Rules of Making a Demo Tape

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Athena Reich and I'm an actress, singer, songwriter and performing arts coach here in New York City. The way you would make a demo tape is; well, first of all, nobody makes a demo tapes anymore. We make CDs now; MP3s even that you can email to people. But you're making a CD; it's all electronic and digital right now. So we don't really call them demo tapes anymore; we call them CDs or an EP which just means a CD full of just about four or five songs. First of all you want to make sure your songs are quality songs. Work really hard on crafting a really good song. Get a songwriting coach. Go to a songwriting class. Go to Open Mike's and talk to your friends. Get feedback on your songs. Make sure your songs are well-crafted before you ever spend money or invest time in making your demo CD. Second of all, are you going to do it yourself or you're going to hire and pay for a producer? If you do it yourself, that means you're going to be using your computer and using Pro Tools or some sort of you know, musical cording software and there's going to be a huge learning curve; it's going to take longer than you think. If you go to a producer route, most likely it's going to cost more than you think. This is a huge project; be prepared for, for the unknown and, and, and just you know, be prepared 'cause you need it to get it right. You don't want to waste your time. So you find a good producer. A producer is someone who knows how to record music. Make sure it's somebody who has recorded the type of music that you like. So listen to the thing that they have done in the past. Or maybe you're working with a friend whose just starting out. That's fine, but no, it will take more time. Whatever you do, know that it will take longer than you think and it, and and you know, prepare, prepare, prepare. Rehearse with your band, rehearse your songs and really think carefully about the people you choose to involve in your project."