Recording for FREE/Promotional purposes. What's your opinion?

RCW

RCW

Member
Mar 6, 2009
71
0
6
Kentucky
Hey everyone,

I am thinking about doing a promotional offer in my home town. I would be offering to record one free song for any band until march 15th. I have listed below what I would require in order to do this...

Here are the requirements:
-Must be a local band.
-Must be a standard full band song (drums, bass, guitar, vocals, etc...)
-Must record to a click/tempo track (very few exceptions to this...)
-Must be willing to make arrangements with my schedule.
-Must be a song I feel is worth the effort. This basically means you need to have your stuff together. No writing parts in the studio and no poor musicianship.

Let me know how you guys feel about this kind of thing. Anyone ever done anything like this? Obviously, I would selectively screen who I would record so I wouldn't end up recording 13 year olds who wrote an instrumental song 2 days ago on shit equipment. I really just want opinions and suggestions on how I could improve this idea. Even other promotional ideas would be great for mention. I haven't already made this offer yet because I wanted to get opinions before I do. Also, keep in mind my town is relatively small. So I won't be flooded with requests.

Throw it all out there. Let's get some discussion rolling here.

Thanks!
Rory
 
I was going to be doing this, but I should be working with a band soon (and they are paying me).

My only problem is that you have a lot of requirements. I know it's free and because of this, people should be willing to do what you want...but I think bands might not realise the value of the service that you are offering. For example, they see that it is free and then might think, "Well is it free because it's not going to give us a professional sound? Why should we have to do what this guy says."

I'm not saying that you are not going to give the bands a good quality sound. I'm actually struggling to explain :lol:. I dunno how to say it.

Another thing is that might be a good idea getting used to bands that can't play well. I mean this would be a realistic experience. And you will learn more about editing the crap out of timing.

Still it is a good idea. I just reckon that maybe you should back off with the requirements. I can't explain why...

Good luck anyway!
:kickass:
 
Rick May said:
I was going to be doing this, but I should be working with a band soon (and they are paying me).

My only problem is that you have a lot of requirements. I know it's free and because of this, people should be willing to do what you want...but I think bands might not realise the value of the service that you are offering. For example, they see that it is free and then might think, "Well is it free because it's not going to give us a professional sound? Why should we have to do what this guy says."

I'm not saying that you are not going to give the bands a good quality sound. I'm actually struggling to explain :lol:. I dunno how to say it.

Another thing is that might be a good idea getting used to bands that can't play well. I mean this would be a realistic experience. And you will learn more about editing the crap out of timing.

Still it is a good idea. I just reckon that maybe you should back off with the requirements. I can't explain why...

Good luck anyway!
:kickass:
Click to expand...

I can sort of understand the no requirements. The reason I added them though is because I KNOW I would get a shit ton of requests to record shit I have no interest in doing. Everything from terrible rap to "billy joe wrote an acoustic song once in the fifth grade and we wanna record now 8 years later... he ain't practiced much but i think he's got real good talent considerin he's been in jail the last two years."

haha sorry I sort of went on with that last one but I truely would get some absurd shit come into my studio.
 
RCW said:
I can sort of understand the no requirements. The reason I added them though is because I KNOW I would get a shit ton of requests to record shit I have no interest in doing. Everything from terrible rap to "billy joe wrote an acoustic song once in the fifth grade and we wanna record now 8 years later... he ain't practiced much but i think he's got real good talent considerin he's been in jail the last two years."

haha sorry I sort of went on with that last one but I truely would get some absurd shit come into my studio.
Click to expand...

Yeah man I understand that. Totally.

I guess it's just a case of filtering out the shit but trying not to filter out everything.:p
 
If you cut down on the requirements, when bands get in touch and you don't think they meet your criteria... just say you've had a lot of requests and you're picking through them or something.
 
RCW said:
"billy joe wrote an acoustic song once in the fifth grade and we wanna record now 8 years later... he ain't practiced much but i think he's got real good talent considerin he's been in jail the last two years."

haha sorry I sort of went on with that last one but I truely would get some absurd shit come into my studio.
Click to expand...

Damn, that was awesome. And I think I've met Billy once or twice.

But yeah man, don't work for free. Just charge a small amount at first so you can get your name out there if you don't think anyone will pay you what you want yet. I think your requirements are fine, just explain to the bands that you want to do things this way because you think it will give the best result. If you're doing this for promotional purposes anyways, you do want to at least end up with a good quality recording to promote your services.
 
I think you're going the wrong way around it.

Don't offer a free song to ANY band that wants it. Get a few of the bigger bands in the area to do it, guys who:
Are popular in the area.
Can actually play their shit.
Have decent gear.
Have previous recording experience.
Are willing to put the work in.
Have money. (I'll explain why this is important later)

Offer them a day or two of recording for free in exchange for putting your studio page into their myspace top friends and telling everyone where they recorded their new song. Also make it clear they HAVE TO have fresh strings on the guitars, new drum heads (make sure they buy decent ones), guitars setup etc. If they aren't paying for studio time then they should be able to afford this. Don't let them in to record until this is all done

Now comes the hard part.
Make this recording kick the absolute living shit out of anything the studio's in your area are putting out, better than any local band's cd. Make it awesome!

Do this for a few of the bigger bands around town, if all goes well then hopefully:
1. The bands you gave the free recording will be back for an E.P./Album (this is why the bands needed to have money, no point giving a free recording to a band who's never going to be able to come back and pay)
2. Other local bands will hear your amazing mix and begin queing up to record with you.
 
Trevoire520 said:
I think you're going the wrong way around it.

Don't offer a free song to ANY band that wants it. Get a few of the bigger bands in the area to do it, guys who:
Are popular in the area.
Can actually play their shit.
Have decent gear.
Have previous recording experience.
Are willing to put the work in.
Have money. (I'll explain why this is important later)

Offer them a day or two of recording for free in exchange for putting your studio page into their myspace top friends and telling everyone where they recorded their new song. Also make it clear they HAVE TO have fresh strings on the guitars, new drum heads (make sure they buy decent ones), guitars setup etc. If they aren't paying for studio time then they should be able to afford this. Don't let them in to record until this is all done

Now comes the hard part.
Make this recording kick the absolute living shit out of anything the studio's in your area are putting out, better than any local band's cd. Make it awesome!

Do this for a few of the bigger bands around town, if all goes well then hopefully:
1. The bands you gave the free recording will be back for an E.P./Album (this is why the bands needed to have money, no point giving a free recording to a band who's never going to be able to come back and pay)
2. Other local bands will hear your amazing mix and begin queing up to record with you.
Click to expand...

I really like your idea and the way you have layed it out. I believe I will try this and see how it goes. Pretty much everything you said made sense. Now that I think about it I'm sure this would cause much less drama and frustration in the end for myself. Thanks for all the help, support, and ideas.

If anyone else has done anything similar to promote themselves please post it here. I am really interested in methods of promotion. I plan on making some business cards soon. I also thought about offering a recording session or two for a battle of the bands type thing.

Once again THANKS!
 
you know how musicians are (being one myself... ;-) )) if you give em something for free -> next time they come back to you they want YOU to pay THEM for recording their next album in YOUR studio.... ;-)

but actually i did the same in the past. its better to work with bands that you think have potential for getting your name out.
but true : work at least for a little money (50$ a day or so)
or better : let the band buy you equipment, that you both use for this session // track you'll be working on. (i did that in the past and it worked pretty good)
 
Not threadjacking, but I'm gonna be recording some friends of mine in the next month or so.

They're not keen on using a click but I said I insist on it. I'm using the whole "it'll sound more professional and tighter if played to a click" but I'm needing more reasons to convince them it's the best for them and for me. I told them that they wanna try and get the tightest playing possible. Part of me thinks that recording them live and then recording them individually might show them a huge difference, but I ain't got the time for that.
 
Tell them if they don't record to a click they can't punch in and have to play the whole song perfectly all the way through. If they still insist, they will soon realize it's impossible when you are stopping them after the first 3 notes over and over again saying "this chord is out of tune we need to punch it in separately" and "your g string is buzzing during that riff we need to tape it off and punch it in".

Recording without a click is a nightmare if you intend to end up with a professional product :/ especially the way kids play these days (BADLY)
 
Cheers man, I appreciate the input :)

I'll mention that to them. Told them to get practising with a click.
 
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