You're a semi-professional musician, with dreams of becoming a pro. You're a member of a working band, or have steady gigs on your own. There's some original material in your repertoire and you want it heard by someone other than the local bar crawlers, someone with a major record label, who will come, trailing sports cars, groupies, recreational drugs and multi-million dollar contracts, to snatch you from the road houses of Tipiho and place you in the coliseums of the world's major cities.

To get the ear of that big record executive, you'll need'to get your potential hits onto something more permanent than the hometown audience's memory. Without heavy financial backing, however, you might find studio time beyond the reach of your budget. Don't resign yourself to finding a day job to pay the bills, though. If you can't find someone to cut your demo, cut it yourself.