Building your musical project must be done step by step. The strategy you outline in the beginning the process will shape how you go about getting your music heard, growing your fanbase, and finding your professional entourage.
Don’t hesitate to ask for advice from music industry professionals on Groover to get honest and constructive feedback on the progress of your projects and career moves.
Step 1. The Music Creation Phase
Writing and Producing Songs
Before strategizing and coming up with a master plan for reaching success in the industry, you must first have the material you’ll be working with. The most important step in the entire endeavor that is a career in music is making the music itself.
Not all artists are songwriters, but consider how much more control you’ll have if you are. You’ll own larger shares of royalties of your music, have more creative freedom in the studio, and be able to use your own experiences to shape your sound and the emotion it evokes for listeners.
Songwriting is a skill that comes from a lot of listening, learning, analyzing, and reading. How do your favorite artists tell a story through song? Active listening is something you can do at any time that will greatly benefit you when you start working on new music. Apply this to instrumentals, melodies, and lyrics: look for how instruments are layered in the beat, a story arc within the lyrics, and repetition or lack thereof in the melody.
Do not hold yourself back when you’re creating. Give every idea a chance, and document anything that comes to mind when you’re away from your workspace. The Notes and Voice Memos apps are your best friends.
Using the Best Tools Available
Whether it’s a plugin, app, or sample, it’s important to use high quality tools to both learn and create.
Plugins
As you go about your production process, the additional tools you need will become clear to you. Plugins for musicians exist by the thousands and are designed to make music creation easier and more accessible, regardless of your studio setup and available equipment.
When it comes to plugins, choose quality over quantity always. It is better to spend your money wisely on the few plugins you need rather than a number of different ones that serve the same purpose because of one or two small differences in features.
Invest in good compression, EQ, piano, guitar, autotune, saturations, and limiter plugins.
Apps
No matter your level of musical proficiency, there exist apps that can streamline your music making process or note-taking efficiency. Optimize your process by figuring out what you need the most. Some ideas are:
- General music production
- Identifying chords
- Identifying a key
- Tuning an instrument
- Vocal exercises
- Learning an instrument
- Music file storage/sharing
- DJing
If an app can help you overcome an obstacle of yours, it is worth the download. Just ask Steve Lacy, who produced parts of his Grammy-winning album on his iPhone.
Sampling
Samples are an element of production that are easy to source but tricky to master. Nothing special is required to find samples – they are simply an excerpt of any pre-existing music you like.
The two ways to sample music nowadays are by 1) finding them yourself, or 2) using a sampling service online. Finding them yourself requires meticulous listening, and often a large collection of music. For the very ambitious, a vinyl collection + a turntable that allows you to convert the physical music to digital music is a great way to go about it. If you’re a quick worker and prefer to have a vast library of sounds and songs to use, online music platforms that focus on sampling, like Splice, are a perfect investment.
2. Making your Music Professional: Recording, Mixing, and Mastering
How to Find the Right Recording Studio
The quality of the recording and production of your songs is immensely important. Choosing the right music studio will give you access to high quality equipment you may not have at home and engineers that will save you time in the recording process.
There are a lot of music studios out there, but the best way to filter them and find the right fit is by taking both budget and location into account. Some studios are open to public bookings and can be rented out for however many hours on whatever days available, while others require you to reach out well in advance and discuss prices. These studios do this to vet their guests. A healthy in-between is studios who work on a subscription basis and charge per month for access to their facilities. Do a quick search for studios around you and figure out what makes the most sense for your situation.
With the right equipment, you don’t even need a professional studio. Countless successful artists record at home – you can also create an incredible studio in your own home if necessary. Here’s a breakdown of how to build a quality home studio.
Mixing
Mixing is a key step in the music production process that cannot be skipped.It is the point in the process where all elements of your track are made balanced and clear in relation to each other. Effects are added to vocals, unnecessary frequencies are cut from instruments, and the song is ready to be passed on to the mastering phrase, which is vital if you’re planning to release it to the public.
Check out our mixing tips and tricks to make your music sound good
Mastering
Mastering is the misunderstood step in music-making that actually makes the biggest difference. It is what makes a song file ready to distribute to the public through the adjustment of levels, compression, and more to make it compatible with playback devices.
Without mastering, a song would sound completely different on a phone than it would in a car or through speakers. The rumble you feel when a bass hits hard or the intimacy that comes through when a vocalist is singing softly but loudly at the same time is made possible through mastering and the processing that happens during this step. Make absolutely sure to do this before getting your music on Spotify or any other streaming service.
3. Create a Universe Around You and Your Music
Storytelling and Branding
Turning your listeners into fans requires strong storytelling that will allow them to identify you and your personality. Creating the impression for your audience that they know and have a personal connection with you will deepen the bond you have and build an even stronger community of listeners.
This requires consistency across all public channels: photos, videos, tweets, captions, etc. Hone in on what makes your personality unique and highlight it to the world. This will be your “brand” and will dictate the way you’re perceived as an artist. Look to the artists you admire and think about their persona and what they did to shape that image for you.
Find out here how to find your own way of storytelling and how to execute it.
Visual Content
Today’s social media mania requires that musicians also have a knack for visual content. Only after your music is made should you focus on visuals, but make sure to give some thought. In fact, give it a lot of thought, as it will be your primary way of getting the public’s attention and directing them to your music online.
If you don’t have a record label backing you and you’re balling on a budget, that’s ok. All you need is a phone to record something to pair with a snippet of your new music and post on social media. Try to have some short form and long form content to post on Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok that will prompt people to find you on streaming services. The goal is to convert viewers to listeners.
Study what other artists are posting on social media to better understand what each platform likes to push. You’ll notice that Spotify likes very short, high-quality video for Canvases, Instagram likes well-edited photos and videos, and TikTok prefers informal, short-form iPhone content. Cater your content to each platform for maximum effect.
– Written by in its original version, translated into english by Betty Gonzalez Gray –
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