The Honest Truth About Cruise Ship Musician Auditions — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00You're a musician and at some point you've thought  about working on cruise ships. Maybe you have no
2. 0:04idea where to even begin. Who do you contact? What  do you send? What do they actually [music] want
3. 0:10from you? Or maybe you've been trying for  a few months, sent some applications, and
4. 0:13heard absolutely nothing back. And [music] you're  starting to wonder if you've done something wrong
5. 0:17or if it's just not for you. Either way, this  video is for you. I spent four years on crochets,
6. 0:22eight [music] contracts, and worked directly  alongside booking agencies. And today I'm giving
7. 0:27you the exact checklist [music] I really wish  I had. What to prepare, who to contact, how to
8. 0:32follow up, and what most musicians completely get  wrong. By the end, you'll have a clear plan you
9. 0:36can literally start using today. So, first, let me  reframe what an audition actually means for solo,
10. 0:42duos, or trios, and bands because this is not  going to be a traditional audition for you guys.
11. 0:47For the show band and the orchestra is different.  [music] There are site reading requirements. And
12. 0:52so for these jobs, there are actual auditions.  And I'm not covering that today because I
13. 0:57know that most of you are applying for solo  positions or duos or bands. And so for you guys,
14. 1:02your audition is your material. It's what  you're going to send to the [music] agents
15. 1:06and from that they're going to decide whether  they will send your stuff to the cruise lines
16. 1:11and then the cruise lines will decide if they want  to hire you. From my own story, there's just one
17. 1:16exception to this. My show real was showing mainly  ballads and slow songs. And so the agent needed to
18. 1:22check that I can actually play upbeat songs. And  so he just offered an audition where I had to play
19. 1:27a happy song for him and then he says straight  away, hey, that's okay. Like that's good enough.
20. 1:31But other than that, you're never really going to  [music] get auditions with agents and play live
21. 1:37for someone assessing you, which I [music] think  is quite a good thing because you just need to
22. 1:41make sure that your show real is good. you send  it and you don't have to deal with the nerves or
23. 1:45the stage fright that comes up with [music]  auditioning. So your job is literally to get
24. 1:49the right material to focus on this and this is  so important cuz most musicians get this wrong
25. 1:55and then to send it to the right people. So  right material, right people. That's pretty much
26. 1:59all you need to focus on to make sure that you  put all the chances on your side to get hired as
27. 2:05quickly as possible. So now let me just do a quick  recap on the material checklist. So what are the
28. 2:10things that you actually need to prepare? so that  you can send these to the agents and to the right
29. 2:15cruise lines. So the first thing is your show  real. Really make sure that you have contrasted
30. 2:19songs on there that is not all the same style.  It needs to show your abilities as a singer, as
31. 2:24an instrumentist or as an entertainer. It needs to  be songs that are mainly a beat and of course that
32. 2:30are very popular and international. The second  thing is your repertoire list. This one is super
33. 2:35important and it needs to be at least 150 songs.  You really want to include as many songs as you
34. 2:40can in there. Even if you don't know all of them,  that's okay. The third thing is a CV, like a quick
35. 2:45summary about your music [music] experience. Don't  put anything that's not relevant to cruise ships,
36. 2:50traveling, or music. You just want to put where  you've been playing, what you've been playing,
37. 2:55and if you have any cruise ship experience. You  want to include your nationality, and also your
38. 2:58passport, your availability by making sure that  you're being broad, not super specific like, hey,
39. 3:04I'm available these two months next year. and  make sure that you have everything in one place
40. 3:07so that it's ready to send immediately. That's  the first step and that's really really important
41. 3:12in the process of auditioning and getting hired  for cruise ships. If you haven't [music] got this
42. 3:16first step ready yet, I would really encourage  you to focus on this and nothing else because
43. 3:20there's no point applying. If you don't have your  material ready and if right now you're thinking,
44. 3:25"Hey, I don't even know if what I have here is  at the right level to send to agents." then feel
45. 3:29free to book a call with me down below and I'll  tell you in all honesty where you're at and what
46. 3:33to work on so that you can get this first step,  your material right and have full confidence when
47. 3:39you start applying. Now let's talk about the  second step which is the application strategy.
48. 3:43So for this step I would really encourage you  to [music] put your business hat on. I know as
49. 3:48musicians we're not a big fan of this word but  we will really need to be strategic about this
50. 3:53step. [music] We can't just apply to two agencies  and wonder why we didn't get a reply after a
51. 3:57couple of weeks. What I would really recommend  that you do is to build a spreadsheet with the
52. 4:02name of the agency, the date that you contacted  them, and when you're planning on following up.
53. 4:07I really recommend that you follow up [music]  every two or 3 months until you get hired. And
54. 4:11this is actually the most important thing that I  wish I [music] knew at the start because agents
55. 4:14are constantly hiring and cruise lines keep  sailing all year long and so there's always
56. 4:20constant demand. And through the application  process, I would really recommend that you
57. 4:24go with the mindset that silence does not mean  rejection. And I know this is really hard because
58. 4:28when you put a lot of work in something, I felt  the same way for my YouTube videos for example,
59. 4:33then you expect a lot of results when you put a  lot of work in. But just like in entrepreneurship,
60. 4:38applying to agents for cruise ship work can be  very unpredictable. And it's not because you don't
61. 4:43hear back that you're not good enough or that you  should give up. Now, the next thing I'd like to
62. 4:46mention is finding the right balance between being  patient and on the other end of the spectrum,
63. 4:53ignoring a real problem. Because in certain cases,  six months of silence can actually be normal. Like
64. 4:59sometimes there are periods where cruise ships  don't really hire. There was a musician that I
65. 5:03coached last year and it took her 4 months to  get her first contract. She didn't hear back
66. 5:08and I knew that her material was right because  I had coached her [music] through the process
67. 5:12and after 4 months she got a couple of offers.  And so sometimes it's not about you, it's not
68. 5:18about your material. You are good enough but it's  just about timing. Like sometimes there are too
69. 5:22many musicians for the amount of jobs that there  are and a couple of months later is the opposite.
70. 5:27But on the other hand, I keep seeing musicians  who tell me that they've been applying for months
71. 5:31and then when I look at their show real, it's  like it's pretty obvious that they haven't put
72. 5:36the right stuff in there and that their material  are not to the standards that they're supposed
73. 5:40to be. And so in this case, it's wondering and  asking yourself, is the material that I have to
74. 5:45the standard of [music] what is supposed to be  in order for me to get hired? because if it is
75. 5:49not then it's normal that you're not hearing back  from agents. So really ask yourself like how does
76. 5:54my show real come across? Does it come across kind  of professional? Do I look like I have performance
77. 5:59experience? [music] Do I get people involved?  What kind of cruise lines am I targeting? And
78. 6:04what do you think a cruise ship agent would think  when they watch your show real? Again, these are
79. 6:08questions that are really hard to answer if you  don't have experience and if you have no idea. So
80. 6:12I can definitely help you with this. The sooner  you identify all these little things that you
81. 6:16can tweak and make better in order to get hired,  the sooner you're actually going to get an offer.
82. 6:21And I know what a lot of you are actually facing  right now because I often get messages saying,
83. 6:26"Hey, I'm in my 40s or sometimes up to my 70s  and I really want to work on cruise ships, but
84. 6:31I'm afraid of even preparing for an audition or  preparing for cruise ship work because I'm afraid
85. 6:37my age will be a problem." And I really want to  be honest answering this because I don't just want
86. 6:41to give you reassurance and lie to you. I just  really [music] want to be honest and tell you
87. 6:45what I think is the truth. Age alone is never the  reason and the only reason why someone doesn't get
88. 6:52hired. What agents actually look at is your energy  is how you play, how you come [music] across,
89. 6:56how you show up, your versatility, and what you  look like on the show real. Because I've seen
90. 7:00musicians get contracts in their 50s. And I've  also seen musicians in their 30s never getting
91. 7:05a contract for reasons that had nothing to  deal with their age. But here's the thing,
92. 7:10every situation is different. And I can't tell  you right now where you're at if I don't have
93. 7:13a proper look at [music] your specific situation  and your material. And this is from someone who
94. 7:18has been in the industry as a musician and who  has been working closely [music] with booking
95. 7:22agents. And so who knows what the standards are.  You can trust me that I will tell you honestly
96. 7:27not just to make you feel good, but whether your  material and your specific profile has a chance
97. 7:33of getting a contract. So you're free to book a  call with me down below for this. Link is in the
98. 7:37description. I really wish I had this opportunity  back then because this one call could literally
99. 7:43save your moms. Now, let me tell you about what  most musicians get wrong when they audition,
100. 7:48when they prepare for sending their stuff  to the agents. The first mistake that I
101. 7:54made myself and that I usually see in musicians  I talk to is applying too narrowly. So,
102. 7:59you're just going to apply to one or two agencies  and then think that if they don't get back to you,
103. 8:04then there's a problem with you and you're never  going to get hired. It's really important that you
104. 8:09reach out to as many agencies as possible. The  materials that you send also really need to be
105. 8:14commercial and not so artistic. It needs to be  mainstream. It's just like playing covers on
106. 8:19land. What I see a lot of musicians do as well is  giving their availability, but saying, "Hey, I'm
107. 8:24available from the 10th to the 25th of June and  then from the 13th to the [music] 26th of August."
108. 8:32This is just not possible. If you're doing this,  then you're compromising your chances of getting
109. 8:36hired because agents will try to fill their spot.  They're not trying to work for you and to give you
110. 8:41work on your specific availabilities. They're  going to give work to the musicians who are
111. 8:47available all year long. And I know that can be  really tough, especially if you have commitments
112. 8:50on land, [music] but it's just about priorities.  It's like if you get a contract next month,
113. 8:55are you willing to sort things out and to make  yourself available for that or are you willing to
114. 9:00let that for another musician? What I also see is  sometimes musicians [music] take a bit of time to
115. 9:05reply. You have to be really quick. What happens  when agents have an opportunity and [music] offer
116. 9:10is usually they send the contracts offer to the  musicians that they have in their roster. And so
117. 9:16the musician [music] who responds the fastest  is the one who's going to get the job. And the
118. 9:19last thing is I see so many musicians [music]  just treating it as a one-time thinking, hey,
119. 9:24I've applied to this agency last year.  I didn't get an answer and so I'm just
120. 9:28never going to be aware [music] able to work  with them. That's not true. A few months ago,
121. 9:32I was talking to an agent who said to me that  his agency [music] is getting on average 20 to
122. 9:3730 musicians application per day. So, with that  volume, you really want to make sure that you're
123. 9:42getting back up to the top of the pile at least  once every couple of months. [music] If you just
124. 9:46watched the whole video and you're thinking, I  think I could actually do this, but I don't want
125. 9:50to spend months [music] working so hard to prepare  all the material only to find out that it was just
126. 9:55a waste of time because I will never be able to  get hired for a specific reason. This is exactly
127. 10:01what I can help you with. In 1 hour, I look at  your specific situation, tell you if I think
128. 10:05your profile is ready, give you the full agent  list and the outreach templates I've used myself,
129. 10:10and if I think you're at the right level, I can  personally refer you to the agencies that I know,
130. 10:15and this alone could save you months. The  link is down below. So, to recap, what we
131. 10:19have done in this video is we have reframed what  an audition actually means for solo, duos, trios,
132. 10:26or bands. We talked about getting your material  ready to send and all in one place. We talked
133. 10:31about applying strategically to all agencies  out there, the ones that are legitimate. We also
134. 10:36talked about the follow-up strategy that you can  use every two to 3 months without fail. And also
135. 10:42about finding the [music] right balance between  staying patient, but being honest with yourself
136. 10:47about whether something needs work. That is pretty  much the whole process. None of this requires you
137. 10:51to be the most technically brilliant musician  in the room. It just requires organization,
138. 10:56consistency, and the courage to put yourself  out there. You are probably more ready than you
139. 11:00think. Good luck, and if this helped, feel  free to subscribe. I post videos like this
140. 11:05every Thursday. [music] Thank you so much for  being here, and I'll see you next week. Woohoo!