Find out how you can make it in the music industry as an artist
Contents
The Music industry
Believe in yourself
Networking
Realistic goals
Online presence
Find a mentor
Getting exposure
Your song quality
Making it in the music industry is not easy. There’s a lot of good musicians out there and a lot of singles coming out every day.
According to Spotify founder Daniel Ek, there’s almost 60,000 singles coming out every day. That's more than 1.32 Million tracks every month, impressive.
We don’t want to discourage anyone, but when there’s a lot of competition. This usually means you will need to work harder in order to be heard.
The Music Industry
The music business will be different for everyone. There are many paths a music producer/musician can take and its important that you have a game plan and work hard towards your goal. The music industry is a very competitive field, but people continue to strive for success every day in the hopes of breaking through the industry.
There are many different kinds of niches in the music industry. You can be a performing singer songwriter, or a producer working mainly in the studio, you can be a composer or professional instrumental player, there's everything and anything and you should find a place that suits you inside this gigantic music industry. Figure out what works for you and where's your natural place.
Believe in Yourself
Making it in the music industry means your love for music can't be just a hobby.
It needs to turn into a a full force music career. But you must know that in order to break through the music industry you must believe in yourself and have a good work ethic in order to pursuit your believes.
If you don't believe in yourself and you aren't your biggest supporter than how can you expect a huge fan base and a successful career? You need to remember to have fun, trust your gut, believe in yourself and work hard.
Networking
It might be hard, but in the music industry artists cannot be shy, especially independent music artists. The more people you know the more connections you have which creates better opportunity.
Growing your contact list in the music industry can change your music career exponentially. The people you meet in the music world have the potential to help you with producing music, booking gigs, gaining experience, social media promotion and so much more.
Artists should be going to as many music related events as possible, you can meet people who are music producers and employees of major record labels. Remember to be yourself and make a good impression on the people you meet because you never know one day they could make a big positive impact in your career.
Realistic Goals
Making music can take a long time and should be treated no different than any other industry professionals. However, when first starting you should set realistic goals. Don't work on your music for 12 hours a day, you'll get burnt out! Make sure that you're making a living from your music before quitting your daily job. Don't rush the process and take emotional decisions when it comes to your musical career, you don't want to be stuck jobless.
From indie artists to rock bands, everyone falls in love with their new song that they have made. You treat it like its a masterpiece and you love it so dearly. However, it is important to remember to reflect and listen to your music objectively, as if someone random wrote it. It can be difficult to be objective about the song that you wrote and recorded but it is essential to do so and not get caught up on thinking your first song is a hit. This skill takes time to master.
Online Presence
Having an online presence is crucial to wanting to make it in the music industry. As technology continues to develop the use of the internet and online platforms increase as well. DIY Artists and music producers in today's day and age use social media and online platforms to their advantage. A social media presence dedicated to your music can allow you to engage with your fans, broaden your audience, while also self promoting your music. In addition, its a great way for people in the music business outside of your area and around the world to find you and contact you.
Some of the most famous artists found fame through the use of social media. For example, back in 2013, Shawn Mendes, the singer songwriter for the hit songs "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "There's Nothing Holdin' me Back", gained popularity through the social media app named Vine. Vine was a social media platform where people can post 6 second long videos and Mendes had decided to record covers of himself singing. Mendes gained a following on social media, now having 69.5 million followers on Instagram, 8.7 million followers on Tiktok and 43.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Find A Mentor
Finding someone you trust who can give you advice and guidance is key in any type of industry. Whether it is someone who is just starting out or even if they've had experience and knowledge for years, it is always good to have a mentor!
It is important to be able to turn to someone who knows the industry more than you do in order to help you navigate through the music industry and break down walls.
With that being said, it is also vital to know who you're getting your advice from. Their values and beliefs must line up with your own values and beliefs so that the image your creating for yourself as an artist does not get disrupted.
Asking someone to be your mentor is in a whole other ball park. Again, it goes back to the point made about networking with people in the music industry. When you find someone that you relate to and you love their work, whether is may be that he recorded music before or has great songs, shoot them an email expressing how you are interested in getting to know more about the music industry from their perspective over coffee or lunch. The worst that can happen is that they say no.
Getting Exposure
You have to be a very good writer and producer of music, you’ll also need to bring something unique, and you need to keep on going, song after song after song… more importantly, the right promotion is essential for your success.
To get exposure for your song and get heard, you need to distribute it on Spotify playlists, YouTube channels, TikTok videos, blogs, and even radio stations. There are many ways to promote your song; some better than others, some require a bigger budget, some require more time and learning, in some cases, you’ll find yourself spending more time promoting the song then creating it, that’s ludicrous.
For example One Submit makes it easy for artists to promote their music. it's a a self-service platform that is a one-stop shop for song submissions. One Submit submit artist's songs to 6 different platforms.
For every submission there’s a guaranteed review from the curator, artists have the option to deliver their song to Spotify playlists, YouTube channels, TikTok influencers, blogs, radio stations, and even record labels. All within your genre and most importantly you pay according to your chosen campaign. Your campaign is adjustable to your budget and your desired music platforms.
Your Music quality
Your music production should be excellent, creating a song from start to finish takes 4 stages:
Writing (lyrics and music)
Producing
Mixing
Mastering
It takes a lot of time, years even, to master a great song with awesome music quality. In order to speed up the process there are ways to work around mastering these 4 stages. For example, if you are someone that is a bit technical, you can learn to produce by yourself. there's lot's of help on YouTube tutorials videos.
In addition, your budget makes the biggest difference. If you have some money set a side you can hire an expert to help you with each of these steps if you can't master all 4. Asking for help shouldn't discourage you, you want your song to be the best it can be.
The singer songwriter Adele and her hit song "Hello" has over 2 billion views on YouTube. Adele composed the song, but she also got some help from Greg Kurstin, an American music producer. The two worked together and filled in the gaps that the other was lacking, elevating the song and creating a hit!
For more tips check out our blog on "6 Tips For Writing A Song"
Mixing is a crucial step in the song, most of the producers are doing this process by themselves. Sometimes, a smart advice is to let go and hire a mixing engineer, especially when you have 2nd doubts about your own mix. Professional mixers are doing mixing all the time, it's their day job, most likely they will get better results, but remember, better is relative in music. Record companies tend to work mixing and mastering engineers more then the DIY artist.
Obviously it's hard for a producer to give away his song to someone else for mixing, because producers and artists are getting attached to the sound of their song and the mixing engineer could end up with totally different mix sound. Try to listen to the Mixer's work before you hire him.
Same advice goes to the hiring of a mastering engineer.