Dear Musicians,

We get many demos from artists that have a bit of a false sense of entitlement when it comes to cruise ship jobs. Often, this entitlement comes from the fact that these entertainers have already worked on ships before and thus think that what was good enough once will always be good enough.

This is not so, unfortunately.

A typical example, would be say a trio that has worked on one particular cruise line, go home, then apply for another gig thinking that this will be nothing more than a formality, only to find out that neither their previous employer nor any other cruise line is offering them work.

There can be several reasons for this, but the most important one, and the one that applies in most cases, is the fact that your project simply isn’t as good as you think it is and most importantly, not good enough to beat out the competition.

Most cruise lines constantly assess the quality of the entertainment they are presenting on their ships at any given moment. They do so by reading guest comment cards, and relying on judgments of music director, cruise director, and hiring specialists. It’s important to realize that entertainment on cruise ships has to be dynamic so it can adapt to the changes in clientele. Consider, for example, that the average age of cruisers is actually going down. So, if the crowd is getting younger, the cruise line better make sure they provide entertainment that pleases this younger crowd.

Re-assessing and adjusting the quality of their entertainment is so much easier for cruise line when they have an abundant supply of bands and other entertainers. If you’ve been reading some of my previous posts, you know that the supply of musicians drastically outpaces the demand at the moment.
A band that no longer performs at the standard the cruise line expects them to, is now easily replaced. In the past, that may not have been the case since a lot less entertainers may have looked to cruise ships for work.

Now, it’s not always easy to figure out if it is the quality of your band that has slipped, or if the cruise line has raised their quality standard without communicating this to their entertainers. As a matter of fact, I believe that many cruise lines don’t do a good job at explaining what it is that they’re looking for now that they have not been looking for in the past. Often, ex-employees, could easily update their project and bring up the quality level if they were told what it is that they need to work on.

A solution to this would be to find an agent that’s up-to-date, that talks to the cruise lines and actually bothers to ask them what it is that they’re looking for. Now you can get this information from the agent, adjust your project, and apply again.

Alternately, you can keep your band sounding fresh and entertaining without waiting until you’re out-of-date or just not good enough anymore. In order to do so, you can apply some knowledge that’s always true. For example, it goes without saying that your music should always be performed at a high level. Sloppy playing is never good. Detecting sloppily performance just takes an honest assessment of your own project.

You can keep updating your repertoire. Yes, it’s important to have songs from all eras in your repertoire and it takes time, and effort to build up such a library. So, don’t let all that effort go to waste by failing to update your library with modern songs in all styles. It’s important for people to hear music that’s currently played on the radio, this makes your project sound fresh, current and relevant.

Get rid of players that are bored. After you’ve played together for years, things can become stale and boring. Infuse some life into your project by getting rid of those that take the work for granted and put up just enough effort not to get fired. That simply isn’t good enough. All musicians need to consider themselves entertainers. If your music doesn’t entertain the crowds, you’re failing. Presenting a project that’s visually appealing as well as musically strong is imperative, and you can’t do that with people that are bored and miserable.

Keep your equipment up-to-date. I’ve mentioned this in previous articles and I’ll say it again, it’s not enough to use the cheapest midi sounds available. You have to put in a bit more effort, time and money to present a total package that includes modern sounds. Any good business, will use some of its revenue and pour it right back into the business to upgrade existing equipment. So should you.
Naturally, it’s much more fun to use your salary to buy your new girlfriend new jewelry, but that’s not going to help you with your career. Put some money aside, and upgrade your equipment once in a while, you’ll see that it’s going to help you keep and/or get jobs and it’s much more fun to play with equipment that sounds great.

Probably the most important way you can improve your project is to ask questions. Ask questions before you send your demo, and once you have ideas on how to improve your band or your solo performance, use them. All too often we get calls from people that ask the right questions but don’t apply them simply because it’s much easier to just mail out an existing demo, than to put in the work to improve the band, make a new demo and mail it out again. This takes time, effort and sometimes money which people are quick to dismiss, only to find out later that they’re stuck without work.