Ellen here. I've decided to take a very long handout that I created for my college students and break it down into a series of blogs. This is a summary of what I know about promoting yourself and your music online. If you or someone you know is a self released artist who doesn't necessarily have a plan of action after the CDs are manufactured, subscribe to this blog and read the series. I'm breaking it down into bite sized portions. So here is part one...
YOUR OWN CD
Clearly your songs need to be very strong and your music must
sound great. If you can afford to hire a professional producer, you
should definitely do so. Trying to make a record without a producer is
like trying to shoot a movie without a director. You might end up with
a finished product, but having that objective person looking at the big
picture and bringing it all together is extremely valuable. You want
your songs to sound cohesive so they all belong together on the same
record. You also want a producer who will make sure that YOUR VOCAL
sounds fantastic. Don’t settle for someone who gives you hot guitar
tracks and then just leaves you on your own in front of the mic when it
comes time to cut the vocal.
When it comes to music production, there are three factors: FAST.
CHEAP. GOOD. You can only have two of those, but you can’t have all
three.
If you’re not sure about a producer, just offer to hire them for
one song to start with and see if you like working with them. You want
a person that you feel comfortable with who will bring out your best in
the studio. Depending on the genre of music, you could easily spend at
least a couple thousand dollars per song, but that should include
paying the musicians, and you should strive to have full ownership of
the masters. If a producer gives you a lower rate up front in exchange
for partial ownership of the master, that’s also another option. The
scenario of a producer “developing an artist” and not charging them for
their services is what many people often expect, but producers need to
pay the bills too. Plus if you’re on their no-money work roster, you’re
going to come last, after their money work. You could find yourself
still waiting for them to finish your project two years after you
started. And it may not always be easy to find a producer who believes
in you enough to work with you for free. So if you want to get
something done in a timely manner, just pay them for their services,
and walk away owning what you did.
Having a GREAT MIX and MASTERING are of utmost importance. A
crappy mix is a huge indicator of amateur work. Your songs must compete
sonically with what the major labels are releasing. You cannot forego
mastering.
ARTWORK
When you meet a person for the first time, what do you notice
more, what their face looks like, or how their voice sounds? When you
are putting together your CD packaging, do not underestimate the vital
importance of having a GREAT CD COVER. Good artwork is essential. Spend
some time in the record stores looking at the CD covers of other
musicians in your genre, and get some really good references for
whomever is designing your cover for you. Something like this, though
always subjective, is AS important as having good production and
mastering on your tracks.
If you’ve done any cover tunes on your CD, you will need to pay
out the mechanical licenses before you can get your CDs duplicated.
Hopefully, all of these royalties are processed through the Harry Fox
Agency, and if you’re getting less than 2,500 CDs printed, you can pay
online at songfile.com. Otherwise, you’ll need to find out from the
song’s publisher who processes their mechanicals. Please learn from my
mistake and get several hundred ‘FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY’ copies
printed up if you have several cover tunes on your CD. We didn’t do
that, we got 2,000 CDs pressed with really nice expensive digipak
packaging, had to pay mechanicals on all of them, [which really adds up
for 8 covers per CD], and then ended up giving away 600 of those CDs.
Soooo... we paid hundreds of dollars in mechanicals that we will never
get back. We should have gotten 500 CDs in a cardboard sleeve printed
for promos. Live and learn.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UNSOLICITED ADVICE...
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