Emailing Music Libraries

One of the advantages I can offer to you in terms of Production Music is the perspective and experiences of someone who co-owns a Music Library. We’ve seen and heard a lot of things over the years. Great music. Terrible music. Composers we feel we want to deal with, and composers we definitely don’t.

 

This month I’ve been particularly intrigued by some of the email we’ve received in our Music Library’s inbox. We receive a large number of emails each week from composers presenting themselves and their music. (To clarify, what I’m talking about in this post is the emails the composers write, as opposed to the music they send.)

 

I’m going through a whole bunch of these emails to compile material for a very revealing new set of lessons to the existing “Library Music That Sells” course. You see, if you read enough of these emails, you start to notice that they usually fall into a handful of approaches – some effective, some less so. I’m going to reveal these different categories of email approach and what they typically contain. That way we can analyse the good, the bad, the eye catching and more, and figure out what people are doing that really stands out and comes across well. The result is that you’ll be armed with a whole load of inspiring ideas and approaches from which to construct your own effective emails and stop having your correspondence unread and slipping down that inbox and out of sight forever.

 

So here’s a very small taster of something that I noticed that turns me off an email straight away. See if you can figure it out from these three hypothetical example intros of the kind of emails we receive:

 

Number 1:

 

“My name is xxx xxxxx,

I have been a writer with a number of other companies over the years.

Although I have pursued a F.O.H. engineer career for the last number of years  I have kept writing and have a number of tracks I would like to submit for your consideration…”

 

Number 2:

 

“Hi There,

My name is xxx xxxx and I’m a composer and music producer currently working in the xxxxx area. I have been involved in the industry for around 7 years since I left university…“

 

Number 3:

 

“Good day! Are you looking for new composers? You can listen to examples of my music here:”

 

So What’s Wrong With Those?!

 

So here’s the thing. Whilst none of these are really bad email introductions, all could straight away be so much better on several fronts. I’ll just go into one point here and save my more in-depth analysis and additional pointers for the course.

However, this tip I want to share with you now is simple, yet very powerful…

 

On the website of our music library, there is a very clear “about us” tab. There, there is a short blurb telling you the names of the two directors: Michael and Nick.

 

Yet we hardly ever get emails that start, “Dear Michael and Nick…”.

Or addressed to any other staff member for that matter.

 

Is that really important, though? You bet! Here’s why:

 

Firstly, it’s basic human psychology, that I’m sure you’ve already heard, that people like seeing and hearing their names! It also makes the email feel personal and not so generic.

 

Secondly, it tells me that the writer has actually taken the time to bother looking around our website. It feels to us like we’re not just one of 10 emails they sent that morning. Nobody wants to feel like that, right?! And if they’ve taken the time to do that, that gives us the impression that they care. And if they care about us already, they probably will care for the music they create for us and potentially make for a good creative partner for us. Also, still on this front – they want us to care enough about them to take the time out of our day to listen to their music (along with everyone else’s and everything else we have to do!)…

…so we want to see that they care about us.

 

Can you see how important it is to find out the names of the people you’re trying to get in touch with and use them? Take the time to do this when contacting a new Music Library. Even if you have to research online, (or call them), to find out the best person to get in touch with. Yes, some libraries just tell you to reach out to a “submissions@…” type email address. But personally, I still think you should be starting that message with “Hi Bob and the team at xxxxx…”, or whoever it is. It shows you care.

 

If you want to find out more tips about creating the perfect introductory email to a Music Library and not get lost in the noise of all those emails they receive daily, check out the “Library Music That Sells” course by clicking the courses tab at the top of the page and going from there.

You can write the best music in the world, but if your email doesn’t get through effectively, you’ve fallen at the first hurdle.