Original Band wants to record a (vanity) CD but has little to no money to spend!.....

[QuinnsTunes]

Get your best song. Your single one best song.

 

Find someone to record it for you. The guy who said he'd do it for a "piece of it" sounds like a good mark.

 

Then make a video. Take the video, of your song (hopefully you're creative or have friends with cameras that can make something interesting), and put it on YouTube.

 

Now spend the next 3 months that you would spend polishing up your remaining material doing nothing but promoting the living {censored} out of your video on YouTube.

 

If at the end of that 3 months you don't have a clear and logical next step in the whole matter, you probably should just record your songs on a camcorder or Zoom H4 and burn discs for you and your friends to enjoy, and go from there.

[SpaceNorman]

It's admirable that everybody is coming up with helpful suggestions for the OP - however, I can't help but wonder what sort of responses we'd be giving the OP if we were to apply the identical title to something other than music? Say something like "my friends and I want a new car ... but don't have any money". Or maybe, my wife and I want a new house ..... but we don't have any money.

 

The anwer here is pretty simple - start wishing for some {censored} you can afford - or prioritize your expenditures so that the {censored} you want gets your financial attention. If your can't do that or perhaps more accurately stated - you won't do that - you don't truly want the {censored} you claim to want.

[TIMKEYS]

 

It's admirable that everybody is coming up with helpful suggestions for the OP - however, I can't help but wonder what sort of responses we'd be giving the OP if we were to apply the identical title to something other than music? Say something like "my friends and I want a new car ... but don't have any money". Or maybe, my wife and I want a new house ..... but we don't have any money. The anwer here is pretty simple - start wishing for some {censored} you can afford - or prioritize your expenditures so that the {censored} you want gets your financial attention. If your can't do that or perhaps more accurately stated - you won't do that - you don't truly want the {censored} you claim to want.

 

 

 

I play for an established singer songwriter. He plays a mixture of 80 percent covers and 10 percent originals and 10 percent requests so he can put out his CDs. Why are you not willing to do the same? Are you so awsome that doing that is below you?

[SLScott86]

 

I play for an established singer songwriter. He plays a mixture of 80 percent covers and 10 percent originals and 10 percent requests so he can put out his CDs. Why are you not willing to do the same? Are you so awsome that doing that is below you?

 

 

Getting band covers up to snuff is a lot of work for an original band, and preparing sets of primarily covers is a distraction from creating original music. You can't play covers at an original venue unless you knock them out of the park. It's not necessarily a bad way to go, but you have to double your commitment if you want to keep progressing at the same pace with your originals. And again, if you aren't GREAT on those covers, even at a bar, nobody will pay attention to your originals. They'll just clear the floor and buy a drink.

 

That said, I think the $99 USB interface is the way to go if your friend isn't going to help you out. You can do the tape thing, but I don't think it's really any cheaper anymore- just less flexible.

[Lee Knight]

It's admirable that everybody is coming up with helpful suggestions for the OP - however, I can't help but wonder what sort of responses we'd be giving the OP if we were to apply the identical title to something other than music? Say something like "my friends and I want a new car ... but don't have any money". Or maybe, my wife and I want a new house ..... but we don't have any money. The anwer here is pretty simple - start wishing for some {censored} you can afford - or prioritize your expenditures so that the {censored} you want gets your financial attention. If your can't do that or perhaps more accurately stated - you won't do that - you don't truly want the {censored} you claim to want.

 

Well, there is that...

 

But still, a good recording can be costly. I recommend barter with a talented upstart. "Win Win" and all that.

[MartinC]

If my band had no gigs and no prospects, I wouldn't spend the hundreds of hours required to record a cd, much less spend the money required. Why would you?

 

 

.....ideas? My original band has enough originals for a CD, but there are several problems. One is that, as an original band, we have no gigs, and there are no places in our area that features original bands, at least for paying gigs. So, that causes two more problems. Without paying gigs, we have no money to spend to record and produce and distribute and CD, and not only that, without gigs we have no potential customers for the CDs anyway! None of us have much money to pay for recording so we have to figure out something else! We could, as I discussed in a prior thread, learn a bunch of covers and play cover gigs and save the money and possibly have enough to record in a year or so. Barring that option, are there any other ways for a broke non-gigging original band to record what would basically be a vanity CD on the cheap? Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[SLScott86]

 

If my band had no gigs and no prospects, I wouldn't spend the hundreds of hours required to record a cd, much less spend the money required. Why would you?

 

 

Do you propose something better? Seems to me that time not gigging is the prefect time to record.

[3shiftgtr]

Lotsa good ideas posted. Try this in addition to some of the others; it's kind of a personal crowd funding.

 

Have a fund the CD party. Have a budget, and a donation thermometer and a list of the stuff you will need to buy (recording gear or studio time) to make the recording. (NOTE: buy the recording gear! I saw a used Roland VS2400 on CL yesterday for $500! Add a couple used mics, and your in business for less than 1K!) Get EVERYTHING you use for the party donated: pa, stage, lights, people to help etc. Use every personal resource you can think of and don't be shy about asking; every band that has made it has made it on the (green) backs of the people closest to them. And make it THE event of the whatever. Get guest comedians, cloggers, mimes, anything.....offering (donated) alcohol will help.

 

Put everybody who got involved in any way on your customer list.

 

Tell the folks that for their donations, they will get free downloads of the DEMOS as they are produced, well as the finished product, and the folks that donate more than $xxxx will get a free cd and whatever else you want to give them. Sending the demos gives you a reason to contact them, keep your band 'top of mind', and it keeps them "on the inside" of the goings on in your really cool band.

 

But here's the rub. You have to really really really believe in your music. If you don't feel it is ready yet and just want to record, save your bones, and get a cheap used recorder and a couple cheap used mics, and make a demo and give it away to pals.

 

And there ya go.

 

One band I know of did this in the 90's and made close to 2k.

 

EDIT: And guess what? Now you have the beginnings of a group of people who will pay to come see you.....

[chadd]

 

I agree. We're a five piece band and I have the strong feeling that three of us out of the five will not want to learn and play covers. I was just thinking ahead, but maybe they'll prove me wrong!

 

That's a shame because a lot of bands got their start playing covers and added in original material as they went along. I really don't get the no-cover stance that so many people are taking these days. It usually ends up limiting their ability to grow and imparts significant constraints at the earliest stages of career development.

[BATCAT]

That's a shame because a lot of bands got their start playing covers and added in original material as they went along. I really don't get the no-cover stance that so many people are taking these days. It usually ends up limiting their ability to grow and imparts significant constraints at the earliest stages of career development.

 

I don't think it's gererally no covers stance people have. I think it's that to play the average venue that typically has original rock music, you need one set, maybe 30-60 minutes of music. Typical cover bands will do three or four sets. When your main focus is writing (which can be a lot of work and very time consuming) you might not want to take the time and effort to learn to play, say, thirty more songs (well!), when that's not even your main goal.

 

I love doing covers- I've played hundreds live despite never having been in a cover band myself. But I'm not going to learn (and make my band learn) 2-3 hours of covers so we can go play a totally different circuit where it's unlikely anyone will even enjoy any of our original stuff.

[MartinC]

Better? Yeah, don't do it. I mean, to create a product for which there is little prospect to promote by doing gigs seems like a drain of time and money. Gigs sell cd's. The op is in a tough spot because he is in a market that doesn't support original music. If you can't get gigs, how do you expect to sell the product? If everyone involved simply loves the music and wants to document it for themselves and whoever, that's great. Or, if they want to use the recording to get the band off the ground, that's cool too, but come on, in that case you need some investment from someone. The Op says that there is no money to record because they aren't gigging. I'd get the group gigging steady, no matter how, and have people asking to buy recordings first, if at all possible. 50-100 gigs and the arrangements, the performances. and the songs will most likely undergo a lot of changes for the better.

 

 

 

 

Do you propose something better? Seems to me that time not gigging is the prefect time to record.

 

[Consume]

 

.....ideas? My original band has enough originals for a CD, but there are several problems. One is that, as an original band, we have no gigs, and there are no places in our area that features original bands, at least for paying gigs. So, that causes two more problems. Without paying gigs, we have no money to spend to record and produce and distribute and CD, and not only that, without gigs we have no potential customers for the CDs anyway! None of us have much money to pay for recording so we have to figure out something else! We could, as I discussed in a prior thread, learn a bunch of covers and play cover gigs and save the money and possibly have enough to record in a year or so. Barring that option, are there any other ways for a broke non-gigging original band to record what would basically be a vanity CD on the cheap? Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

 

 

Since your band isn't playing out, who do you think is going to want your CD? IF you aren't playing out, then you basically have no audience., which means virtually ZERO CD sales.

 

My brother plays in a cover band, but they are also an original band, but they play cover gigs and have a box of CD's by their Tip bucket and when somebody gives them a tip, they can take a CD - people regularly give them $5 tips, and it isn't uncommon for them to pull in more money per night via their tips than the bar is actually paying.

 

Start playing covers.

25% of the money made goes for gas for the gig.

75% goes into a recording fund.

Play every gig you can get. Throw in your originals and keep your mouth shut about them being originals. People have this idiotic and immature need to stroke their ego's by announcing "WE wrote this song!" just throw them in and don't say a word about them being original, after a while people will get used to hearing them, and you will even get requests for them if they are good..

 

You'll be able to record a CD in no time, AND here comes the best part - you will actually have people who are interested in owning it!!

 

If it were me, since I am a D.I.Y. kind of guy - I would buy one of the Mackie ONYX 16x4 Firewire Mixers, a brand new laptop, some quality Microphones and cables, and decent recording software.

Then you could record it yourselves.

The key is making sure things sound great before you ever record anything.

 

Get the CD's pressed and buy a SPINDLE of them (you can get $1,000 CD's for about $500 - $600 bucks on the spindle) do the booklet layout yourself, and have a local print shop print the tray cards and booklets. then have a "CD party, where the band and friends assemble the CD cases with tray cards and booklets and CD's - just make an assembly line.) The Cd manufacturers actually make their money on the printing - they typically charge 3+ times the actual cost for the printed materials.

 

Also depending upon the type of music you play, for example - if you are punk - that is easy to sell, because Punks are always looking for new bands - sell them in the classified section of punk rock mags like Maximum Rock N Roll, and online.

 

It can be done, but you really need to start playing covers, just like the rest of us.

[Consume]

I don't think it's gererally no covers stance people have. I think it's that to play the average venue that typically has original rock music, you need one set, maybe 30-60 minutes of music. Typical cover bands will do three or four sets. When your main focus is writing (which can be a lot of work and very time consuming) you might not want to take the time and effort to learn to play, say, thirty more songs (well!), when that's not even your main goal. I love doing covers- I've played hundreds live despite never having been in a cover band myself. But I'm not going to learn (and make my band learn) 2-3 hours of covers so we can go play a totally different circuit where it's unlikely anyone will even enjoy any of our original stuff.

 

 

 

I guess it is a matter of how bad do you want to play out... locally (Jacksonville, FL) all original acts a relegated to playing with about 4 to 6 bands on one bill with a bunch of other original bands. Or there's "Deathmetal night" where they pack like 10 Extreme metal bands on one bill. None of these bands even make enough money to cover gas to the gig.

 

While cover bands usually pull in at least $300 to $400 per night and a bar tab even at crappy bars. So it is a no-brainer for me. A month of those gigs will pay for recording and producing a CD if that is your goal.

 

What my band is doing is working on covers, and then when we start playing out - our band practices will then be devoted to working on a few new covers per month, as well as working out original material.

Our goal is to actually start our own "Metal" label/production company and this is how we intend to fund it.

[Consume]

 

Better? Yeah, don't do it... I'd get the group gigging steady, no matter how, and have people asking to buy recordings first, if at all possible. 50-100 gigs and the arrangements, the performances. and the songs will most likely undergo a lot of changes for the better.

 

 

 

^^^^ THIS! + 1,000,000,000!!

Other than stroking your ego - there is no point in producing a CD - they would be better off if they recorded their best songs, and sent hired somebody to shop them to a few labels.

[Consume]

 

That's a shame because a lot of bands got their start playing covers and added in original material as they went along. I really don't get the no-cover stance that so many people are taking these days. It usually ends up limiting their ability to grow and imparts significant constraints at the earliest stages of career development.

 

 

Ahem. The Beatles come to mind immediately.

[BATCAT]

 

I guess it is a matter of how bad do you want to play out... locally (Jacksonville, FL) all original acts a relegated to playing with about 4 to 6 bands on one bill with a bunch of other original bands. Or there's "Deathmetal night" where they pack like 10 Extreme metal bands on one bill. None of these bands even make enough money to cover gas to the gig. While cover bands usually pull in at least $300 to $400 per night and a bar tab even at crappy bars. So it is a no-brainer for me. A month of those gigs will pay for recording and producing a CD if that is your goal.

 

 

Sure, you do what it takes to get shows, if playing out is important to you. It's different everywhere- here, for instance, there are copious venues that are basically all original stuff all the time, from dive bars to small clubs to bigger rooms.

 

But the OP asked Barring [learning a whole night's worth of covers], are there any other ways for a broke non-gigging original band to record what would basically be a vanity CD on the cheap?

 

...and I was just pointing out in response to the other post that brought up having a "no cover stance", that not wanting to learn three or four houses of covers isn't exactly unreasonable for a person that joined an original band with the idea that's what they'd be doing. I mean, it's essentialy starting an entire other band, with all the work involved in learning and polishing an entire night's worth of cover music. Not everybody has the time or energy to take that on, especially when it's not why they joined in the first place.

[BATCAT]

 

^^^^ THIS! + 1,000,000,000!! Other than stroking your ego - there is no point in producing a CD - they would be better off if they recorded their best songs, and sent hired somebody to shop them to a few labels.

 

 

In my experience with handling booking for an original band, it's exceedingly common for a venue's booker to want to hear music from the band they're considering booking. Now, this doesn't HAVE to be a full album. Nor does it have to be a professional recording- but it helps. That's why in most bands I've been in I like to record a real CD before doing much (if any) gigging. You already have your "demo" songs online (which is a "real" CD so it sounds a cut above) plus you have product to sell at shows, even early ones.

[New Trail]

 

Since your band isn't playing out, who do you think is going to want your CD? IF you aren't playing out, then you basically have no audience., which means virtually ZERO CD sales. My brother plays in a cover band, but they are also an original band, but they play cover gigs and have a box of CD's by their Tip bucket and when somebody gives them a tip, they can take a CD - people regularly give them $5 tips, and it isn't uncommon for them to pull in more money per night via their tips than the bar is actually paying. Start playing covers. 25% of the money made goes for gas for the gig. 75% goes into a recording fund. Play every gig you can get. Throw in your originals and keep your mouth shut about them being originals. People have this idiotic and immature need to stroke their ego's by announcing "WE wrote this song!" just throw them in and don't say a word about them being original, after a while people will get used to hearing them, and you will even get requests for them if they are good.. You'll be able to record a CD in no time, AND here comes the best part - you will actually have people who are interested in owning it!! If it were me, since I am a D.I.Y. kind of guy - I would buy one of the Mackie ONYX 16x4 Firewire Mixers, a brand new laptop, some quality Microphones and cables, and decent recording software. Then you could record it yourselves. The key is making sure things sound great before you ever record anything. Get the CD's pressed and buy a SPINDLE of them (you can get $1,000 CD's for about $500 - $600 bucks on the spindle) do the booklet layout yourself, and have a local print shop print the tray cards and booklets. then have a "CD party, where the band and friends assemble the CD cases with tray cards and booklets and CD's - just make an assembly line.) The Cd manufacturers actually make their money on the printing - they typically charge 3+ times the actual cost for the printed materials. Also depending upon the type of music you play, for example - if you are punk - that is easy to sell, because Punks are always looking for new bands - sell them in the classified section of punk rock mags like Maximum Rock N Roll, and online. It can be done, but you really need to start playing covers, just like the rest of us.

 

 

Amen, brother!

[kmart]

 

I guess it is a matter of how bad do you want to play out... locally (Jacksonville, FL) all original acts a relegated to playing with about 4 to 6 bands on one bill with a bunch of other original bands. Or there's "Deathmetal night" where they pack like 10 Extreme metal bands on one bill. None of these bands even make enough money to cover gas to the gig..

 

 

Sounds less like a question of how bad does one want to play out in your case, and more a question of how narrow-focus/close-minded to originals is your market:

 

Like Action Squid, I live in a market (and have lived in 3 others previous) where there are ample opportunities for all-original acts to play. And not dives, either. In fact, within the city limit, the prime gigs in terms of quality of the venue/show, are ALL originals-focused. Sure, bands play a cover or two here or there, but people don't go to those venues to hear covers; they go to hear live original music.

[Lee Knight]

 

...how narrow-focus/close-minded to originals is your market:

 

 

"(how) close-minded to originals is your market"

 

 

Exactly. ^ In LA and San Diego, you wouldn't be taken seriously as an original act if you were also a cover act. Players can regroup into cover acts. Different name, different package, and most likely different players, save a couple. That's accepted as just a player gigging. But an original act needs to be "untainted" in its perceived persona here. I'm not saying this is fair or correct. It just is. Ignoring that is silly.

 

But every area's different. So earning the studio wad from playing covers would be self defeating in this area. Maybe not in other's though.

[New Trail]

 

....In LA and San Diego, you wouldn't be taken seriously as an original act if you were also a cover act..... an original act needs to be "untainted" in its perceived persona here......

 

 

That's probably true here as well within that group of younger bands that typically have 30 minutes worth of original (typically punk) material and play multi-band shows. However, within the bar band/cover bands there are some bands who DO play some originals with their covers and they are able to make it work.

[chadd]

In the areas I've lived, there was never much of a market for an all-original band, unless you had been around for a while and built up your base.

[BATCAT]

That was the norm for a long time, the new method doesn't seem to be working any better for most people.

 

Dfferent areas have different infrastructures for bands, and to a certain extent you have to work within that.

 

In places like Seattle, Portland, SF, NYC, the opportunities, the good gigs, and the appreciative audiences for new rock bands are at venues featuring 3-4 bands a night each doing a set of mostly-original stuff. The majority of new "breaking" rock bands are coming from this structure; it is the framework you will almost certainly work within if you move to the cities above and many others. All the talk in the world about what bands wanting to sell original stuff did fourty years ago doesn't change change that.

 

If I lived somewhere with a different landscape, like the OP, and I wanted to get original stuff out there, I'd probably be doing mostly covers and mixing in originals, playing whole night, because that's what venues are booking and what audiences are expecting. Just as here I do a single set of mostly-original stuff because that's what venues are booking and audiences are expecting here.

 

How does this relate to the OP? I'm saying it's not that unreasonable to join something called an original band and to expect to be playing mostly originals.

[JailTime]

 

In the areas I've lived, there was never much of a market for an all-original band, unless you had been around for a while and built up your base.

 

 

I'd say the market is much tougher for a good originals band vs a good cover band in any US region.

[BATCAT]

 

I'd say the market is much tougher for a good originals band vs a good cover band in any US region.

 

 

The "market" doesn't even exist in the same sense. You can start a cover band and have a pretty safe bet you'll start to see some measurable profit in fairly short order. Expecting that from playing (rock) originals at the local level is unreasonable.

 

The motivations for doing each are usually somewart different.