Band Tips – Why Demos Should Stay That Way

So from time to time bands ask me to record them some demos to help book shows with. They will say something like “we just want to lay down a few tracks, something we can put up online to promote the band and get some gigs with, you know, 4 – 6 songs so people get a good overview of what we play. They don’t need to be a high-end production as we can only afford a day or so in the studio, so just some demos to start with”.

But to do this is a massive mistake, as quality is so much more important than quantity!

If you are sending your band’s music to venue’s, booking agents, or sharing it online in any way to help get the ball rolling and start playing your first shows, then sending out demo quality material is a bloody great way to get over-looked. Even tho you have recorded 4-6 songs to show off your repertoire, it’s pretty unlikely the booking agent is going to listen to all of them. What they are more realistically going to do, is listen the first 30 seconds to a minute and if they’re not impressed will then skip onto the next email on their long list of bands that have sent them music also looking for gigs.

Here are some truths, agents don’t have time to listen to every song sent through by every band. They simply want to open up the email or link, hit play and straight away hear something that sounds epic and professional. Something that says to the agent, we sound amazing, know what we’re doing and take it seriously. They don’t want to listen through 4 or 5 demo quality recordings, trust me.

So instead of recording a bunch of demos, use that same day or so you were going to record 4-6 songs with and then put that same amount of time and energy into recording 1 song…. maybe 2. This way you won’t be sending out a demo that just gets lost and overlooked in a sea of bands and music all trying to get some attention. This way when ole mate booking agent opens up your email and the link to your music, they can hear straight away you absolutely f@#king rock and that you have quality recordings to promote your gigs with and entice your friends and punters to come along to the show to see you perform. They’ll also get that if you can nail these one or two songs you have sent them, then no doubt all your other tunes will be just as great.

So remember, demos are exactly that, demos. Recording demos is a great thing to do but use them the hone your craft with, to try out new martial and work on ideas with. But please don’t send them to booking agents and post them online. Only send out truly epic recordings and share your music once you have captured it sounding as amazing as you can. After all, that’s how you want to represent what you do right?

I absolutely guarantee you will end up getting way more shows and replies from booking agents if you approach things this way.

Thanks for reading my rambles…

Milla