where artists have insulted me and told me I’m saying what I am because of jealousy, told me I’m a narcissist or implied I’m in my work for the wrong reasons.
I have to check myself and go through the pain of self reflection to ensure what I’m doing is good. That I’m being empathetic and compassionate and that it’s out of genuine care for their career.
I historically always tried to give anyone and everyone feedback once I’d managed to work around to listening to their submissions. I’ve always faulted other execs who didn’t give feedback on music, putting it down to bad time management. Now, I understand that there is a deeper reason behind the “neglect” to artists. It’s because so many artists don’t want to hear what you have to say.
I’m not a gatekeeper. I don’t have a big ego that stands in the way of artist opportunities. I’m somebody very passionate about music business and artist development. I want to help artists apply it properly so they can succeed.
What will stop you getting feedback on music?
- Bad attitude (towards constant improvement)
- Lack of empathy (towards other people in the music industry)
- Emotional baggage expressed in a professional domain (this should be attended to by loved ones and mental health professionals. Not brought into a professional arena, which the music industry is, and expressed there)
- Self-worship (“there’s always a bigger fish”)
- lack of charisma (including; lack of manners, being rude and projecting nasty parts of their personality).
What helps get feedback on music
- Getting your ducks in a row (having a strong pitch, understanding where you are in your career and what you need next. Levelling up your skills and career in their respective stages)
- Being charismatic (smiling. Being friendly. Inviting a team to support you and working with them collaboratively. Being friends with people you work with)
- Having a story and narrative
- Being proactive (following up with new material, asking about progress periodically)
- Being honest about how you sound, getting feedback about things you may have missed and making sure you sound your best before pitching.