How to Submit a Demo to a Record Label: A Toronto Label’s Honest Checklist

Every week, independent artists send their music out into the dark — a link here, an attachment there — and hear nothing back. Most of the time, the music is not the problem. The submission is.

Se7en Figure is an independent record label based in Toronto. We have been on the receiving end of demos for a long time, and the pattern never changes: the artists who get a real listen are not always the most talented ones in the pile. They are the ones who made it easy to listen. This is the honest checklist — what to send, what labels actually listen for, and the mistakes that get demos skipped before the first chorus.

What to send in a demo submission

Two or three songs. Not ten. Send your strongest two or three records, best one first. A label can tell in the first twenty seconds of your best song whether there is something there. A folder of ten unfinished ideas tells the opposite story.

Links, never attachments. Large audio files clog inboxes and trigger spam filters. Send streaming links that play instantly — a private SoundCloud or YouTube link, or your artist page. If the link needs a password, a download, or an account to hear it, it does not get heard.

A short bio that answers three questions. Who are you, where are you from, and what is already moving? Keep it under 150 words. One real detail — a show you played, a song that is picking up, a video you shot — is worth more than a page of adjectives. Our company page lists what we do as a label; your bio should make it just as easy to see what you do as an artist.

Your best photo and your socials. One clear photo, and links to the profiles you actually keep active. Labels look. An empty profile with no posts is not a dealbreaker, but a working one shows you are serious about the business side too.

What a label actually listens for

People imagine a label listening for perfection. We listen for something simpler: a record that sounds like only you could have made it, a voice or a point of view that does not blur into everything else in the inbox. After that, we listen for the basics — is the song finished, is the mix clean enough to judge, does the hook land. Polish matters, but identity matters first. Twenty-five years around this business — the story is on our founder’s bio page — teaches you that the artists who last are the ones who sound like themselves.

We also listen for range within reason. Two songs that show two sides of you beat five versions of the same record. If you rap and sing, send one of each.

The mistakes that get demos skipped

• The mass blast. The same copy-paste message sent to forty labels, with another label’s name still in it. Personalize the first two lines. It takes a minute and it is obvious when you didn’t.
• No name, no city, no links. A message that says only “check out my music” with a bare link gives the listener nothing to hold onto.
• Sending unfinished work as a first impression. Rough ideas have their place — after a relationship exists. Your first submission is your introduction.
• Following up every day. One polite follow-up after two weeks is professional. Five messages in three days gets your name remembered for the wrong reason.
• Skipping the business basics. Register your songs before you shop them. In Canada that means SOCAN for performing rights. It is your catalogue — protect it before you present it.

How submitting to Se7en Figure works

Our artist pipeline runs through this site. Submissions are free: your music comes in, it gets reviewed, and approved artists are offered a featured artist profile on se7enfigure.com — a real page of your own on the label’s site, in front of the homepage audience, with your music, your videos, and your links in one place. The homepage shows the artists currently featured and the S71 Music Portal, where artists sell their music direct to fans — no middlemen, just music.

If you are an independent artist in Toronto, in Canada, or anywhere else, and you have two or three records you believe in: package them properly, keep the message short, and send them. Questions before you submit? Reach us through the contact page.

The culture starts here. Make the first twenty seconds count.