Craigslist

[Fred Coulter]

After reading a bunch of the musician advertisements on Craigslist, I got fed up last night and posted the following to the Daytona Beach and the Orlando Craigslists. If you agree, post it other places. Bad Craigslist advertisements are annoying.

Advice for musician listings

Come on folks. Do a better job with Craigslist.

If you're a musician looking for a band, include a demo on your Craigslist ad. You can use an audio service, but given how good studios are nowadays, it could be so processed it doesn't actually represent you. I wouldn't trust it as a live performance. Make a video of your music. Use a camera with a decent microphone. (The video itself isn't that important.) Post it to YouTube. You can make it a private video if you don't want the whole world to see it. Show us what you can do. Don't make this the greatest music video ever, with lots of cuts. You're trying to show what you sound like, in a trustworthy fashion. (And if you're interested in multiple styles, make multiple videos and multiple ads.)

Video cameras with good microphones are cheap. Zoom makes a couple. Samson makes some. I'm sure there are others. Check out the full line online music stores and see what they're selling. Don't use your significant other's cell phone. And use a tripod. You shouldn't be trying for art. You're trying for reality.

If you're a band looking for a musician, don't just say "need a zither player." Again, make a video of the type of music that's just demanding a zither to make it complete. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither)

And if you're a band looking for gigs, same thing. If you want to get booked, show them what you can do.

Include the link to your YouTube page, or to the playlist for the specific genre, or whatever. Don't make people search for you. If it's too much work, they'll just go somewhere else.

Finally, Craigslist advertisements are FREE. Rather than making a single ad saying that you're a classical guitarist looking for restaurant work who also plays screaming death metal leads and is looking for a band, make two ads. The restaurants will see one, while the bands looking for a lead guitarist will look at the other. Right now, it's likely that no one will read your ad because one of the two things you do is not what they're interested in. Focus.

(This post is in the public domain. If you agree, feel free to share it to other Craigslist sites. And if you don't, tough. )

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Good advice, if a bit strong with the whack-'em-over-the-head-with-common-sense approach.

Personally, I never look at musicians' listings on Craigslist, just equipment-for-sale listings.

 

[Fred Coulter]

At some point I want to play out. I'm watching Craigslist -- actually having it send me listings of ads -- to see what the market is like.

What I read is that musicians are not taking themselves seriously. No wonder they starve.

 

[Fred Coulter]

As for decent video of musicians, my daughter's found that most microphones on video cameras overload when she sings. (Welcome to the world of classical vocalists. They're trained to outsing an orchestra.)

So for her upcoming birthday, I'm thinking about this for her: https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/video-recording/zoom-q2n-handy-video-recorder Basically a microphone with a built in camera. It's supposed to handle rock bands, so it should handle her. Tiny little camera.

Like I said in the ad, there are inexpensive music oriented video cameras out there.

 

[Galipote]

Really good advice for practical work search and/or for stablished act looking for a member.... But, Sometimes we are in the proverbial chicken or the egg causality dilemma.
How a video/track can be recorded if what we have is an open proposition for collaboration, a new band, a musician looking for new non specific horizon?
I agree with your good advice, just mentioning some exceptions for a Craigslist add with not video.

Thank you