Why myHitOnline? How does myHitOnline compare to other tip sheets out there?

We have great respect for our competitors, but we think ours is the best tip sheet for serious music industry professionals because:

1. We have great quality and quantity of leads for signed recording artists, more than any other tip sheet in the industry. You will find that some other tip sheets claim to have 200 leads for artists looking for music. However, the vast majority of those leads are for unsigned artists who will never secure a record deal. So don’t confuse quantity with quality, and make sure the artists listed by other tip sheets are not all unsigned and developing artists without record deals. We only post leads for unsigned recording artists if they are managed by established artist managers that can get their artists a record deal.
2. We cover some of the biggest music markets in the world, including the USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Australia.
3. We are the only service with an integrated Song Pitch System. Our Song Pitch System will allow you to manage your song catalogue online, and pitch your music by sending links to selected songs to A&Rs. This way, you will never risk clogging someone’s email box.
4. You can tap into our community of music industry professionals. Find co-writes, get tips or connect with fellow music industry professionals worldwide with our built-in networking tools.
5. Powered by the latest web technology. Our service is a new generation of product that combines superior design and functionality powered by the latest web-technologies, providing a more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized web experience that works across all the most popular browsers.

How does myHitOnline source its leads?

We source leads directly from A&Rs, but also indirectly from managers, music publishers, record producers and trade publications. In all cases, we verify that we have the correct information.

For example, when Taylor Hicks won the 2006 American Idol competition, everybody knew that he had a record deal with Clive Davis. We called 19 Management (the company that created the Pop Idol competition) to find out what music they needed for Taylor Hicks and who the right contact persons are for him:

• Rani Hancock and Clive Davis – J Records / Sony BMG
• Pete Ganbarg – freelance A&R for J Records / Sony BMG
• Jen Schultz in 19’s LA office
• Simon Fuller and Joanne McCormack in 19’s London office
• Simon Cowell – SyCo / Sony BMG

However, we only called one person to find out who the right contacts are, so the other 6 people may not know about myHitOnline. But we wanted to provide our members with 7 contacts to pitch songs for Taylor Hicks, because a myHitOnline member may have easier access to one of the 7 people than to another. As such, we try to create as many options for our members and list all people that we know are involved in a particular project.

As seasoned music industry professionals will know, it sometimes takes multiple pitches to more than one decision maker to get a great song covered, because there is never just one decision maker on a project. In many cases, an ‘indirect’ approach is better than the ‘direct’ approach, i.e. oftentimes it is easier to get a song to an artist through that artist’s manager or record producer than through his A&R executive.

Most other ordinary tip sheets will only give you the contact details for 1 person, whereas we strive to give you as many options as possible.

Do all of the projects listed accept unsolicited material?

No. In fact, some of the best and highest profile project opportunities do not accept unsolicited material. However, we assume that you are a music industry professional and know how to follow the proper submission etiquette.

That is, you may need to get a proper introduction to an A&R executive first, and/or call/email prior to submitting any material. Some people prefer to closely work with another publisher or songplugger that already has an existing relationship with a given A&R or manager.

Please do not send MP3s in an email to an A&R unless requested by them. Instead use the Song Pitch System, because it avoids clogging an A&Rs email box.

In fact, we heard of a case when one A&R received over 1,000 emails with MP3s, which led to a complete melt-down of the label’s email system.

In short, if you don’t want to end-up on an A&Rs spam email list, please follow the proper etiquette.

Why do you list active as well as inactive leads?

We list inactive leads because it helps music publishers or top producers avoid submitting material to projects that have already finished. With a quick search, our members are able to find out the latest status on any given project without having to do additional independent research or having to guess about a project's status. They'll also be able to tell if an inactive project is likely to start up again soon.

In addition, while a specific project might not be active now, it may become active within a few weeks. Top music publishers and record producers like to pro-actively reach out to key contacts before a project becomes active again, but they may not know who is in charge or have any song references handy or know about the latest news on any given project.

Offering our members a comprehensive list of projects, active and inactive, has proven to be an invaluable tool to know all relevant information on any given project at all times, available 24/7 from anywhere in the world in one central location.

How do I submit material for Film/TV leads?

To avoid being inundated with CDs, the leading music supervisors do not openly solicit music for their projects. They usually prefer to work with a select group of publishers and record labels, and almost always use commercially released music.

We provide contact information as a reference for members that already have a relationship with these music supervisors or can get an introduction.

However, if you do not have an existing relationship with a specific music supervisor, we suggest sending 2 or 3 songs from your best artist as a CD sampler for any given show. We researched what type of music is needed, so make sure you read the project information carefully and be as precise as possible to meet the exact requirements. If you don't have music that fits exactly, we strongly suggest you do not send in your music as it will be disregarded along with any future submissions.

If a music supervisor finds your material suitable, they will try to get in touch with you. Make sure to include all clearance and licensing information, because music supervisors typically need to clear music within a very short timeframe.