Good self-promotion takes a lot more than a shout-out and a link to your MySpace page. One of the biggest mistakes we see artists making time and time again is how they approach media professionals via email. The next time you send an email to a booker, record label, promoter, venue, magazine, blog, or even a fan, keep in mind that practicing smart email etiquette can be the difference between getting a killer gig and a cold shoulder.

Remember, the average Radio DJ, music editor, or publicist doesn’t have time to decipher or wade through a long or poorly written email – but neither do they enjoy the cryptic one liner: “check out my music!” So it’s important that your email says just enough and not too much. In order to help you send better emails that produce more favorable results, we pulled together some of CD Baby’s DIY experts to lay out the following guidelines to help you send emails that work.

There’s no perfect answer of course, but hopefully these tips will help you avoid the dreaded “delete” button and see some results.

Tips for writing successful emails that will bring you success

1. Know who you are e-mailing – Address them by name. Demonstrate appreciation and understanding of their role in the company they work for.

2. Keep it brief – If you answer emails all day (like us), you know that an email that spans more than a few paragraphs will immediately cause a gag reflex. Reading an email from a stranger is much different than reading a letter from a friend, so don’t bother talking about the weather or your last gig. It’s better to hit them hard and fast and leave them wanting more. Imagine you are an opening act: Play your five best numbers and get the heck off the stage, lest you make enemies instead of fans.

3. Use links that are direct and simple – Create a simple signature in your mail program, no longer than four lines and include one or two of your best links. If you have your own website, use that. People who work in the music business are not fond of wading through websites to find sound clips and neither are they fans of waiting for MySpace pages to load. So make sure the links take them to your music quickly.

4. Never use ALL Caps – It is the email equivalent of yelling.

5. Use spell check and correct grammar – or you will not be taken seriously.

6. Include the thread of your correspondence in every email – Keep in mind that it’s not uncommon for someone in the music industry to get a hundred emails a day. So always give them the benefit of what has been discussed in previous emails by including that text.

7. Have a plan – If they’re interested, you better be prepared to follow through with what is needed.

8. Be real – Don’t puff yourself up. Don’t put yourself down. Be kind, honest, and humble, even if you don’t get what you want. If anything, your attitude will be remembered.

Here are a few of the classic email mistakes artists make over and over again:

1. The “what’s up!” approach
This email normally sounds more like a text message to a friend than an email to a business professional. It’s usually hard to tell the point of the email and what the artist was hoping for from the recipient.

2. The casual compliment
Better than the “What’s Up!” approach, but this email type still leaves a lot to be desired. It usually reads something like, “You guys rock! Let us know if you need an interview!” Chances are the recipient is too busy to figure out how you fit in to what they are doing.

3. The “Too Much information” (TMI) approach
This email starts to look more like a ramble and not like a relevant introduction. If you’re heading into a third paragraph, you’ve gone way too far. Just include the important highlights that would be of use to the recipient.

Have any email tips to share? Please weigh in by leaving a comment below.

On Thursday May 27 Paul Weller will be streaming his ‘Wake Up The Nation Tour’ gig from London’s Royal Albert Hall live here – so even if you don’t have a ticket you won’t miss out on the show.

Kicking off at 8.45pm (or 21.45pm if you’re in Europe CEDT) you can see the Godlike Genius take to the stage at the legendary venue. And if you’re not near your computer on the night, the gig will be shown again at 7.45pm the next day. Thanks to NME, DimeRock Records fans can  get 15 minutes of the concert for free, just check out the website here.

Charity

We do not make any money from the sale of our goodies. For every sale made, £1.50 goes to Cancer Research UK and the rest goes to Cafe Press for their merchandise and printing costs. So dig deep, wear our awesome T’s and know you have given to a worthwhile cause whilst looking like the mutts nuts at the same time.

Here are a few pics of some new stuff we have for sale. Visit our Cafe Press Shop for more!

VISIT THE ONLINE SHOP NOW!

Coming soon:

The “I have Built a Treehouse” T-Shirt – Exclusive to DimeRock Records.

In 2006 the band released an EP entitled Don’t Give Up on Your Dreams, Buddy! as well as a full length album, Let Me Introduce My Friends – both of which were well-received critically. Their second full-length album, Who Killed Harry Houdini?, was released in October 2008.

Brief History

Sometime in 2005 Emanuel Lundgren wrote several songs and gathered his friends to record them. Weeks later, a homemade EP was completed and a one-time live show featuring all 29 band members was performed in August 2005.

The end was not near for I’m from Barcelona, however, as the Swedish media and bloggers around the world started buzzing about the band. EMI Sweden signed the band and Dolores Recordings released the EP Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams, Buddy! on 15 February 2006 featuring the band’s first hit “We’re From Barcelona”, named as an homage to the Spanish waiter Manuel, a character on BBC Television‘s Fawlty Towers (“He’s from Barcelona”).^[1] Their debut full-length, entitled Let Me Introduce My Friends, was released on 26 April 2006 in Sweden, with international releases to follow including an EMI UK release on 11 September 2006. In 2006 Lundgren did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.

In July 2008, it was announced that the band would be releasing a full-length album in Fall 2008, entitled Who Killed Harry Houdini?The album features French singer Soko on the track “Gunhild.” The album was released on 14 October 2008 and to promote it they toured the UK finishing at the Scala, London on the 25 November 2008.

They also made an appearance on the children’s program Yo Gabba Gabba in 2008.

27 Songs

In 2009/10 the band released 27 new songs. The album is called “27 Songs from Barcelona”. Every member in the band has recorded a  solo song. The songs will be available on a limited triple vinyl or as free mp3s on www.imfrombarcelona.com. Head over there and download it now for free.

Our personal favourite track is ‘Treehouse’. Watch it on our front page for alimited time or look it out on YouTube and purchase it on iTunes. It’s an instant classic.

To read the rest of this, visit the Calzo Houdini blog….

via Record Store Day is upon us….

from Larissa Dahlbeck (Calzo Houdini & DimeRock Records Producer)

It’s been a mad couple of months for us here at DimeRock HQ, so much so that we haven’t had a chance to update everyone on our projects and what we have been up to. So let’s start at the beginning. In fact let’s just tell you in no order what so ever because I don’t have a very good memory and a pile of paper work to get through.

Last month we landed a deal to record with one of my favorite female artists Lykke Li. Callum and myself have been collaborating on a couple of songs for her to record as demos but hopefully they will make it to an album or single of sorts. We do most of our work between Edinburgh & London on a long distance connection between studios. This  allows me to work at my local studio and at home and Callum to work at the studio in Edinburgh when needed. So stay tuned for more details coming soon.  For more info on Lykke, check out her website.

DimeRock TV

A couple weeks ago we launched a dedicated DimeRock TV website where we will be hosting all of our featured videos and any other video junk we can get our hands on. We have no plans to really develop this area of DimeRock Records but we thought we needed a place to out these things. It also gives us a great place to put all of our Partners video content as you will see. Check out the website

Documentary Scoring

Callum and Mysterious Dale from the Calzo Houdini production team and myself have been working on the musical scores for a series of documentaries to be shown on Channel 5 at some point in the next couple of months. This has been a massive project for us to take on but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s always great to bounce musical ideas amongst the team, especially when it comes to orchestration. Expect to see the documentaries soon. They will be uploaded to DimeRockTV too.

Other stuff

DimeRock Records became a featured record label on last.fm. We will primarily use this as a forum for launching free tracks from our artists but we have no real plans as of yet. We have joined forces with Vice / Vice Records / Viceland and become part of their network. This is a great way for us to promote our label and get exciting content out there for everyone. For more info on Vice, check their website.

Our director and producer CJG has launched his own blog where he basically puts all the shit that we don’t want on the DimeRock Records website. Take a look, he has some weird stuff on there. I think I will write the odd blog on there but for now it’s just his rants and weird shit. Enjoy.

As always, send us your demos and other promo material if you are interested in letting us listen to you. You can do so through the ‘get in touch’ page.

Love the DJ,
Larissa
(Calzo Houdini & DimeRock Producer)

There are many awful things about this-

The video thinks it’s Minority Report in some places – except the effects are worse than those in Spielberg’s film which was made 8 years ago

It starts with “I always knew I’d be the best rapper” but then goes on to deliver punchlines as cutting edge as “these rappers chances are looking slim – just like shady”.

He then has the audacity to stop the song and thank his 2 million followers on twitter

After that there’s no way back for poor Soulja, he’s painting by numbers but this is apparently for our benefit when he explains: “He’s got so many gifts you’d swear he stole Christmas”

I’m sorry, I know he’s an easy target but he doesn’t do himself any favours even if he does “spit more flames than a “lyrical” dragon”

Ok, i’ll stop now. Watch the video

Gary Moore

Inspired by this man, Gary Moore, (and in particular this performance of ‘Still Got The Blues’) today’s gallery is taking a look at the musicians (mostly guitarists) that get so lost in the moment they can’t help but produce a massive sex face mid-song. Keep clicking for the grunters and gurners in full.

Robert Trujillo

Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo is a master of fret-wanking and accompanying gurns. So what if he looks like he’s sticking something somewhere it might not fit while he plays, his riffs are masterful. And wouldn’t you rather see his climax face than Lars Ulrich?

Lars Ulrich

Well, now you mention it, here’s Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich licking his lips and pulling an “ooh baby” live onstage whilst rattling his tom toms and making sweet love to the kit.

Brian Johnson

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson: “I’m sorry, I appear to have just come.”

Ke$ha

Not exactly “Rock”. Ke$ha – because the gratuitous sex face is not exclusive to sweaty blokes, after all.

The Boss – Springsteen

My favorite artist of all time. The Boss is one of the best at the “hold on, I’m coming, I’m coming, oh, oh oh oooah, aaaarghgh” school of soloing. Watching him up close it can be hard to tell if he’s strumming a Fender or his banjo string at times.

Jamie Cullum

Meanwhile, here’s vertically-disadvantaged jazz handed crooner Jamie Cullum about to jizz in his pants (or finish off the final chorus to his Grammy Award-nominated track ‘Gran Torino’, we can’t quite tell).

Tommy Lee

If you’ve seen his sex tape with Pamela Anderson, you’ll be familiar with Tommy Lee’s real sex face. Actually, it’s not that different from the expression he’s pulling here. How many chins?

Well…

This could go on forever and that was about as shit as a blog on peoples faces can get…

for more random stuff visit Calzo Houdini’s Callum James Greens new blog www.CalzoHoudini.com

Written by Jaimie Hodgson @ Vice

Sorry, jaded white guy who professes to like rap music but can’t remember the other guy’s name out of Mobb Deep, but we love Soulja Boy. Since when did rap music being fun and goofy again become a bad thing? Ah yes, since out-of-touch old men like Ice-T and GZA started getting all grumpy about their nosediving sales and rapidly dimming limelight, that’s when.

I’m talking to all the white music journalists who went to the Wu-Tang reunion show last month and stood by the bar sipping flat Grolsch, trembling at the ten black people there. How come everybody thinks Lil Wayne is still good when his last record was boring? And all those rappers in their 30s doing expensive videos with hookers lapdancing in four-star hotel rooms while a guy from ’N Sync does some gay chorus? Please.

While these muppets desperately milk the shrivelled udder of the album sales cash-cow, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” was busy selling five million ringtones, making Soulja Boy the richest 17-year-old on the planet. His stripped-back, hook-laden party hip-pop and dance routines are the good-times antidote to the dragged-out sagas of most “major” rap albums that have emerged in the last year.

Anyway, we got our friend Bradford Cox from neighbouring Atlanta band Deerhunter to go meet DeAndre Ramone Way and shoot him for us at a recent studio session (with a camera, not a gun!).

Vice: What was it like having Soulja Boy freestyle at you for a whole shoot?

Bradford Cox: It was so rad. He ruled and his crew ruled. They would dance and act out what he was freestyling about like he had this troupe of interpretive dancers. They also pointed at him a lot. Like, “Here he is—listen to this guy”.

What was he rapping about?

You know, money, girls, guns and abstract ideas about cars. He also kept referring to weed as “cushington”.

What do you think of his music?

I might have dismissed it initially if my first impression had not been meeting the guy in person and seeing that he was a sincere and generally cool guy, but after a little research I’ve decided it rules. I also think it’s bullshit that all these people are accusing him of “killing” hip-hop. Not that my opinion on hip-hop is really that important or valid seeing as how I am a white kid from Marietta, but if he just wants to have a good time, hang out with his friends, make good music and be successful, what’s wrong with that?

If it had been a speed date how would you rate Soulja Boy?

Pretty sweet. I would say he was a good date, and I’d like to “see him again” or “stay friends”.

Jaimie Hodgson – Vice

New Soulja Boy material will be out soon. myspace.com/souljaboytellem / souljaboytellem.com