Sunday, September 14, 2014

Investing in yourself

I am back!  And within a few weeks, I know unbelievable right?  The past few weeks one theme has been brought to my attention on quite a few occasions.  That theme is artists who are unwilling to invest in themselves.  The ones I am speaking of are never willing to pay for quality studio time, quality album production, quality mixing and mastering, or any other quality products necessary to be successful.  To me there are only a few things any artist should invest in and they can achieve success far beyond what they are doing right now.

1. Invest in quality beats!  If you are rapping over tagged beats or beats that everyone else is rapping on you will not stand out.  Take time to research unique quality beats from all over the world.  The internet has allowed millions of beat makers world wide to be at your fingertips.  So what do you do when you find the perfect beat?  Some say rip it, remove the tags illegally and call it yours.  I say invest money in the beat!  Not only does it help the guy making the beat out it will open future doors for discounts, custom beats, and more.  Now you can buy exclusive rights (Which let you have the beat and no one else can use it) or lease it for a limited number of copies you can sell (But others can still buy the beat and use it).  Of course the first option is more expensive but it allows you to have sole possession of the beat.

2. Invest in a good quality studio to record the album.  Yes every rapper has a "studio" tucked away in his closet where them and all their friends make "hot tracks" but I promise you that will not get you any further than your local (Your city) market.  Do I think you need to pay for a studio at $200/hour?  No way!  But there are plenty of studios in every single city that can provide top quality recording, in most cases mixing and mastering, for between $40 & $70/hour.  By investing money in this process you will create a better product that could catch the attention of people outside of your local market.

3. Invest in quality CD Production.  If you hand me a CD to check out and it is a recordable cd with your name written on it in sharpie I am more than likely going to find the nearest trash can and scrap it.  Take pride in what you are doing and find reputable CD  replication company (Copy Cats Media as an example) to produce your vision.  In most cases these companies will have an online template that you can add pictures to as well as designing the entire album cover inside and out.  By doing this you give a professional appearance and can sell these for a few more dollars a piece.  Most of the time the larger the order the better the discount.

4. Invest in high profit merchandise.  Most artists who have made it in the business have T-Shirts, Sweat Shirts, Hats, Bandanas, and anything else they can mass produce to sell.  These items unfortunately have a very low profit margin unless you buy hundreds at a time.  For a newcomer in the business look for high profit items such as shot glasses (you can get these for .40/glass and sell them for $3-5), Di-Cut Vinyl stickers, and your album.  All of these things are low cost high profit.  Once you get the bigger return on those items you should invest in things like bandanas or t-shirts.  Research and time invested with pay dividends here.

5. Invest in going on tour.  Sounds expensive but you can find regional tours and even some national tours that if negotiated properly can be a low cost high return investment.  You should not dedicate yourself to doing 200 shows a year in your city or even local cities.  If you are going to invest the time and effort to promote those kinds of shows you should just research and reach out to national tours and commit yourself to exposing a huge fan base to your music instead of performing to the same 50 people show after show.

By investing in these five simple things you will find that success you are looking for.  If you do not want to take the risk and invest in yourself I can promise you nobody else will invest their time and money in you either.

MMFWFL,

Juggalotus

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