Budget Won't Bring Success - Working Hard Will
So I don't have the time today to bring the first episode of my production challenge mini series as I would like to include a video walking you through the process in detail at each stage. Nevertheless, I wish to keep up a consistency of daily posting so I thought I'd discuss quite a common topic when it comes to producing and recording music.
One of the great myths of the internet that I've heard through commenters on YouTube and various online tutors is that you need a huge huge huge budget (we're talkin' like upwards of £50K here) to even start at getting successful in making good productions. The root of this all comes from the easy-to-fall-into mindset that is Good Productions = Success, Good Hardware/Software = Good Productions, Lots Of Money = Good Hardware/Software and so therefore Lots Of Money = Success.
I can tell you now: This is complete rubbish.
Now I can't lie to you - you won't be able to produce good quality mixes and masters on a budget of absolutely nothing at all, that is impossible - the point I want to make is that you don't need to sink hundreds and thousands of pounds into building a successful studio. The lesson that you should take away from this is that success in this industry is based around evidence of knowledge and experience.
Take, for example, two people are wanting to get a job at a studio and so they're contacting this studio asking for work or a trial or whatever. The first of the two people sends a couple of emails over talking about how it's their dream to be a producer and how they really want to do it. The other person does the same, but he doesn't send 2 emails, he sends 4. Then 5, 6, 7; they keep sending emails of enthusiasm containing links to YouTube videos, attaching mixes they've done whether they're great or alright even linking them to a blog that they run. Out of the two, the second would obviously be more likely to get the job because people don't have time for dreamers.
The same goes for getting work in your own studio. A band isn't going to come to you to do work for them just because you have a load of fancy tech. They're going to come to you because they know that you can provide them with a good sounding, well balanced product at the end of it. If you're just sinking money into a studio, making your website and waiting for the clients to role in you're never going to make it. But if you spend a reasonable amount, work on things regularly, put them out there, talk about what you're learning and show that you have the ability to do the job then people are going to start coming to you.
To show you I'm not lying, I started making music at the age of 8 in GarageBand and have since been working to improve my skills up until last year (2016) where I decided I was going to start doing this "professionally". Only at the start of this year (2017) have I started showing off what I create and even now it's still a small amount my work, however since starting to put things out there (bearing in mind I'm working with gear that probably totals up to a value of £500-£1000), people have slowly started coming to me for tips, asking for mixing and mastering and it's all down to the fact that I've shown them what I can do. Evidence shows knowledge, knowledge shows reliability, reliability starts to form a trust between you and the client you don't even know you have yet.
So to bring this article to a close, a large budget and fancy gear isn't going to get you success, determination and good work ethic are. Plugins are starting to be able to do the job of original hardware which enables us to start getting those studio standard productions at a way way low budget. Learn your stuff - show off your knowledge and don't be afraid of getting knocked back - take it, learn from it and prove yourself to your audience.
That's me done for today, I'll see you again tomorrow.