We often wait several weeks for labels to answer, which drives us crazy, but not necessarily you should wait that long. There are tools and ways that can help you wait less and move on faster to avoid wasting time…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. You should always follow up on your emails. After you’ve sent the first email, wait a week and follow up if you haven’t received any response or play. Then, wait another week and if even then nothing happens (no plays or answers), you can move on. The two reasons why you should act this way are: (1) if they are busy, they will sometimes answer back to you saying ‘we are busy, but wait and we’ll get back’; (2) if you don’t hear anything from anyone, regardless of whether it’s a collab or a label submission, after two weeks and one follow-up email, you’re probably not getting an answer anyway, so move on. If they do answer you later, just mention that you’ve moved on due to their inactivity and, if you have other songs, take the bite and submit a new song to them.
2. Use Soundcloud as a way to understand when your track is played, which can be used as a sign that the label has moved on. SoundCloud is a good way to track if your song has already been listened to, which can indicate when a label has moved on from it and when you should too. For example, if a label has listened to your song, but didn’t send you any messages within a week of them listening to it, you can probably move on since they probably won’t answer you back. In my experience, when a label likes a song, they answer right away. So, consider following up if you haven’t just to make sure you can move on.
3. Use email trackers when emailing to understand when your track is played and also the label’s behavior. Mailtrack, Yesware, Polymail, Hubspot, and many other trackers let you know when somebody opens your email and clicks your link, which essentially will give similar insights as SoundCloud, but also their answering behavior. For example, if someone has opened your email, clicked your link, and answered you back right away, you know that, for the next song, if you don’t get an answer right away after a click, it could be that the A&R is still considering it or that he’s just busy, but it’s already a bad sign. In any case, these trackers will help you understand their opening and listening behaviors, which can be really useful to avoid wasting time when you submit to this label again.
4. If you REALLY want to try to stick with that label, follow up no more than TWO TIMES. It’s ok to follow up, at most, TWO times for one song, but don’t do it more than this to avoid ending up on the label’s spam box. In a recent submission, only after the second follow-up that the label answered me saying that they were busy and would get back to me ASAP, so there is some value to following up two times. However, if you’ve followed up twice and no response has been sent, most likely that a third follow-up could make the label ‘block’ your email or tag you as spam/annoying sender, and then you’re gone forever. Therefore, make sure to not ‘annoy’ them and don’t follow up more than twice.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
If you’ve got no response from a label, could there be anything you’ve done, or forgot to do, that motivated them not to answer?
1. Were you polite when emailing? Greg Newman, from Sekora, mentioned he ignores emails from people that have only one link and nothing else;
2. Has this label answered you in the past or is that their normal behavior? If it’s not their normal behavior, they might be busy now and wait a bit longer to follow up;
3. Have you been a pain in the past to this label? If you feel you’ve been blocked out, consider using a different email just to make sure your main email is not blocked out.
