Demo tapes...

[PaulB]

This question gets asked a lot. First, I think if you think you have
a problem with your voice, then you do. Sure, people can point to point to singers like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan or even Louie Armstrong. Those people were not technically good singers but
they are/were stylists. Then there are just bad, uninteresting singers. I'm in that category. Sure, I'm better than I used to be.
But that's like the bad baseball player who gets stuck in the outfield. I'd have to be a HUNDRED times better before somebody else might notice.

Sure, you can always point to somebody who got a record deal
with a bad demo. Maybe I could point to somebody who got a job
with a resume written on a bar napkin. But it's the exception rather than the rule. Most resumes are printed out nicely.

Whether people think that those in the music business SHOULD
be able to hear songs without a good singer or good demo,
is irrelevant. People are used to a higher standard because
those tools are more readily available. Heck, a songwriter
singing his song while playing the piano was enough once.
We get used to better technology quickly.

If there's ANY doubt, I think get a good singer, somebody who sounds like they could be on the radio in that format. But I would also say be SURE a song has some potential before blowing $500
on a demo. Get some feedback first from people whose opinion
you trust. Just my take.

PaulB

 

[NationalSandwic]

More and more I get the feeling that the demo tape is becoming a useless tool. When labels get demo's everyday (esp. major labels), they are only going to listen to something that is truly awesome. Probably, signings through demo tapes are on the decline. What happened to the days of touring your music, gaining a fanbase, making an independent album, and signing a record deal because of your reputation as opposed to a three- or four-track demo tape?

It IS possible to make demos that sound really really good, simply because of the technology that has become (more) widely available. But at the same time, more and more people are getting it into their heads that they want to get into The Industry..... and the proverbial medium is the demo tape.

as far as I am concerned, submitting a sub-standard demo tape (or any other form of material) is unacceptable. if you don't have enough discipline and passion about your music in order to write and record songs that are of the highest quality, then maybe you should think about why you're trying to get into this industry (of course, this is no reference to you, Bobbert! ) I am always hearing rubbish on the radio. There is a show which focuses on playing unknown bands' demo tapes, and there are very rarely any recordings that should even be NEAR to a radio. The music industry has shifted its focus to production.

"Artists" can be designed and manipulated, songwriters are employed on mass. If you want to be signed by a label nowadays (through demos, not through reputation), i think you need to show that you:

• are confident, about your music and yourself
• understand popular trends
• understand the songwriting process, with all its tricks
• have some real kind of musical proficiency and knowledge
• understand (and accept) the corporate and production aspects of the industry
• have written some awesome material, and have produced & recorded it well!

(can't think of any more right now)
OR, that you are a willing piece of putty waiting for the dirty hand to twist and pull you into place and (maybe) make millions (that, remember, they already have. No record label needs you!)

I think (and, actually, hope) that the only way to get signed as a decent band or musician is the hard way. Blood, sweat and tears stuff. I doubt R.E.M. would be as good as they are if they hadn't toured the southern US to make their bread-money; shaving with coffee 'cos there's no hot water, playing fast food joints and washing their hair in rock club sinks. Don't you get the impression that most of these nicely polished bands we see on MTV are all bunches of wimps? Music isn't about hotels and girls. That's the bottom line, for me.