demo tracks - need advice

[FALKEN]

so my band's songs average about 1:15. minutes, seconds. the standard "demo" is usually 2 songs, but I could fit 6 into under 9 minutes, which would be shorter than 2 songs for many bands. Any thoughts??? Any club owners happen to be reading this??

[mikeh]

Most club owners or booking managers don't listen to more than 2 or 3 songs and rarely all of any one song.

I would suggest you have your three "best songs" on a demo and leave it at that. Make sure you present what you do best and/or what you think will sell the band to a given venue,

Bookers/owners don't care about extended guitar solos (although with 90 sec songs I'm guessing neither do you ) THey tend to listen for 1) Is the style of music right for this club, 2) What do the vocals sound like, 3) Will lots of people spend lots of money to see/hear this band (not in that order).

[FALKEN]

dang it. I was afraid that would be the answer. I guess this is probably a common dilemma. I want to #1 send this to clubs and #2 give it to people. I hate giving people a 3-4 minute cd...who the hell is even going to listen to that other than a club who doesn't care about your music anyway. but if I put 5 songs then I could be happy about handing it out to people, and maybe it won't make a damn difference to the club.

[metalhead28]

I say that if you have 5 or 6 songs that you feel are all really strong and represent your band well, I would put them all on there. If the club owner, etc. doesn't want to listen to the whole thing, or better yet, doesn't need to listen to the whole thing to make up his mind then he won't, plain and simple. In fact, if they are all 1 minute songs, I would think someone who was legitimately interested in you would listen to more that 2 anyway.

[FALKEN]

thats what I was thinking. but I don't want to lose any potential gigs because there are 5 song titles on the front. somebody said I should just put the times on there..i.e.,

song1 1:04
song2 1:15

etc.

[grn]

it doesn't really matter, just put your best songs on a cd and give it to them and make sure it looks professional. that's it... if they like it, they'll book you, if not, they won't. they probably won't listen to the whole thing, which is fine, but you can give it to your friends. my band just put the best 5 songs from our album on a free sampler and hand those to club owners and send out as demos... we get shows... so it's whatever.

[FALKEN]

Originally Posted by grn

it doesn't really matter, just put your best songs on a cd and give it to them and make sure it looks professional. that's it... if they like it, they'll book you, if not, they won't. they probably won't listen to the whole thing, which is fine, but you can give it to your friends. my band just put the best 5 songs from our album on a free sampler and hand those to club owners and send out as demos... we get shows... so it's whatever.

cool, thats what I'm gonna do. I really want to be able to give it away to as many people as possible and have them actually listen to it more than once. thanks.

[grn]

it's funny, people have their minds made up what they want to do, but come on this board asking for permission... there's no rules... do what you want and know is right

[Gorty]

Make it as professional as you can, remember a club owner if interested in your band would give you more exposure than a handful of mates.

What I am saying is present the Demo more for the club owner and your bands benefit than your mates.

[FALKEN]

Originally Posted by grn

it's funny, people have their minds made up what they want to do, but come on this board asking for permission... there's no rules... do what you want and know is right

well....

give me a *little* slack here. I am trying to bend the rules and had the answer been "about 50% of club owners will trash your cd before listening to it if there are more than 3 songs on it" then...

[Gorty]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

well....

"about 50% of club owners will trash your cd before listening to it if there are more than 3 songs on it" then...

I think if your CD had 10 songs on it the club owner is still going to have a listen if he is remotely interested in booking your band, not necesarily all 10, but I can't see a club owner not booking a band because they had too many songs on their demo.

The idea of say having your 3 best songs on there is that when and if he does give it a listen he will hear at least some of your better material as apposed to randomly picking track 7 and hearing one of your tunes that might not really capture what your band is about.

I dont think there would be too many club owners (unless musos themselves) out there that would listen too all 3 tracks on a CD even if they were all around 1 or 2 mins in duration.

Don't put to much time and energy into worrying about song numbers and duration, JUST PUT YOUR BEST 3-4 TRACKS on there, package it up professionally, with band contacts and address eg e-mail, ph no, etc.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[grn]

win them over with your charm...

[FALKEN]

Originally Posted by grn

win them over with your charm...

shit, im doomed.

[gullyjewelz]

unfortunateley, charm has a LOT to do wit it. i have talked to people till i was blue in the face and got no where. i got someone else to come back at those same people a day later and got the damm gig!!!!