General information concerning the production and use of radio identification jingles
can also be found in the Radio Jingles section of this site.
Q:
"Where do you find your singers for the jingles?"
A:
Most of the voices you hear on JAM jingles belong to professional,
full-time studio session singers. Recording jingles and commercials
is their primary occupation. Although we have sessions with these vocalists
on a regular basis, most are freelance.
For a new custom jingle project, we select the combination of
voices we feel will create the desired sound. Later, we usually
syndicate
those jingles to other clients. When this happens, the same group
of singers who did the original vocals must be available to re-record
the cuts with new lyrics. Because our clients expect this kind
of consistency, we primarily use vocalists who live in the Dallas
area. But on occasion we have recorded vocals in many different
places including Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Miami, and Montreal.
Being a successful jingle singer requires a pleasant or unique
voice, and a lot more. You must be an accomplished sight reader,
have control over your vibrato and tone, and know how to blend
and work with others. You have to be able to take direction, and
change styles at a moment's notice. And it helps if you can derive
some musical enjoyment from singing the praises of call letters and products
every day!
Q:
"I want to be a jingle singer or writer. What should
I do?"
A:
The first thing you're going to need is a demo, so that
you can show potential employers what you sound like and what you
can do. If you already have studio experience, compile a brief
montage of material you're proud of. If you haven't recorded professionally
before, you may want to rent time at a small studio to record
a sample of your work. Either way, the demo need not be longer
than 3 to 5 minutes. It should present as wide a range of your
abilities as possible. A montage featuring portions of 5 or 6 different items
is preferable to a demo which only contains one 3-minute song. But if that one
song showcases your musical and expressive range, it might do the trick.
There are several ways to get jingle producers to hear your demo. The internet
is certainly the fastest and least expensive method. If you have
your own website, or even a web page on another site, make sure your latest demo is available there.
The page should also contain some basic information about you, your experience, and your abilities along
with contact information (such as an e-mail address). Send a brief e-mail to the producers you're trying to
reach, and include a link to the site so they can easily access your demo.
Whether or not your demo is on the internet, you can attach a brief demo to your e-mail.
But if you do, make certain that the size of the audio file you're sending is small.
It is not a good practice to send someone an e-mail containing a huge attachment (over 1 MB) unless
you have gotten permission to send it first. We suggest that you send mp3 audio files. Although they are
technically not as good as WAV or AIF files, they are about one-tenth the size. Generally, everyone can play an
mp3 file on their computer, whereas some other audio file formats could require a special player which the
recipient may or may not have installed.
Of course you can always make copies of your demo and mail them out. CDs are
the medium of choice for this, because they sound the best and are the easiest
to deal with. It doesn't matter whether the CDs are made by a professional duplicator or by you at home, as
long as the quality is good. If the demo sounds bad technically, it is unlikely that
anyone will want to listen to it long enough to give you a fair chance. If you are mailing out
your demo, please make sure to label each copy with your name, phone number and e-mail address,
as well as what type(s) of work you're hoping to get. For example, beneath your name and info you might write
"solo vocals", or "writer/arranger" or "voice-over".
Remember that it is very likely for your CD or cassette to become separated
from your cover letter or resume, so please make sure that your name and contact
information are on both. It is very frustrating to find a great talent and have no idea how
to reach her or him, and yet it happens all the time.
We often hear from vocalists and musicians outside the Dallas area who express interest in working for JAM "remotely".
This would apply mostly to solo performances, or vocals where one singer does a lead and several backup parts on different tracks.
If this applies to you, please indicate whether you have your own studio to record in, how it is equipped, and if you are able to easily upload
and download audio files via FTP over the internet.
We encourage you to send your demo materials to JAM. Please go to
the contact JAM page. From there you can either send
us an e-mail or find our postal mailing information. Please note that it is not necessary to send your e-mail
to everyone at the company. If you select "Employment Inquiries" (which will be pre-selected for you if you click
on the link above) your message will go to the right place.
No matter which producer you send your demo to, in many cases you won't receive an immediate reply. In fact, demos sometimes
accumulate for months before there is an opportunity to listen to them. If a producer
is interested, your material will be kept on file until the right kind
of project comes along. So if your contact information changes, you should send the
new details to everyone you sent your demo to. It will also serve to remind them that
you're still interested! This is a difficult business to break into,
and part of it is being the right talent at the right place at
the right time. But even though luck may help to get you in the
door, your talent and ability is what will get you called back
a second time.
Q:
"I have an idea for a jingle. Can I submit it to you?"
A:
We will not attempt to present or sell your music or lyrics to a client for you.
In almost all cases, production companies and jingle writers wait for stations or
agencies to approach them to do a project. At that time the client explains the parameters of the
job and what they're looking for. But most of these entities are too busy to consider
material created "on spec" which they haven't asked for. Radio and TV stations make
their own decisions regarding when they want to change their on-air music and jingles, and
most large corporate accounts employ advertising agencies to take care of that for them. Although it is not
unheard of for someone with a great new idea to get the attention of the right person at the
right time, it is unusual.
If you are a writer, you may send us samples of what you've done as a demonstration of your ability (as described above).
If a new assignment comes up which we think would suit you we will consider hiring you to work on the
project. But don't send us your existing material with the intention of us trying to get it on the air for
you.