r/musicbusiness

i am an aspiring singer who has been looking around for someone to produce a 5-6 song EP for me and i had never recorded anything before so this is new to me. i emailed a producer that i had been eyeing for a while because i like the stuff that they have worked on with other people. i liked that with this producer i would own the rights to my own music. so i inquired about possibly working with them. mind you this producer is not just some phony person i found online, they're a legitimate producer. they had gotten back to me and told me that it would be best to start with one song and see how that goes and if it goes well then we can continue on with a full project. they told me that one song would cost $6,300 in total. an upfront cost of $3,150 to secure my spot with them and another $3,150 once the song is completed. now i know that it's not exactly cheap to have a producer help you with your music but i feel like that's way higher than it should be? is that normal?

How to find a manager when u have almost no online presence or cloud, but have top tier skills, know exactly what u should to to grow, have a pro image and brand, but are unable to execute the plan u made.

this year i started my new alias and started also to take managing myself seriously, but i keep burning out consistently from the managing affairs, i even prepared a 90 page document which has literaly every single step for growth and bsicly a path to a succesful artist project in it, but even having all steps chewed out still dont help.

Do you have any suggestions on how to find someone who might be interested in helping out?

(Sorry if this is also a bit of a vent but i dont know how else to proceed)

Well, I was talking with a friend about how to make marketing and social media for your projects. He says that you should be an influencer to do that but I think that it’s not important to be a influencer. Just do your job register your process how you make your music

For a while I’ve used my full name but I don’t like how it looks

In recent years I made a new alias and wondering if I could register it as a LLC or something and just use it as the official credits for PRO like PRS etc for example

Ziggy Stardust for example. That would show up in credits of songwriter or producer instead of birth name

Hello, I am a music producer and I have gained a small following on social media. Recently another music producer with a following almost 15x my size followed me and after a week or two he messaged me through DM. Initially he was just asking my whereabouts and I just assumed he liked my music and wanted to work together. He then says he has placements on a pretty well-known rapper's album and wanted to know if I wanted to work on the music with him. Flattered, I obviously am interested in this opportunity and make that clear to him. He messages back saying he wants to charge me (I'm not going to say the amount. However, I will say it's not cheap but also not incredibly expensive to work with an artist of such caliber.). That's when alarms started going off in my head. He gave me his contact information and I'm going to plan for a time to meet him and discuss this either over the phone or in-person.

MY QUESTION: Is it normal to conduct business this way within the rap/hip-hop industry? Also, are there any other producers or others in the industry that have had similar experiences and would like to share?

Thank you for your time <3

It's my 1st time doing a collab, so bare with me now.

I'm currently collaborating on a beat with some guys, and I really wanna figure out whether the splits should be updated after this. Should I bring this up with them before it drops? Or maybe it's just not worth it.

The splits where agreed on upfront, but partway through one person did more than they needed to (the mix guy reworked a part of a verse). It's nothing crazy in terms of how big the changes made are, but it's enough that I've been going back and forth trying to figure out whether it's worth raising.

So basically what I would die for to know: when stuff like this happens, do you say something and adjust the splits accordingly? Or just let it go unless it's a MASSIVE shift? And on another note, does this happen regularly??

Trying to understand on how you guys usually go on about handling this before I decide whether to say anything myself.

mods, I don't want this to be self promo, I more want opinions on if people like this idea. Remove if you think you should ofc.

I am a musician/software developer and I built a website (realartists.studio) that has a goal of being an independent verifier of artists as "non-AI"... or "real". I'd like to get people's opinions of this and if they would find it useful.

The basic idea is an artist can sign up, make a profile, use that profile as their linkhub, and get verified as a "real artist" from a third-party source, with the real artist badge on their profile once they have been verified. They also can earn badges showing if they've been playlisted on the site or picked/featured at times.. a whole bunch of options there.

I also want to curate playlists as I verify artists and make this a thing that is a cool spot for real music discovery.

This whole infustructure is pretty solid and built out. I have admin panels ready to go and everything.

If you're interested in seeing an artist profile, you can find one at realartists.studio/doomwarden (an old project of mine, not plugging but was used for testing).

Wether you visit the site or not, what do we think about this idea?

I’m 16 and I’ve been thinking a lot about working in the music industry in the future. Not as an artist, though. I’m much more interested in things like artist management, creative direction, A&R, or generally the creative/business side of the industry. I’m still figuring out exactly what I would want to do.
Music has been my passion for years, and this isn’t just some random career idea I recently came up with. I genuinely love music and everything surrounding it, and the more I learn about the industry, the more I can see myself building a future around it. I know I still have a lot to learn, but it’s something I genuinely want to pursue and take seriously.
I live in a pretty small village, so there aren’t really many people around me who are interested in the same things or who know much about working in the music industry. That’s also why I’m trying to learn as much as I can online and from people who actually work in the industry.
I’m planning to read „All You Need to Know About the Music Business” by Donald Passman because I want to get a proper overview of how the industry works and what possibilities there are if you don’t want to be an artist. Would you say it’s a good book to start with?
The thing is, my parents aren’t really supportive of this idea. My mom is actually pretty upset about it, and almost everyone I’ve talked to about it has told me that it’s “crazy” and that I should find something more “proper” or secure.
I understand where they’re coming from. I know the music industry is competitive and that loving music doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have a successful career. But at the same time, I don’t want to choose a life just because it looks safe from the outside if I already know it might not be the kind of life I want.
I’m still in school and I’m planning to go to university, so I know I don’t have to decide my entire future right now.
So I guess my question is: is it unrealistic to seriously consider a career in the music industry, or is it actually reasonable to explore it and see where it could take me?
Also, if you’re a woman working in the industry, I’d especially love to hear about your experience and whether you feel like being a woman has affected your career in any way.
I just don’t want to blindly chase a dream, but I also don’t want to give up on something I genuinely love simply because everyone around me thinks it’s crazy.

I have finished my internship in production in a well known company here in Europe. I wanted to send out some emails and contact people through LinkedIn with my CV, but I was wondering, do I have to make a portfolio showcasing my experience in concerts? As an intern, I did a little bit of everything trying to shadow my bosses so I am not sure if I should just wait for them to ask me when we speak or make a portfolio. Many people in the industry know the company and know good interns emerge, but I want to give it my best shot.

Also, if anyone has any tips to approach companies with production + artist management (I have only experience in production) I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

Electronic music artists here.

who, in concert production chain, creates the intro music or maybe, the bridge music inbetween the songs? Do I have to create the whole set if it is supposed to be pre-recorded as on big chunk?

Is there someone who I'll be talking to in terms of creating this, am I as the producer the one to take whole charge of it?

What would you consider a "proper" rollout from pre-release to post-release for a single, and what do you think is generally a reasonable budget for paid promotion to really make a ripple?

This would be more in the rock/metal world, specifically.

I'm a 27F with a BM in Commercial Music looking to go back to school. I currently work a dead end corporate job, and while I don't mind the environment of a corporate job, I'd much rather work in an industry that I'm passionate about. I'd like to combine a stable corporate job with music. I've been considering getting an MBA with a focus in Music Business as opposed to an MA in music business - since an MBA will be more versatile if I wanted/needed to pivot to another industry.

My main concern is that due to location, I will need to do an online MBA. I know connections are incredibly important, and I'm unsure if valuable connections are still possible in an online program. I think a big part of why I haven't gotten very far after graduating in 2021 is that I struggled to make connections with my peers and professors during the pandemic. I transferred as a junior in fall 2019, so I only had 1 semester of regular in person instruction. I don't to put the effort into another degree just to fall into the same trap. Internships also weren't required for me degree - and also weren't available during covid.

Thoughts? Trying to find a path!

Extra info - financing it won't be an issue

So I've been making beats for a little over a month now. And I can't seem to break the cycle of not selling one or selling a license to one. I'm starting making AI videos to try to help bring some visual to it. Cause just showing the background of the bee making process. People don't seem to really care. So I started making AI anime videos to go with it. And I'm still not even getting barely any views or sales or nothing. I'm just trying to see what I can do to break this loop. I've tried to advertise on TikTok and Instagram and Snapchat. I'm gonna add YouTube soon. I just want someone with experience on how I can break this loop. I'm down a couple $1000 and haven't seen barely any results. Thanks in advance.

Recently I've been researching how much music producers get paid and tbh it's quite underwhelming. Royalties pay like what 3-4%? If you're popular enough maybe even 7%. There's also an upfront fee,which varies from 1.000 to 150k depending on, yet again, how popular you are. The upfront fee doesn't seem like a small payment BUT keep in mind how much time it'll take you to produce a music piece and sell it, which can vary from like 3 weeks to even 2 months depending on what genre you're making of course. It seems like a very high risk with considerably low reward in comparison to something like a singer or a songwriter or even someone who's mastering music.

The complaint has always been there, but I have to wonder if it's all coming from the flaky, strange, seemingly always drunk "musician" caricatures who aren't getting along. The more I learn, the more it all seems to write itself, and it seems like beyond basic competency, it comes down to passable taste and reliability, with an obvious nod toward networking.

I'm not talking about international notoriety, but keeping your job and being a competent, reliable producer with room to scale is seeming more like a very realistic goal the further along I bring myself. Even entertaining higher aspirations, some genres seem to have the same 4-5 names on endless rotation, some vanish for years between projects. It just seems like there's plenty of room to grow into the conversation if you're able to deliver something novel, and have a job and some capital to push you along.

I went to school for another area of media years ago. The culture conversations always emphasized just being where you say you're going to be, and being prepared. Seemed like the bare minimum, I couldn't imagine not doing that, but I've found that you can't even expect a "can't make it" message from a lot of creative types.

It's late, I could be thinking in the wrong direction, I don't have all the information, but I'm genuinely curious if the talking points have been blown out of proportion my whole life.

E: Didn't expect this to be a popular speculation, but I still find it bizarre to see people on the music business subreddit get defensive or dismissive at the idea that an indie artist can make space for themselves if they treat it like a business. Oddly useful insight.

I’m a freshman in high school with the dream of owning my own record label one day. What opportunities can I do now that will lead me to that path? Are there internships, volunteering opportunities, programs, competitions, or other things I could realistically do? im really interested in the business side of the music industry especially artist development, A&R, marketing, music licensing and management.

Long story short, an artist I was managing under a verbal agreement and I worked on six songs together. I paid for new beats to be made for most of these songs completely out of my own pocket.

We are now splitting ways, and I have respectfully decided to keep the beats, as we never had a contract signed giving her the rights to them.
I paid this particular producer as work-for-hire. He would receive a set amount for each beat he made.
Now that we’re going our separate ways, she’s trying to say that she owns the beats and that she can upload them.

How does this actually work? I know verbal agreements are stupid, but there was never anything signed between us regarding ownership of these beats.

So, the producer pays SKIO to unlock stems and remix access?

Essentially it's a pay-to-win gate to remixing with official stems.

It's the music producers that are supposed to be paid for their work, not the other way around.

Is this kind of thing actually popular ?

Is anyone else frustrated by the business model?