To DIY or Do it With Help … That is the Question
Attempting to make a career out of your passion for music can get expensive. Although we all dream for the day we can hire someone to make all our creative dreams come true, most of us still need to do some of it ourselves. As anyone who’s ever read a listicle on Pinterest fails knows—sometimes DIY is not the best option. What can you get away with doing yourself and when do you need to call in the pros?
We’ll dive into which things you can get away with DIYing and which you need to leave to the professionals when it comes to:
Producing your demo
Selling your music
Taking your photos
Designing your website
Shooting your music video
Read on to find the sweet spot and get your music career started in earnest without breaking the bank.
Producing your Demo:
Music fans are willing to pay a premium for high quality headphones. They expect that the music playing through them will be high quality as well.
Production is one of the most expensive and important parts of your package as a musician. People have become accustomed to hearing high quality sound. They will notice if your music isn’t recorded and produced well.
DIY:
Don’t.
If you want to cut costs, make sure that you are at your best before you book studio space and hire a sound engineer. If you’re in a band, you should all come well rehearsed. If you play an instrument, make sure that it’s tuned and ready to go. If you’re a vocalist, have a session with a voice coach before recording.
It’s much cheaper to spend a little extra time or money on a rehearsal space or coaching session. Don't work out those kinks on the clock at the recording studio. Don’t fall victim to the “fix it in post” mentality either. Those hourly rates add up.
Do it With Help:
Look for a producer with a good portfolio, and testimonials. Ask your friends and colleagues who they use. There is more to it than just the final product. You want to hire a producer who knows what they’re doing and will listen to your goals. When it comes to producing your music, find the best professional within your budget. Decent sound engineers range from 100-300 dollars an hour. It will likely cost over $1,000 to put together a quality song.
This is where you should spend your money. You can book time at a less expensive recording studio and hire someone on the lower end of the price scale. A student or a newbie might be willing to work for less money so they can build up their portfolio. But you get what you pay for. It is worth it to wait until you can pay for a professional sound engineer with a high quality recording set-up.
Selling your Music:
Consider where most people listen—it’s all about the streaming services. Once you're on the streaming apps, you can finally start getting paid royalties, WooHoo!
DIY:
In addition to selling CDs at your gigs, you need to be on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all the other major music platforms. You can’t sign up for all of these streaming services yourself as an independent artist. You have to pay a music distribution company. There are some great online options and they all have different prices and benefits. Three of the most popular online music distribution sites are:
CDbaby
TuneCore
AWAL
Do it With Help:
After getting on these sites, it’s like finally making the team. But the team has millions of players, so if you’re going to get play time, you need to get on playlists. There are PR companies who can get you on playlists. It’s worth it if you have the money. Pricing can be anywhere from $500-$5000 depending on who you’re working with and how long your campaign is.
If you don’t hire a PR company, you will need to push your song as hard as possible. Post and interact with people on social media, reach out to music blogs to review your songs, reach out to indie and college radio for plays, reach out to Spotify playlist curators to include you on their playlists.
Hang in there and be persistent. It’s a numbers game. You can email hundreds of people, and get one response. If your song is good and you push it enough, eventually the algorithm can pick you up and get you on more playlists. This equals more exposure and more money in your pocket!
Taking your Photos:
Most of the places you’ll be promoting yourself are online. People will see you and judge you before they ever listen to your music. You only need one photoshoot to start.
DIY:
Selfies are great for social media. You can also ask a creative friend of yours to do a little photoshoot around the city to build up your social media content. But in order to look professional, it is important to have some professional photos taken. Professional artists have a consistent profile picture across platforms. It’s either a portrait or their album cover. It’s not a selfie.
Do it with help:
You want to have your photos taken by a professional or, at the very least, a photography student. Photography is a professional skill. Vet your photographer by checking out their portfolio and testimonials. Hire the best person you can afford.
Industry standard rates for a photographer are between $100-$250 an hour. Photoshoots are two to three hours, and event photography is more like four to six hours. Studio and portrait photography are much more complicated. So shell out on the studio shoot, and if you're trying to save money, hire your friend with a DSLR to shoot your gig.
Designing Your Website:
You need a website. It will make you look legitimate and gives you a launching pad to build a network. Plus you can sell merchandise on the site. This is actually a good place to save a little money. You can make a high quality website that is easy to update.
DIY:
You don’t need to know how to use code to make one. The templates on many of these sites are simple and hard to mess up. You can learn everything you need to know from online tutorials. Most of these sites even come with a free custom domain for signing up.
Do it with help:
I’m not even going to go over the prices to hire a web designer. Don’t do that. It costs thousands of dollars. Nobody can tell the difference between a SquareSpace site and a custom designed one anyway.
Like the music distribution sites, these sites come with their own benefits and price points depending on what you want. Some are better with e-commerce. Some are cheaper. Some of the most popular sites are:
SquareSpace (my personal fav)
Wix
Weebly
If messing with these sites is too frustrating for you, you’re not alone. You can actually hire someone to design your SquareSpace or similar site for you. It will still come out to be less than hiring a web designer to make it from scratch.
Making your Music Videos:
Music videos are a great way to promote your music and help people understand who you are as an artist. They give you an opportunity to present yourself as well as your music. YouTube is a crucial social network for musicians. Social networks like Facebook and Instagram are great for sharing music videos or video clips.
If you have a good camera, a tripod, and access to video editing software, you can DIY a very simple music video. But don’t get fancy. You don’t need costume changes or green screen. Film yourself or your band playing the music. Use the audio from your professional recording session. The visuals are to show off your amazing, high quality song. Don't record the track yourself.
But there comes a time when you want a legitimate music video. One way that I saved money when I was starting out was to do a lot of the pre-production myself. I’d bargain hunt for costumes and backdrops. I went into meetings with directors knowing what I wanted. When I wanted a boa constrictor for my shoot, I hired a handler myself. I found my own stock video for the impossible scenes. I showed up with all of that information for my meeting with the director. That saved so much time—which in turn means money.
Do it With Help:
I’ve done a few music videos over my music career. I’ve worked with videographers, editors, and people who do both. If you live in Los Angeles, New York City, or Atlanta, there are a ton of options for music video production. There is so much talent, and people waiting to make it big as movie directors can help you tell a story with your song.
Like all the other pros, check out portfolios and testimonials. Remember that your final product isn't the only important part. You want someone who will get it done on time, in a professional way.
The Project Management Triangle
Your career is a series of projects. One helpful tool that I learned about was the project management triangle. You aren’t going to get things cheap, fast, and high quality. You have to choose which two are most important for the project, and sacrifice the last piece.
For instance, if you’re on a budget, you can do things cheaply, but if you want it to be high quality, you might have to wait a while. If you hire a friend to do the music video and she charges you a pretty low rate, you might have to wait around for the edits while she does full priced client work.
And if you want something done fast and high quality, then it might be a little pricier. The only way you’re going to get something fast and cheap is if you skimp on quality and it’s not worth it to do that with your music career.
