Music Production For The Future
Our superstar producer SaiDON has hit the ground running with the hit track ROLLING LOUD on YNW Melly’s We All Shine Album which debuted on January 18th.
Checking all streaming services, SaiDON’s track is the 2nd most streamed song from the album after Melly and Kanye West’s collaboration, Mixed Personalities.
Check the track!
How do you sustain yourself financially when you are a new music producer?
It’s a tough world for budding music producers who are trying to make it in the music industry and support themselves financially. That’s why I have gathered the best advice for new music producers from those who have tried and failed at making music production their full-time career.
How do you sustain yourself financially when you are a new music producer?
Advice from Reddit:
At 17, I played in a rock band in high school, which saw moderate success locally. I tried college for a semester, but couldn’t get the burning desire to see where music could take me off of my mind. I started writing music again for a new project. Fast forward a few months, the project comes together, and we see a lot more success than the previous effort. We start to get offers to go on tour. My parent’s quickly started to lecture me about how it wasn’t something I should pursue, for the same reasons you’ve described here. To make a long story short….
I ended up playing in the band for 8 years. We toured the country several times over playing small gigs for usually 200-300 people. I didn’t make any money doing it, just enough to feed myself on the road, keep a roof over my head at home with the guys in the band, and pay for band expenses. We slept in our 15 passenger van, or on some kind person’s floor most nights we were out on the road. I did however, have the best time of my life.
It was a fabulous life experience that taught me more about being an adult than anything college was going to teach me at that age. I made friendships that will last a lifetime. Half the guys stood up in my wedding this past October. This path is not for everyone, but for me, I wasn’t ready to do the college / get a “real” job thing just yet. I wasn’t emotionally mature enough, and it would’ve been a waste of my parents money, because I wouldn’t have taken it seriously. All I wanted to do was take my talent of music, and try to make something of it. After I decided it was time to move on from the band, I went back to school. I now have a good job working as a purchasing manager for a Pro Audio company, I’m married, and far along into college. Everything my parents had hoped for me has come to pass, just a decade later. The reason I’m sharing this story is to encourage you. My parents are the first ones to say that although they didn’t understand then, they understand now.
So many jobs that nobody thinks of…
Production music (stock music for radio, tv, games – can be more lucrative than being an artist), live sound mixing at all kinds of venues (sporting, corporate, schools), audio assistant/audio director for outside broadcast/streaming.
There are plenty of audio related jobs other than music producer that you will be unknowingly training yourself for.
Look into more audio related jobs as well as music production, such as game audio, Foley artist, acoustic engineer, audio programmers, just to name a few. Collaborate with others on projects. I got my first audio job by working on the sounds for a small game.
There’s loads more great opportunities in audio other than music, so be aware of them!
it isn’t going to happen because you want it to, and it isn’t even going to happen because you’re good at it. It’s going to happen because you go through the necessary steps, you enter into the communities where people actually make it—this might involve moving to New York or Los Angeles or Berlin, also maybe not. It’s going to happen if you can realistically see your abilities, shortcomings and disadvantages, and how to make up for those. It’s going to happen because you’re recognized for who you are on a one-on-one basis. It’s honestly not that different from any other corporate job.
Here are three hard truths about the music industry:
1) The business structure is highly biased against the artist. He should absolutely read How Music Works by David Byrne to understand this on a deeper level.
2) You have to be really really good. I did a super rough calculation once and realized that if you take your salary as a musician and multiply it by 5-100x, that’s how much you could make if you worked in a different industry. Top ten richest musicians? Probably under a billion net worth. Top ten richest people? Tens of billions. I guarantee you they all work equally as hard. Money is also like the NFL. If you make it big, it’s hard to make it consistently. Ironically, being a producer is much more stable than being an artist in this respect. In order to make even a living, you have to be really good.
3) Luck. Yes all of that work and business acumen still do not guarantee success. Not much more to say about that.
WEAK produced by SaiDON is featured on Black Charcoal’s YouTube channel.
You can almost feel the good vibes as YouTube star Black Charcoal and his friends rate Soundcloud rappers and they come across the strong flow of South Florida’s Floda banging out his hit track WEAK that has been featured by so many media stars.
Check out their reaction to WEAK, produced by SaiDON, you can’t tell me that vibe isn’t contagious.
Check the 13:12 mark.
When SaiDON began his career as a music producer he connected with new artists who needed free tracks to help them in their careers. He happily provided these tracks as a partnership because every music producer wants the music he creates to be heard.
After gaining experience as a music producer his skills became notable, he gained an audience and SaiDON moved on to producing custom tracks for artists who were more established.
These days SaiDON hasn’t forgotten about his humble beginnings when he was a hungry and driven young music producer who connected with hungry young artists. The Corner Store is his most recent offering to the music industry, a collection of FREE EPs made available through his Soundcloud page for any artist who is still trying to push forward in the industry.
SaiDON named this project The Corner Store because, “Every corner store always has just what you need,” he joked. “It’s a place you go to for quick satisfaction and that’s what my music guarantees.”
The Corner Store currently has 4 music tracks produced by SaiDON that are available for FREE. SaiDON plans to offer other music producers the opportunity to share FREE tracks in any genre in The Corner Store as a global collective of support for up and coming artists who want a shot at having their voices heard.
“Now that we have The Corner Store all artists can have a place to come to when they want to grab some fire tracks,” SaiDON said. “I only require that I receive producer credit for every song created and all artists who use the tracks let me know about it so that I can shout them out on Twitter.”
Check out the FREE EPs currently in The Corner Store Volume I.
If you are a music producer and you want to add to the collection, feel free to email Sai(at)SaiMakesBeats(dot)Com with your EP and Soundcloud information.
Weak produced by SaiDON is featured in Sarah Baskah’s short film.
While Floda may have killed the lyrics in his song Weak, SaiDON’s stellar production skills add to the vibe that was featured in YouTube Superstar Sarah Baskah’s Short Film- Taco Hell. Check out the song at the 5:18 mark!
Joe Budden reviews the song WEAK, Produced by SaiDON.
Check out Joe Budden’s reaction to SaiDON’s produced track, Weak, at 2:12:38.
The song Weak by Floda was produced by SaiDON and released in January 2018.
He’s known as Bullet Proof Sole. And he’s quickly becoming a notable name among many South Florida music producers. At 20 years old, he has already produced tracks placed with up and coming artists like Kodak Black, Floda and Dimitri Dutch. One of the songs he produced, “You With Me” by rap artist Kodak Black has made it into heavy rotation on the South Florida music scene.
Despite his current successes Bullet Proof Sole believes he still has a long way to go. Born in Haiti and raised in the city of Lauderdale Lakes, Bullet Proof Sole speaks with the confidence of a man twice his age and the temperament of a man who is ready for more.
When I spoke with him on the phone early last week he told me that he had just arrived at the studio. He took the time to share with me the endearing story of his beginnings as a music producer at the age of 14.
“One of my older cousins made beats and had a beat machine,” he explained. “When I saw him making beats I figured I could do it. My uncle is a gospel composer for a lot of gospel artists around here too. Both of them influenced me to give it a shot.”
Today he says he’s not especially proud of the beats he created during his high school days but he is proud of his effort. The three years he spent honing his talent as a music producer and rap artist would not go to waste.
After graduating from Blanche Ely High School he made the decision to become more focused on his music production. He threw himself into his music, creating beat after beat until he felt they had improved significantly. Although he believed he had the skills to become a professional, he hadn’t made his first placement yet. He spent the majority his time in the studio or networking at local music events.
While out at a party he was approached by the cousin of one of South Florida’s hottest new artists, Kodak Black. The cousin, whom he knew previously, asked him for a beat to pass on to Kodak Black and this exchange led to his very first placement.
Bullet Proof explained it plainly, “I sent him the beat. The next day he sent back the tracks. Maybe a week after that he came and paid me for it. I earned $100.”
This early lesson in the power of networking has become the driving force behind his strategy for success and the first line of advice he offers to anyone trying to jump into the music industry.
“It’s all about hard work and networking,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know.”
Along with that invaluable tip, Bullet Proof Sole shares a few other tactics that every budding music producer should be aware of.
“They have to market themselves and make sure that they are going out to events and shows locally. Have business cards where they can find their beats at or carry beats on their flash drive so that they can pass them around,” he offered.
“Investing in yourself and in your craft is important too,” he continued. “Make sure you get the right equipment so you don’t have to spend more money later on. I had to learn the hard way.”
It turns out that Bullet Proof used Fruity Loops to create his first beat and he now uses a combination of Fruity Loops and Logic to create his contribution to the music that is fueling the piping hot sound coming out of South Florida.
When I suggested that Bullet Proof made the leap between hopeful music producer to being a paid music producer without much effort, he countered by sharing that he too gave away beats for free just to have credits on someone’s album.
“You get to the point when you know you can’t be giving away beats for free. You will have to know your worth. You will know when your beats are up to par where they need to be purchased,” he shared. “It’s a weird transition but I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily hard. You should be confident in yourself and your work.”
When it comes to sending beats, some producers don’t know how long to wait when they send their beats to an artist. It’s important to know how long it takes the artist to put out music and how much music they put out. Sources have shown that there is no time limit for a rapper to put out music. Just remember, rappers are humans too. It may be because they haven’t written to it yet, or they haven’t had time to go to the studio. As a producer, that’s just how it is. If they don’t hit you back within two weeks, you should contact them between that time period. Check up on their progress and make sure every beat you make has your tag on it.
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When $o1o, a16-year-old South Florida artist first heard SaiDON’s track, he said he knew he had to use it because, “It reminded me of Denzel Curry’s Ultimate, and that was the kind of track I wanted to put out.”
$o1o, whose real name is Adrian Francis said he is inspired to create music by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, J.Cole, Kanye West, Mac Miller among others.
“They have really pushed me to take music seriously. It made me realize that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you can still make it,” $o1o said.
During production SaiDON used Fl studio 12 and credits Rick Ross’s hip hop inspirational style for influencing the feel of the beat and he knew the perfect artist to help take it to the next level.
“I was thinking of a more hyped up instrumental that would get people going for a game, party, etc,” SaiDON shared. “When it comes to energy-jutsu, Adrian has it. I already knew he would flow to the track.”
$o1o’s uptempo rap style emerged as Immortal, forging a breathless ride over SaiDON’s intoxicatingly reverberant beat.
You can find $o1o on:
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/yungso1o
Twitter : https://twitter.com/thug_s0lo
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thug.s0lo/
