Demos
How do you let people know about your music before you have a release? What if you have a varied sound? What does demo mean?
Demo
~n
A recording made to demonstrate the capabilities of a musical group or performer or as preparation for a full recording:'We recorded a three-song demo'
It used to be that bands/artists would record a few tracks on a tape or CD, duplicate them themselves and then send them off to magazines, promoters and record labels in the hope that their s would get listened to and they'd get a review/gig/record deal. You'd also make a rough demo of new songs for your label so they could see what the album might be like and that the producer would have a reference to go from.
Then technology advanced, the internet arrived and most people had (or had access to) computers. MySpace came along and you could upload 4 songs as mp3s, add some photos and collect 'friends'. You could even send a link to your MySpace in an email - how radical!
Physical demos were still used, although tapes were now obsolete (I bet some hipsters love them but they'd be hard pushed to find anyone with a tape player!) Briefly, USB sticks were used to send files over. the problem was, although you could add files of photos and bios etc, they were small so you had to compress the music a lot and hardly fit anything on there.
There was even a phase of using tiny CDs that fitted into the middle section of a CD drawer - if you tried to put one of those into a mac CD drive, you'd never get it out again!
Things got simple again and soundcloud/mixcloud made life easy for musicians. With SoundCloud, you can upload tracks, set privacy settings (do you really want the whole world to hear your rough versions?!) and share links wherever you like. And with MixCloud, you can upload longer tracks; ideal for DJs trying to get work.
Facebook allows you to make an artist page with a music player although you might not want to have demo's up there as it's such a public forum.
But where is the first place you'd look now if you wanted to find to more about an act? And do you have the attention span needed to sit and listen to just music with no visuals?!
YouTube trailers - linking into film terminology since music has become more multimedia. More and more people are making a 'trailer' of their music, with moving image, showing a much broader 'demo' of what they do, partly because music is so much more than just music these days. If you are working on a project but don't have anything fully finished, you can mash up your files to make a trailer of what kind of sounds might be expected, and a trailer for an album also works as a very effective marketing tool before any full singles have been released.
How much does it all cost? these days, it shouldn't really cost you anything - you don't even need to buy blank CDs!
Collaborate- double exposure if you have a film making friend as they can use your demo and part of their showreel.
Free stock footage
Useful stop-motion software for iPhone
TASK: How can you 'Demo' your music? Create a plan on your blog
For you Unit 8 assignment, you need to find 3 ways to present yourself and your work. So far we have looked at applications/interviews, creative CVs and now demos. Please ensure that you have started work on this....we only have one more to look at.
Demo
~n
A recording made to demonstrate the capabilities of a musical group or performer or as preparation for a full recording:'We recorded a three-song demo'
It used to be that bands/artists would record a few tracks on a tape or CD, duplicate them themselves and then send them off to magazines, promoters and record labels in the hope that their s would get listened to and they'd get a review/gig/record deal. You'd also make a rough demo of new songs for your label so they could see what the album might be like and that the producer would have a reference to go from.
Then technology advanced, the internet arrived and most people had (or had access to) computers. MySpace came along and you could upload 4 songs as mp3s, add some photos and collect 'friends'. You could even send a link to your MySpace in an email - how radical!
Physical demos were still used, although tapes were now obsolete (I bet some hipsters love them but they'd be hard pushed to find anyone with a tape player!) Briefly, USB sticks were used to send files over. the problem was, although you could add files of photos and bios etc, they were small so you had to compress the music a lot and hardly fit anything on there.
There was even a phase of using tiny CDs that fitted into the middle section of a CD drawer - if you tried to put one of those into a mac CD drive, you'd never get it out again!
Things got simple again and soundcloud/mixcloud made life easy for musicians. With SoundCloud, you can upload tracks, set privacy settings (do you really want the whole world to hear your rough versions?!) and share links wherever you like. And with MixCloud, you can upload longer tracks; ideal for DJs trying to get work.
Facebook allows you to make an artist page with a music player although you might not want to have demo's up there as it's such a public forum.
But where is the first place you'd look now if you wanted to find to more about an act? And do you have the attention span needed to sit and listen to just music with no visuals?!
YouTube trailers - linking into film terminology since music has become more multimedia. More and more people are making a 'trailer' of their music, with moving image, showing a much broader 'demo' of what they do, partly because music is so much more than just music these days. If you are working on a project but don't have anything fully finished, you can mash up your files to make a trailer of what kind of sounds might be expected, and a trailer for an album also works as a very effective marketing tool before any full singles have been released.
How much does it all cost? these days, it shouldn't really cost you anything - you don't even need to buy blank CDs!
Collaborate- double exposure if you have a film making friend as they can use your demo and part of their showreel.
Free stock footage
Useful stop-motion software for iPhone
TASK: How can you 'Demo' your music? Create a plan on your blog
For you Unit 8 assignment, you need to find 3 ways to present yourself and your work. So far we have looked at applications/interviews, creative CVs and now demos. Please ensure that you have started work on this....we only have one more to look at.
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