Do bands reply to fanmail?!


Question: Depends heavily on the band/singer.

I previously worked for a very high profile guy and part of my job was to deal with the incoming mail. If the person you are want to write to is uber famous, rather than a recent breakthrough, it is quite unlike that the reply you recieve will be personal.

The letters are screened. Nothing abusive or threating. Nothing illegiable. Overly personal pictures/letters are a bad idea as they probably will be sorted by a mail room and the sent to the assistant before the ever even make it to the band. Do you want to risk 3 or 4 people (who you have no control over) seeing those things?

My boss read the mail I put in front of him and answered only the very best letters. Sounds harsh right?Remember these people recieve 100s of letters a week and most of them say the same thing - bands also tend to be successful because the work ridiculously hard, so answering letters that all say "I'm your #1 fan!!!!" for hours just isn't possible.

Having said all that you can do a few things to increase your chances of a personal reply:

Do your research: Asking questions that are answered on the bands website/myspace/albums is lazy. Figure out what you really want to know and search for it on the net first. There maybe an interview that has the answer. If you can't find it anywhere, write. If you don't get a personal reply, you might get the answer from an assistant. It's better than nothing!

Be honest and don't kiss ***: Really overly complimentary letters 'you are the best thing ever and I dream of you everynight' are more common place than you think. If you love the music, or one song inspires you, or you love what the band/artist stands for - tell them that. It's much more interesting than 'I love you' written 4500 times.

Don't ask for money/free stuff: Successful artists do make more money than most of us will ever see. The majority are also already heavily committed to giving money and merchandise to charities and causes that mean the most to them. You may think that they have millions of copies of their CDs and they do get some from the label, but generally once the first lot is gone the artist has to pay cost price. Let's say that's $2. Nothing right? Now times that by 50 letters a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year.

That's over $36,000 a year on 'giving away' CDs.

Check the details: Writing directly to a record label when the artist has a dedicated fanmail address (usually on the website or on the inside sleeve of the album covers- use it if it's provided) will delay replies. You can often write to the agent direct. Find out who the band is with and try that.

Include a SAE: Much in the same way the giveaways cost, so does postage. If you put in a self addressed envelope you are more likely to get a reply. Use the correct postage, but please remember: if , for example, you live in the USA and write to someone in the UK the stamps won't work. If your band of choice has no representation in the country where you live (they probably have more than one agent) leave off the stamp. It's just annoying.

Lastly, you should never not do something because you are sure it's going to happen. Write! The worst thing that can happen is that you get nothing in reply. That'll definately happen if you don't write at all.


Answers: Depends heavily on the band/singer.

I previously worked for a very high profile guy and part of my job was to deal with the incoming mail. If the person you are want to write to is uber famous, rather than a recent breakthrough, it is quite unlike that the reply you recieve will be personal.

The letters are screened. Nothing abusive or threating. Nothing illegiable. Overly personal pictures/letters are a bad idea as they probably will be sorted by a mail room and the sent to the assistant before the ever even make it to the band. Do you want to risk 3 or 4 people (who you have no control over) seeing those things?

My boss read the mail I put in front of him and answered only the very best letters. Sounds harsh right?Remember these people recieve 100s of letters a week and most of them say the same thing - bands also tend to be successful because the work ridiculously hard, so answering letters that all say "I'm your #1 fan!!!!" for hours just isn't possible.

Having said all that you can do a few things to increase your chances of a personal reply:

Do your research: Asking questions that are answered on the bands website/myspace/albums is lazy. Figure out what you really want to know and search for it on the net first. There maybe an interview that has the answer. If you can't find it anywhere, write. If you don't get a personal reply, you might get the answer from an assistant. It's better than nothing!

Be honest and don't kiss ***: Really overly complimentary letters 'you are the best thing ever and I dream of you everynight' are more common place than you think. If you love the music, or one song inspires you, or you love what the band/artist stands for - tell them that. It's much more interesting than 'I love you' written 4500 times.

Don't ask for money/free stuff: Successful artists do make more money than most of us will ever see. The majority are also already heavily committed to giving money and merchandise to charities and causes that mean the most to them. You may think that they have millions of copies of their CDs and they do get some from the label, but generally once the first lot is gone the artist has to pay cost price. Let's say that's $2. Nothing right? Now times that by 50 letters a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year.

That's over $36,000 a year on 'giving away' CDs.

Check the details: Writing directly to a record label when the artist has a dedicated fanmail address (usually on the website or on the inside sleeve of the album covers- use it if it's provided) will delay replies. You can often write to the agent direct. Find out who the band is with and try that.

Include a SAE: Much in the same way the giveaways cost, so does postage. If you put in a self addressed envelope you are more likely to get a reply. Use the correct postage, but please remember: if , for example, you live in the USA and write to someone in the UK the stamps won't work. If your band of choice has no representation in the country where you live (they probably have more than one agent) leave off the stamp. It's just annoying.

Lastly, you should never not do something because you are sure it's going to happen. Write! The worst thing that can happen is that you get nothing in reply. That'll definately happen if you don't write at all.

Sometimes, I guess. Just some of it. I don't think they could possibly reply to all ... :|

The richer bands tend to have people who do that for them.

not really..

sometimes- not all bands do. probably only interesting letters.

In the late 80s I got a letter from Robert Smith of the Cure written by him whilst on tour ! :D

I doubt it. Most of them employ people to write a standard reply back to all letters they get sent.



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