1. Get a sheet of the music piece. You should have a printed sheet of music when you contact a music publisher.
2. Find publishers in your area. When searching for a publisher, make sure the publisher publishes the genre (type of music) that you have composed. Many specialize in specific fields, such as Rock, Classical, etc…
3. Be Flexible, (assuming they continue with you) they might tell you to revise some parts in the sheet music to fix mistakes, etc… Be Flexible and clean up the mistakes, and take it back.
4. Copyright, Make sure that before it’s published, that the music company gets it formally copyrighted. Musicians historically have been ripped off on publishing simply because they failed to do this one task. Take care of all of your legal obligations and apply the use of these new forums for getting your music published in addition to some of the older tactics and you could soon be reaping the rewards of publishing royalties.
5. Offer free download, If you are a beginner you can offer a 30 second demo for free download so that people may test your music before buying.

With the internet the music publishing game has changed. With sites/services like EditionPeters.com musicians can simply get a membership and have their music advertised or sold through their website. Peters Edition has been publishing music since 1800 .They are a music publishing company for musicians, run by musicians. Music published by Peters Edition has been licensed extensively in public performance, CD, DVD, film, advertising, ballet, radio and television and we are able to offer a fast and comprehensive service for every licensing requirement.

Hip-Hop artists are doing it themselves. Authors are publishing their own books. Anyone with a quality HD camera and the hunger for cinema can make a film. And you know what? Because of the internet, there is no longer a middle man needed distribution reaches to your audience.

So now what’s your excuse?

With the advent of today’s internet marketing techniques through social media, you are now able to showcase your live shows via video platforms such as YouTube or Film Rookie. You are not able to not only allow your music to be heard, but to be instantly purchased via MP3 and Ringtone downloads. You are now able to nationally brand yourselves, spit shine your images and tell your stories via social website such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg and MySpace. In fact, you are now able to completely build your platform in the most effective way having to go through hearing some type of gatekeeper try and tell you that your work isn’t marketable and won’t sell. Yes… thanks to today’s media technologies, you will never have to deal with that person again. Now how you decide to portray that image and produce that music is solely up to you. But never again can you put the blame on any outside sources.

In the classic Chuck Grown go-go song, “Bustin Loose”, Chuck begins with the demanding phrase, “Keep what you’ve got until you get what you need.” Well… for the past 30 years, you’ve given a lot. But now I’m here to tell you that just what you have needed is now here.

In this, my friends, are the areas that TMOTTGoGo.com will strictly be focusing on. The production. The image building. The promoting. The marketing. And everything else that entails please your current audience and building some new ones. Talkin ’bout making moves. This surpasses going just beyond the beltway by 2650 miles. (that’s DC to LA by the way).

In the words of the Legendary James Funk, “Now, how you gonna carry it?”

Kato Hammond is an American musician and journalist. He is the owner and creator of Take Me Out To The Go-Go, Inc. (TMOTTGoGo), editor and publisher of Take Me Out To The Go-Go Magazine, executive producer of TMOTTGoGo DVD Magazine, and webmaster of TMOTTGoGo.com. You can find more helpful resources by visiting his website at: http://www.tmottgogo.com