How to manage time as an active engineer and producer

Working in a studio actively on consistent sessions requires serious time management for the engineer or producer. It might look like a trivial thing but following a schedule can help you greatly to execute your work plans efficiently. Otherwise it could turn into a mess and you might not be able to deliver on time. Poor time management may result into disrupting your health and personal life too.  Here are some tips how to manage time as an active engineer and producer.

There are certain time management strategies that you can follow to effectively manage your time. The situation can be such that you find it hard to find a balance between your running sessions and answering emails and calls. Another problem may be finding it difficult to manage time for your personal music and networking with others which can be crucial in the music world. For this also, you might set up a weekly schedule that you can follow strictly.

recording studio nashvilleFor this you need to work out or plan you day in advance so that you get time for your job easily along with eating, sleeping and time for family. Once you have worked out the day with how much time is needed for every activity, it will become a lot easier to make time for your self.  Try to go for as much as automation as possible like scheduling Facebook and twitter posts. You can respond to emails once or twice a day at a specific time while doing some other online work too. Be concise while writing and it will help in effective communication too. Consider your time valuable enough and you will be surprised to see that it works out just fine.

Studio Etiquettes That We Need to Follow Properly

Etiquette in a studio is almost as important as your behavior at your show. It has been seen that discipline and proper rules can make your work easy and amazing. All great musicians followed proper decorum and rules while working leading to smart work and positive experience for everyone involved. This would help in making everyone comfortable and help you do the same at your performance.

There are certain rules for how to behave inside the studio space, how to act during the session and of course how to treat the engineer and other people at the place.

First of all, it is very important to keep your mind open to new ideas and respond to everyone’s suggestions positively. In case of any doubts, discuss and resolve for getting the inputs of artists, Studio Etiquettes That We Need to Follow Properlydirectors and engineers. Also, be respectful to the peers and seniors to receive guidance properly.

Try to avoid using cell phones while working. This will help you concentrate and respect the work as well. Also, if you are a guest, ask for permission while using or eating anything. Try to keep the fluids away from the studio.

Try to be as punctual as possible. In case you cannot make on time, reschedule the appointments. Keep the studio clean always. Avoid throwing the gears like microphone, headphone and cables etc. around and keep everything in order.

Keep the monitors, plugins etc. clean and assorted. Avoid talking too much while the engineers are working and listen carefully. Above everything, a positive attitude and a feeling of admiration for all will maintain your studio’s decorum perfectly.

How to earn more being an Engineer and Musician

Being a musician does not mean that you only have to rely on your clients for the money. Initially every sound engineer or musician would like some extra money and there are different ways that you can use to earn more.How to earn more being an Engineer and Musician

One way is to use the recording booth to record voiceover dialogs. The sound effects can be added to make your music better for radio too. You can also write different jingles using your own libraries and sell them for the radio spots. Different audio engineers can create audio books as these are quite popular these days. It is easy to create jingles and audio books using your specialized booth for voiceover.

Musicians and Engineers can even take music classes for teaching the students and this is an excellent way to increase the income. Music education is necessary for the new comers and hence your studio can be a platform for the beginners. You can even organize some events and special conventions on music. Creating the videos of your music and the lessons and uploading it on social media and YouTube will help in marketing your brand too.

Competition is high in music industry and the extra activities that you do apart from recording and mixing can give you an edge over others. At the same time, it makes you popular while maximizing your income. Use of technology can also help in earning extra money as use of music apps can help you in a great deal while making music.

Tips to keep your computer and session files organized

Everyone must have faced a situation when we have so many files and folders on our computer that we can’t even find the file that we need at the moment. For a music maker, it becomes really difficult to organize the session files that are lying in different parts of the computer. Hence, it becomes even more important to manage the files and folders in a neat manner so that you can access them when needed.

The files including the session audio, backups and icons need to be organized so that these can be Tips to keep your computer and session files organizedused later. One way to manage your session files is by creating a master folder for your files belonging to one project. This will help in avoiding mixing up of different files of different projects.

The next step is to create different folders for all songs in the master folder. This will easily organize your song files so that you can access them easily.  You can also create a folder for final mixes created for every song. This can be your Bounce folder or print folder.

You need to make sure that the loops and samples are kept separately in a particular directory or drive where they can be easily accessed. To enhance the computer performance, you need to make sure that you clean up the files lying unused so that more space is available.

After organising all the needed files, take a back up of your session in the computer internal drive or an external drive so that you can keep your data safe.

Tips to keep your computer and session files organized

Digital stream royalties and Sound Exchange

Copyrighting and royalties in music industry have now become extremely important for the artists and musicians as the artists want to protect their rights. Lack of awareness about these two can result into losses for the artists. Every copyrighted song publicly generates royalties for the artists whether it is on jukebox and radio station or at any sports event.

In the United States, the organizations like ASCAP and SESAC collect these royalties and distribute what you need to know about digital stream royaltiesthem among the publishers and artists. The compensation rights for composers and the singers differ for terrestrial broadcasters from those for webcasts or cable music stations. Performance through web i.e. digital streaming, leads to generation of higher compensation for the artists.

Digital performance royalties are managed by the organisation for performance rights – Sound Exchange. It allows the artists, writers and singers to apply for a license that can allow Sound Exchange to collect royalties for them. Sound Exchange collects the royalties from all media and then distributes the royalties to the members. This can help the artists and musicians greatly in order to get their righteous reward.

There are many plans offered by Sound Exchange that can be availed by the artists and they can consult and opt for the best one. Sound Exchange covers more than just the digital royalties like radio and other transmissions. Hence it can work as a liaison between the record labels or artists and the music industry.

Digital stream royalties and Sound Exchange

Tips to keep your studio clean and organized

Working in cluttered place can be an issue of distraction for some. There can be a lot of cables and this becomes cumbersome to focus on music. Nowadays we also have a concept of creating a studio at home so that space and money can be utilized better. In all cases, organizing your studio is the most crucial first step you need before you start working on your music.   We have collected a few tips for you to keep your studio clean and organised so as to let your creativity flow.

It is important to keep all your things in a designated place so that they are in your reach always. We have to make sure that computer, power slots, studio monitor, headphones, guitar interface, keyboard, racks etc. are kept neatly at places in your reach. Tips to keep your studio clean and organizedWith this kind of organizing it is important to have a good seating space with good quality and comfortable chairs. It is best that you pay extra to get the most comfortable seating. The speakers come as an essential for an artist.

You have to make sure that you get the appropriate bass traps and panels so as to get the correct mixes. These have to be placed properly so that you are confident of your targeted mixes.

A studio plays an essential role for a beautiful playback. Studio acoustics can play a good role in your work so you have to make sure that room looks well and sounds well too. Using some plants and beautiful lights can help in giving you a peaceful atmosphere to work. Once you are set with the organizing and cleaning, you are ready to roll.

How to go about finding Songs from Publishers

All artists – new or old face a dilemma of which one to go for while looking for songs from the publishers. There are many doubts and questions on how to choose the best publisher you areFinding Songs from Publisherslooking for.

Thanks to internet, you can get many such sources to guide you through the process.

There are online spaces like Taxi, Broadjam, Sonicbids etc. that can provide you with references from different publishers. You should always search properly before deciding on anything.
It is always advisable to talk to multiple publishers so as to reach the publisher whose work blends well with your music. For the newbies, it becomes even more critical to select the publisher properly as this work can turn out to be the best or worst first impression of your career.

You can also find the music publishers through different Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) like Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), SESAC, ASCAP etc. The online search at these PRO sites can give you all the data related to the publishers and song writers. Contact information can also be traced from these websites.

Once you have collected data from sources, get in touch with these publishers and then decide what’s best for your music. It is advisable to sign one song with one publisher only so as to avoid the hassle. Be careful while signing the agreements and go through the contracts along with your lawyer before finalizing anything.

Finding the perfect publisher can be tough but it is definitely worth it when you get the best work and it’s all worth it.

ONLINE RESOURCES THAT EVERY ARTIST SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Every musician today can find tones of information and hundreds of tools on the internet. These resources include the information about sites for social media and websites related to the music industry. These can help an artist greatly in staying up to date on the latest trends and happenings.

For instance, the social sites include the fan pages on Facebook and twitter handles that can connect the artists with their fans. YouTube plays a great role in providing a digital marketing platform for the musicians. The bands can keep their followers updated on the current and upcoming releases. These social networking sites help to give the artist and the company a cheaper and reliable source of advertising. These sites also include Snapchat, Instagram, Vine etc.

These social media outlets, websites and blogs allow the musicians to showcase their work online and reach out to millions across the continents. Even the band can have their own website that can serve as the dedicated stage for their work.

Along with these resources, there are different kinds of material available online related to music development. Artists can perform their research electronically using these resources. There are research articles related to music theory, history, recordings etc. that are available on the international libraries present online. These can be a great help for a music scholar too.

Along with these e-resources, there are some sites that can also help the artists to find better options for booking their shows like Gigsalad, Gigmasters etc.

If used correctly, these resources can provide the right kind of publicity to bring the band in spotlight and act as tools for your potential growth.

Why do we need Spotify? Spotify has become an essential for the musicians and artists today with its amazing services. Today, variety of options is present for downloading music by the audience that do not generate little money for the artists. Here comes the role of Spotify which provides a paid and legal service for the music fans that generates the royalties for the musicians.

Spotify provides the listeners a free and ad supported tier that will help in providing better royalties for the artists. Spotify gives the musicians a platform for a great amount of exposure and you can opt for different tiers according to your needs.

Around 70% of the revenues of Spotify are distributed to the rights holders including publishers, labels, distributors, artists etc. It has generated revenues for many labels and artists in all the countries where it operates and Spotify had paid the royalties as high as $3 Billion until now. These payouts show that how beneficial can Spotify be for the musicians.Why do we need Spotify?

Spotify works as a great resource for the users as it is a free app allowing you to use it conveniently to reach your intended audience. It allows the musicians an opportunity to earn from every download or play for their music in a very easy way. It helps in making your music popular and acts as a great marketing tool raising the sales further.

As music sharing has become an indispensable act all around the globe, Spotify lets you make the most out of it by the generation of value for the artists. It works on an excellent paid streaming format that delivers the royalties for the artists. Hence you can use this music streamer for the maximum exposure and earnings.

How can SEO help Artists?

How can SEO help Artists?  Searching information on search engines like Google has become a regular activity today as people search on internet all the time. In the same way, fans find the search engines the primary source for searching latest music videos and songs. Having a website for your band and updating new music will not help if it is not being viewed by maximum viewers.

Online marketing of entertainment website will be optimum if your site receives high How can SEO help Artiststraffic from different search engines. The process of optimizing the websites in order to improve their ranking on search engines is called as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This can be a great help for the music companies and artists if used appropriately. If your fans cannot search for you easily, your music won’t reach them. Hence promotion of music online will require SEO.

When your web pages are optimized, it will be ranked higher and it will come up as a former result when the search takes place. It is a complex process involving some techniques and tips which makes your website higher in ranking. SEO also provides your website an effective presence online promoting your music efficiently. SEO will make your website a popular site as the audience will widen in number and the overall perception of your band also improves.

SEO involves the techniques like keyword usage, meta-description tags, meta title tags and adding different links that help in improving the overall ranking of your website so that it is easily found by the search. Presence of links of your site on social media networks also plays a major role in SEO. If all these techniques for SEO are used properly, musicians can promote their work through online marketing effectively.