We are a very small festival with a TINY budget & a TINY stage in our miniscule concert venue.
We do try to reply, quite often it is "We cannot afford that many people & you won't fit on the stage".
We get so much stuff from singer song writers it's untrue!
Some of it has potential but not for us, some of it make us cringe!
Sometimes replying can be dangerous, it leads to long diatribes between us & would be performers, that lead to nothing.
Once, but only once I gave my advice (for what it is worth)to a band about what we needed & lo & behold they sent me another CD of what they would perform if booked, we booked & they where great (no I will not say who!).
I will also admit to all you hopefuls out there that sometimes we just simply do not have the time to listen. Strangely a tape will probably get listened to rather than a cd as this can be done in the car on the way to / from work, which is time already allocated & lost. But be honest, it is a mail shot, we send out leaflets for our festival & our concerts, just how many get read? People do not get one & then call us & say "Sorry we have a darts match that night, or we are having the cats boil lanced" So we just plug way & so must you! If you are any good you will be passed by word of mouth from club organiser to organiser & them to festivals, you will get name dropped at AFO meetings then you really are on your way. So keep sending, keep playing, keep networking & STOP bleeting because that will get you a bad name.
Rant over.
Skipy.