Hip hop beat making is definately a weird choice for an entrepreneurial career because people usually start off doing it just for fun, and then (if they get good, haha) one thing leads to another and moneys coming their way. Because of this there is never a business plan, and a lot of people don’t sit down and think of ways to expand. Now obviously some beat makers are great at the marketing aspect of this career, but this article is for those who may have overlooked this part, and is just aimed at giving some basic tips to get you in the right frame of mind for making you as successful as you can be doing this. This is obviously meant for beat makers, but other artists should read this too.
Archive for the 'The Music Business' Category
Jimmy Iovine talking about the industry for a bit. Some interesting shit. It’s nice to hear someone who’s been in the business for so long talking about things like this. Check it out here.
18
Oct
Record Contract Basics
This is a short article by an attorney on the basics of record contracts. For somebody who has no idea what they are doing when it comes to signing to a record label, this can be of some use. It uses plain English and does a good job at getting the basics out there.
Here’s an article by the NY Times about industry mogul co-founder of Def Jam Rick Rubin’s latest switch to Columbia Records. (If you don’t know about Rick Rubin, then find out.)
There’s two problems with this article
- It’s very long
- It’s written in a pretencious narrative style that can be annoying
However, there’s a lot of good material as well.
Rubin has a bigger idea. To combat the devastating impact of file sharing, he, like others in the music business (Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine at Universal, for instance), says that the future of the industry is a subscription model, much like paid cable on a television set. “You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone games, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to … Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.
The article is a good read mainly because it gives hope for the record industry.
04
Jul
Where to Sell Your Music
A lot of people wonder “How can I sell my beats?” They have a lot of good music, but not enough of a network to sell all of their tracks to, so they hit a standstill. I’m a firm believer in selling yourself. I think that if you really want to make money, take the time to market and promote yourself in the best way possible. Unfortunately, not everybody who has beat making talent has marketing talent. However, I’m also a firm believer in getting your product out to as many people as possible. That is where these sites come in.
As one of artistic talent the manager is THE center of your professional world. A good manager can expand your career by being the PUBLIC face for you (new producers/artist), they encompass many responsibilities of people that you could hire yourself to handle, but it is easier on the new talent to have a jack of all trades-master of none, well….but one. The gift of gab. As a good manager knows how to sell his/her client. That’s right! The manager’s job is to sell the client. He does that with these responsibilities:
Now before we get in depth, lets get a general understanding. There are 3 different kinds of production deals an artist and producer can partner up on. They are the following: The Mini-Record Deal, Joint Venture, and Work-For-Hire. But, before this idea is even entertained the artist MUST NOT be signed to a distributing label. But this is a VERY IMPORTANT issue among artists that are going the independent route. As you will understand later.
Continue reading ‘The Artist & Producer Production Deals’
Need ideas on how to spread the news that you are ready to hit the music scene? Don’t know where to start your music marketing and promotional efforts? Some tips presented here are tried, true and some are new, to get the word out on your music and you.
