"Agents For Songwriters Part 2: Before You Consider Hiring An Agent..."
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Music Publishers |
The relationship you establish with an agent is a partnership, a collaboration of sorts that can prove most important to you and your songwriting career. If you are contemplating hiring an agent, make sure you understand what an agent does and his responsibilities, and what are your responsibilities within your partnership. Here are a few pointers:
Produce A Quality Product An agent works to help you to market your product, but you must present him/her with a promotion-worthy product. If your songwriting has not yet reached a point that you are experiencing success with it, or the quality of your writing has not reached a level of critical excellence, then you can't expect the agent to work miracles. You have a responsibility to produce a high-quality and marketable product.
Build Your Audience It's not the agent's job to build an audience for you. You should already have an audience following by the time you seek an agent. His job is to increase your sphere of influence. It's your job to "close the sale".
Learn Your Business It's not the agent's job to teach you the songwriting business. An agent can provide guidance, advise and critique, but it's your job to research, study and keep abreast of current trends and industry developments. Seek resources for industry insights and information, professional instruction and strategies. This will help you to be a better partner to your agent, and help you both to achieve what is in your best professional and career interests.
Supply The Resources For Marketing Your Work Provide promotional materials for the agent to work with. Supplying biographical information, copies of your work recorded on CDs or DVDs, copies of critics reviews, articles, records of sales or other evidence to support the quality and marketability of your work helps your agent to do a better job on your behalf.
Hiring an agent is a significant step in the progression of your career. There are many factors that should be taken into consideration. Making sure that you first are well informed and prepared to make this very important step, helps to assure that hiring an agent is an advantage for you and proves profitable for your songwriting career.
In the last article in this three-part series, we'll review what characteristics you should look for when hiring an agent.
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Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on music and songwriting have appeared on many websites.
You can find more of these at SongwritersGuide.com.
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