JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum Heard of this company in Nashville?

Anyone ever heard of the company Alisongs outside of Nashville? I bought a track from their company and should have posted here before doing so. But they are songwriting company, they mail you the tracks and you record the song in your hometown and or you can come to Nashville and record there. The price is right around 365.00 a track, and close to 800 - to around a thousand I believe to record with live band.

The producer I'm working with recommended I cut three songs with a live band, which gave me a total of three thousand dollars. And he is very well known in the buisness, has anyone ever gotten anything cheaper? I know you get what you pay for though.

I went ahead and purchased the song, I figured I liked it and you can't beat 365.00.

I'm broke, and chasing this crazy dream!

Hey Twang, this is Twinn, lol.. Listen to this song, if you'd like to sing it, I'll email ya a backing track. And you need to find a guy named "Sub" he hangs out around here..

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=100639&songID=5483050

What is the track? Is it a track they made from a guitar/vocal you sent them? It sounds like too much money to me. Check out Mike Dunbar's Derby Demo's at: http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/626687/page/1#Post626687


Kevin

I wont make any jokes about twinn and twang. LOL SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT DOUBLE ACT THOUGH.

Hi Miss Twang. It is important to establish if this is a custom made track of YOUR original song or just a run of the mill standard original backing track from one of their stock writers. I think the price sounds a bit high whichever way. It is also important to establish if this is a proper demo on a work for hire where you have the rights to everything or if there are strings attached. I would check out exactly what you are paying for if you do not already know. According to folk on this forum there are lots of good demo companies who charge far les than the money you are talking about. Worth checking out and shopping around.

I can back Louis up on having a word with "Sub" Mike Caro. He is well known on this forum and produces great stuff for all genres at very reasonable rates. He is a nice bloke and will at least give you great free advice.

I like Louis's song. Heather does a great job with it. There are plenty of songwriters here that would be happy to let you sing they're music. You can save a lot of money. Ben

hello again miss twang

just my opinion-but i think you are doing this stuff the wrong way......esentially in my opinion-you just paid $$$$ to sing karoke-songs which arent yours-they are other peoples......i realize you need to get a start but the idea of launching a singing career is to get folks who believe in you enough to invest in you for the long journey......you should make money singing-not pay it out....alot of american idol winners go on to die quick in the biz cause while yes its about the singer-its also about the songs......and the american idol singers die quick in the biz cause they lack the songwriter strength....if i were you i would try to PARTNER with folks.........do what they call trade offs........i sing on your track and in return you play on my demo....as it is now you are just buying this and buying that and u are already broke......personally i think you are being milked like a cow....just my opinion......you have said you want to move to nashville............well unless it would blow up your marrige then do it.............how supportive of your dream is your husband? family-whatever........i think you need to be here if you can move here.....then as a local you can start the process of really building your dream....right now i think you are just seen by folks as a potential customer of their services.....yes its nashville-everyone is selling something-well and good......but even if you start out making $10 a song singing demos-you are a pro on a career track.....someday you will make $25.....which is what gretchen wilson used to make........but anyway -just my opinion........others may disagree with my view of what you are doing....

Thank you all for the advice. It's easy to get strung along like a puppet in this buisness. I'm pretty naive unfortunately. The song I bought is a track that I have exclusive rights to, for any and all purposes. The trade off idea sounds really great. I am working on getting a second job during the weekends since my job as a teacher just doesn't pay what it should. Then with a little extra money saved I'd like to make the move. I haven't thought about demo singing, is there a need for it? How hard is it to get into? My parents would like me to stay in Memphis but I'll tell ya there is hardly anything country music related here.

Thank you all!

I can't speak for her , but you should get in touch with Heather Cowles. She is a JPF member and has a web site offering demos. If anyone here can get you on that path, she probably can. Send her a PM or Google her web site. In the mean time I would seriously consider taking up Louis's offer to sing over his track just for a start. I don't think it would cost you anything. Ben

http://www.allisongs.com/ You know, I would normally say it sounded expensive. I'm generally pretty skeptical. But I went to their site, and they are making real demos. They sound really good. If you are just starting out, I wouldn't suggest paying that much for anything. Their website says $649 for a demo. But that's about how much a demo costs here. It's a real demo house. You send them the guitar vocal and they send you back the real thing. If you have original songs of yours to record then it's not that bad of a deal.

""" Included studio musicians are: Drums, bass, rhythm guitars, lead guitars, pianos, strings, acoustic guitars, organ, and percussive additions. The $649 per song also includes vocals, harmonies, all production, mixing, mastering, and digitizing to a CD"""

Haha, I don't know exactly what digitizing to a cd means. It says they record with Radar, it would seem to me that it never leaves the digital format to be "digitized", if thats even a word. So anyway I would say do what you want to do. The money you are paying will be going to real studio musicians and a real studio. If you have the money to spend, go for it. It's not some random shady operation. If you are not a writer, then I wouldn't think this would be for you. If you are just a singer, then you shouldn't really have to pay to do demos. Find some songwriters that like your voice and sing on some stuff so you can have music to play for people.

Being a studio musician (demo singer) in Nashville is very hard to get into. You basically have to be able to sing as good if not better than the people potentially cutting the songs. Now, if you can do that..then sign up with AFTRA. They can help you. You would make good money. But there is a whole lot of competition.

I know this goes back a few years, but I once sent ten songs to a studio in the USA and they made me the complete soundtracks for all ten songs for $1500.00, all I had to do was go into a studio here and dub in the vocals. They were good soundtracks, and that was in the days of tape (reel to reel) recordings, now with digital recording, it's much easier and faster.

Many songwriters on here will help you for free dear. And talk to Mike Dunbar about recording he is very reasonable and helpful.

I bet that tape sounded good too. I wish I had an analog tape machine. That sounds like a really good deal man 12 for $1500. The amount I was talking about is actually kinda common in Nashville. Because nearly none of the musicians work for below Union Scale. That's actually a low amount, because normally session players get paid in three hour blocks, where they will do 4 or 5 songs. It's kinda always been like that so the players aren't coming in just to do one song, and it keeps money in their pockets. So I would guess those people over at Alisongs are doing shotgun sessions. That's generally what people do if they just need one song cut. So, instead of a writer booking the studio to do 4 or 5 sides in three hours, a couple sets of songwriters come in and each just do one. These type of sessions commonly happen when you can't get into the studio until next week, but you need the demo tomorrow. Your part of the session is usually quick as well. You've only got about 30 minutes.

Thank you all so much. April, I will indeed talk to Mr. Dunbar. It's just hard to believe anything can be free anymore.

There's trillions of songs out there. I don't think anyone cares anymore.

If you wanna be your own record company, $650 a tune for all they're giving you is a sweet deal. If it feels wrong then it probably is wrong; that's what I always warn my clients. I've had people run to Nashville only to get slammed by the bad guys! One guy wanted 10K per track and the songs weren't even gonna be hers. There are good people and bad everywhere so ask for references and posting here is the best thing to do. The people here (JPF) have always been really nice and honest about what to look out for. Good luck!

I guess I just don't understand how that happens. I think songwriters trying to "make it" must be easy prey. I have never run into any bad people on the row. I know of bad people, but I obviously stay away because I know they are. I think not only do the people in town stay away from them for obvious reasons, but they specifically deal with out of towners. That way if somebody has a problem it's always over the phone and never face to face.