In a fundraising auction, use every tool at your disposal that is appropriate for your audience. Short, to-the-point musical cues can help focus an audience that tends to pay attention in the first place.

Good musical cues will alert an audience to the start of each new live auction lot, and might even help generate enthusiasm. Or they may just be more noise that your crowd tunes out and talks over. It depends on the crowd, it depends on the musical selections and it depends on the DJ or sound technician that is cueing up each song.

Auction track selections need to be relevant to the lot they introduce, and edited so that each starts on the “punchline” of the song. For example, if you are offering a trip to the Big Apple, Frank Sinatra crooning “New York, New York” is ideal. However, with time being precious, you can’t afford thirty seconds of build-up to where Old Blue Eyes “wants to be a part of it”.

The key to our approach is restraint, pacing, and showmanship. The subtle reference is lost on a large crowd. The obvious body-blow is the way to go, even if it seems obvious. Everyone will get “Red, Red Wine” – even if they’ve heard it a thousand times before. Very few people will get “Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me”.

Adding musical track introductions to your auction will increase the length of your auction, and increase the noise/volume level of the room. This is not always a bad thing, but it is something to be aware of when making the decision.