Top Tips – Tips for skint musicians!

Tips from the excellent site for skint musicians! www.MoneySavingExpert.com .

One of the most common questions I am asked is, how to we get a record deal?

I have worked for the past 15 years with Sony BMG and EMI but the ‘rules’ apply to pretty much all labels. To be honest, there is a lot of luck involved, fitting into the box of current trend helps a lot. What I find frustrating (from a musician point of view) is that ability to play well is pretty low in the list (studio engineers and session musicians fill in the gaps), being what will sell is number 1. So, if you need to change style to fit the trend, that’s something to think about (sadly). Surprisingly getting the deal isn’t the hardest part, keeping it is, so many bands are signed and dropped because they just don’t sell enough. Or, the label will work you to death for a year or so, flood the market with you, make their money and drop you like a ton of bricks when they want to move onto the next money making machine. Which is when true passion and ability comes in because if you’re able enough you can work as a session muso and not be tied to a particular band and will work a lot more.

But, my main tip would be, get a decent demo. You can often find recording studios which you can hire at a fairly cheap rate. Only book studio time for actual recording, all rehearsal should be done somewhere cheap like rehearsal rooms or even at home. before you book for recording, hire some mics and monitors, learn how to mic up the instruments yourself, get an idea of what sounds best for you and your band. use monitors, discover what you want to hear, most musicians have their own needs and it’s so important to find that out before recording because you will waste so much time if you get into the studio only to find that you can’t hear what you need to.

Decide if you will be playing the track live or much more commonly playing each track individually. Usually drums first then bass, guitars, keys, vocals, bvs. I would certainly invest the money into getting a professional engineer to mix the track. It’s false economy to pay the bloke up the road who has a bit of a studio in his bedroom unless he has a good record of getting demos sounding tip top. remember the engineer is a key part of the band. he is the guy who makes you sound good or truly awful, mixing is an artform and it takes experience and a great set of ears to be able to do it well. So, shop around, listen to what he has produced and never use someone because they are cheaper.

Another thought on the above article, is that if you want to put an instant stop to your musical aspirations, put a crap demo on your myspace. No one will take your band seriously again.