Music producer, I need advice

[Bagelzbeats]

Hey everyone,
I am an aspiring music producer and I really want to make it into a business I can support myself on, yes I know music is a slow lane path in the book but hear me out.

I make rap/hip hop music. Most producers just wanna make money selling their beats but I don't wanna do that, I wanna develop and work with artists then market and promote the actual songs we make instead of just promoting my beats. But I'm not sure how to go about this best seeing that I am the producer and not the artist. I have about 12 songs I've produced so far from different artists that have turned out good but I'm not sure what to do with them now.

So I have 2 ideas I need to know which is better:

1. Release a cd in my own name, a compilation cd featuring all the artists I've worked with. Kind of how David guetta is a producer but he releases cd's in his own name and features people singing. Of course I could split all the royalties with artists on the cd.

2. Start my own digital label, and release all the music under the Artist's name not mine, but release it thru my own label or brand that I control.

I guess it comes down to should I build my brand as me, my own name as a producer, or should I build the brand of a record label that I would own.

I know it's a lot easier to promote yourself when you are the actual artist, it is pretty easy to go on social networks and interact and build relationships with fans, but as as a label it becomes kind of strange I would be like the middle man promoting other people hoping they would interact and do the rest.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Here is a song I produced if anyone's interested to hear: Music | Buy Rap Instrumentals | Hip Hop Beats For Sale | Download Free Beats

 

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[PopEmersen]

I'm 32 and I've been making hip hop music/beats since I was about 19......my advice to you is stop making beats for business reasons. Do it as a hobby. The supply and demand ratio + the low barrier to entry makes it difficult to succeed.

 

[Bagelzbeats]

Definately it is a competitive and hard field but that doesn't mean it's impossible. I know beats are a saturated market but I don't want to be selling my beats, I wanna be collaborating with artists and selling the music we make. I'm just not sure how the best way to brand and market it, do I release it just in my name (me being the artist and featuring people on vocals) or the artists name thru my own label?

The way I see it, selling the finished product (a song with vocals) to music consumers has more fastlane potential then just selling a beat to an artist. When you sell or lease beats it can be non exclusive, but I feel like a song has unlimited potential in the amount of money it can make, as a producer sometimes it sucks having bad artists on your beats, which is gaurenteed to happen if you lease the same beat non exlusely. Id rather have 1 solid song with a beat and market the song then market the beat to a lot of artists I don't necessary want to be on my beats

 

[DeletedUser11]

There is definitely big money in it, Scott Storch produced beats for people like Eminem, 50 cent, Chris Brown and just about everyone in the hip hop/r&b scene. He was worth about 80 million before he blew it all on cocaine and cars.

You definitely need to be talented and "know somebody" in the biz, most producers start their career with an actual up and coming artist.

Irv Gotti (60 million net worth) was friends with Jay-Z before jay started rapping.

"40" was friends with Drake growing up.

It takes huge $$$$$$$$$$$ and a decent amount of hits to brand yourself like Dj Khaled, Kanye West, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Afrojack etc.



Becoming a big time producer is like saying you want to be a top actor like Brad Pitt or Charlie Sheen.

It can be near impossible and luck plays a large role in the music industry and hollywood in general.

Just my 0.02$

 

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[santa]

[video=youtube;5Beca2XT6h8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Beca2XT6h8&NR=1&feature=endscreen[/video]

 

[smartman]

although the industry has changed considerably since the 90's, I would suggest reading The Manual: How to have a #1 Hit the Easy Way. Although written tongue in cheek, it explains exactly all the bs involved in pushing a hit song.

 

[x9vjzs098u123rnl]

I'll keep this response brief because I did just write a pretty long post on the Fastlane commandments and the music industry, but:

You're violating the commandments of Need and Scale here. If you're trying to get performers to use your beats, you'll need to build a seriously strong brand first to create any sort of "need" in their minds- Jay-Z doesn't feel the "need" to go online and search up beats to buy, he "needs" a Kanye beat so he calls up Ye. The only "need" you can create is if having one of your beats makes the artist feel accomplished, "safe" (that his finished track will be successful), that it makes him "look good".

In terms of scale: Both of your plans are extremely tough to scale. A compilation album... good luck selling a million copies of that. Or even a thousand. Hell, good luck GIVING AWAY more than 2 or 3 thousand. It'll take a ton of work, and even then won't hit enough effection to become Fastlane. Working with artists... unless you can work with the top 5% of rappers, then you don't have enough magnitude, so you might as well work with 1000 rappers (just as tough).

I would recommend you give your plans some more thought (and maybe give a read over the post I wrote because it might help if you want to go the route of creating your own record label).

 

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[Stu_Hefner]

Either get out there and mingle in the industry, otherwise choose a different career path.

Here's why:

hiphop is a social thing. The internet will help you but to reach fastlane potential you need to gain popularity. And given there is one guy kind of doing what you're talking about (dj khaled) and he doesn't even produce music.

DJ Khalad's marketing is really good though. That is who you are competing with.

Now ask yourself do you have the charisma and appeal to start a movement in a similar manner as dj khalad, timbaland, p diddy? These artist developers are great promotets/marketers and have plenty of charisma and character.

If you are not in the biggest clubs, hip hop events in your town/city - and networking and promoting your work - you are really far behind in terms of making a career for yourself in that industry

 

[Khi]

I think you should persue both options you were thinking about. Your beats are awesome even down to the free one. I also recommend looking for upcoming artists to work on their mixtapes to get more exposure. If they have a hit record even if its just one then you gain recognition. I personally downloaded the free beat for my self to see what I can do with it. Also I'm not sure how much your exclusive rights are but enerally they are like 500 and up. I think you should have them low at first then go up. The reason being is with a lease anybody can get the same beat so people want exclusivity. However, many artists are independent these days and don't always have large sums of money upfront. This will help increase your sales as well as offering a contract for artists to pay you on the back end maybe for more money with exclusive rights. That way the artist can put the song on itunes and start making money off the song then pay you once they are able to cover the price. Let me know if this helps. As an aspiring artists I know these are issues that I come across so I speak from experience.-Khi

 

[awkwardgenius]

Relevant:

IAMA person who has made a six figure income for 10 years full time as a local producer, engineer, and mixer, owning my own studio. I am not famous nor do I work with famous people but YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING at his. AMA! : WeAreTheMusicMakers

 

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