Instructions for beginner musicians

Or how to make money on your own music

Habr is read by different people from different social backgrounds, different spheres of activity and different hobbies. Perhaps this material will be useful to many novice musicians. Many times they have written to me and repeatedly have to deal with requests to start producing young, novice and not experienced musicians. In this article I will tell you how to promote your creations with minimal investment and maximum return. In other words, I will tell novice musicians about how you can personally start producing without the involvement of third-party companies.



I warn you in advance, there is a lot of text, you will have to read carefully.

Introduction

Of course, for starters, it’s worthwhile to say that there are many production centers in Russia and a record of companies, mainly in the central cities of our vast Motherland. It is possible and necessary to apply there, perhaps your talent will be noticed and you will receive an invitation with a further signing of the contract. But most of them do not bring proper results and sometimes well-known production centers do not notice many talents due to the fact that they are already overwhelmed with existing projects, your work and many, many that undoubtedly distract from things like listening to the works of new musicians, so far not representing themselves.



It is worth noting that only in Russia every day new musicians are added by the thousands and each of them considers himself to be super talents who deserve to be popular and perform on the “big” stage. But in the world of music, as in any field of activity, it is necessary to prove its uniqueness and necessity to the world.

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The beginning of time

Firstly , many probably already know about the PROMODJ project. This is a huge social network of musicians, DJs and other musical creative individuals, selling electronic music at the core of their activities. Of course there are musicians laying out music in styles other than electronic, but there are few of them and judging by the PR on their pages - they are not popular.



Many of my familiar producers talk about the immense opportunities of PROMODJ and the fact that many well-known producers are present there, but it is also worth noting the number of musicians. Of course PROMODJ offers services to increase the popularity of your page, but this will not give you a guarantee to be noticed with 100% probability. Perhaps you will become popular, but at the same time you will not have an idea of ​​how to make money on your work - a fairly frequent picture. Exclude PROMODJ and their services are not worth it, because it brings a necessary contribution to your musical future.

From Russia to Europe

Secondly , you need to focus on the European and American audiences in advance. Why this particular audience? Note the character of the Russian people, which should not be ruled out when selling their music, the Russian people are lovers of freebies and everything free. Despite the fact that, on average, one track costs no more than 30 rubles a Russian prefers to wait until it appears somewhere in the file dumping area and is free to download there, even once having registered on questionable sites. This is not a fix, such is the mentality of the Russian people.



If you are not a DJ, namely a musician, then you should first pay attention to the stock sites. There are no such people in Russia, it is understandable why, but there is in Europe, which is well used by many Russian musicians. The most popular stock is AudioJungle.net . About how to register on the stock repeatedly wrote articles, there are still records in the blogs of musicians, and even there is a mention on PROMODJ. I note in advance that in order to lay out the music, it is necessary to pass the test and it is worth passing it myself, then an understanding of the basic rules of the audio flow comes, and I say this because the Russians do not like to read the rules, they consider it boring.



On the stock, you will sell your creations, if they take a liking to someone, while not opposing the transfer of full authorship to another musician and this is the basic rule of drains. From here - the stock will not make you popular, but it will give you the opportunity to earn money on your talent, and any beginning musician needs money most of all.

Myspace

Thirdly , it is worthwhile to get acquainted with the social network MySpace . This network was created specifically for creative people and is radically different from other social networks in its content. All content posted on it, unlike stock, is protected by copyright and is not subject to copying and distribution, but allows listening to it and adding it to your playlist. MySpace is another platform for musicians, but there is no real benefit from it, except for its own PR and gathering its own fans.



Many musicians on MySpace can stand out in a row thanks to many services that increase their popularity, they will imitate the vigorous activity in your player, and this will give you the opportunity to bring yourself to Top - a good help for promotion, but it requires an investment, although not so large.

Distribution

Fourthly , it is worth starting to prepare your albums, streamline everything and get ready to receive income from sales at the most popular platforms where many people dream to lay out their music, at least in order to show themselves and demonstrate the value of your work.



To do this, you will have to stock up on funds, although not large, in order for the distributor company to put all your tracks and albums on resources such as iTunes Store, Nokia Ovi, Amazon, and so on. Without distributors like to do it will not work. If everything is also oriented towards the European market, then I recommend using the TuneCore resource. This is the most popular distributor with contracts with many trading platforms and the process of preparing your materials is fully automated.



Mixing an album or a specific composition plays an unimportant role. Perhaps many will be satisfied with the quality of the track before mastering, but it’s still better to give one like it to the professionals. Almost every radio station or record company in any city is mastering and mixing. To do such a job better with them, because the price is reasonable and you can always agree, and this is not a small fact for a novice musician. But if you decide to bring all your tracks to the real European quality, get ready to lay out about $ 100 for each track.



It is also worth not omitting the attention from Internet radio stations, this is a huge audience, which is essentially your future customers. Also worth remembering, the rotation on the radio is the best advertisement for your tracks. An Internet radio station gives a huge advantage over ether stations - the presence of track headers during playback, therefore, finding your song in your favorite store will not be difficult.



It is also recommended to release several of your discs, this will make it easier to contact known recording studios, since You will already have at least some formed name and further work with you to simplify the life of the record for companies and, accordingly, if you choose between two equally talented people, but one of them will be without an initial base, and the other will be you will choose you.



If you have an initial base, such as selling tracks, rotating on Internet radio, then it will also be easier for you to suggest that local radio stations drive your music away from some thematic program, but you should not rely on prime time, for prime time always pay money, unless of course you are a star.

Personal site

Fifth , your group or you personally need a website, we no longer live at the time when it was a rare novelty that only wealthy gentlemen can afford. The site will need both in distribution and in contact with the company's record. Many people want to know your discography, some want to know where you stand or will perform, and many people, such as owners of record companies, want to know what you are and how you present yourself.



Solidity, stateliness and willingness to work for a large audience consist of many little things that should never be overlooked. Show business is a business where everyone in front of everyone tries to put himself in the best light, when sometimes they do not even have what they write to themselves. The pathos of well-known people not from birth, but from work - pathos is required for show business and if you decide to take this step, then you should not forget about it, but you should not go too far too, stick to your level. Of course it looks all philosophy and empty words, but it is not so and it will become clear to you as soon as you come across this.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I can say that the larger your creative portfolio is, the easier it will be to find a record company that can take the main expenses on spinning your musical brand on yourself, and these are not small sums of money and huge connections. All of the above will not give you 100% fame and will not give you a 100% contract, but it will ease your way to the top of fame and to some extent compensate for your cash outlay.



Here are five basic actions that will greatly cut your path to fame. This is certainly not a panacea, and professionals have many options for the promotion of music brands, including these five, but the main thing is not what professionals have, and most importantly - a small budget and a huge result. Of course, you need to be aware of your uniqueness and necessity, perhaps it is you who are the master of feces, whose works no one wants to listen to, therefore evaluate your talent sensibly, but better share your work with friends, acquaintances, relatives and everyone to whom you can easily bring creations and listen to their reviews.



I tried to describe everything briefly and clearly, I hope the article will like it and if this happens, then I can describe a lot of little secrets of producing about which nobody usually talks about.



And yet, if you or your group have a talented manager, then you will receive financial assistance from your sponsor, but if it is not there, it does not matter - such expenses are feasible for each person, they are really not as big as they seem.