Month: September 2018

3 Benefits of Using Outreach Projects as a Marketing Tool

1. Expose your music to a cause and to people who share the same vision.

Seeing improved cancer care or better options for care facilities is an initiative you want to be a part of. Partnering with groups that share the common interest is during cancer awareness month, is one way for you to get involved in building awareness to a mutual cause and creating an awareness of who you are.

As you align yourself with different cancer affiliated groups, eg the cancer society you volunteer your time to help them push the awareness campaign.

Posting the series of activities leading up to the event is one of the ways to of getting the word out. This is a way to invite persons to the event through your social media channels and various efforts.

Media appearances is another way of supporting the cause, the outreach initiative benefit by an increased awareness created, surrounding the cause. As the artiste associated with the cause, how you benefit, comes from performing at their live event being apart of the support team. You get an opportunity for an audience.

Outreach projects sometimes involve travelling from place to place, having a reach of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people. Your involvement with these projects provides an opportunity to present your work-music to these people.

Other opportunities to share at other projects of similar nature are created too.

You might be drafted among the support team of causes such as sickle cell awareness, a blood drive, autism awareness, as well as volunteer your time to a community drive, hospital visits and so on. These are various outreach projects that allow you an opportunity to give talks to the youths for instance.

You get to share your ideas through song as well. This opportunity of influence to reach and challenge individuals positively. These are ways to continuously expose yourself to various audiences who will like and appreciate your music.

2. Touring opportunities in other countries

Aligning yourself with various outreach projects is not limited to your community or country. In fact, you get to travel to other countries worldwide as well.

Eg. Christafari some time ago did a Scandinavian tour and other countries with the same region. they partnered with churches and other non-profit organisations and travelled to schools to share the gospel with persons through music. In addition, they go out and give talks to persons at the places that they go to. They not only interact with these persons.

3. Media Exposure for your brand through cross promotion

In order to expose your music to a wide cross-section of people and cultures, you must think creatively. How do I utilise the various mediums available to building my personal brand?

By aligning yourself to different organisations, travelling and being apart of the initiative You get media exposure for your brand

The promotion of an event is about pushing to get people out to the event as they become aware of the cause and what is being done. The media is definitely a means to facilitate the promoting of the event.

The organizers of the outreach project will share the cause and venture by way of interviews- be it print, tv, or online channels. Because you are affiliated with the supported cause, you get to share in the promotional efforts. So, for example, you might share snippets through the social media channels of interviews, what that will do is create a situation of a cross promotion. The media audience becomes aware of you and the vice versa.

As a marketing tool use various media to promote outreach. organisations non-profits projects these will help to build your brand getting exposure for your music to more people, being at these various events.

You can share your song by WhatsApp by youtube link and persons listen on repeat. Chances are when you have a concert or new release persons will want to see and hear you because they like your music. As a result of the interactions and will appreciate your brand.

let me know if this was helpful. God bless.

How to get paid for the work you do

One of the worse things is doing work and not getting paid

You pour your heart out getting everything perfect. You spend the time, busting your brain figuring out every detail. Taking the time to craft the masterpiece and deliver it on time to the client. Finally, the stress is over and you can move on with your life and get paid.

Then the unthinkable. Nothing. Silence. No comment about the job. Nothing. You don’t even get paid.

As a freelancer, this is one of the most frustrating experience I have ever faced. Not receiving feedback from a client and worse not getting paid after all the hard work you put in. Is it a lack of principles? Is it a lack of good judgment when accepting the work from a client? What is it that makes not getting paid sucks so much.

We must ensure we protect ourselves from deceptive clients. This will ensure we get paid for the hard work we put in. No one likes getting a six for a nine and lots of stories and excuses. And worse of all no one likes doing work and not getting paid.

Here are some things that will help you guard against deceptive clients.

Ask for a deposit

Getting money upfront helps to ease the cashflow burden. You get a percentage of the total fee and start the work. This proves the client is committed to getting the job done. The process has begun. But asking for it is very uncomfortable. It’s very simple but uncomfortable.

Here’s an example of how you can do it.

You: to do this project will cost you $25,000.

Client: Ok, I can work with that, when do we begin.

You: We can start this week. But I’ll need a 20% deposit when with the signed contract.

That’s it. Nothing complicated about it and this can be done via email.

Get all your money upfront

Asking for all your money upfront can be a pre-qualifier to weed out bad clients. You might lose sales doing this but at the end of the day when you start the job, you are already paid. All the money worries are out the door and you can work on the project stress-free.

Here’s an example of how you ask for payment in full.

You: To do this project will cost you $25,000.

Client: Ok, I can work with that, when do we begin.

You: We can start this week. But I’ll need full payment with the signed contract.

Ensure you get paid before you deliver the final product

Nothing is worse than delivering on your end only to no hear from the person ever again. To prevent this ensure they pay you in full and you deliver the final product. Fair is fair. If there are any changes that need to be made you can quickly make adjustments and move on.

Conclusion

All in all, asking for money is uncomfortable. But if you don’t ask you won’t get paid. I had to learn to ask for money and get comfortable explaining the cost of my different offerings.

How to overcome the fear of sharing your work

One of my greatest fear is letting people know what I have to offer. I don’t know, it’s very crippling trying to muscle up the courage to say to someone I’m skilful enough to do what you want. Even if I do tell them, after completing the job there’s this thought about whether I did the job right and waiting to get a call asking for a refund.

Call it rejection, call it stupid but it’s an actual thing. Paralysis to tell people you are good enough. Why this happens I can’t explain it but it happens very often. Is like you don’t want your friends to know what you are up to. Its kinda private and personal, but I expect people to find me and give me money.

This is a fantasy of mine, I set up a basic social media profile. Share a post every now and again and magically my business grow leaps and bounds and I can run off into the sunset rich. I know this sounds stupid but I actually wish this happened in real life.

In the book the magic of thinking big, the author shares that you overcome fear by taking action. But this one is true somewhat but it’s still uncomfortable. I hate calling people but a large part of my job is calling people for interviews. Strange isn’t it. You have to call someone but you spend the entire day trying to convince yourself to make the call. Intentional procrastination because of fear.

This is real and I know I’m not the only person that this happens to. Fear is an actual thing and persons hoping to build a business and let other people know what they have to offer, overcoming fear is part of the journey.

One of the skills you have to master is learning how to show people over and over that you have the skills. This can be in multiple ways. Sharing video, blog post, audio and so forth. Stepping outside the box and putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

Knowing what to do is half the job. The next half is doing so in a very creative way that grabs people attention. But creativity cannot be taught you have to steal ideas and fuse them with other ideas to make them your own.

Creative borrowing as they call it. Fusing your influences in such a way that it works to convince enough people to trust you. Do it long enough to create a habit. And once you have the habit of fusing what you like, it will always turn out to be unique.

So how does this help in terms of marketing yourself and what you do?

Everyone has to learn how to sell other people on them. So before you even think about everything else you have to know your product. Meaning what do you bring to the table and who will want it. The next thing is knowing how to explain it in such a way that people get it.

Once you have this down, you create an offer which will be used to tell the world about what you do. Sometimes a one-shot message repeated over and over is what you need. Sometimes teaching your skill works. Other times just sharing your creative pieces and your work works as well.

The key is do something consistently and people will start to take notice. Knowing this is just the basics you’ll need in order to move forward with building a successful career at anything. The next thing is you’ll need marketing material to share that message with people.

That’s one of the things that is often not explored and I must add I never spent enough time doing this in the early parts. I knew I had something to offer but never spent the time to nail down the specifics and focused on how to explain it to people.

If you have read this far, then hopefully you start to get the picture that taking the time out to share a little piece of you will make a big difference to building your business, music career or whatever it is you are doing.

How to produce and give everything space in the mix

When I started out as a music producer one of the most foreign concepts was mixing. I never knew what it was all I cared about was making music. As long as it sounded good to me I was ok. But as I developed my skill set and was exposed to the artist there was something else that was missing. Knowing how to create a good mix and to make a beat that an artist can write to and his vocals fit well with the beat.

Read more

How much money you need to make music your full time career

One of the biggest misconceptions about the music industry people make is that you can’t make a living doing music. What if I told you there’s a way to make a living doing music. But before you go off and jump in you need to know how much money you need to make in order to make.

Don’t worry it’s a rather simple process you just need a pen and a piece of paper. If you are an excel savvy then you can use that as well.
What are your basic expenses

To get started there’s some basic information you’ll need. The first set is how much do you spend on average on the things to keep a roof over your head. The bare minimum necessities. These are your utilities: water and light bill. Your rent or mortgage payment and internet bill.

Why start here? This is because these are your must-have expenses outside of food. These are the things you pay before anything else.

To find these out just look at your last 3 months bill, add them up and divide it by three. This will give you the average amount you spend on each per month. This will give you a baseline figure to work with.

For example:

  • Light: JA$3,000
  • Water: JA$2,500
  • Rent: JA$25,000
  • Internet: JA$5,000

How much food do you eat per month

The next thing you need to calculate is how much money you spend on food each month. This might be hard for some if you don’t track it. What you need to know is how much money you spend on breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Anything in between like snacks and so on.

What you are doing now is besides having a roof over your head you are working out how much money you need to feed yourself and your family if you have a family.

If you’re on a special diet this should be easy because all you are doing is working out how much each item cost and having a final figure. Don’t worry if price change from time to time because this is just a basic figure to work out the final figure.

  • Grocery: JA$35,000

How much money do you spend on travelling

The next thing is how much money do you spend travelling. This should include going to the studio, shows. If you drive this should be gas to put inside your car and basic maintenance monthly. If you take the bus this should include bus fare and taxi fare.

If you are making car payment leave it out of this section we’ll get to that later.

Your paper should look something like this now.

  • Gas: JA$20,000

What other expenses do you have on a monthly basis

The final thing you need to write down is other expenses you have per month. This includes debt repayment, entertainment expenses, and spending. Studio time and other cost relating to investing in your music.

You can also make plans to save for the future and invest your money in other non-music related activities. If you have children this can include school-related expenses. Medical expenses. What you don’t want is to leave stuff out and you have surprises later down the road.

  • Car payment: JA$ 25,000
  • Studio time: JA$ 6,000
  • Saving: JA$ 4,000
  • School: JA$ 7,000
  • Medical: JA$6,000

Calculate how much money you need to live on a daily basis

Now is the time to tally all your figures to see how much money you should be aiming for each month from music. Your page should like the table below

Expense Amount JA

Light: 3,000

Internet 5,000

Rent: 25,000

Water: 2,500

Grocery: 35,000

Gas: 20000

Car payment: 25,000

Studio time: 6000

Saving: 4,000

School: 7,000

Medical: 6000

Final: 138,500

So from the example, you’ll need JA$138,500 to live on monthly. Whatever your figure is on your sheet. This is your goal to aim for monthly to make you dream of doing music full time a reality.

How you reach that goal is up to you because there are multiple ways to reach that target. Hope this is helpful and here’s a google docs template to get you started.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the music industry people make is that you can’t make a living doing music. What if I told you there’s a way to make a living doing music. But before you go off and jump in you need to know how much money you need to make in order to make

How much money you need to make music your full time career
One of the biggest misconceptions about the music industry people make is that you can’t make a living doing music. What if I told you there’s a way to make a living doing music. But before you go off and jump in you need to know how much money you need to make in order to make.
Don’t worry it’s a rather simple process you just need a pen and a piece of paper. If you are an excel savvy then you can use that as well.

What are your basic expenses

To get started there’s some basic information you’ll need. The first set is how much do you spend on average on the things to keep a roof over your head. The bare minimum necessities. These are your utilities: water and light bill.  Your rent or mortgage payment and internet bill.
Why start here? This is because these are your must-have expenses outside of food. These are the things you pay before anything else.
To find these out just look at your last 3 months bill, add them up and divide it by three. This will give you the average amount you spend on each per month. This will give you a baseline figure to work with.
For example:
  • Light: JA$3,000
  • Water: JA$2,500
  • Rent: JA$25,000
  • Internet: JA$5,000

How much food do you eat per month

The next thing you need to calculate is how much money you spend on food each month. This might be hard for some if you don’t track it. What you need to know is how much money you spend on breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Anything in between like snacks and so on.
What you are doing now is besides having a roof over your head you are working out how much money you need to feed yourself and your family if you have a family.
If you’re on a special diet this should be easy because all you are doing is working out how much each item cost and having a final figure. Don’t worry if price change from time to time because this is just a basic figure to work out the final figure.
  • Grocery: JA$35,000

How much money do you spend on traveling

The next thing is how much money do you spend traveling. This should include going to the studio, shows. If you drive this should be gas to put inside your car and basic maintenance monthly. If you take the bus this should include bus fare and taxi fare.
If you are making car payment leave it out of this section we’ll get to that later.
Your paper should look something like this now.
  • Gas: JA$20,000

What other expenses do you have on a monthly basis

The final thing you need to write down is other expenses you have per month. This includes debt repayment, entertainment expenses, and spending. Studio time and other cost relating to investing in your music.
You can also make plans to save for the future and invest your money in other non-music related activities. If you have children this can include school-related expenses. Medical expenses. What you don’t want is to leave stuff out and you have surprises later down the road.
Car payment: JA$ 25,000
Studio time: JA$ 6,000
Saving:JA$ 4,000
School: JA$ 7,000
Medical: JA$6,000

Calculate how much money you need to live on a daily basis

Now is the time to tally all your figures to see how much money you should be aiming for each month from music. Your page should like the table below

Expense
Amount JA
Light:
3,000
Internet
5,000
Rent:
25,000
Water
2,500
Grocery:
35,000
Gas:
20000
Car payment
25,000
Studio time
6000
Saving
4,000
School
7,000
Medical
6000
Final
138,500
So from the example, you’ll need JA$138,500  to live on monthly. Whatever your figure is on your sheet. This is your goal to aim for monthly to make you dream of doing music full time a reality.
How you reach that goal is up to you because there are multiple ways to reach that target.
Hope this is helpful and here’s a google docs template to get you started.

3 myths about becoming a recording artist

Have you ever wanted to become a recording artist? Have you been writing original songs but not sure what to do with them? Do you have the desire to sing your songs in front of a live audience?

Then becoming a recording artist is the next step. But with that comes some misconception that might prevent you from making that next step.

Below I share 3 myths about becoming a recording artist.

Myth #1: You won’t make any money

One of the biggest concerns you might have is how will I make money from my music. But in the modern day music industry, there are multiple ways to earn a living from being a recording artist.

Live shows

Performing live is one way to make a living as a recording artist. The more songs you have the more you would want to perform those songs for people. These present various opportunities for you to book live shows. This can be people hiring you to sing at their concert or you hosting your own shows.

How you make money from live shows, the promoter book you to perform. You get paid either from a fee upfront or a percentage from ticket sales or drink sales. This can be a lucrative way to build a career once done right.

Selling Music

The most basic way to make money from music is selling the recordings to fans. With downloads on the decline, streaming is the new way to sell music. Once your music is on available on all streaming services fans can listen whenever they want.

This is ideal because instead of one transaction your fans will listen to your songs over and over. The more they listen, the more money you make from your songs.

Teaching music

During your downtime, you can teach somebody how to play an instrument. If you’re a good vocalist you can offer vocal lessons. This will help you refine your skills as well as mentor other people to do what you do.

Music licensing

Licensing your music for movies and adverts are another way to make money from music. This will open up new doors for your songs by exposing it to new audiences. The process involves either working with an agent or through a service. WHat they will do is get the right people to pay you to use your music.

Selling merchandise

Selling T-Shirts, caps, mugs etc gives you more income as a recording artist. Your core fans will want other items you have as a collectable. This can be an upsell to your shows and other events that you perform.

Myth #2: The field is oversaturated and I won’t get noticed

To be successful as a recording artist you need a fanbase. The more fans you have the sky’s the limit. It might sound cliche but if you build your fan base and have a direct way to contact them then you have the power.

Traditional methods of promoting music might not be working like normal. However social media and the internet are making tools available to get the same results.

Some of the things you can do now include growing your youtube subscribers. Build an email list of fans. Build relationships with key bloggers and media personalities. Set up your website to promote your music.

Myth # 3: It’s very expensive to produce music

The cost to produce music has gotten cheaper. This due to the fall in the price of quality recording equipment. With that said you can build a recording studio at your home for cheap.

Having your own studio will save you time to spend time on getting your sound right. Studio time becomes cheaper. Working with a producer becomes easier because you can collaborate over the internet.

You can also find producers to work with over the internet. Even if cost is an issue you can find one to fit your budget. So instead of doing an album you can produce singles and work from there.

Conclusion

There are multiple paths to take to make it as a recording artist. Hope looking over these myths can give you hope that you can take that plunge to become a recording artist.

6 things you need to know before producing your first album

Producing an album can be a scary process if you don’t know what you are doing. It can also get expensive without looking at the bigger picture.

In this post, are 6 things to consider when producing your first album.

  1. How many songs are going to put on the album

The first thing you need to determine is how many songs you want on the album. This will affect the production process as well as the final song selection. This can be decided by a number of factors.
How many songs do you plan to write before picking the final set? Will it be 15, to pick 8. 10 to pick the best 6. Or 30 – 40 songs to pick 12.

Another factor is, how long you want the album to last. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to an hour. You can use this to break down how many songs you will need to reach this goal.  This can contribute to the overall experience for your listeners.

The final factor is how long do you plan to spend on producing the album. If your timeline is short don’t do a lot of songs. If you’re working on a longer timeline then you can do whatever you want.

  1. What style of music are you going for?

This will determine how you promote your music, and the fans you want to target. A question to ask yourself is,  what is the genre are you working with? Could it be reggae, hip-hop, pop, EDM, country music, soca, and others. This will help narrow your focus and make your writing process easier. It should also blend with your musical brand and sound.

Identifying the genre you are doing helps to narrow the focus for where you will perform live, and the types of events you will do to maximize on the promotional aspect.
You don’t want to perform at a reggae festival singing country music. Unless you blend country with reggae.

  1. Which producer(s )do  you plan to work with

Now that you know what sound you’re going for, who is the best person to help you achieve that. This is the time you where you start to look for producers to work with. Not all producers are the same. Some work with specific types of music.

The other option is working with a band. If you have a band that can play the music you want you can direct them to achieve that.

The last option is buying beats. This involves purchase premade instrumentals from producers and writing and recording your songs over them.

  1. Where do you plan to do the recording

Do you plan to record all the songs at home? That’s if you have a home studio. This will work if you get tracks premade or buy beats and have a home studio to do all the recording.

The next option is to rent studio time and do everything there. This can get expensive really quickly if not managed properly. But you’ll get access to a variety of equipment that the studio has. That’s if its a commercial facility.

The final option is to record everything at the producer’s studio. This is great because the cost for recording will be built into the cost to produce the song. In the long run, would work out cheaper.

  1. Who is going to mix and master the album

Do you plan to work with an external engineer to mix and master the album? Well, you will have to consider costs, depending on the engineer you want to work with. the end should result in high-quality mixes. The downside is that if the engineer is well booked, chances are it may delay your project. The producer should advise you on that.

Some producers mix and master as well. So when choosing your producer, ask if they mix as well as master.

The next part of the process is choosing a mastering engineer. They will put the final touches on your album before you release the entire project for sale. Choose carefully because this will make or break your album.

  1. How much money you plan to spend on producing the album

How much money do you plan to spend on the entire album? At this point, costs should be worked out.  All the details like studio time to do recording, mixing and mastering and also how much the musicians charge to play the backing tracks. Look at the producer’s cost as well.

Once you know all these costs, you can decide how you will approach the album production process. It will also help to make a budget, and you should stick to it, and see where you can save money.

Conclusion

Taking the time to plan out your album can make the process easier. It will also help you save time and money, hence creating a set that best represents you.