Wy,

Here's the thing, as policy Sony and most don't take unsolicited material, but on a more practical level all it takes is a little fact gathering and contacting one of many people at these big publishing houses and labels and chances are you can fins someone willing to take a listen if you present yourself as a professional and keep it short and simple. As far as only getting one shot if your stuff is not up to par, well my way of thinking is they don't know you by name and I can't imagine they keep a list of offending songwriters, lol. It's more likely if they don't like your material they'll send you a form rejection letter and not commit your name to memory. If you are close you'll probably get a hand written or personalized letter. I got a hand written letter from one of the heads at WB Nashville recently passing on my three song demo but telling me he liked what he heard but it just wasn't country enough. I'm not one for telling people when or if they are ready, if they feel they are then they have to jump in and see the responses they get. At least thats may way of thinking.