How to get into the music business?

  On 2/10/2014 at 7:08 PM, White Mask said:

 

  On 2/10/2014 at 6:57 PM, Ceerial said:

 

  On 2/10/2014 at 2:59 AM, Deer said:

If you are good enough people will find you

 

also follow trends in music, do whats popular

 

Even better… create your own trends.

 

I feel like the people that usually make it, are the people that have a unique and distinctive sound. Not people that just try to recreate other people's music, then you might as well just listen to their music. It's okay to do when you are new and learning, but at some point you have to give your music its own identity. Having some kind of a gimmick doesn't have to be a bad thing.

 

Easier said than done, I know. I sure as shit can't do it.

 

So true. The same analogy applies to 99% of vocalists - Distinct character is a selling point.

 

I would say this is true, but that the way for achieving this is actually to copy as many different people as possible. The more people you imitate, the more you know how to do, and the more you will combine their sound to make your sound unique. And I would say "new and learning" is a never ending state, not something that you grow out of. The moment you think you're past the stage of learning and unknowing is the moment you die as an artist, I would say even in the business world. Do different shit all the time, diversify, learn as much as you can. Write a classical score, or a song for a rock band with lyrics. Business wise, this means you will be able to do more things for more people more of the time. You don't want to say "no" to an offer because you haven't learned the skills to do the job.

Play gigs, try getting onto local radio, create a night with similar artists.

I'm trying to get my stuff used for TV/promos etc - also known as licensing/synchronisation - through these people: http://www.sentricmusic.com They're a publisher who collect royalties from live performances and radio plays etc on your behalf too. You're signing your publishing rights away though, so be aware of that before you sign up.

Think of music as an art form. In all mediums of art, there is the commercial side and there is the not so popular stuff. The commercial side's goal is to find content that majority would like because of making money. I'd imagine big labels would judge your music on how they think the current group of their listeners would like it. If it's not so mainstream, then they probably think it wouldn't get many listeners. It seems braindance is rather a small subset of all the "electronic" music listeners.

TV is pretty much all mainstream. Movies you have hollywood and shit. Books you've got big name publishers and NYT best sellers. Music's got a few magazines and such.

In other words, if you are on this forum because you like the type of music, then don't expect to make much money in the music business. Maybe braindance fanbase is growing. I don't know.

Actually, I heard from the Forbes editor, (who follows me on Twitter), that theyre gonna do a piece next month on the resurgence of the trend of IDM producers and the first 7-figure-a-year-making braindance artists.. crazy! I think Grant and Rephlex may be a featured interview...

Like others have said, you'll want to play a lot of shows, and you'll need to network with a lot of people. Get to know promoters and other artists.

It's really quite a lot of work.

Work on your blowjob.

  On 2/11/2014 at 2:19 AM, Lane Visitor said:

Actually, I heard from the Forbes editor, (who follows me on Twitter), that theyre gonna do a piece next month on the resurgence of the trend of IDM producers and the first 7-figure-a-year-making braindance artists.. crazy! I think Grant and Rephlex may be a featured interview...

 

Sexy if true! ;D

Lips to the hilt

oh and don't forget to twirl your tongue

As someone without a successful music career, I can safely say that you're gonna need more than a sick hot gagging deepthroat. What else I can't say, but there's more to it than that, I guess.

Well, thanks a lot guys. I read all of your replies and basically they all mean "meet people". Shit. But I feel confident. There are this pair of artsy dudes that talked to me from facebook and invited me to play a gig with my "cool ambient music" last month, but I haven't heard from it long ago... Maybe it was cancelled (or they didn't said nothing to me :( Also, other people have asked me for my music, asking if I do live shows and I tell them that unfortunately no because, well, I haven't and don't even know how. I just make dem music. But well. I really want to make something "bigger" with, so I'll follow your suggestions, despite I'm somehow still scared about showcasing my work directly to people, but #YOLO. And hopefully I get to lick puss instead of cock, so I'll work for it :)

I really, really would like to produce the OST or even the incidental music for something... So yeah, meat people, meat people, meat people. But I feel a bit late, though. For some reason, since my last birthday, I have felt like in a "midlife crisis" despite I'll turn 20 this year.

just go to the music business offices and tell them you'd like to get in

  On 2/12/2014 at 3:22 AM, logakght said:

So yeah, meat people, meat people, meat people. But I feel a bit late, though.

meat people: it's never too late to get them

*calls Grant*

i make music for a living (by releasing albums/eps on my own and through labels, and by making music for movies and games and tv etc, and the occasional live gig), and here's how i went about it - in 2008 i started making shitloads of music (i'd been at it before for 10 years or so but nothing really serious) and started putting it on the internet.

i've never heard of anyone "making it" by sitting on their music while waiting for the right opportunity or whatever. maybe it happens, i don't know, but i've been making electronic music and been around people who make music for over a decade and a half and the ones i've met who's "not ready to show it to the world yet" end up either getting bored with their own music or just lose interest in composing all together.

so my advice would be to start putting out stuff by yourself or through net labels or whatever and build a small fanbase within your genre, and get a soundcloud/bandcamp/youtube/twitter/facebook and get on distrokid.com or something to get your music on itunes and spotify for $20/year or whatever it is and just keep making more music all the time. people tend to talk too much about their music and their process and their gear and whateverthefuck, stop talking and get to work. there are very few shortcuts in my experience, unless you're super lucky. and again, no matter how lame it sounds, a strong social media / internet presence is pretty good to have (or vital in my case). just don't buy likes and followers or anything like that (http://youtu.be/oVfHeWTKjag).

eventually, if you keep making music all the time (as in atleast for 30 mins - a couple of hours per day) and get better at it etc, people will hopefully take notice and ask if you wanna do a track for this game or this movie they're working on and that's not only fun, but inspires you to make even more music. im not saying "release everything you make", not by a longshot (i put out maybe 1 out of every 10 or so tracks i make), but yeah, put out a lot, make even more.

also there are sites like https://www.audiodraft.com/contests/ for example where companies hold music competitions when they need music for ads or whatever, so that's an idea if you wanna get into that as well.

sorry, that got a bit long. im not saying this is the right way to do it, it's just what has worked for me (so far).

Thanks data, appreciate that advice. I'm definitely going to look into Spotify/iTunes - I think in some peoples eyes it's seen as some sort of validation, like being signed to a label is.

data arent you famous in austin or something

  On 2/12/2014 at 5:48 AM, gmanyo said:

data arent you famous in austin or something

hmm, let me go outside and collect some data...

Just suck mad D bro

lol sweden boy was i off

what watmmer was i thinking about then?

edit:

wait data you're mitch murder? i feel like ive heard of you outside of watmm.

yes, hi

Sweet. Thx dude.

  On 2/12/2014 at 4:04 PM, gmanyo said:

lol sweden boy was i off

 

what watmmer was i thinking about then?

 

edit:

wait data you're mitch murder? i feel like ive heard of you outside of watmm.

I figured out why, Rossocorsa Records has "Austin" as a tag in all of their bandcamp releases (which I was unaware of!), including Mitch Murder's releases.

don't make idm or anything stupid like that

I don't think there's such thing as 'getting into the music business' from an artist point of view. You're either really good & will get noticed, or you start your own label & see if you can DIY.

Talking of Forbes and niche electronic music, they've picked up on the renaissance of cottage industry synths right now... With so many electronic music makers around now, we've become a reasonably significant market of consumers as much as product makers...

nice