Getting into the industry?

[contakt321]

PS: Don't call in favors until it's strategically wise.

You should be doing favors for other people, endlessly. This creates relationships, gives you experience and differentiates you from the 8,000,000 other leaches trying to claw their way up too.

[freak & genius]

OK im guessing you know what your talking about since youve been doing this shizz for 10 years, ill take a look at other courses aswell and then make a decision (hopefully a good one)

thanks alot man

[contakt321]

Of course man.

PM me if you want to chat about this further.

I did a lot of things right but also made a ton of mistakes along the way. Would be glad to share what I have learned.

[ruckus49]

yeah i regret majoring in audio production. you learn hell of a lot more on your own and at internships.

[Sharmaji]

way to take the wind out of my sails, futures . I wanted to be the fount of knowledge!



in all truth, futures hit the nail completely on the head. completely.

to it i'd add hustle your balls off, be working on some aspect of creating or marketing your music (and yourself) every single moment you're awake.

and don't be a tnuc about it.

[freak & genius]

way to take the wind out of my sails, futures . I wanted to be the fount of knowledge!



in all truth, futures hit the nail completely on the head. completely.

to it i'd add hustle your balls off, be working on some aspect of creating or marketing your music (and yourself) every single moment you're awake.

and don't be a tnuc about it.

I will bare that in mind! (Especially the tnuc part)

[DZA]

and don't be a tnuc about it.

I fail at that then

[nitz]

Look Freak & Genius (sorry but i dont know your real name) listen to be for one sec, i will tell you a great piece of advise later on today i am going out soon so i don't have the time back ill be back inabit because it will be quite a long reply, because i think you are at the stage where i was a few years ago. so just read my reply before you make any decisions

[freak & genius]

Look Freak & Genius (sorry but i dont know your real name) listen to be for one sec, i will tell you a great piece of advise later on today i am going out soon so i don't have the time back ill be back inabit because it will be quite a long reply, because i think you are at the stage where i was a few years ago. so just read my reply before you make any decisions

ok sure thing, it better be good haha

[freak & genius]

and don't be a tnuc about it.

I fail at that then

[frizzwah]

on a serious note, i'm doing music composition at uni, hoping to go into soundtracking films.
i don't think degree's/qualifications count for much in creative subjects, but the contacts i've been making will definately be useful.

Thats exactly it. Its worth it fdor the experience and contacts.

But for specialized stuff like you mention you do need qualifications unless you have a tonn of experience and a sick portfolio.

A mate of mine did Music Tech, then did one year at VFS (vancouver film school), came straight out of there into a job at one of the UKs biggest games developers doing all their sound design.

VFS was a sick place too, I went over to visit their facilities are awesome.

You should check it out Frizz if you want to get into film sound etc.

cheers man!
just done my first film towards my sick portfolio
got a few more lined up.
VFS looks hella good!
will add that to my options, i'm guessing studying there will require $$$.
thanks for the tip though pal! will have to do some more research on it

and good luck to the OP!

[DRTY]

cheers man!
just done my first film towards my sick portfolio
got a few more lined up.
VFS looks hella good!
will add that to my options, i'm guessing studying there will require $$$.
thanks for the tip though pal! will have to do some more research on it
and good luck to the OP!

Yer because you'd have to rent a flat out there or something, as well as paying for the course, but it's a pretty renowned place so if you know that's what you want to do it could be worth it!

[frizzwah]

fucking hell, just reading into the sound design course.
this is definately a possibility!

[DRTY]

fucking hell, just reading into the sound design course.
this is definately a possibility!

The stuff the students there were pumping out is fucking incredible, if you PM me (so I remember to send links to you), I'll do it (I cant be arsed to find them right now).

[nitz]

ok am back, ok am sure you have read all this other post in this thread and took all this into account, If you have just left school am guessing your about 16/17 year going into college? College is quite a different experience compared a school. You have more freedom, you build you a good work rate, because in college its like you do the work or leave it and see your grades. Teachers don't always see if you have done your homework and see if you are in all your lessons ect etc its different.

Ok so am guessing you like music and want to take up music as a future course but your not too sure if you can make it in the music industry?(not trying to be dis-respectful in anyway btw) so you want to have a back up plan too? But if you look into details about the btec music tech course, you may see problems, 1st its a btec so therefore this means that all you do is the music tech course in college that’s it! As you may know in college the main courses are A levels and btec’s the main different is A-levels can generally abit harder because it works in exams wise so you have like 2 exams in a years and that’s it. You learn for about 5/6 mounts for each exam, however a btec is basically working on course work, so you have lots of them but they are worth less in % to the overall grade

By now am guessing your think WTF is this guy on about telling me about btec and A levels lol but trust me this is all relevant to your question..

ok so i have once been in you shoes as well, i had just finished school with good grades to study what ever i wanted either that be btec or A level. This is where a really big decision in my life came, it was either do a btec in music tech or do A levels. The btec music tech was the passion course for me because i love music however taking this in to real life A levels can get me a REAL STABLE job that i known i could do. So i was stuck with the two options, so what i did was I when to the btec music tech interview and look into the course before i made my 100% decision.

And one of the 1st questions the guy asked me was what do you want to do in the future and he was expecting a musical job somewhere eg me to say become a radio dj or becoming a sound engineer or something like that, but i told the guy look listen when i go to uni am not going to be studying a music course at uni am going to be something else am not quite sure yet because i have not looked into the stuff and he asked why? So i told him that am not dumb am not one this those people who think they are like the next best producer in the world or the end best dj(btw at this time i was not really that clever in music production i was still learning some of the basic's ). and the person said to me.. ooo well your a different student now anti you.. and i was his what do you mean? and he was like every student i get in here thinks that its not easy making a living in music is very difficult at times and you have more of a insight. so after the interview he offered me a placement

BUT.. what i did was instead of doing it as a btec in where i have to only study music tech i made it to a A level so its like a A level , so basically i study 4 A levels and one of those are music tech , i have done this because i know music is a really hard industry to get into so i keep it as a passion and study a levels and am going to go uni hopefully to study law ! so therefore overall I keep by options open and was not focused into one thing.. so I suggest you look into the same options

I hope my long reply helped

[freak & genius]

ok ill also look into that, was an epic read but i do understand what your saying in a way.

keeping options open basicly, ill have a look into it, thanks alot appreciate all the help people!

[deadly_habit]

beginning of fiscal year approach companies for sponsorship like you would a regular job
that and most reps for companies i've met if you are down to travel have worked my job before hand

[nitz]

ok ill also look into that, was an epic read but i do understand what your saying in a way.

keeping options open basicly, ill have a look into it, thanks alot appreciate all the help people!

if you think that was long to read, imagine how long to took write ?

[setspeed]

futures, terekete, nitz and all are absolutely right. If you want to guarantee a job in the music industry, then, yeah, don't study music.

If, however, you're like me, want to throw security to the wind and simply study music for the sake of learning about it, then do a music course. 4 years and 2 degrees later, I have no secure job or future I can speak of at the moment. What I have gotten out of it is exposure to understanding and forms of music I would have probably otherwise ignored, a chance to explore various composition methods and play different styles of music in different bands until I found what I liked, and some great contacts and friends.

So yeah, I don't regret it at all. It wasn't a sensible move like studying something like business would have been. But I'm not a sensible person so I couldn't have done that

all of this.

also, you really need to think about what it is you want to be doing in the industry, and act accordingly.

i wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing to do a music tech degree - although I did one and basically wasted my time - but if I was going into it now here is what i would do.

1. don't just do your assignments and think that will do.

2. remember that you have free access to some really nice gear. get in the studios and cane it, every minute you can; figure out how things work, get the studio manager guy to come down and show you how to use this desk or that microphone. when you finish the course, all this will disappear so use it while you can.

3. don't spend 3 years drinking and taking recreational drugs. there will be plenty of time for that later. you might feel like a nerd going in the studio on a saturday while all your mates are still drinking from the night before, but it's very hard to get into the industry and only 1 or 2 people out of the 50-odd on your course will manage it. i can tell you now, they will be the ones who worked hardest, became the best engineers and know the equipment better than anyone else. me? i went straight into a call centre.

4. record and produce everything you can. if some band are playing a gig, ask if you can record them live or engineer them, or see if you can record people's demos, whatever. it doesn't matter if you hate the music - if you get a job working in a studio you'll spend half your time working on music you don't like so get used to it. you need the experience - no one will give you a job if you can write a great dubstep tune but can't mic up a drumkit.

5. get making moves on other stuff while you're there. start a club night with a couple of mates, start a little record label, get a music blog going, write tunes, you never know where things will end up.

if you do all that, it'll probably be worth it doing a music tech degree. if you just want to write tunes and get them released, i'm not sure if i would bother...