We are currently looking for acoustic duos that perform modern music. These duos would consist of either a pianist or guitarist with a vocalist and should not use any sequences at all.
The band should be as versatile with music and should include current songs.
To apply, submit the following to info@oceanbound.com:
- Video of 10-12 samples
- Full repertoire list in PDF format and categorized by style of music
- Bios
- Photos
In this article, Cruise Industry News claims that Royal Caribbean Cruises will overtake the behemoth Carnival Cruises in their capacity to carry the most passengers. Given the number and the size of new ships that Royal Caribbean is planning to roll out, their estimated annual passenger capacity will increase from 3.2 million today, to 4.2 million in 2021.
For comparison, Carnival Cruises will increase their annual passenger capacity from 3.8 million this year to 4.0 million by 2021.
Looking at this from a musicians’ perspective, this can only be good. Ships need entertainment. The more ships they build, the more entertainers they’ll need. It’s that simple.
In this episode of my podcast, I’ll go over some of the important issues concerning medicals exams that would need to be done before you can work for a cruise line.
Royal Caribbean International has introduced their newest ship, Quantum of the Seas. Among the many features, bumper cars. Check out their video below.
The Maritime Labour Convention is meant to protect the rights of seafarers, which includes musicians. A list of conventions can be found on this page of the International Labour Organization. Some of these conventions will be ratified and come into force on August 20, 2013. Some of the changes that will affect musicians were outlined in this article on Berklee College’s Business Journal. Interesting read.
I’m still puzzled as to why career management courses are still missing in some of today’s most prestigious Universities. It would be a shame and huge waste of time, effort and money, to not be able to apply the skills acquired during a music education.
Many musicians make poor decisions when it comes to managing their career. In fact, many of them may not realize that they are in charge of managing themselves. Musicians that may have been guided along by parents, teachers, student advisors or friends, may not realize that they’re in charge of their own career once school’s over. Coming to this realization is thus imperative to kick-start a successful career.
Perhaps it would help musicians to view their music career as a business. A business that needs representation, a business that needs to be marketed properly, a business that needs to stay up-to-date, a business that needs to maintain professional working relationships with other professionals in the music industry.
This translates into being pro-active with job hunts and interacting in a professional manner with other persons. Being on time for rehearsals and gigs, possessing proper phone manners, handling scheduling in a professional manner, being helpful and fun to be around etc.
This is not supposed to be a how-to article on career management, this article is supposed to merely awaken those that believe that gigs will magically appear out of nowhere regardless of how they interact with their surroundings. To give you an example; we organize a lot of auditions for those interested in cruise ship work. For some reason, a large number of individuals don’t have the decency to cancel auditions if they can’t make but decide to “no show” instead. Whether you want to believe it or not, this will hurt your career.
So take a moment to reflect on how you manage your career currently and if there is room for improvement.
I wanted to take a moment to reiterate that anyone interested in working on board a cruise ship must speak English well.
English is the mandatory language on most ships and must be good enough to have conversations with people, to understand technical terms in your area of expertise and to understand safety instuctions given to you during safety drills.
Safety officers on ships can get you signed off the ship if they feel that your English language skills are not strong enough as this may endanger you and other passengers in case of an emergency.
Furthermore, rehearsal times with orchestras are limited so musical directors can’t afford to lose time because of language barriers. Also, lounge entertainers will have to interact with passengers daily so it’s preferred that they don’t have a thick accent.
Some cruise lines make you take an English language proficiency test, so taking some lessons beforehand may be of benefit. Speaking more than one language can certainly be useful on ships as there will be guests of many nationalities, but English will most definitely be the primary language.
Finally, many cover bands don’t get hired if their lead vocalist has a strong accent. Yes, the various cruise lines have varying degrees of tolerance when it comes to accents, but in general, the major US cruise lines that carry mostly US passengers, prefer to have singers from countries where English is the native language.
On a recent cruise I noticed that some of the entertainers don’t seem to apply themselves much to their performances and this may be understandable to some degree. Playing some popular requests over and over again could drive anyone nuts.
A piano/vocalist rattled down some of the songs as if the goal was to get to the end as quickly as possible. A caribbean duo barely added much interest to their keyboard sequences, and a guitar/vocalist didn’t even bother to add a proper ending to his midi sequences and just stopped the latter after he felt he the song should end there.
I absolutely understand the challenge you’re faced with when you have to perform three to four sets of 45 minutes each per night, 7 nights per week, but I believe that it could be of benefit to the musician if he or she put a bit more energy into the performances. more info
We are currently looking to add to our roster DJs with percussionists for cruise ship entertainment. We’d need to see video of your performances with bios and photos.
We are currently looking for quality bands with high energy and character. Lead vocalists should have charisma and the ability to engage a crowd.
Bands should not only play great music with a fresh new sound, but should also be visually appealing and be able to create a fun atmosphere.
Go here and click on Party Bands to find out more.
Updated February 7, 2013
-Guitar & Piano/Vocalists Needed-
We are currently looking for young, highly skilled guitar/vocalists and piano/vocalists for work on cruise ships. Visit our jobs & auditions page to learn more about the jobs and the audition procedures. Contact information is
