MOST COMMON JOBS
IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY🔥
INTRODUCTION
In order to introduce this topic, I have to say all these roles need previous preparation and study.
It is not possible to decide on the spur of the moment to work in the industry and earn a lot of money without learning how the job works and not being great at it (despite what many people think).
RECORDING ENGINEER
This role is definitely among the most popular and includes more specific jobs that can be divided based on the kind of studio where one wants to work, and also on their experience.
In order to start their career, a recording engineer usually works in a studio where they record or help recording artists.
It is therefore necessary to have knowledge on how to record vocals, know the DAW present in the studio PC (or the DAW in your laptop if you’re bringing it with you) and possibly know how to edit and mix voices. These skills can be achieved attending courses or sound engineer schools.
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Through this business you can safely make a living from music and create opportunities networking with artists who will come to you to record, and also create new opportunities to make a career in the music business✅
You could also decide to open your own studio and rent it for the same task, or even for different purposes.
In my professional opinion, which you will find often during this blog, I can confirm that this kind of work can be very interesting, certainly one of the most popular starting points to be able to make a living from music and also to make a good network and career📈
BEATMAKER
This is for sure the dream job of many readers and many young talented people.
I am here to give you get good, but also bad news in order for you to decide how to manage the situation.
The good news is that a strong will and a big dose of passion can for sure lead you to learn this job on a 0 budget.
Yes exactly. This is possible because by now the beatmaking market has standardized to a level that you can totally learn on your own on Youtube or the Internet in general. Of course, it would be recommended to study through a valid course or school at the same time, but again, it is not essential.
HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO GET STARTED:
- INTERNET MONEY (beatmaking tutorials)
- PRODUCERGRIND (beatmaking with famous beatmakers & interviews)
- BUSY WORKS BEATS (Fl studio and beatmaking tutorials)
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As for my personal experience, I studied as a self-taught student for the first 2 years, then I attended 2 online Academies (I paid a total of 400€ for both) in order to deepen certain topics.
I would say it is totally affordable and really useful.
Don’t worry, once you get to a medium level, you will also have more budget and opportunities to learn and extend your skills✅
Now let’s get to the bad news: the industry is completely saturated – consequently it is necessary to create a strategy in order to achieve any type of goal.
HERE ARE THE MOST COMMON SITUATIONS YOU CAN DIVE INTO EARNING MONEY AND EVOLVE YOUR CAREER AS BEATMAKER:
DIFFICULT:
EASY✅
Sell beats and record local artists as a freelance, find and retain your customers to start earning money
DIFFICULT:
MEDIUM✅
Create an online beat store so you can be present on the net and social media.
A strategy can be coordinated through a work of networking by DMing artists on Instagram (example)
DIFFICULT:
MEDIUM✅
Create and sell your own sample pack and loop pack to other producers.
This will also need a big networking process on social media to create your first fanbase.
DIFFICULT:
HARD✅🔥
Make placements and make sure you split royalties % with artists or major labels
DIFFICULT:
VERY HARD🔥
Sign an exclusive publishing contract with a major label (this is usually the best achievement a successful beat maker can reach, and usually comes after many years)
As you may have understood, these goals are in order of difficulty. Of course it is a long path and it is totally normal that months or even years will be necessary to achieve every goal.
Here a practical example based on my personal experience:
One of my dearest friends went from recording local artists to work for the most important major in Italy with an exclusive publishing contract for hundreds of thousand €€. All this in just 5 years.
This guy worked as a producer and recording engineer for a couple of years in a studio for rent in Turin (a fairly major city in Italy) and was broke for a long time.
Despite this, he exposed himself daily to new network opportunities until he met the first very well-known artist in Italy and started working together.
From that moment on, the situation got better quickly. His path diversified from the others the moment he made the first placements, in fact he did not need any beatstore or to sell sample packs.
This is to say that the above list still remains relative, it is not to be taken literally and it is possible to change it according to one’s needs.
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Now let me give you 3 main efficent ways and
practical suggestions on how to manage the job at your starting point:
✅
Saving until you can spend months dedicating
only to this and start your own business
✅
Moving to a city that offers many opportunities
in the field (such as Milan in Italy or LA in the US)
✅
Having a part-time job and start studying and
networking in the meantime, in order to put yourself
in a good situation to start your business
To wrap up this topic, I would like to go back to the topic mindset again: as you may think, the guy in the story must have had a lot of courage to be able to move to Turin without finding an alternative job and living broke on a daily basis.
I am here to confirm that. If he had not had the winning mindset from the beginning, he would have never been able to even think about moving to make his dream come true.
Yet another demonstration that it is not possible to achieve great things in the music industry without the right mindset.
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PRODUCER
The role of the producer is for sure the role which most of you aspire to reach. First of all I must say that there are many rumors around this topic and most of the times some things get confused.
I will take the responsibility to describe the difference between music producer and another role which is commonly known as “producer” or “artistic director”:
✅
The music producer is that figure in the industry who is responsible ONLY AND EXCLUSIVELY FOR PRODUCING the song, i.e. taking the parts that a band or someone has recorded and making it come to life through arrangement, composition and add production.
Similarly, the modern producer is that figure who creates the song from scratch, as in electronic music.
His job will then include creating the parts, compose them, assign sounds and a structure, until the entire song is completed.
The skills of the music producer are often complemented by those of the mix and master engineer, who is usually a different person;
however, in order to ensure a good first impression or to be able to provide an all-in-one service, the modern producer often tends to mix and master his own tracks as well, thus remaining the only reference for the end customer.
Here below you will find the basic steps to get you started in this job and some useful links for your learning needs:
STEP 1:
LEARNING✅
Find your favorite music genre and start looking for free tutorials on youtube.
If you invest every day in learning this job, it will took you from 4 to 8 months to start developing basic good tracks.
Remember: this industry is always evolving, so be sure to be always updated with the last producer tools!
I strongly suggest you to buy one or more production courses or to learn this job going to a dedicated school.
STEP 2:
BRANDING✅
Once you learned the job, you need to build your authority and brand.
This step will chance according to the path you’ll decide to take, but there are some common points we can figure out:
- Create a catalog of GREAT tracks
- If the job you’ve chosen needs to build a fanbase or a brand, create a logo and a cool social presence for your project.
STEP 3:
WORK HARD✅🔥
At this point you know how to do your job and you have an awesome presence online/ music catalog.
Now is totally up to you, here are some common factors for all the jobs in music industry:
- Networking: if you play well the network game you can burn all the steps to your goal.
- Invest money: nothing could be better to create a different bank account fully dedicated to your business, this will be really useful in your future.
✅
Now let’s talk about the producer/artistic directors.
Who are they and what do they do?
The producer, or ‘artistic director’ is the person in charge of choosing and following all the elements of the production, which is quite different from the music producer.
To make a practical example, DJ Khaled is the modern exploit of this role: he produces/is produced the idea for a song and then calls in musicians, singers, artists and all the people he needs to put the pieces together and create worldwide hits.
This role is usually played by music producers with many years of experience or by people in the industry who have a targeted predisposition for this type of job. Moreover, it is definitely necessary to be part of a very solid industry network or to have important and established contacts to be successful.
For my personal experience, you will understand that starting out as an ‘art director’ is basically impossible until you develop your own network and career around your name; in contrast, the role of music producer is much more attractive/reachable.
As you can understand, the "Producer" job could be a wide role to explain.
Here below you can find all the "modern ways" to be a producer in 2023:
Since all these topics are already inside other sections of this article, you just need to click on what you’re interested in and you’ll be redirected to the dedicated section. ✅
An important note regarding the “ARTIST-PRDOUCER” and “CONTENT CREATOR” job:
You won’t find the “step by step guide to be a successful artist/creator” in this blog. This kind of path is really personal and too different from person to person to cover up on a guide.
In general I can totally confirm that beeing an artist is the combination of all the information you will find inside this article, then it’s up to you how to develop them to a public that needs to be converted into fanbase🎯
If you want to know more about this, check out my page a write us a message, we’ll be happy to help!
MIX / MASTER ENGINEER
Over the past few years, I have seen this role really closely and I really understood the importance of it. Before talking about how to make a living out of this job, let’s dive a little deeper in the training and educational path.
The Mix Master Engineer is usually the last figure who works on the track before distribution, according to his specific role. This clearly depends on whether the person covers both roles or just one, as anticipated earlier.
Working in this branch usually requires a specific education which – unlike the producer – is very often learnt through specific courses or at school.
If you want to learn this job and you don’t know where to begin, here are some great links to get you start:
I have personally seen this role closely for years thanks to my old colleague, who had a formation from the best people in the business for years, and still continues to improve everyday.
This introduction makes it clear that it is not possible to improvise on this job. It is necessary to have specific skills to be able to work as a mix master engineer.
Again, once the work on the track is finished, it will not be possible to modify it anymore. That will be the final product that gets distributed. It is therefore very important to have a clear idea of what you are doing.
NOW LET'S DIVE INTO WHAT IS USUALLY DONE
TO MAKE A LIVING OUT OF THIS JOB:
DIFFICULT:
EASY✅
Working locally: find your first customers offering a free/discounted mix and mastering in order to create trust.
Then, if they like your work they will come back as paying customers.
DIFFICULT:
MEDIUM✅
Platforms such as Fiver, Soundbetter etc.. can be considered as one of the starting points to work in this field.
As anticipated, it will be necessary to make a small continued investment here as well in order to attract and retain the first clients.
DIFFICULT:
HARD✅🔥
Working for business partners: In my opinion, this could be one of the final steps for a mix-master engineer:
if you want to make a living out of this and you don’t want to have a full business like Luca Pretolesi, having business partners (major record labels, independent artists, etc.) who pay you a fee for each job can be really helpful.
DIFFICULT:
HARD✅🔥
Earn from Royalties %: Like in the previous point, you need to be a little more deep in the music industry in order to make this happen.
Basically, you ask a royalty % or an advance on the track release in order to start earning in a long term way.
NB: To make this happen, you need good connections and big artists to work with, remember you will get max a 5-10% split.
A very important note to make about this job is that it is by no means made for everyone.
A lot of practice and patience is required to make this a profession. The amount of detail you will need to take care of is no small matter and you will also have to cope with changes/review requests.
However, if you can create your own sound and workflow, you should have no problem creating your own reality.
To conclude: you can also decide to focus just one of the 2 tasks I have described.
In 90% of the cases when it comes to major labels, these roles are always covered by different people.
Mixing and mastering studios are very different from each other but clearly in small/medium businesses, and sometimes even in big businesses/not majors labels, there is a tendency to combine the 2 roles to save some budget.
Join the Black Mind Discord Community🎯
We created a fully-oriented Discord Server for Producers and Rappers:
You will find free samples and beats, weekly music and business tips and tricks, an entire community to network and share your products.
