Doing the work vs. Paying someone to handle it for you. (Shorthand version) -My observation, it pays to go both routes sometimes. If you are a featured brand/artist that is in demand, you can utilize your extra income to create a subcompany to prop up your main company. (Paying someone to do it) How this correlates to music: Say you used to record at this dudes house, hes an awesome engineer, can make you guys sound like a million bucks and more than anything, hes the most laid-back easy-going guy on the planet. Really good to work with. He helped you guys get on the map, and now you become successful. The right thing (in my opinion) would be to go back to the same Engineer/Producer and become partners with them. They build a company to help your brand get further. Over time, a studio that you helped fund via booking studio time and mixing time/etc. will always benefit you as an artist in terms of pricing, level of priority and most of all, you will always get the best ears and care on your tracks. (Doing it yourself) Im a big fan of this from an Artists perspective. No one can touch my shit or tell me what to do with it, ever. You have much more control of how you want your vision to come out, most of all, who will put as much love into your own music aside from yourself? Now, the drawback from this is, there is a big learning curve as to how your music will shape itself. If youre an aspiring Amateur Engineer/Guitar player, like some of us are, you will waste a lot of time with guitar tone. This wouldnt be as big of an issue if you had no deadlines, but most professional bands and people in the business want to get their music heard, so you are competing with thousands of people a minute. What does this mean for you? A professional will know how to execute their/your vision for the mix, while you are still learning what the tools are. Not that learning is terrible, but for time arguments sake, would you want to make the mistake of taking 5 months to write one song? Ive been there. So, unless you have a firm understanding on how audio works and songwriting structure goes, you can do what many bands are doing now and Self-Producing and releasing their own materials. Ill wrap up with the pros and cons real quick: DIY - Pros *No Contracts, No Producers, No Deadlines, You spend less - keep more, you can also control your own publishing, and technically your music (if written solely by you) would be a controlled composition. (Meaning you control the copyright on lyrics and musical content) Cons *No Deadlines(What good is your music if no one can hear it?), Learning curve with audio production techniques(as well as mixing techniques) , studio start-up cost is very expensive (if you want to record your own drums WELL, be prepared to pay big),and lastly - itll take a while for you to make some cash off of your nice investments. Paying someone to do it -Pros *Experienced ears and professionals handle your work in a timely manner(depending on their rep) your music is more likely to be heard by people who are important in the industry if a reputable Producer/Mixer/Mastering Engineer is handling your art, **My favorite** A lot of the dirty work is taken out of your hands - if everything is tracked right, all you have to do (as an artist) is fill your schedule up and prepare for your release. You get to wear one hat, and thats the Artist hat (for that situation at least) Paying someont to do it - Cons *Sometimes you dont get what you pay for. (Make sure you do your background work) this person may work slower than you can take, you are relying on someone else to carry out YOUR vision as an artist, and lastly - it costs a lot of money. (Duh.) My 2 cents. -I am a friend of Dallas. My name is Gabe, and I was in Polyester Dreams as well. I hope this knowledge can help.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 10:42:25 +0000