By Menco
Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:50 pm
With so many people out there who rap and make beats it’s sometimes quite hard to seperate yourself from the ‘amateurs’. People are not that much impressed anymore when you say you make beats or rap. Because everybody’s little cousin raps and knows a few guys in their apartment building who makes beats or have a few tracks somewhere on youtube. Through experience I found a few things that in my case really helped to climb the ladder, and noticed that artists around me followed somewhat the same method to get where they are. Keywords are: product, exposure, network. And off course dedication and hard work.
Product.
First of all, you need a product. Sounds kinda commercial, but if you want to be taken more seriously than your little cousin, then this can be a first difference between you two. With a product I mean a beattape, mixtape, EP, or anything similair like that you can use as demo material. Releasing a whole project like a tape also looks more professional than having a few loose tracks floating around somewhere on the internet.
See this as your portofolio.
With working on a project it will also help you to develop yourself as an artist. With this I mean style, kind of people you want to work with, what kind of audience you will try to reach and so on. Also very important: keep refreshing and releasing.
Competition.
Do talentshows, beattapes and beatbattles. The first time you hear a ‘no’ is never a pleasant moment, but if you can’t put yourself over that type of stuff then the music industry is not for you. It also really forces you to bring your A-game. Especially for beginners participating is good because you can get a lot of feedback from people who don’t know you on a personal level. Most of my friends will always say that my music sounds good just because they are my friends. They may really like the music, but it’s more likely to like somebody’s music when you have a positive connection on a personal level with that somebody.
For the more experienced artists it’s a great way to get exposure.
Keep in mind that for some of the shows and competitions you will need a demo if you want to subscribe for something like that. Especially talentshows and live organised beat battles (on a certain kind of level) are being visited by A&R, people who do the programming for clubs and festivals, booking agencies, other artists and off course the media.
Exposure: be easy to find.
However you shouldn’t completely rely on social media, it still is the way to reach people. Upload your demo material, have a website with a short bio and contact.
People won’t go searching for you if they don’t know that you even exist.
So reach out to the people. Almost everybody stays connected with their music or artists through facebook or youtube. So upload your tracks to youtube. Have a facebook page. Have a bandcamp page. Anything! Make it easy to be found and to be listened to. Or to refer to when people ask you for your demo or more information.
Exposure: hook up with other artists.
By working together with an other artist you can introduce yourself to a new audience. For the artist you are collabing with the same thing. Also, two artists have a larger network than an artist riding solo. If you have multiple artists to choose from go for the artist that is the most professional one. Eventhough if this means you have to work for free or even have to pay money for it. Point is, if they do shows, or want to send in the final track for a beattape or mixtape whatever, it means exposure. People will probably be more interested in checking you out when your name is tied to someone’s name who already has a group of followers/ fanbase.
Exposure: local media.
Approach local media. There is definetley a local radiostation or webblog or local tv station that maybe is interested in doing a small item on you and your music. Most of these media have an adress or email adress where you can drop your demo and send in your info. Approach all the music platforms in your region you know off. Try to contact them through somebody in person rather than shooting an email.
Here is also where a videoclip may help you. Lot of those platforms are open to send in new releases and videoclips which they post on their blogs or websites. Everytime you release a track or videoclip there’s a reason to post some of your music, which means more exposure.
Networking.
You just can’t do it alone. You just can’t. If you want to follow some of the previous advices described above it’s very important to start neworking yesterday.
If a friend of you has a well visited webblog then you are already in the right direction. If you have a friend who does a radio show, even better.
You need to meet up with new artists. You have to get in contact with people who organise the parties and do the programming for clubnights. Become a familiair face in the circuit you’re trying to get on.
This means that you have to try to go to as much music events as possible. Visit gigs from musical friends, or affiliated artists. Visit open mic nights. They can introduce you to new people and so on. Just conversate with the rappers, DJ’s and people from the organisation.
If you don’t live in the right place then seriously consider moving. Or hit the internet. Even mpc-forums is a great place to network for collabo’s and stuff.
Also, maintain your network. Visit that guy who hosts this and this party every week over here, send a facebook message to that girl who works in that club over there and so on.
Fee.
Unless you are in it for the money I would say: Don’t worry about the cash. If you are good and are able to get out there you will be rewarded anyway. At least, that’s my phillosophy. For MC’s and DJ’s it’s harder to recognise that point from where you can say you wan to get paid. For beatmakers it’s more logical. Once you have more MC’s than beats you can give them to the one who is willing to pay.
These were the things that really helped me comming up the last couple of years. This is purely from my experience and point of view. This is not the only way to go, but I hope it will help you as well to get where you want to go when you are ambitious.
Menco.
Product.
First of all, you need a product. Sounds kinda commercial, but if you want to be taken more seriously than your little cousin, then this can be a first difference between you two. With a product I mean a beattape, mixtape, EP, or anything similair like that you can use as demo material. Releasing a whole project like a tape also looks more professional than having a few loose tracks floating around somewhere on the internet.
See this as your portofolio.
With working on a project it will also help you to develop yourself as an artist. With this I mean style, kind of people you want to work with, what kind of audience you will try to reach and so on. Also very important: keep refreshing and releasing.
Competition.
Do talentshows, beattapes and beatbattles. The first time you hear a ‘no’ is never a pleasant moment, but if you can’t put yourself over that type of stuff then the music industry is not for you. It also really forces you to bring your A-game. Especially for beginners participating is good because you can get a lot of feedback from people who don’t know you on a personal level. Most of my friends will always say that my music sounds good just because they are my friends. They may really like the music, but it’s more likely to like somebody’s music when you have a positive connection on a personal level with that somebody.
For the more experienced artists it’s a great way to get exposure.
Keep in mind that for some of the shows and competitions you will need a demo if you want to subscribe for something like that. Especially talentshows and live organised beat battles (on a certain kind of level) are being visited by A&R, people who do the programming for clubs and festivals, booking agencies, other artists and off course the media.
Exposure: be easy to find.
However you shouldn’t completely rely on social media, it still is the way to reach people. Upload your demo material, have a website with a short bio and contact.
People won’t go searching for you if they don’t know that you even exist.
So reach out to the people. Almost everybody stays connected with their music or artists through facebook or youtube. So upload your tracks to youtube. Have a facebook page. Have a bandcamp page. Anything! Make it easy to be found and to be listened to. Or to refer to when people ask you for your demo or more information.
Exposure: hook up with other artists.
By working together with an other artist you can introduce yourself to a new audience. For the artist you are collabing with the same thing. Also, two artists have a larger network than an artist riding solo. If you have multiple artists to choose from go for the artist that is the most professional one. Eventhough if this means you have to work for free or even have to pay money for it. Point is, if they do shows, or want to send in the final track for a beattape or mixtape whatever, it means exposure. People will probably be more interested in checking you out when your name is tied to someone’s name who already has a group of followers/ fanbase.
Exposure: local media.
Approach local media. There is definetley a local radiostation or webblog or local tv station that maybe is interested in doing a small item on you and your music. Most of these media have an adress or email adress where you can drop your demo and send in your info. Approach all the music platforms in your region you know off. Try to contact them through somebody in person rather than shooting an email.
Here is also where a videoclip may help you. Lot of those platforms are open to send in new releases and videoclips which they post on their blogs or websites. Everytime you release a track or videoclip there’s a reason to post some of your music, which means more exposure.
Networking.
You just can’t do it alone. You just can’t. If you want to follow some of the previous advices described above it’s very important to start neworking yesterday.
If a friend of you has a well visited webblog then you are already in the right direction. If you have a friend who does a radio show, even better.
You need to meet up with new artists. You have to get in contact with people who organise the parties and do the programming for clubnights. Become a familiair face in the circuit you’re trying to get on.
This means that you have to try to go to as much music events as possible. Visit gigs from musical friends, or affiliated artists. Visit open mic nights. They can introduce you to new people and so on. Just conversate with the rappers, DJ’s and people from the organisation.
If you don’t live in the right place then seriously consider moving. Or hit the internet. Even mpc-forums is a great place to network for collabo’s and stuff.
Also, maintain your network. Visit that guy who hosts this and this party every week over here, send a facebook message to that girl who works in that club over there and so on.
Fee.
Unless you are in it for the money I would say: Don’t worry about the cash. If you are good and are able to get out there you will be rewarded anyway. At least, that’s my phillosophy. For MC’s and DJ’s it’s harder to recognise that point from where you can say you wan to get paid. For beatmakers it’s more logical. Once you have more MC’s than beats you can give them to the one who is willing to pay.
These were the things that really helped me comming up the last couple of years. This is purely from my experience and point of view. This is not the only way to go, but I hope it will help you as well to get where you want to go when you are ambitious.
Menco.
+1
