So many good producers!

[antipode]

break through as an artist.

Think this has less to do with your marketability and perception by consumers, than with your nature as a human being.

Ha, this is what I was trying to say if I was more succinct and eloquent.

[Teknicyde]

break through as an artist.

Think this has less to do with your marketability and perception by consumers, than with your nature as a human being.

Ha, this is what I was trying to say if I was more succinct and eloquent.

Nonsense.

If this was the case...

Oh how the world would be different.

[paradigm_x]

theres always been loads of shit music just previously people didn't have the same platform for it as they do now, those shitty 4track tape recordings people made at home generally stayed there.

PLus the barrier to entry is now a £300 laptop, rather than a mixer, a synth or more, sampler, fx unit, cables, space...

People just torrent massive and fl and pester forums...

[symmetricalsounds]

you say it's a bad thing but there's plenty of great tunes been made on stolen software.

do i like sublime any less because i know they made their albums on equipment stolen during the l.a riots?

[Sparxy]

It's a people business in my opinion. Talent alone isn't enough to get you success thesedays. If know someone and they like you, they are more likely to support and promote you. Take N-Type for example, i'm sure he gets sent shitloads of tunes every day. Some get listened to, most don't probably, but if you've met him, shaken his hand, had a chat and got to know him, he's gonna listen to that tune and if he likes it will almost definitely push it.

On the flipside, if you're a dick no one is gonna want to help you.

Bottom line though, the music does the talking. If you're shit it doesn't really matter who you know.

[Jedeye]

Here's an interesting article from Dom Kane's blog about this sort of thing.



PRODUCER TIP: How to succeed (or fail) in the music industry...


"Oh god, not another one of those How To Succeed things that never gives any real information" I hear you yelp!! But fear not... Perhaps a little controversial, but hey, so was your mom!

Having been quite firmly rooted in the dance music industry for over a decade now, I see and hear a lot of people complaining how it "isn't like it used to be". This may be true, but moaning isn't going to get us moving forward. It may well be true that an artist used to be able to make a fair amount more money from a single/album, and yes it's also true that this is becoming an almost impossible task in todays industry.

So rather than just moaning and making pointless observations, I'd like to propose a possible solution. It's not a "quick-fix" solution, and it never will be, because it was perhaps "quick-fix solutions" that got us here in the first place.

So let's take a look at what the issues are here, and perhaps how they became issues. I know most of these have been covered time and time again in various other blogs, so I'm not going to be going in to too much detail.

Art Vs Business.
Now I know some people are going to read this and say "hey, it's not just about making money you know, music is art". Sure, I understand that, but if that's truly the case then why do bookshops sell novels, and why do art galleries sell the art on their walls? We all dream of getting paid to do something we love.

The Pirates.
Secondly, I think I need to cover the "hot topic" (*sigh*) of piracy. As much as I disagree with it morally, I'm actually a firm believer that piracy has very little effect on the music industry as it is today. When I was a kid, I used to have a blank cassette in the radio-cassette player ready in the pause-record position, and as soon as a good track came on the radio I'd start recording, slowly making my own compilation tapes. Piracy has been around for decades, and very little will change that. The only difference now is that in a digital age it's far easier to pirate music, but at the same time there is far more music to pirate, so I don't think it's particularly out of ratio to 20 years ago. Swings and roundabouts.

The Digital Age.
Of course the digital age from around 1999 onwards has revolutionised the way we consume, that's a given. And for every advantage that it offers, there is an equally large disadvantage. When record stores went digital, 90% of the overheads and costs involved in releasing a song were removed. Great! This of course was welcomed with open arms by record labels and producers alike, but this also eventually led to a situation where anyone (talented or not) could release and sell their music to the unsuspecting public. A knock-on effect of this was that the online stores became swamped with people setting up their own record labels and releasing anything they could muster up on their home computer, which eventually led to the consumer market being completely saturated to the point where it became almost impossible to shop for new music without first needing plenty of guidance in where to look for the "good" ones. This made it increasingly difficult for new and upcoming artists to get noticed, making it harder for the public to actually find fresh talent, not easier.

Then around 2006 onwards, it appeared as though the majority of artists saw releasing music as nothing more than a promotional tool to gain tour dates where the "real" money was being made, which in turn began to saturate the live venue market, and that could only lead one way (as explained in the previous paragraph). More competition, more saturation, lowering standards, etc, as above. Now we're at a stage where new upcoming artists are expected to release new music for very little if any return, and then also to perform live in venues for almost no money, just so that they can try to get noticed by playing alongside the bigger names who can still command huge sums.

I realise that this isn't a million miles away from how things were 20 years ago, but the main difference is that back then there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a potential major record deal, a tour, or at least getting spotted by a talent scout and being offered an advance of some sort to get further recordings done etc.

The "Crap-Filter".
So let's look at the old-school way of releasing a record. From the producers perspective, in the days of analogue rule, they would have needed a studio engineer to create the sounds, and access to a basic studio to be able to record the song in draft form. Chances are, if they were able to organise all of this to get a demo together, then their song was at a certain level of standard. Then in comes the record label: from the labels perspective, they would need to have enough faith in that song to be able to offer an advance to the artist that was large enough for them to hire a studio to record the finished product, and they would also be willing to risk a large sum of money on getting the record pressed (even just to promotional acetate or white-labels), and posting them out to key industry people. Then, assuming that all got the green light, they would then need to invest even more money in getting the records mastered (separately for CD and vinyl), pressed and printed (in both CD and vinyl format), and distributed to stores, whilst also investing in press and PR campaigns to get media attention and product placement in-store (people would pay good money to have their song on the top shelf, or end-of-aisle etc). All of this would often total well in excess of £10,000.

Each and every step of this process, was what I would call the "Crap-Filter"… If a song could make it through every one of these stages, then chances are it was a "good" record, so each stage acted as a filter cutting out the crap records.

The key to the music industries success was risk and investment. Releasing a record took a lot of risk, and a large investment, but when the going was good, the return was worth it, and thanks to the "Crap-Filter" system, the risk was lowered, and the consumer was left blissfully unaware of the the missed musical opportunities.

Summary.
OK, so those are really the key issues only, of course there are a lot more, but in my opinion, the biggest and most important change in the music industry of the last decade has been the removal of the "Crap-Filter". I could quite easily put together a 7 minute piece of hissy drum beats, leave it unmastered, give it no PR or promotion, and still release it to over 150+ online stores within hours at no cost to myself; no risk, no investment, and I may or may not sell some units. No risk, no investment, no return. At this stage I'd also like to point out that I could also equally dedicate my life to writing a masterpiece of an album, release it to those same 150+ online stores, push it to as many magazines and online forums as I can, give previews to as many social networking sites as I can, and still, I may or may not sell some units… Why? Well, I'd like to think it would sell more units than a 7 minute hissing drum beat, but with the consumer side of the industry being so saturated, how could I possibly get my album to stand out amongst the 10,000+ other releases of that week?

THE SOLUTION:
In short, you can't become an internet sensation from your own doings, so don't! It's the public en mass that unconsciously create an internet sensation, and you can't stop that. This may sound harsh, but we really need the "Crap-Filter" system back in place, as producers and as consumers, and it's for this reason that my advice to all young budding producers is "do NOT set up your own record label". I personally stopped releasing my own music on my own record label last year, after 10 hard years of gradually making less and less return from it, and I have since gained more success as a producer. How?

I've seen homemade record labels hammering out 3 terrible singles per week, and offering up to and in excess of 10 mind-numbing remixes for each single, all in a ruthless bid to getting noticed. I assume the thought process is "well if we can't get noticed by talent, then we'll have to fill their entire computer screens with our name when they browse for new music online"… That's 33 tracks that some poor consumer is going to have to sift through, each week, for just one record label, of thousands! About 12-15 years ago when I walked in to my local record shop to get my weekly fix, I would have sifted through 33 records in TOTAL, and probably bought 10 of them!! Now I can sift through 200+ tracks online and maybe buy 2 (on a good day).

So as a way of moving forward I'd like to propose that producers stick to producing. I personally have drawn up a list of 20-30 record labels that I consider successful at what they do, and as a producer, I only pitch my music to these labels. I'll be honest, there have been a few tracks I've written recently that were turned down by every single one [who responded] in that list, to which I thought "OK, well that track obviously wasn't as good as I thought it was… DELETE". It might be harsh, and if I really really really believed in that one track that nobody else seemed to like, then I may deviate from my list and find a suitable home. But I don't. So I won't.

Labels used to spend a small fortune on Mastering, PR, Test-Presses, Artwork, Postage, Advertising, Pressing CDs and vinyl, Artist Advances, etc etc. Would you invest £10k on your next release? Do you think if you did invest £10k on your release you'd get your money back? With a profit? No? Then you need to stop and think "is this really working?… If no other record label I respect wants this track, then is it really as good as I thought it was?".

I'm not saying give up, I'm saying try harder!

I know full well that 99.9% of people who read this blog will think they're not a part of the problem, and will continue to relentlessly plunge their obscenities into the industries rear end, but it's a topic I'm really passionate about, so if you have any better suggestions or comments, I'm all ears.

[hutyluty]

Tbh i find i much better that theres so much quality out there to listen to since i am primarily a listener before i am a producer, just that in terms of hopes of "breaking through" its gonna be difficult if i decide i even want to

Maybe you'll be interested in this movie:
http://www.presspauseplay.com/

I've only watched the trailers, it's coming out 19th of September (free to watch on their website, you can buy it on iTunes right now, I think?)

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites.

But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?

This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

thankyou for this looks very interesting!

[JFK]

@hutyluty - off topic mate, what is that girl doing in your avatar? It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

[Pedro Sánchez]

@hutyluty - off topic mate, what is that girl doing in your avatar? It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

or gargling spunk.

[antipode]

@hutyluty - off topic mate, what is that girl doing in your avatar? It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

or gargling spunk.

1999 called they want their word back

[-[2]DAY_-]

It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

lol i've been thinking just that for weeks... maybe months.

see my sig for my thoughts on the effects of digital... kids don't have to flock to record stores, certain DJ's, certain clubs anymore. They can tap in shit on youtube and sit complacently on their ass in their room with no friends around IRL, chatting online and listening to 35 seconds of their favorite drops, etc.... or even better, hop on tpb, snag a vast collection of their own, cop traktor, and become a "DJ" themselves overnight.
I know theres great music fans around still, but the majority groups are unappreciative imo.... i mean i'm on facebook, and i record my own hip hop songs.. i finish a tune, and post it on fb and NONE of my friends even listen to it... some other asshole fucking takes a picture of himself drinking a beer, and 14 friends "like" it. OK, so that's kind of unrelated and turned into a venting rant.... sorry, but damn. shit makes me uncomfortable. used to be if you had great taste and did a lot of footwork/personal investment of time and money, people appreciated the stuff you brought around. now everyone is more worried about what their own shit sounds like, how they look when they're sucking down a cocktail on their fb photos, to a lot fo people music is like "whatever".

[SLASH]

I started making beats on an MPC and a fostex 4 track and it was hard as hell to promote my tunes, but they sucked anyway so it doesn't matter that they didn't get heard. Now I make tunes and promote them via youtube and soundcloud and get thousands of plays comments and downloads without even leaving my apartment and doing any footwork. I think when you have a monster track on your hands nowadays it will get heard, blogs will eventually get ahold of it, word of mouth will spread through the internet and you will become the next person to get hated on by all the purists. I think that combined with making personal relationships with "tastemakers" and dj's will get you where you need to go. Slowly but surely track by track your credibility will increase. Plus at the same time your circle of friends will grow and prosper and create more avenues for your music, I've had skateboard video placements and placements in tv commercials just purely from knowing people for a long time that now have creative power to place my tunes if it's a right fit for the piece they're working on. And slightly off topic ... Major Motion Picture companies are having marketing meetings and during those marketing meetings they are being told that dubstep (most likely brostep style) music is the future of music. So even though people feel we are over saturated and we are reaching our threshold we haven't even begun to see the serious monetary rewards and the artistic fulfillment of having people go mad and enjoy our music.

[nowaysj]

[-[2]DAY_-]

who u laughin at, me or the former guitarist of GnR

[kaiori breathe]

The easyness of learning production is actually decreasing the number of good tunes, because it's so easy to come out with a shit one and get attention.

Do you ever think before you type? You could let a monkey make posts on your behalf for a month and I don't think anybody on this forum would notice.

As for all the people going on about making money/getting big - If you want money and fame you're in the wrong genre, go write some pop songs.

[nowaysj]

who u laughin at, me or the former guitarist of GnR

Just having an internet larff, my friend.

[-[2]DAY_-]

You could let a monkey make posts on your behalf for a month and I don't think anybody on this forum would notice.

[hutyluty]

Major Motion Picture companies are having marketing meetings and during those marketing meetings they are being told that dubstep (most likely brostep style) music is the future of music. So even though people feel we are over saturated and we are reaching our threshold we haven't even begun to see the serious monetary rewards and the artistic fulfillment of having people go mad and enjoy our music.

i think you mis understood what i was getting at, i didnt mean it to generate a whole "how are we gonna get famous" thread cos its impossible. I was more celebrating the fact that theres so many quality producers out there, much easier to find great tunes, the downside to that being its harder to get your stuff heard whatever, but im not especially bothered by that

ps. listen to my tunes theyre mint

@hutyluty - off topic mate, what is that girl doing in your avatar? It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

or gargling spunk.

smoking blatantly

you can see it better here



gonna change my avatar now, don't like you guiz being mean to my one true love

[-[2]DAY_-]

who is that? it looks a lot weirder when its down-sized, esp around the mouth. Pringles was my best guess at first

[skimpi]

It looks like she is eating a pringle or something......

lol i've been thinking just that for weeks... maybe months.

see my sig for my thoughts on the effects of digital... kids don't have to flock to record stores, certain DJ's, certain clubs anymore. They can tap in shit on youtube and sit complacently on their ass in their room with no friends around IRL, chatting online and listening to 35 seconds of their favorite drops, etc.... or even better, hop on tpb, snag a vast collection of their own, cop traktor, and become a "DJ" themselves overnight.
I know theres great music fans around still, but the majority groups are unappreciative imo.... i mean i'm on facebook, and i record my own hip hop songs.. i finish a tune, and post it on fb and NONE of my friends even listen to it... some other asshole fucking takes a picture of himself drinking a beer, and 14 friends "like" it. OK, so that's kind of unrelated and turned into a venting rant.... sorry, but damn. shit makes me uncomfortable. used to be if you had great taste and did a lot of footwork/personal investment of time and money, people appreciated the stuff you brought around. now everyone is more worried about what their own shit sounds like, how they look when they're sucking down a cocktail on their fb photos, to a lot fo people music is like "whatever".

i think thats cos no one really gives a shit about music, except for stuff that is thrown in their faces by the media. alot of people 'love' music and their life wouldnt be good without it, but then they listen to shit thats in the charts. i think that if you send it to people and ask them to give it a listen they probably will, but if you just post it on facebook, not many people will be bothered by it, and would rather see a picture of someone smashed out their face. i mean i dont know what your friends are like, im just thinking of the majority. i just realised you kinda said this anyway haha.

the internet is good an bad tho, i agree, i wouldnt be making tunes if the internet wernt around, and wouldnt have the great music i listen to today either. i also have to agree there is alot of shite music out there because of the ease of production, but like it dont bother me, i just listen to the music that i know is good, and then its a bonus when i go to a soundcloud and find summat good. i should do it more really, cos i know there are lots of greta producers out there, but i dont 'scout' that often so its a nice surprise when i find summat good. but i find alot more good music now than when i listened to indie and shit. before i turned to the electronic side i was moaning about how shit new music was, bands were coming out sounding all the same but worse, and i was just anticipating new music from the bands i knew i liked. but now there is so much good music surfacing all the time, and i just lose track of all the new stuff i wanna buy!