Good way to money as a producer early on.

Sinergy · Post by **Sinergy** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:33 pm

So a common struggle for a lot of is money. Sure producing music is cheaper than it used to be, but it still is expensive.

I just came across an awesome way to make money, as I never ended up getting the workstudy job I thought I'd get this fall at uni.

I just graduated highschool and I was good friends with the cheerleading captain. I told her if she ever needed their routines mixed I'd do it, just said that one time off hand probably.

She contacted me a couple weeks ago and requested I do their mix. She specified which songs, how many counts, transition etc. I did it in an ableton live set, after some sending it back and forth and tweaking it, I probably got the meat of it done in an hour or so. Easy stuff, plus now I have a template for it. Cause in reality it's just a DJ mix with REALLY quick transitions.

couple days ago, the cheer coordinator (probably some girls mom who knows) contacted me for another one, said she was impressed with the first one and would like to pay me this time and asked me how much I'd charge. Surprised I went and googled how much "custom cheer mixes" cost and my jaw dropped.

A custom mix, using samples/fx etc. costs something like 50$ for every 15 seconds. One website quotes 500$ for 2:30 mix. I think the cheapest one (for the length they are requesting from me) is like 200$ for the basic mix (no fx, and not "custom", not sure what that means)

It's laughable how much of a rip off that is, so I replied that, I'd do it for less than any web service or other service, simply put.

She said she would get back to me with how much they could pay me, and that she would also like me to do the mixes for their competitive cheer squad.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of an ableton live set could throw together what these "custom cheer mixes" are in less than a day. I think I just found whats going to pay for my weed and CDJs this winter...

So, if you're in highschool still, and you've got cheerleaders, I'm willing to bet they're paying out the ass for some service to mix their music at a ridiculous rate, put em out of business.

test_recordings · Post by **test_recordings** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:52 pm

Only in the USA do people throw money at bullshit (to me) like that, though! The UK spectators just shout as a team...

alphacat · Post by **alphacat** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:06 am

...But - granted, yes, we Americans indulge stupid shit with our wallets - there are other venues that most of us never consider along these lines. Most people have no idea how much a decent wedding DJ makes, but I had a bro who only ever worked 6-8 hours every weekend and made more than most people with 9-5 Monday thru Friday gigs. Again, this is in a major urban market and he'd been doing it for a couple years, but... yeah.

Ultimately a lot of this kind of gig has to do with your ability to stomach endless re-cues of garbage party music TBH.

wolf89 · Post by **wolf89** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:10 am

Never thought of something like that making so much money.

Kind of useless as a 24 year old dude living in the UK who mainly listens to grime, techno and black metal though.

Sinergy · Post by **Sinergy** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:27 am

^yeah i'm not a fan of DJ Khaled or Kesha either, but seriously, I can't believe people are paying up 500$ for a 3 minute mini mix of pop dance music like WHAT THE FUCK.

alphacat wrote:...But - granted, yes, we Americans indulge stupid shit with our wallets - there are other venues that most of us never consider along these lines. Most people have no idea how much a decent wedding DJ makes, but I had a bro who only ever worked 6-8 hours every weekend and made more than most people with 9-5 Monday thru Friday gigs. Again, this is in a major urban market and he'd been doing it for a couple years, but... yeah.

Ultimately a lot of this kind of gig has to do with your ability to stomach endless re-cues of garbage party music TBH.

I mean, yeah listening to the music sucks, but they give you the exact counts and times they want cause it's all choreographed, so all you need to use is an auto filter and a pitch up and you've got it done in an hour.

eyeatus · Post by **eyeatus** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:49 am

they pay so much because they expect you to have publishing rights.

drewspuppet · Post by **drewspuppet** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 2:22 am

They pay that much because they have a budget. $500 is probably a small fraction of their group's season budget.

Think about if you had never dj'd or produced before, and you are a cheer coach not a music producer.. you're not going to think maybe I'll go online and research dj programs, techniques on how to mix, or even how to download songs for that matter.
$500 is a steal for someone who is not a dj and has a need for something like this. We under estimate our worth.

What would be their alternative? Buy software, learn mixing, learn beat counting, etc. No. Here simply supply and demand is actually in favor of the dj/ mixer for this little nitch market.. unlike about every other aspect of dj/producing which is obviously very over saturated..

test_recordings · Post by **test_recordings** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 2:38 am

Yeah there are plenty of markets to tap I suppose. How about library music? Don't know it works but at least you potential income by the sounds of it...

mitchAUS · Post by **mitchAUS** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 5:15 am

I've done this with male strippers... there is a market for that sort of stuff in my area. It takes little time to do a mash up in ableton and the strip teases are usually only 10-15 minutes. Usually get 150-200 a mix

wub · Post by **wub** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 5:41 am

Sinergy wrote:So, if you're in highschool still, and you've got cheerleaders, I'm willing to bet they're paying out the ass for some service to mix their music at a ridiculous rate, put em out of business.

Fair play to you, OP. If you can make money off it, why the heck not? Don't just limit it to the cheerleaders/pep related squads though. Schools/colleges/universities often have a shit ton of clubs & societies. Ask around, see if any of them need anything produced for their promotional work. A producer friend of mine was asked to do something similar and provide a 3min piece of music to act as backing music to a photo montage of pics of his schools trip ski trip recently. An easy 250€ from what I was told.

mitchAUS wrote:I've done this with male strippers... there is a market for that sort of stuff in my area. It takes little time to do a mash up in ableton and the strip teases are usually only 10-15 minutes. Usually get 150-200 a mix

The skin industry will always need music. Always wanted to get into scoring porn, reckon after watching so much I'm desensitised to it anyway.

wolf89 wrote:Never thought of something like that making so much money.

Kind of useless as a 24 year old dude living in the UK who mainly listens to grime, techno and black metal though.

Not being funny, mate, but we both know you can mix. If someone offered you a couple hundred notes to put together a 3min megamix of some EDM tracks, you'd find a way I'm sure

This is an awesome thread, TBH...I know some of the guys in here who do more recording studio based work (alphacat, for example?) probably have stories of when they've had to put aside personal taste and work on something that perhaps they didn't appreciate as much as the client (if I've put that tactfully enough?), but if you're serious about wanting to make some money off music then rest assured it won't be coming from worldwide fame as a brostep/dungeon producer (delete as applicable).

Not yet, anyway.

I've made more money playing DJ sets where I've played Living On A Prayer and the A-Team theme song than I have in over 10yrs of messing about making electronic noise with my computer, and I've had more international DJ sets playing fidget & electro house than I have spinning 'cool' genres. But it's all experience/money at the end of the day, and if you need to sacrifice some scruples from time to time to be able to bankroll the stuff you do really enjoy doing, then so be it.

sunny_b_uk · Post by **sunny_b_uk** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:12 pm

i used to do this years ago for dance groups and many tossers in my stuck up lil town wont pay so i didn't bother anymore, everyone always wants stuff for free

erratech · Post by **erratech** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:19 am

You need to have the licensing rights for the tracks, thats why the rate is so high.

topmo3 · Post by **topmo3** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:30 am

lol wtf USA

somewhat related: a guy from my school who's from the US was amazed of the amount of producers round here who wanna make quality beats for him free of charge, he said that in the US no one makes beats for free they always charge of it. it sounds ridiculous

topmo3 · Post by **topmo3** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:46 am

also big up for the professional DJ crew, i've tried to do that and i almost wanted to kill myself. even playing your fave tunes in the alternative room of a mainstream club can be a bit of a chore with all the stupid requests, i mean they can hear that shit on a bigger rig in the main room, why do that

wolf89 · Post by **wolf89** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:12 am

wub wrote:
wolf89 wrote:Never thought of something like that making so much money.

Kind of useless as a 24 year old dude living in the UK who mainly listens to grime, techno and black metal though.
Not being funny, mate, but we both know you can mix. If someone offered you a couple hundred notes to put together a 3min megamix of some EDM tracks, you'd find a way I'm sure

Yeah I'm not saying that I couldn't do it or that I wouldn't

Just I can't really imagine getting into the situation where I could be.

Especially in relation to something like in the original post here.

joegrizzly · Post by **joegrizzly** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:10 pm

Rappers are always looking for beats, you can lease one beat to many different artists and get some good side money... it's always good to work though

Icetickle · Post by **Icetickle** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 5:40 pm

joegrizzly wrote:Rappers are always looking for beats, you can lease one beat to many different artists and get some good side money... it's always good to work though

Rappers here just go in the studio where they record and pay both for the recording and the beat. Some popular rappers here actually ripped off the beat from "eminem - mockingbird". They got away with it.

Brothulhu · Post by **Brothulhu** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:51 pm

Icetickle wrote:Some popular rappers here actually ripped off the beat from "eminem - mockingbird". They got away with it.

Don't get into Hip Hop, dude. There are these horrible things called mix tapes where rappers make whole CDs from stolen beats

Icetickle · Post by **Icetickle** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 9:03 pm

Brothulhu wrote:
Icetickle wrote:Some popular rappers here actually ripped off the beat from "eminem - mockingbird". They got away with it.
Don't get into Hip Hop, dude. There are these horrible things called mix tapes where rappers make whole CDs from stolen beats

So it's like a common thing in the hip hop world?

Phatscout · Post by **Phatscout** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:52 am

Icetickle wrote:
Brothulhu wrote:
Icetickle wrote:Some popular rappers here actually ripped off the beat from "eminem - mockingbird". They got away with it.
Don't get into Hip Hop, dude. There are these horrible things called mix tapes where rappers make whole CDs from stolen beats
So it's like a common thing in the hip hop world?

Mixtapes are almost always free though. Like, they're usually a showcase for JUST the rapping aspect so generally that comes with the caveat that most of the beats are stolen, but again mixtapes are pretty much free almost all the time.

Basically a mixtape has new raps over existing (stolen) beats for free, while true albums are (again) new raps over new beats (por el dinero).

Eh, it's part of the culture. Yeah i dont get it either

Good way to money as a producer early on.

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