How to become a successful music producer
Eager to know how to make money from your music? Explore the best routes to success with these essential tips for music producers.
There’s no one easy route to becoming a successful music producer. A variety of factors come into play – talent, luck, and being smart about branding and promotion.
Have you reached the stage where you’re confident and ready for the world to hear your tracks? If you’re serious about making a success of your music, get it right first time with our tips for how to build a career as a music producer.
Master your music software
Wherever your producing happy place may lie – FL Studio, Ableton – learn it inside and out. Master all those little tricks to get the best sounding mix so that you’re confident with what you’re releasing to the world.
If you feel your current setup is holding you back, maybe try switching to another DAW. Most offer free trials so you can try out the software before committing. There’s also some surprisingly pretty decent fully free DAWs out there.
Get your music out there
Your dream of making money from music producing is more achievable than you think. But how to release your music? There’s no longer an urgent need to have connections in the industry, flog your CD at gigs, or have a record deal – you just need to get your music onto streaming sites. We can help with that.
RouteNote makes it simple to release your tracks on all the major platforms around the world with partnerships ranging from the likes of Spotify to Tencent in China. And it’s free. Find out more here – you’ll never know until you try.
Join forces and collaborate
Working with others enriches your own knowledge, so don’t be afraid to reach out on social media to other up-and-coming producers. You’ll be introduced to a whole new way of creating, and might discover fresh new sounds that will inspire your producing.
Collaboration with other producers mean you can support and motivate each other. It also opens up opportunities to reach new fans.
Engage with the music world
Give yourself the best chance of success as a producer by swotting up on the ins and outs of the music industry. Get up to speed with the boring stuff like copyright and music business terminology. And look for trends. Watch the trajectory of successful producers – what makes them so popular? How do they keep their fans engaged?
Market, promote, get social
Sadly its not enough to just put your music out there and sit back and wait for the plays to roll in, however great a producer you are. Now is not the time to be shy.
Boost your release by being active across social media, sharing content regularly and building up a strong follower base. Our pals over at PUSH.fm have a host of promotional tools like Fan Links to have all your socials in one handy page, and Pre-Saves to build momentum before your release hits.
Learn from your mistakes…
…but don’t give up. If your first release didn’t get the traction you dreamt of, remember it’s all a learning process. Distributing your music with RouteNote means unlimited releases for free; so why not analyse your producing and marketing processes, get feedback from people you trust, and then try again with something brand new.
Experiment
If you know your strengths, it can be tempting to stick with what you know. While it’s always good to build your sound around your natural skills first, don’t be afraid to then branch out into different genres and different tools.
Always worked with loops? Try making your own. Investigate some new free plugins, or check out the world of remixing. Keep exploring the music production process.
Every producer is different and there’s no magic answer to becoming a successful music producer. But by getting your music out there, playing nice with others, and investing some time to build your brand, you should be set to be in it for the long haul.