Music Business 107; Your PR package - Part 3, Demo Tape, CD and Video

You may also find that your Demo Tape/CD is used to bring a Record Company A&R person, a Newspaper Reporter or TV News show to come out and hear you perform. There are great opportunities that you might miss by not having a good Demo Tape/CD to hand out.

Why you need a Demo Tape/CD

Your Demo Tape/CD puts you in control of the music that is presented. You pick the best performances and let the potential client listen for themselves. There are no distractions and you are presented in the best light. Often, people will be looking through the rest of your Promo Package and connecting the pictures and information to what they are hearing. Very few people will hire musical entertainment without hearing them first.

The Perfect Demo Tape/CD

Organization of the material on your Demo Tape/CD should be considered carefully. Always start your Demo with your strongest material - first impressions are important. Trendy material may be a good thing to add, however, 6 months down the road it may be something you would prefer not to have on your Demo Tape/CD anymore. Think in terms of who might be listening to the music and what their decision processes are likely to be. Don't hesitate to create multiple variations of your tapes specifically for targeted audiences.

3 Main Types of of Demo Tape/CD

• Highlights of many songs on one tape or CD

  This sort of Demo Tape/CD demonstrates how you sound and the types of music you are offering. These lend themselves well to Cover Bands, however, some people will want to hear this type of Demo no matter what music you perform. If you are competing against other performers, and all that is available are Demo Tapes/CDs, the more versatile performers usually fare better.

  • 5 to 10 songs.

  • Each song is no more than one verse and a chorus. Approximately 1 minute per song/tune.

  • Quick fade in and out of each song - keep it moving.

  • Mixture of fast and slow. Start out with your best material. If a dance oriented band, pick one that has good response. Do 2 fast songs, then one or 2 slow ones, then switch back to fast or do some medium speed songs. Mix these up to give a feel for the range of music available. Booking Agents, who have many acts often prefer this type of Demo.

  • Keep solos to a minimum - no more than 4 measures on only a few songs.

• Full length songs on one tape or CD

  These types of Demos are used by people who like to sit and listen to what you are doing and have the time to do it. They like to listen to how you put entire songs together and are often listening for the character of the music. These same people may play the Demo Tape/CD over the Club system to see how the people in the Club react. A Record company A&R person will usually prefer this sort of Demo.

  • 3 or 4 songs.

  • If you only perform only originals, consider using your bands retail tape or CD (if you have made one). People will want to hear more to make sure that you can carry a whole night on your own.

  • Pick material that gets a strong immediate positive reaction.

  • Mixture of fast and slow tunes as best as is possible. Never provide a Demo with just fast or just slow songs - even if you don't do that many slow or fast songs.

• 1 full length song as a Video (Minimally using VHS format in the U.S.A. - or a DVD may be something to consider, depending on the market you seek and how you plan plan to show/distribute your Video). A Video Demo is usually used in conjunction with either of the other 2 Demo Tapes/CD types.

  NOTE: PC Based DVD recorders can handle video at this time provided that you record in the same format that commercial home DVD players support.

  Know your market before you create one of these. For most markets, the video should not be the sort of thing you see on MTV, CMTV, or VH1 (All of these are Music Video Channels on cable television in the United States and many other parts of the world) - instead they should convey the look, feel, manner and sound of your music. Pick your best material for this.

  If you are attempting to catch the eye of a record company A&R person, you may need to create a Music Video that is comparable to some of the professional videos you see on television - this is potentially very expensive to do, requiring a studio environment that can work with SMPTE synced recordings and video editing equipment that understands how to build a resulting video properly syncronized with the music. Software is becoming more available to create this sort of thing on a home Personal Computer system - However there is still a large investment in professional gear to do this well. If you plan to distribute on a smaller digital format, using MPEG or AVI on a CDROM or on the Internet, you might consider using a digital camera attached to a Personal Computer - the editing options are enormous considering the low cost of the PC based equipment and software; the picture quality is much lower too.

  In order for the audio portion to record well on any video you make, it is very likely that your performance will be staged - ie. you will be lip syncing to one of your own recordings. These can be done with your own home Video camera (8mm video cameras seem to give better results than VHS video cameras when duplicating the original) The camera can be stationary for the entire song, or may slowly sweep to different people (use a camera stand and avoid quick jerky movements).

  • If you plan to do Weddings and high caliber social events, make one for that purpose (and plan on dressing in a suit and tie or appropriate evening wear).

  • If you have a focused market - this should target that market specifically and leave no doubts about what to expect.

  • If you do original material, the tape should reflect your style and leave an impact.

You would be amazed at the junk play back systems that club owners or booking agents use to demo your sound. Some people may be listening to your tape in their car - it should as good as possible in that environment. You need to anticipate this and be prepared for the worst. What ever you do, mix these to sound good on a monophonic Audio Cassette deck. After a while, I started to carry my own boom-box (portable stereo Cassette player) around with me to play my tapes on so I would at least have something predictable for people to listen to the Demos on.

How to Package the Demo Tape/CD

• The 'Band Name' or 'Artists Stage Name'.
• The booking contact name and phone number.
• A photo (Use a good high contrast scan if planning Black & White inserts).
• Make sure that your name appears on the edge of the Cassette or CD cover - it makes it easier to find. Some Record Company A&R people have actually lost demos that they really liked because there was no edge info - when stacked among all the other demos they got, they couldn't find the one they remembered sounded great.
• If you have a Logo - include it.
• A phrase that defines the style of music.
• A list of the songs on the Demo Tape/CD.
• A short advertisement for your act - 20 words or less.
• List if you have affiliations with BMI, ASCAP or any other service.

Use heavier stock paper (as thick as business card paper if possible - 60 lb. stock or heavier paper in the U.S.A.). Cut it to size after printing the information onto it and put it in. You might want to make a paper folding jig if you plan to do this frequently. I have used pastel colors for my paper stock when working with black & white photos/text and varied the color depending on the sort of Demo Tape I was handing out. This allowed me to instantly tell them apart - almost all of the graphics were the same - there was only a text difference defining the type of music on the recording.

I use a Black & White laser printer or an Epson Color Stylus Ink-Jet printer and make up exactly as Cassette or CD liners as I need. You might be changing your picture every few months, contact information or some other aspect of the Demo - allow yourself to be flexible.

If you are going to do color inserts, you must use white paper stock. Most of the inks in todays ink-jet printers are not very color-fast in direct sunlight - keep this in mind when you store your Demo tapes/CDs. If you refill your own Ink-Jet cartridges (I do), keep in mind that the refill for black may not be as black as you would expect it to be - I find that they are often very dark grey and you may have to balance your photos some to compensate for this inconsistency.

Recording your Demo Tape/CD

• At the low end, you can use a portable cassette deck with a built in microphone - these don't have the greatest sonic quality, but it is something that almost anyone has access to. Place one of these 'boom-box' type of systems around 10 to 15 feet away from the band and start recording. You may have to play around with the settings to get the best sound. You would be surprised at how many Demo Tapes are made this way - They do get bookings.

  Getting good recordings when performing for an audience is very difficult with this sort of gear. The microphones are not highly directional and you tend to get a lot of room noise - Things like 'glasses klinking' and 'random room conversations' or 'laughing'. Its still good idea to record yourself when you perform, with a bit of effort, and placement of your recording gear, you can get some valuable audio on tape.

  If recording practices sessions, you'll have the same problem with room noises. Chase out anyone who doesn't belong there while you are working. Cats, Dogs and little brothers/sisters can accidentally ruin a good 'take'. Also kick out girl friends or boy friends of band members - they make noise and are often major distractions. In general, don't allow anyone to attend recording sessions that doesn't have a real need to be there.

• At the mid range, a portable studio (home 4 track audio cassette based thru multi-tracked digital recorders) gear will give you some control over your mixes and your sound sources. They also allow you record your song in pieces - for example, you can record everything but the vocals and add them later.

  Try not to go overboard with over-dubs. You are trying to present what you really sound like - its in your best interests to represent yourself accurately. Don't hesitate to showcase your sonic special effects gear, these can really enhance your 'Live' sound and your Demo should reflect that aspect of your performances.

  Many of these systems allow you to record and playback at different speeds - this is particularly useful if you add the vocals after you have recorded the musical portions of the song. I often record the music at regular speed, then adjust the speed down 5 percent (ie. just a little) and record the vocals. The reason for this is that it often makes it easier to hit the high notes and still sing on key. If you have just spent 4 hours recording, your singers voice may be more tired than you think; this will help the vocalist last longer and often makes for a more productive recording session.

  All the same rules for room noises apply here too.

• At the high end, an established Pro Studio - pre wired, with sound rooms and a console in its own blocked off area. This assumes a sound engineer and some production facilities. Here, time is money so come prepared to make music. Have your set list completely defined and make sure that you are well rehearsed. It will take some time to get the microphones set up right. Allocate at least 2 hours for sound checks. Estimate at least 1 hour per song (it could take a lot longer).

  If you have never worked in a Pro Studio before, you'll probably have a hard time getting comfortable with the methods used to isolate sounds and the general recording operations involved - it will not feel at all like you are used to performing with the rest of your band members. It can make it very difficult to effectively express yourself, and you may feel frustrated. Don't bring anyone along that doesn't need to be there - it will only make things less effective. Try to keep focused and stick to your rehearsed material. If you are having a problem on one song, or just a part of it, consider skipping ahead to the next song and come back to the problem song later. You don't want to come out of the sessions with nothing to show for it.

  Give the Sound Engineer some recordings of your live work or practices to listen to - preferably the ones you are about to record in the studio. They will have a better idea of what to expect and will probably do a much better job in less time. Don't get mad about anything - Studio work is time consuming - You will spend a lot of time sitting around waiting between the times you are needed. When you do work, you may have to listen thru headphones to play against when you record your parts (without any other band member interaction). You will have to trust the Sound Engineer to know how to capture your sound - help them be successful. Remember too that you should do Mix downs on a different day, with freshly rested ears. A good Sound Engineer will try to avoid fixing problems in the Mix after everyone is done recording - this is usually the best approach, but can be costly if it requires many re-takes of a song..

See Recording Tips for more thoughts.

How many Demo Tapes/CDs do I need?

I freely gave away Audio Cassettes and CDs. I used to buy packages of 15 or 20 at a time and duplicate as many as I could. I only ever copied onto side A of the Audio Cassettes and I always used the cheapest name brand Audio Cassettes I could find (Standard Audio Cassettes, not CrO2 or better). You will never get any of these back, so don't expect people to return them.

Don't give away your Video Demos if on Tape (these are painfully hard to copy and you may give a way the master by accident); if you have them on DVD, and they are easy to copy, then you can give them away.

If you have a Booking Agent - they will need a copy of your Video/DVD. You might also find someone else who needs a copy, but you need to justify this need before you start handing these out to people who are not hiring directly.

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