The Music Industry

Getting Started in the music industry:

Music studio with EQUIPMENT

There are many things an aspiring artist needs to take into consideration before really trying to put themselves out there. To start off, if you are in a band for example, it is very important that the people around you and people behind you and people in your group all want to be on the same thing and ideas. All artists must make sure that they have a raw passion for music and therefore always thrive to learn something new. If artists aren’t serious about what they are doing or don’t know exactly what they want to gain from the music industry then there is no space for that as the music industry is a very competitive place. Having equipment is obviously a big part of an artist developing their skills, having a studio, simulators and instruments is essential so that aspiring artists can record themselves and their work, listen back to it, and notice particular aspects that they may decide to alter.

Practice is a fundamental aspect when trying to make it into the music industry as no artist can possibly make good music without producing over and over again, tweaking parts of their music that they may not be 100% happy with or taking on advice from other people.

Being a DJ looks at the type of music that is popular at the time. So when it comes to parties or raves, the people who attend are sure to hear the latest top tracks. Being a DJ requires you to know exactly what you are doing because it isn’t easy to get the hang of all the functions on the decks, you also need to ensure you know how to set everything up correctly and efficiently in order to be a successful DJ, which is proving to be a very accessible but competitive industry nowadays. One of the DJ’s from a clip stated ‘professionalism outweighs talent’, by this he meant that in order for you to get into the music industry you must be dedicated to it fully, people want to do business with dedicated artists, not people who are in two minds whether to turn up to practice or not.

In order to secure the successfulness of an upcoming artist, it is important to be known in outer areas rather than just where you live, the more people that know you, the more people are talking about you and you gain more publicity this way. So being part of a community and network of many people who speak to and help each other is important. This is why a lot of artists use sites such as MySpace and Facebook as these sites are used by millions of people and it is a way of promoting themselves to a wider audience. When you are part of a community, this is helpful because it is easier to find gigs to attend and get involved with other music events and in the end it will make it easier to climb the musical ladder.

A lot of artists don’t recognise their fans and don’t show gratefulness for the fans feedback or support, this won’t make it easy for an artist to make it into the music industry because if fans feel unwanted and unappreciated, they will begin to not support you as an artist. Honest opinions from the audience and friends and family are VITAL in order for you to gain a true reflection of how good you are. Friends or family are likely to give false hope and tell you that you’re an excellent artist when you may need to work on a few things before trying to make it into the music industry. If you are given false hope, when you try and enter the music industry, you will get a hit of reality which makes you contemplate whether you are completely serious about what you want to do and be willing to take on professional advice from very critical people. Some may even say that your work is rubbish and needs changing completely, if you can’t take on constructive criticism then the music industry isn’t the place you would want to put yourself into.

A member of Foo Fighters stated that Drug use within the industry is never good and it can ruin your chances of getting into music and even staying successful for a long time. So no matter how much bad feedback you may get or people who are discouraging you, resulting drugs will put you in an even worse position.

Getting noticed

Toddla T said that as a musical artist you must make sure that your work is so tight and on point to the point where you can’t possibly change anything else to make It any better. If you are in this position, it is essential that you create a ‘buzz’ where lots of people start sharing and recommending your music to friends, this is the most quickest way of advertising yourself and becoming noticed by thousands, one remarkable record can start the buzz off. Toddla T’s way of creating a buzz for his music was giving mixtapes away for free to start off, so that people would be more inclined to listen to it because people aren’t likely to pay for your mixtape if they have never heard of you before.

Chipmunk said that in order to be a successful music artist you need to be noticed everywhere by loads of people, and this can be done by jumping infront of camera’s at raves and stating your name, you musical site that promotes your music (MySpace) and telling people to give it a listen. People are more likely to take notice of you and remember you that way.

Web presence helps promotion of yourself a lot, but it is important that you have a unique selling point that makes you stand out completely from everyone else because no one wants to see a copy or someone similar to an artist that already exists because we already have that kind of artist. This is what needs to be considered when I market my artist. Me and the artist must reflect on the kind of music they want to make and ensure that it is as unique as possible so that marketing my artist would turn out a lot more successful.

Image is important in the music industry also, it is essential that you be yourself in the way you dress and not copy any other famous artists dress sense otherwise you will end up looking the same and audiences will be put off you as an artist. I must make sure that when I market my artist, their image is unique and not the same as other artists that already exist within the music industry.