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CD/mp3 vs live video to get a gig booking?

To get a gig, does a venue owner want to get:

  • A recording of the band (CD/mp3)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • A video of the band live at a gig

    Votes: 38 79.2%

  • Significant amounts of sweet-talk (and sugar-coated carrots)

    Votes: 10 20.8%
  • Total voters
    48
#21
Go to an open mic night, record your act with a cell phone(one that works well). Join Facebook as a band. Post the best of your videos. Direct owners/managers to your FB page. Leave a card with contact number and FB name. Keep going back and schmoozing. One gig will lead to another, keep posting videos

be the one who does the Facebook stuff, you don't want "that guy " to quit with the password
 
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#26
If, and only IF, you can get good quality sound I would go with the video. I say that because of two trusty truisms (which are truisms because they're true):

You never get a second chance to make a first impression (sound)
A picture is worth a thousand words (video)
 
#27
I'm a session player, and my busiest client is a group that produced their entire promo video in one afternoon on a sound stage. Some stuff was done live, but other stuff was lip-synched to their own prerecorded audio.
buldog5151bass said:
Video is best, so they can see the and and (hopefully) the crowd.
Click to expand...
+1.

I think @Joe Nerve's group really did an admirable job capturing the crowd vibe here:

 
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#28
I wouldn't waste any time and money with recording, audio or video, with the music style, age and kind of gigs the OP's going after.

Ringing phones, knocking on doors, and/or networking will get it done. And when you get in front of the decision maker, ask for the dates, and open your calendar. The likelihood of closing on a commitment goes down 80-90% if you can't painlessly walk them through said close while you're in front of them.
 
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#29
Seriously, folks, I've posted a couple of videos here recently that were just shot on iPhones and they're more than adequate to show what my bands do to anyone who might want to hire us.

We all take ourselves very seriously, as we should, but we fail to realize that the low bar we really have to achieve with most people is simply "THEY DON'T SUCK." If we can show the world that we, in fact, do not suck, they might come out to see us one night.

If we're amazing, we might do even better, but what I just said above is really all these videos are for.
 
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#30
Bass Momma said:
One member feels to get a gig booking it's important to make high quality recordings of us playing. That means buying $500+ worth of gear, not to mention going down the recording rabbit hole.
Click to expand...
If you don't sound any good on a zoom recorder set up in the room then you don't sound any good at all.
I have a zoom h1n and use it to record in all sorts of situations and as long as the input level is set right it always sounds good, or at least like it sounded in the room.
I use it at band practice, out front at gigs, shoved next to my amp at a gig(though that tends to be bass heavy) or line in from the sound desk.
The sound in this thread is the H1 just set out front on top of a cupboard.
 
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#32
LBS-bass said:
Seriously, folks, I've posted a couple of videos here recently that were just shot on iPhones and they're more than adequate to show what my bands do to anyone who might want to hire us.

We all take ourselves very seriously, as we should, but we fail to realize that the low bar we really have to achieve with most people is simply "THEY DON'T SUCK." If we can show the world that we, in fact, do not suck, they might come out to see us one night.

If we're amazing, we might do even better, but what I just said above is really all these videos are for.
Click to expand...
You're absolutely right. The thing we forget is: for non musicians, what we do is like magic:laugh:

As long as there's enough light, phone videos are good.
 
#33
Bass Momma said:
No, we're aiming at restaurant/cafe type gigs. I'm also thinking retirement communities. So small beer. We're in our 70s, so this is for musical pleasure, mainly.
Click to expand...

I agree with the folks who say that a simple modern smart phone video is good enough to get the gigs..

However, I ask you to consider this...

You're all in your 70s... wouldn't it be nice if your grandkids and great grandkids has quality video with excellent sound of their elders playing music decades down the line? It costs a little bit of money, but who cares of a few hundred bucks in the large scheme of things? 20 years from now, do you want them re-experiencing the young 70-ish you, on a smartphone video or through something better?

There's more to this than "getting the gig", right?
 
#34
longfinger said:
I agree with the folks who say that a simple modern smart phone video is good enough to get the gigs..

However, I ask you to consider this...

You're all in your 70s... wouldn't it be nice if your grandkids and great grandkids has quality video with excellent sound of their elders playing music decades down the line? It costs a little bit of money, but who cares of a few hundred bucks in the large scheme of things? 20 years from now, do you want them re-experiencing the young 70-ish you, on a smartphone video or through something better?

There's more to this than "getting the gig", right?
Click to expand...
If I had grandkids... or kids... but I don't. I think it's great to do something for them for those who do, but that's a different purpose.
 
#35
longfinger said:
I agree with the folks who say that a simple modern smart phone video is good enough to get the gigs..

However, I ask you to consider this...

You're all in your 70s... wouldn't it be nice if your grandkids and great grandkids has quality video with excellent sound of their elders playing music decades down the line? It costs a little bit of money, but who cares of a few hundred bucks in the large scheme of things? 20 years from now, do you want them re-experiencing the young 70-ish you, on a smartphone video or through something better?

There's more to this than "getting the gig", right?
Click to expand...

Grandkids and great-grandkids 20 years from now: "what's a video?"
 
#36
pepj said:
If the band sound doesnt lay down on a phone, its not going to work on a gig.
Click to expand...
My band plays heavy metal and we use phones for recording our gig, if it sounds decent on phone, then it will be decent for the audience, not really the best solution for recording such heavy tones, but pretty much works for most of the time.

Also answering the question, videos might be the best, CD/mp3 can be mixed thus it might not be the actual sound you heard during live. At least that's how our band works, if it's an audition than we'll send demos if it's live gig than videos will do the trick for whoever invites us.
It's mostly the atmosphere your band create that's essential IMHO
 
#37
YouTube video. CDs and MP3s are way gone. WAY gone.

Start with a casual video. That'll work for the types of places you're looking to play. If you guys wind up making some money down the road, spend some of it on a better video.

But, no, you do now need hundreds of dollars of equipment and countless hours spent recording tracks (especially when none of you are recording pros so the end result won't be amazing anyway). It will he a frustrating exercise at best.
 
#38
Here's a demo video I created from a friend's cell phone video recording. I edited the original recording and created this file using FinalCut Pro. In my experience iMovie or whatever movie making windows or android application will work equally well. 5 minutes or less in my opinion is what you want for demo purposes. The cost of this was just my time to produce it
 

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