General Music Chat

some good tunes in that medley, jeff.

hands down my fave has gotta be "Brick House". been awhile since i've played that one out but it always filled the dance floor and the bass IS pretty damn cool!

Sounds like a busy session Jeff. We really need to get in the studio and lay down some fresh demo tracks. My band mates are less enthusiastic about it tho. Recording always seems to take twice as long and cost 3x as much as we planned. We would not do CDs but just edit highlights for a 3 minute demo medley to have on our promo page.

I spent a year on and off producing my CD, but it was all originals. The few venues still hirig cover bands get slammed with promo packs. One manager I talked to had over 500 to wade through. Three to four of your best cuts would be enough I would imagine.

We don't even bother with promo packs anymore Bob. They get lost in a sea of noise among hundreds of others. Just a business card with a link to our promo page online. We don't play bars much but sitting down with the person who books bands and walking them through our web page on an iPad seems to work pretty well. We get a decision and some dates quickly.

Oh I see. It seems like you could do the same with video, which more people want since they get to actually see the band playing. You could also put it on YouTube, FB, etc.

That IS a press kit these days.

I haven't had a promo pack since the 90s. Press photos/reviews and music are all on the website now, and if anyone wants to check me out, I give them a business card with the website address.

Jeff, my guess is that prospective customers would rather hear what those cover songs sound like "live" and how an audience responds. So honestly, I don't understand the purpose of recording someone else's songs? You don't own anything when it's over.

I agree Ted, in a perfect world it would make much more sense for a venue to just visit our website. Unfortunately for cover bands there are multiple reasons why you still have to have a demo. First of all you should have a good recording of what you sound like live. Secondly IMO the folks that hire bands are just plain LAZY, you have to do it for them. If you go by their place and drop off a cd talk to them face to face they feel like they at least owe you a listen. That is if you turn the charm on right! We talked about having a guy come to a gig and shoot video. Recording studio or live video it cost about the same .
Ted the cover band world is a different animal from the original world. It is still very reputation based but first you have to build the reputation and the fact is that takes about a year of frustration, patient, and heartache! We have done our year and I look forward to 2016!