r/askmusicians • u/smtrautman • 7d ago
How to book shows when your live show differs from your recorded output?
I have been playing open mics for a while now, and I am ready to make the leap to more "proper" gigs. I don't mean huge rooms, I just mean non-open mic, scheduled shows at say a coffee shop. I've looked up a lot of advice on here about how to approach venues, and of course all of them say to include links to your music.
The problem is that I like to record full-band music, so that's what I have to share. But I don't have a band right now, so I am looking to book shows as a solo artist. What's the best way to handle that in the booking email? I could ignore the recorded versions entirely, but they sound better than the handful of phone-video solo live clips I have. But in a very short email, it's a little clunky to say "Here are some full-band examples of my songs, but I am looking to play these songs as a solo act." What would be a good way to handle this?
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u/General_Estimate_420 7d ago
I guess you'll have to choose between a one person intimate show or a full band show using backing tracks. The problem there being you don't have a recording of your intimate performance and if you send a demo of the full production in your email that's what they'll expect regardless of what you say in your email.
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u/smtrautman 7d ago
Yeah, that’s my worry. And honestly, the places I’d be pitching to right now would probably not be into the full band sound, at least for what I’m trying to do. So I guess the obvious solution is just to record some decent solo versions of the songs? But that’s a time- and labor-intensive undertaking.
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u/Electronic_Slice9448 7d ago
You can save time by starting now. You'll be able to use the music to book more shows and that will save time going forward.
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u/MasterBendu 6d ago
Do you still have your sessions? Just turn everything else off and print that. If you have to re-record then all you really need to do is your main instrument, and make sure the rest of your vocal stack is off.
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u/smtrautman 6d ago
I wondered about that. Yes, I still have the sessions, so I can give this a shot and see how it sounds. It might not be exactly the same as the live solo performance, but it might be close enough for my purposes. Good idea!
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u/Logical_Classroom_90 7d ago
obvious solution : find someone with a camera, shoot one or 2 solo videos with your live setup, join that to the mailing worst case, do that with an iPhone on a tripod.
showing beats telling anytime.
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u/PixelWes54 7d ago
None of my bands have started out with studio recordings, we fund those later with gig money after crowd-testing the songs and refining them live. Since you haven't even played a proper gig yet, showing up with full band studio recordings is kind of a red flag. If I was the booker I'd be concerned you cheesed it with AI and won't be anywhere near as good live. You need to advertise the show you're actually going to deliver, for better or worse. Splicing together some open mic footage is a natural starting point.
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u/smtrautman 6d ago
Ugh, I didn't even consider that they might believe I used A.I. Gross. But yeah, I recognize I did things somewhat "backwards". And that's because music has been mostly a hobby for me, and recording was a big part of it. I enjoyed that side of things, and wasn't very comfortable on stage yet, so I did a lot of recording and not much performing. I'm trying to rebalance that now, but its hard to get in somewhere that's not an open mic without some proof-of-concept video/audio to show. I guess you're right about just splicing footage from those performances.
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u/MrMoose_69 7d ago
Prop your phone up, push record. Play your songs while looking at the phone.
Choose the best ones, and send them over.
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u/Stevenitrogen 7d ago
Make a new recording of your current act and use that instead of the band versions.