The Pitch - Trying to communicate clearly in a world of shouting nonsense

I have known for years that clarity is king when it comes to communication. Communication is key in personal relationships which I can not begin to cover here as I have not received your release forms for my psychotherapy services. And many agree the main factor in successful business relationships is communication.

Being able to quickly and accurately describe myself as a composer in an interesting way can make all the difference for a first impression. I can either blow an opportunity and be the guy that say, "Hello, you should check out this demo," or I can have invested time in developing a 'Pitch'.

I'm not a used car sales man. I'm not selling snake oil. I am a composer who believes in the music he is making. I want to take the time to prepare so that I can articulate to a stranger what why my music has value.

I was at the Billboard TV and Film Music Conference yesterday and had to get into that 'Pitch' state of mind. I met numerous composers/songwriters. After having a pleasant exchange with several of them I sit here now entering business cards into my data base and realize only one composers I met had a Pitch. And I can tell you exactly what kind of music he specializes in (though I have never heard it) and what kind of commercial spots he works on. Ironically, the composer, Geoff Aymar, works in house at the ad agency The Designory.

I am still getting all my materials together for press/publicity for my new album The Radioactive Werewolf and other Tales from the Southwest. And I realize I should have been preparing my pitch for this album months ago. It is complicated - spanning genres - and has some performances by talented musicians including: Alain Whyte (Morrisey) , Chris Schleyer (Kidney Theives, Zero Mancer) and opratic saprono Elif Savas.

So I talk with my brother (T-bob, a screenwriter who HAS to know how to pitch) and he develops a couple Pitch idea for me in no time. Now this outside perspective was priceless. And coming from someone I trust makes it even easier to openly except his point of view on how to communicate what the album is.

His first attempt sounded like a film:
"Take a dash of classic horror film soundtracks, a generous helping of Aaron Copeland, a batch of roughly chopped Southern rock, and add Angelo Baldamenti sparingly. Process in the blender of Bodin's unique mind. Serve immediately for an inspiring mental road trip."

Funny, interesting but WAY to complicated. So we pass back a few more ideas and come up with:
"Comprised of instrumentals with a western slant and southern style rock songs, The Radioactive Werewolf is strung together like a David Lynch soundtrack."

Now we got somewhere. Now I believe this IS what it sounds like and I can happily convey this with confidence to anyone.

As I have grown as a composer I have also developed my ability to Pitch. As I look at my past 2 years of releases I see a trend. Do you agree?

Greed, Lust And Cloning
"Score for a film that never was. A thrilling tale of espionage and adventure painted through a dynamic score"

Like Rabbits
"Intimate orchestral and acoustic modern minimalist arrangements that tip my hat to Debussy and Satie, with viola solos performed by Leah Nelson."

The Ballad of Big Shot Volume 1
"Sports anthems thats will get them stompin' in the bleachers."

Silentium Est Alurum
"Sounds like Dr. Dre produced the Star Wars cantina band."

The Radioactive Werewolf and othe Tales from the Southwest
"Instrumentals with a western slant and alternative southern rock songs strung together like a David Lynch soundtrack."

Current options for on-demand T-Shirts

As I venture into final planning stages for promoting my new album release "The Radioactive Werewolf and other tales from the Southwest" I seriously look into on demand custom printing. I want to find the one that best meets my needs: a simple black T-shirt, good quality, ability to print multiple colors at an affordable price.


I have been creating T-shirt designs for a couple years, but have been focused on my change in career path (composing for film, tv interactive) and put all my efforts into that rather than distract myself by trying to start a clothing company. When I realized that my budget for promoting my new album was going fast I decided to spend an afternoon and do my own research on on demand product and custom printing.

I signed up for accounts with Zazzle, Cafe Press and Spreadshirt. My first instinct was to go with Zazzle.com becasue of it's website design 'feel'. Since all companies provide what apears to be similar items for my custom printing need (clothing, accessories, coffee mugs) that didn't help me with my desision.

I decided to uploaded a simple one color designs to all three and created the a the least expensive T-shirt I could to understand the proccess. I quickly desiced to focus on Zazzle and Spreadshirts to speed the proccess. I uploaded a simple design on a entry level (Haynes) T-shirt and choose to have the shirt in the color black.

I found that with Zazzle ( becasue I was looking for a black shirt) the was at a minimum whole sale price of $21.95 (about $16 for white). With Spreadshirts I found I could make whole sale price of about $10.

I was most satisfied with the Zazzle tools as they allowing customers to zoom in to the printing and see the design more clearly (first image above), were as the Spreadshirt does not have this functionality (second image -->).

With a $10 whole sale price for an on demand T-shirt I am leaning strongly twords Spreadshirts as my custom printing provider. This gives me the ability to have inexpensive items (after mark up) for fans and doesn't break the bank for me to thank the performers who played on the album by getting them all shirts.

So I order the shirt shown in the second image (Spreadshirt) Not real happy about the $5 shipping for one $10 item when I finsh check out. In about 5 days I get my new Radioactive Werewolf Shirt and it looks pretty good. I still have to wash it and see how the "flock' printing holds up with time but I move forward and open up a store ( http://endocrine.spreadshirt.com ) customize the layout and incorporate sales links into my album web page.