A producer breaks down how to land placements: move to a hub city like Nashville or Atlanta, build relationships with artists and A&R reps, attend SXSW and Music Biz, run paid ads, and consider streaming royalties over upfront advances. One producer made more from a 10% streaming share than from larger one-time deals.
Chapters
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in again today. So, um, some of the ways that you can get placements as a producer, um, and it's not easy because this is very much an oversaturated industry. There's a lot of producers out here, there's a lot of rappers out here, and there are just a lot of people in the music industry as a whole that don't realize how costly it is to be in the music industry. So they're not really prepared to do what it takes to win, right? But some, some great ways to market yourself and get placements: you can always intern at a local studio. This is ideal if you're in a marketplace that has a good scene in the type of music that you make. So if you're a country um, artist producer, Nashville is probably a great place for you to be. Um, if you're a rap music producer, I know that Miami, New York, LA, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago— there's just some places that it's a little bit easier to meet other artists and get on, um, than smaller cities that don't really attract a lot of artists. So you could move to that city. And I realize what I'm saying, and I realize how difficult that is. I moved from Philadelphia to New York very early on in my music career so that I could be near the industry. Um, I've moved to Memphis so that I could help people from the Mid-South get on. I moved to Atlanta in order to build my company and really help artists that were setting up their own record labels. So I've moved many times in my life for the music business. So I realize what I'm saying to you, and I realize how expensive, difficult, and, um, just new and uncomfortable that is. But I've done it many times, so it's, you know, hard for me to, to, um, feel people when they say they don't want to do that. And of course, I didn't have a family, so it of course made that easier. Um, In order to get placements, you want to spend as much time in a studio as possible. You want to be interacting with as many artists as possible, both signed, unsigned, independent, do-it-yourself type artists. Um, and again, it helps if you're in a place where that's conducive to what, you know, to your environment. If not, you may want to travel for a week out of every month and go to someplace like in Atlanta or Houston or in LA or New York where you know that you can meet artists and interact. You should build relationships with people that work at record labels, and by people that work at record labels, I mean A&R people, people that actually work with artists and help choose the tracks that they record to. And it's not like you can just meet somebody one time and then you're done. You've got to be in front in front of their face when they're looking to buy tracks. So they might be looking in January to buy tracks, but you're around them in June, July, and August when they're not looking to buy tracks. So you've got to be in touch with them at least once a month so that when they are in track buying mode, you are, um, foremost in their, in their thoughts. Because if you're not, another producer will. Music conventions. I think it's a great idea to attend conventions like South by Southwest and Music Biz. Any convention where artists go to either perform or hang out and network or they go to learn, that would be an ideal place for you to spend time and play beats for people, you know, give out a beat pack to people that seem somewhat interested. Understand that you could very easily lose those beats. But if you don't take the risk of losing those beats, nobody will ever hear your music. So it's almost like you have to take a risk. You could use marketing techniques, like you could buy, um, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, YouTube ads, and get in front of artists that are looking for tracks. You could, um, create a podcast to talk about music and invite artists in, um, both as guests as well as listeners to your podcast. You could do a video, um, channel and attract artists. You could, uh, record yourself making beats so that people could easily see the process that you go through. People like behind-the-scenes footage, and they like people to tell stories about who they are and what their beliefs are and where they're from. So maybe you record yourself making a beat and show people what your process is and what your thinking patterns are and the type of music that you make. I realize in telling you to do that that you open yourself up to somebody stealing that beat, but if you're able to show people who you are and what you do, you're probably going to attract attention from some artists that might reach out to you and want to collaborate, either buy a beat or give you a bigger share back end. Um, one of my friends called me last night. He's, um, he's a country rap producer in Nashville, and he told me that he does deals all day with artists that give him 10%, um, streaming income on the back end, and he makes far more money doing deals that way than he makes asking for a $500 advance or $1,500 advance or a $5,000 advance. For his beats. So you've got to figure out what works best for you, what you're willing to do, and then you need to get out there and market yourself almost the same way that we market rappers or singers or songwriters. If you're not willing to go out there and interact with people, how are they ever going to know how dope your beats are? You've got to get your music out there, and that's just part of it. Self-promotion is part of it. And it's probably the hardest part of it, but you got to do it. So guys, that's really how you get placements with, um, other artists. Build relationships, be in the right place at the right time, make sure you understand the business side of it, know how you, you're going to get paid for the beats, um, or whether you're not going to get paid for the beats. If you choose to get paid or not to get paid, you need to align yourself with artists that are going to make money so that you get paid on the back end. And you also want to, um, as we discussed yesterday, you want to affiliate with some artists that are supremely talented so that you've got some, some great, um, songwriter or great rapper on your beat. So as they spread amongst fans and other artists, they get your beat to showcase, they get to hear your beat. And that's really it. You want to get your music in front of people that are looking for music. Okay guys, I hope this was helpful. Take care, bye.
