What is Mastering?

The team had a short field trip the other day to our local coffee shop in an effort to break the monotony of the every day hustle. While working on all of our miscellaneous tasks, we made an effort to understand the company a little bit more and really dive into what it is that we do exactly. I had an interesting conversation with our head engineer about what mastering really was and why it’s important. Here’s what he said:

What does it mean to “master” a song?

When it comes to making music, mastering a song is the final step of the process. The purpose of this step is to make a song loud enough and comparable to others so that it’s competing with the song that came before it. It also makes it so that every song is translatable to any platform, say: CD’s, vinyls, MP3s, Spotify, iTunes, etc.

Every platform has different specifications and it creates a sense of uniformity, especially when it comes to a track list on an album or playlist. The last thing you want is for someone to have change that song every time it comes on because it just kills the vibe.

Who is a good person to master a song?

Basically any audio engineer with professional experience. There are engineers that are really good at mastering and are labeled “mastering engineers”, but they’re not necessarily the only ones that do mastering. If you are working with a studio, make sure that the studio is certified to master for iTunes (MfiT Certified).

How long does it take to master a track?

Generally, mastering a track can take me between 30 minutes to an hour depending on the track. But in all honesty, I hate this question. Mastering is a service that is necessary for a track to be competitive. It’s like the clear coat on your finished painting. Don’t skimp on the material no matter how long it takes you to apply it because without it, your painting isn’t likely to last very long. It’s something you won’t regret investing in.

What do I need to get my song mastered?

Your song needs to be Mixed FIRST. The best thing we could receive is a professionally mixed song, but if you do your own mixing you can follow these guidelines:

Balance levels
Add eq and light compression
Make sure your track isn’t clipping (or distorting) on your output

If you’d like a free trial of our mixing and mastering services click here for more information.

What Mastering ISN’T:

Mastering cannot adjust the volume on particular instruments, it cannot add effects to anything, it cannot balance your mix. Like I stated before, it’s just the finishing coat over a painting. The project needs to already be good. It’s not VooDoo, it can’t make your song something it’s not.

Is Landr and eMastered Bad?

If you’re strapped for cash and it’s the only option for you, it is definitely a decent option. They’re artificial intelligence mastering services that make mastering accessible to the masses. At the present moment AI software isn’t very intelligent. Perhaps one day it will be, but for a more in depth look at this topic, read our blog: Don’t try Landr without reading this first.

Music Distribution: A Guide To Get Your Music On Spotify

 

Spotify playlist’s are one of the top opportunities for an artist to reach a new audience. It’s no wonder so many artists are pushing to get their music on Spotify and other streaming services. We will talk a little bit more about how to place yourself in the best position to be selected for a playlist on a future blog post, but for now just know that you’ll always benefit from affordable mixing and mastering by Studio 411. For a limited time try them free here.

One of the biggest questions we get asked is our opinion on what distribution service is the best choice for them. We will just give you the facts. There’s a lot of factors to choose from so we decided to lay things out in a way that was easy to understand. That way, you can make the decision on what the best solution is for you.

The only one take away from all of this information is to choose one and try not to switch to another one in the future. That will cause all kinds of trouble in branding, profiles and well everything else. Lets get started:

AWAL (Artists Without A Label)

AWAL might be for you if you’re trying to get your music on Spotify playlists. They don’t take any fees for putting up your music on streaming services, but charge a 15% commission (15% of everything you earn goes to AWAL). Also, they offer one of the best analytics report tools of all.

+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists

+ No additional fees

– Must be accepted to get in

Pricing: 15% commission

 

Distrokid

Distrokid allows you to upload as many tracks as you want for a yearly membership fee. The cool thing about them is that they don’t make commission from your music – you get all the money you earn from your music. Unfortunately they don’t offer marketing help or playlist plugging possibilities.

+ No commission (you get all the money you earn)

+ You can upload as many songs as you wish for one yearly price

+ They’re about to introduce SMS message marketing tools for artists

– No additional marketing help for artists who gain traction

Pricing: $20 per year membership fee

 

Tunecore

Tunecore is the service for you if you’re interested in proper revenue and analytics reports. They’re very easy to use, detailed and helpful. Although they take no commission the price is a bit higher compared to Distrokid.

+ No commission

+ Very good revenue and analytics reports

Pricing: $30 first year, $50 next years

 

LANDR

LANDR is a company which offers an automated mastering service. If you’re already their subscriber you can distribute your music to all streaming services for free. They also offer you possibilities to get your music on Spotify playlists which is very nice.

+ No commission

+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists

+ Free for LANDR Mastering subscribers

– Does not provide mechanisms for you to release a cover song

Pricing: $1/month ($12/year) minimum. $3/month ($36/year) gives you access to all streaming sercvices

BTW before you use LANDR for mastering, read our blog: Don’t Try Landr Without Reading this First

 

CD Baby

CD Baby was one of the first ever services to let DIY musicians release their music in a physical format like CD or Vinyl and get it to record shops around the world. Nowadays they also let you release music on streaming services and you can do it all in one place.

+ It’s a “one stop shop” to get your music on streaming services as well as physically in stores (CD, Vinyl)

– No marketing help for artists who gain traction

Pricing: $5 per single, $20 per album + 9% commission

 

5 Little Known Ways To Build Your Music Career

 

Every artist wants to know how to “make it” big in the music industry. There isn’t a secret formula to make it happen, but there are definitely proven ways to get you there. Here are our top tips for independent musicians to skyrocket their success. Follow these few steps and you too will see massive results in your music career.

Stop waiting for a record label

Many musicians who sign to a major record label never actually end up releasing music. Some artists end up getting “shelved” and the artist can not release those songs through another label. Labels can drop an artist as quickly as they signed them.

I don’t know a single person that will give away millions of dollars in cash and resources on a single gamble. Too many artists rely on the hard work of someone else to get them where they want to be. No one is going to do the hard work for you. Concentrate on doing your own thing and don’t worry about chasing a deal. Nowadays, major labels hardly ever sign an artist without a successful independent career behind them.

Don’t assume that major labels know the secrets of the industry, or that signing a record deal is even a good idea. There’s no guarantee you’ll get “famous” if you sign a record deal. Many artists owe record labels money after all is set and done.

Marketing, Brand Identity & Awareness

Develop a system to put yourself and your music in front of a new audience. Whether that’s through live performances or social groups, getting your music in front of as many new people as possible will increase the likeliness of them following your career.

Get yourself some professional graphics that you can use across all your promotional channels; from your website and social media accounts, to your posters, flyers, business cards, t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse mats and more! Creating amazing graphics is cheaper if you’re a professional at Adobe Photoshop. If not, you’ll be better off hiring an experienced graphic designer.

You want your logos and branding to become recognizable. If they look great, people will be more willing to buy your t-shirt when they’re browsing through your merchandise. A strong brand identity will help develop a strong brand awareness.

Connect with fans

There is no substitute to building a strong relationship with your fans. It is the most important aspect to build your success as an independent artist. As you grow your fan base, you’ll need to sustain and connect with your listeners both online and in person.

Your amazing live set is a must have for an great first impression. It’ll help you win over new fans and keep them interested in your upcoming music. Remember that the show is key, but connecting with them off stage is just as important.

Online, you’ll need to make sure to post regularly and interact with your audience as often as possible. Not only should you post interesting content, but replying and interacting with your fans is crucial.

Play to your strengths

If stage presence is your strong suit, you could try and secure a residency at a local venue. A regular gig slot puts your music in front of new people every week, and earns you extra cash to fund your career.

If you’ve got a creative mind and know your way around a camera and editing software, why not focus on a Youtube Channel/Vlog?

Maybe you’re a great writer and want to feature your music on your blog. The possibilities are endless!

Do not ignore streaming

Getting playlisted on Spotify and Apple Music is an invaluable (and free) way to put your music in front of new listeners. Some artists have reservations about putting their music on streaming platforms, but it’s a fantastic way to get known and reach new fans as an unsigned artist.

How Putting in Your 10k Hours Will Find Your Niche

 

Everyone is curious to know if they’re truly found the right audience for their music. We put in a lot of time to perform and refine our sound. We put ourselves out there to see if it really sticks, but how do we really know if we’ve truly found our niche?

A lot of what defines our niche is a balance between our creativity and the audience that follows the music we create. If the music changes, so does the audience. How do we find our place in the market so to speak? Here are a few things to think about:

 

1. Where have you invested your time?

 

If you want to know where to invest your time, simply look at where you have already invested your time. Lets say, for example, in the last few years you might have learned how to play an instrument for one or two hours a day. Or you might have wrote songs in a certain style. Or you might have spent a lot of time on production.

Those are good signs of where you should invest your 10,000 hours. You already invest part of that 10,000 hours so you only need to invest the rest. The difference is now you do it consciously and deliberately. You will be more effective that way.

A key thing in finding your niche is putting in your 10k hours. If you want to work on a your marketing skills and songwriting skills, you’ll need to invest the same amount of time on both to reach those 10K hours. For example, if you spend 1 hour on production, and 1 hour on marketing 5 days a week, you’ll reach your 10k hours in 41.6 years. Here are some more examples:

2 hours/day x 7 days/week = 14.8 years

4 hours/day x 5 days/week = 10.4 years

(you get the point)

 

2. What are your passions?

 

10,000 hours is an astonishing amount of time. Finding the motivation to stick to one thing for that amount of time is vastly difficult. Actually, that’s the reason why 10,000 is the magic number for world-class expertise. Most people never even reach that number. Only a select few actually reach the 10,000 hours mark and that’s why they become world class.

If you’re doing something you love to do, reaching the 10,000 hours mark will be a lot easier.  You’ll be able to get through the tough times, and earn some grit. It will help you overcome complacency. If you’re not doing something you love, it isn’t likely that you’ll ever reach the 10k hours mark.

 

3. What opportunities does the age give you?

 

In the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, he shows that your birth date has significant influence on your success. Gladwell shows that being born in mid 1950s is great if you want to be a computer entrepreneur. In the mid 1970s when the personal computer came to fruition, you’d be in good position to hedge that market. You wouldn’t have been too old that you already had an established job with older generations of computers. Neither would you have been too young to have the necessary skills to take advantage of the opportunity.

What opportunities does your birth date give you? What opportunities do you have right now? What opportunity is currently open for you?

Answering these questions is not easy because it’s difficult to see whether or not something will be hot. When Bill Gates did his 10,000 hours of practice to learn programming, he might not know that it would eventually put him in a perfect position to be a software mogul. You need to have faith in something and believe that the dots will eventually connect. In Steve Jobs’ words:

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something ”” your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

 

 

You Too Can Grow Your Fan Base In Record Time

 

Lets face it, you’ve spent months refining your music. The release is only the beginning and you need an audience to release it to, but the question remains. How do you grow a fan base? Here’s a few tips that will get you started on how to grow your fan base in record time.

It’s all too common to spend months working on your EP, carefully crafting every detail of your musical masterpiece. The marketing dilemma is this: When it’s time, you set your release for digital distribution, stoked for the world to hear what you created. A few days after the release; no one knew, or had any clue that you’d made an album.

When artists start their recording projects, “marketing” is often overlooked. Many artists don’t even think past the initial release. As you start working on your release plan, the most important question to ask yourself is “who cares?”

In the traditional marketing world, it’s known as your “target” – your target demographic is the group of people who will value the music you’re releasing. In the music industry, this group is more commonly known as your fan base; they’re the ones who care the most.

Your family and your friends aren’t always a part of your fan base. It’s important not to factor them in too much as you think about your target fan base. When you’re just starting out, absolutely invite friends and family to support you, but don’t stop there. As you begin to meet new people who love your music, the key will be to give them good vibes that actually resonate.

When it comes to your fans, there are two key things to consider: how to get them & how to engage them.

 

How to get new fans

 

Start by thinking about how you discover new music and artists… is it online? Is it through friends? What sources do you trust, and where do you go to find new music? Write a list of places you like to discover new artists, then flip it around and consider how people can find you.

No matter what genre describes your sound, there are people who love the type of music you’re creating. Think about where those people hang out. You’re trying to give them music that matches their interests. What blogs or playlists do you think will reach the people that might listen to your music? Is there a Facebook group for the best indie folk metal?

Once you know where your fans hang out online, there are *free* things you can do each day to get in front of them. In marketing, an effort-based approach is called “earned media” & it typically shows up as things like press coverage, or social media posts.

You can also push your music through ads or paid services like hiring PR, advertisement or marketing firms if you have the money for it. Growing your team will split the workload and help you reach more people at an exponentially faster rate.

 

How to keep your fans

 

Once you have your audience’s attention, don’t let go. Keep your social media posts and releases active and set a schedule for everything. The easiest way is to schedule posts weekly so that you don’t forget. Possibilities are endless. There’s something advertisers do called a “Competitive Analysis” which looks at what others are doing in a given industry. Draw inspiration from it by doing a quick search of artists you admire, ideally within your genre, you’ll be amazed how much you can learn.

For social media it is helpful to test different types of content to see what works best for you – you can check out your top-performing posts on social platforms through their “Insights” tab. If you see a pattern (maybe people really like video posts), do more of that; ultimately, the best strategy is the one that works best for you. If you have some go-to posts, and if you learn to schedule your posts out in advance, you can test engagement while you’re sleeping… literally.

Keep a email list and try to re-market to your fans as often as possible. Keeping their attention is the most important part. The more loyal the fan base, the more likely they are to share and engage your content. Give your email subscribers more value by giving them special releases, and private videos that only they can access.

Your live show experience is another place for you to test fan engagement. As before, you might look to artists you love for inspiration. If you’ve ever been to a show that moved you, think about what they did and how you might replicate that concept in your own way. The stage, your merch table, your set list & the way you speak to fans are opportunities for you to leave a good impression.

Give your fans a reason to care, deeply. Whether you’re putting yourself out there in a new way, testing out different engagement methods or simply doing some research to learn more about fans in your genre, there are people out there waiting for something to care about… maybe that thing is your music.

Always re-evaluate your strategy and keep trying to find new ways to connect with new fans as well as engage with the ones you have. Making the music is only the first step.

Top 5 Mistakes Artists Lose Money On In Recording Studios

Lets be honest, studio time isn’t cheap. Even if you’re rolling in cash you probably won’t have many opportunities nail the best take. Inexperienced artists are more likely to make a lot of mistakes, and as you can imagine, this could lead to a lot of time and money wasted.

(Big tip: We’re offering a FREE trial of our mixing and mastering services for a limited time. Click here for more information.)

So, lets get to it:

Be On Time

There is no room for being late to a recording session. Neither the studio or the engineer will lose sleep over this. Studio time is booked on a block basis and if you don’t show up on time, there’s a good chance you’re paying around $5 every minute you’re late. The studio may even give your block away if they don’t think you are going to show up. Always get there 10 to 15 minutes early to warm up so that you can get started recording as soon as possible.

Have a Goal

Lets push the 20 minute planning session to a few days before booking your studio time. Ask yourself, what do you hope to accomplish for the day? The answer is always going to be different, but make sure that you do this before walking in the studio. It’s all too common to have a planning session and realistically, the less time you waste the more you’ll get out of your session. Remember, time is money.

Don’t Waste Time

Many musicians want to learn their parts or treat a recording session like a practice session, but recording a song isn’t the same as performing it live. It’s a completely different process, and a lot of time takes a different type of practice. By the time you start recording, you need to know just how every part of the song goes. There are times that inspiration may hit, and you want to add or try something new, but those decisions need to be taken with caution. That 10 second part can quickly turn into an hour or more if you’re not careful. Rule of thumb: if it’s not working in the first 15 minutes, it isn’t meant to be.

4K Magic

The best way to explain a high quality recording is comparing it to video. Lets say you’re browsing for a TV at your local electronics store. You’ll might see some old 1080p and maybe the new 4K TV’s. You’ll get a pretty good idea of how much better the 4K looks when it’s placed side by side with a 1080. The microphone is basically like putting a big magnifying glass over your instrument or voice. Every imperfection will be heard in high definition (including your performance). If you don’t have great equipment try to borrow it or rent it from someone that does.

Listen to Your Sound Engineer

Your sound engineer is in charge of making sure you sound like a million dollars. It’s probably a good idea to make sure he/she does the best they can do for your project. Be respectful, and open minded to their advice. It’s not always wise to insult the cook that’s making the food you’re going to eat. In this case, the engineer is the cook making the food you’re fans will be eating. Unless you’re a seasoned engineer, it’s best to let them do their thing.

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