Okuzeka
Music vocabulary · Recording and Production

Demo

Meaning in music, with examples

/ˈdemoʊ/nounCommon term

In music, demo means: A simple, early recording of a song made to show the idea to bandmates, producers, labels or other artists before the final version is recorded.

In Turkish: demo, deneme kaydı

How it is used

Songwriters 'record a demo', 'send a demo' or 'pitch a demo' to an artist. A demo can be a rough phone recording or a polished home production. 'Demo-itis' is a joke word for loving the demo so much that the final version never feels as good.

Example sentences

  1. I recorded a quick demo on my phone so the band could learn the chords.

  2. Her publisher sent the demo to three artists who were looking for songs.

Common collocations

  • record a demo
  • send a demo
  • rough demo
  • demo version
  • pitch a demo
  • recordTo capture sound, such as a voice or an instrument, so that it can be played back, edited and released later.
  • producerThe person who guides a recording project creatively and practically, shaping the sound, the arrangement and the performances, and often programming or engineering too.
  • record labelA company that finances, releases, distributes and promotes recordings, usually in exchange for ownership of the recordings or a share of their income.
  • music publishingThe business of managing songs as compositions: registering them, licensing them, collecting the royalties they earn and finding new uses for them, such as in films and adverts.
  • trackA single song on an album or release. In a studio or DAW, it also means one separate recorded part, such as the drum track or the vocal track.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Recording and Production

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