how many of us are actually trying to make it here? (pg. 4)
Evolve140
I am, but I'm not disillusioned or seeking fame. I love music. I'm really open to feedback and have about 10 years of experience now, I've learned many, many things and you can't push or force anything. Several really greats friends in the industry, a few who took me under their wing, I was lucky in that regard. I don't keep up with each of them these days but there is still mutual respect.
I'm happy, making music is my favorite thing to do and I'm getting consistently better and that hasn't changed, and I'm not going to plateau anytime soon. Things are looking great. I got into this music at a time when it was shunned in the mainstream at a time when I absolutely adored it, and now the superficiality of our culture has, ironically, latched onto something it once mocked. I feel like I deserve something for that. Who knows. Maybe I'll see a shrink some day soon.
This year is actually looking very, very good. Although, my musical sensibilities have continued to burrow into the underground, so I'm not sure how feasible "making it" is, plus I'm not really sure how you define "making it". Some underground producers are so much better at writing dance music songs than these mainstreams goons, it's unfathomable. There is some amazing out there. I will say that when I started at 14 I would have never imagined I'd be where I am now, and probably wouldn't have believed you if you told me then. One interesting tidbit is I always thought being good and producing would make me happy, but life still happens, and life is still life.
Ultimately I want to make people happy with my music, and some of the best experiences I've had in my life have been in club land, you know those indescribable moments where the vibe is just so real and the party is amazing... I've been making music for personal satisfaction, I love hearing great music. If I'm making stuff that I enjoy, then I'm doing something right. And lately, I've been making stuff that I really like. Did it take a little longer than I would have liked? I guess so. But I'm ing ready to rock. :) Thanks for the question, cheers.
Storyteller
quote:
Originally posted by J.L.
Dubstep + kids = profit
That advertisement is so epic. Love Mord Fustangs music.
Storyteller
quote:
Originally posted by tehlord
lol@irony
One should read the book "Free" by Chris Anderson. Niche markets thrive on the internet more than ever. It's the mainstream that's getting harder and harder to get into as everything is falling into niche markets that suit personal needs way better than the mainstream channels. So even though it might seem ironic at first, it is not :)
DJ Robby Rox
Well you don't have to "make it" in music to make money in music thats my opinion.
I took a vacation from these forums for about 6 months and haven't been doing anything in music at all. Have never stopped producing like this in my life.
The good side however is I got deeply involved in marketing. I realized in order to make money in virtually anything, you MUST know and understand how to make a marketable product, moreso then being the best at what you do.
I think theres a lot of smart guys on this forum where if they just thought outside the box, and approached things differently, they could probably make a living just teaching newbies how to get started.
I started my own business about 6 months ago, have already purchased a new home and I don't know a lot about marketing. I was blown away by how easy it was to open up my own business, once I knew just the basics of how to market myself. What really triggers peoples emotions and all. Now I sell marketing to local business's, am as big a newbie as you can be, but I'm wondering how I can apply marketing to music as I'm making a pretty decent living now.
I'm not talking about marketing yourself on radio or direct mail or anything like that. I'm talking more about how you find a starving crowd, and give them exactly what they need.
You want to make money in music?
Start frequenting as many music forums as you can. Learn what most people are complaining about, what most people REALLY want a solution for. Maybe its a different way of making tutorials so people can learn easier. Maybe its making sound packs that contain truely unique sounds that you can't get anywhere else. Learn the problems that producers face. Build a product that will help them save time and money, and if you just create strong value like that, you CAN make money in music imo.
In fact just because this business has turned out to be successful, soon I will be releasing a service/product for music too. What I'm going to do is cold call as many pro trance producers as I can, and negotiate to buy quality project files from them that were never released for w/e reason.
Then I'm going to make a site that sells only professional project files from the best. I imagine this would be like crack for a lot of producers.
Either way I'm still brainstorming exactly how I'm going to monetize my 10 years in music. I am NOT a highly skilled producer, but that is absolutely no reason why I can't make money. All you have to do is create value and be good at doing so. I have seen guys step into niches they know NOTHING about and make a fortune just because they had a solid grasp on how to market and generate leads.
So honestly if you want to learn how to make money imo, start learning as much as you can about marketing and put music to the side for a bit. On warrior forum alone you will find TONS of creative ideas. You will also find a lot of scams. But its one forum where I've found some of the most creative marketers in the world. And in fact the business I'm running right now I bought the plans from a guy on that forum.
LEARN MARKETING PEOPLE! I'll tell you for a fact in the last 6 months it has completely changed my life as far as money goes. I'm not sure how it happened but I went from living & breathing music like 16 hours a day, to learning everything I possibly can about marketing. I'm not rich, I'm not trying to boast in anyway, I'm just saying I never realized how beneficial it really is just to understand business/marketing if you want to make $ in ANY area of life.
I was able to quit my full time job too within 2 months of getting into this stuff, so I guarantee it works. You just need to devote yourself like anything else. Come up with an actionable plan, than do some microtesting on a small level, whatever gets a good response just stick to that and scale it up. You WILL make money if you just try hard enough and don't give up after the first time you fail! Just keep testing ideas and eventually one will work. Thats exactly how I was able to do it.
-Robby
evo8
sorry couldnt resist :D
DJ Robby Rox
/\ Haha its funny you link that video because the first week I got into marketing I saw that video on youtube.
And you know what? A lot of things he is right about.
But there is a very honest side to marketing too in the respect that a lot of these pioneers who have really "made it" have wound up helping a TON of people in the process. Look at the guy who invented wordpress, or steve jobs, or even richard branson. All these guys are EXPERTS at marketing. They are also some of the richest people in this planet and have all changed the world in their own little ways. They have given more value to the world than bill hicks ever could.
Its really the art of knowing what people want, how to find those people, and how to overdeliver more than what they asked for for an irresistable price.
I absolutely agree however that this industry is one of the filthiest industries to get invovled in. I still don't think that should be a reason to ignore it however. If you read some of the things these guys are accomplishing on warrior forum, its pretty amazing. Just stay out of the WSO section as its saturated with hyped up bull.
The business I was able to start I found the idea on that marketing forum. Its in a thread called "Make $5000 a month and be a hero". It was the first thread I saw when I left this forum and become obsessed with marketing. I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED it was a scam.
But I still couldn't resist paying $50 for the business plans. It wound up being a very practical, very intelligent business plan for selling 9x12 postcards to local business. Out of a hunch I actually tried it, and when I got my first check that was when I suspended all my criticisms towards marketing. It IS a shady industry to get involved with, but that doesn't change the fact that it can also be a very lucrative. As long as you stick with white hat marketing and avoid all the black hat stuff that winds up getting most people in trouble.
Another thing, LEARN COPYWRITING! I have never gotten a date online in my life till about 2 months ago and it was strictly due to learning how to copywrite. Learning how to write damaging admissions to build credibility with people. I tried it on match.com and got 7 response the first time I tried it. I have NEVER gotten a response like that before in my life. If you plan on selling ANYTHING at ANY POINT in your life, and you do NOT know how to copywrite... I'd honestly say don't even try. You will waste a ton of time and money if you do not understand the basics of copywriting first.
I'm also not trying to imply anyone can get rich, but I do think if you have half a brain, and don't hate talking to people, you can definitely make good money just by learning how to sell a service or product to people.
Looney4Clooney
to be honest
copyright and how important it used to be is just a non issue these days. 90% of the music in EDM doesn't have a melody or lyrics. And as much as you think you know about copyright, the law is largely idealistic. To put it short and blunt, whoever has the most money and made the track big first owns the copyright.
That is all you really need to know. Robby, you really do waste time on things that just are not important. Your 3 year pursuit if a bass line, and this. You need someone to guide you. Find someone in your area that is making it, be his friend.
The thing with dance is that you don't need to invest that much time. You can do it and hold a normal job. it isn't like you are trying to be a classical composer which pretty much takes the time it would take to be a doctor and at that age. well it is hard to start something else especially considering the task took all your time.
If you want to make it, well you have to not suck, you have to be consistent, you have to know the people in your scene, you have to be networking and you have to have a product and brand and all that . And you have to dj. Which might sound appealing if you are young or ugly or never had friends which is ironic because this is the case for so many djs/producers. THey will love djing because all of a sudden girls find them interesting. But for the TA playboys, RANN , Th3lord, and EddieZykelonB, these things are just of no interest anymore. The only reason rann djs is that he wants to get booked in brazil and have prostate surgery by one of the best. I think it looks fine.
Don't worry about labels, don't worry about anything other than your brand, because when you are ready, people will be asking you. You want to be picked up by a big label, the only thing that matters now is facebook/youtube capital. That matters more than your track. They want someone that already has a following, they want someone that knows how to present an image, be likeable and with a little push, will make money for that label. The days of sending music to people / labels you don't know are done.
Evolve140
Also pretty interesting how many people are so good at marketing, that even though their product is awful people still get sucked in. Plus there are people who are just awful and promote and market themselves. Maybe it's denial that they suck, or they just never got any honest, critical feedback. I think if you suck really bad you should be told. Not so that you stop trying, but so that you stop sucking. Or maybe they got critical feedback and ignored it or got their feelings hurt and just steamed forward.
TranceElevation
quote:
Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
Robby, you really do waste time on things that just are not important. Your 3 year pursuit if a bass line, and this.
It seems like there is almost always a Bill Hicks clip that is relevant :)
quote:
Originally posted by DJ Robby Rox
Well you don't have to "make it" in music to make money in music thats my opinion.
I took a vacation from these forums for about 6 months and haven't been doing anything in music at all. Have never stopped producing like this in my life.
The good side however is I got deeply involved in marketing. I realized in order to make money in virtually anything, you MUST know and understand how to make a marketable product, moreso then being the best at what you do.
I think theres a lot of smart guys on this forum where if they just thought outside the box, and approached things differently, they could probably make a living just teaching newbies how to get started.
I started my own business about 6 months ago, have already purchased a new home and I don't know a lot about marketing. I was blown away by how easy it was to open up my own business, once I knew just the basics of how to market myself. What really triggers peoples emotions and all. Now I sell marketing to local business's, am as big a newbie as you can be, but I'm wondering how I can apply marketing to music as I'm making a pretty decent living now.
I'm not talking about marketing yourself on radio or direct mail or anything like that. I'm talking more about how you find a starving crowd, and give them exactly what they need.
You want to make money in music?
Start frequenting as many music forums as you can. Learn what most people are complaining about, what most people REALLY want a solution for. Maybe its a different way of making tutorials so people can learn easier. Maybe its making sound packs that contain truely unique sounds that you can't get anywhere else. Learn the problems that producers face. Build a product that will help them save time and money, and if you just create strong value like that, you CAN make money in music imo.
In fact just because this business has turned out to be successful, soon I will be releasing a service/product for music too. What I'm going to do is cold call as many pro trance producers as I can, and negotiate to buy quality project files from them that were never released for w/e reason.
Then I'm going to make a site that sells only professional project files from the best. I imagine this would be like crack for a lot of producers.
Either way I'm still brainstorming exactly how I'm going to monetize my 10 years in music. I am NOT a highly skilled producer, but that is absolutely no reason why I can't make money. All you have to do is create value and be good at doing so. I have seen guys step into niches they know NOTHING about and make a fortune just because they had a solid grasp on how to market and generate leads.
So honestly if you want to learn how to make money imo, start learning as much as you can about marketing and put music to the side for a bit. On warrior forum alone you will find TONS of creative ideas. You will also find a lot of scams. But its one forum where I've found some of the most creative marketers in the world. And in fact the business I'm running right now I bought the plans from a guy on that forum.
LEARN MARKETING PEOPLE! I'll tell you for a fact in the last 6 months it has completely changed my life as far as money goes. I'm not sure how it happened but I went from living & breathing music like 16 hours a day, to learning everything I possibly can about marketing. I'm not rich, I'm not trying to boast in anyway, I'm just saying I never realized how beneficial it really is just to understand business/marketing if you want to make $ in ANY area of life.
I was able to quit my full time job too within 2 months of getting into this stuff, so I guarantee it works. You just need to devote yourself like anything else. Come up with an actionable plan, than do some microtesting on a small level, whatever gets a good response just stick to that and scale it up. You WILL make money if you just try hard enough and don't give up after the first time you fail! Just keep testing ideas and eventually one will work. Thats exactly how I was able to do it.
-Robby
Surprised you aren't inviting us to join an MLM business at the end after all of that :)
LoveHate
yeah I guess what I meant by making it or being successful, was everybody's own personal definition of the word,
