How to Be a Music Producer in 2024

so what does it take to be a music producer in  2024 the new year is coming up guys and we have   to really sit down and ask what does it take to be  great in 2024 as a music producer specifically not   an artist not a mixing engineer not a recording  engineer not a Studio owner a music producer what   does it truly take to master this craft moving  into 2024 so that we can you know build our   businesses grow our businesses grow our influence  grow our leverage all these different things that   have changed the world over time when I first  started 9 years ago um all I think my first video   or one of the First videos is law of attraction  that was the first video and it was a podcast   video on my channel I have videos before that  but I deleted them but the first one of the First   videos is the law of attraction video that video  was the seed into the current producer Community   right now which is there's so many people making  content videos helping each other out we have a   Discord like if I switch screens right now look  at this Discord we have over 71,000 folks in our   Discord they're loading up Loops they have trap  Loops drill Loops hyperpop R&B Loops all types   of stuff drum braks we give out free plugins we  have drum kits that we let people download we have   hip-hop uh album samples downloads up in here Dr  Dre Kanye West Rick Ross Jay-Z etc etc um you know   we have placement opportunities when I find them  we have beat battles in here we have you know what   else is up in here there's so much people live  streaming right now showing other people how to   make beats and that culture was created because  I S SED the seed not saying I created everybody   but I'm saying I swed the seed of trying to help  somebody else first and then because I did that   and I was the example of that people who resonated  with that image started to follow along and do the   same thing it's called mirror neurons if we're  getting technical okay it's kind of like if I'm   teaching my son how to do something instead of me  telling him because he doesn't know English right   now I'll show him and he mirrors what he sees  through his brain okay so in growing what we've   seen in the the beginning was just a vision all we  had was a vision an idea we said producers aren't   getting paid enough producers aren't respected  industry producers keep crapping on us you know   what else all the sounds are gatee kept you know  there's no good plugins this is nine years ago   okay there's no good plugins you need ,000 $24,000  to even start making beats so I was trying to   solve all those problems for the bedroom producer  for somebody who was at home for somebody who   doesn't live in LA and wants to be in the mix for  somebody who just wants to make music and doesn't   want to be in the politics of the music industry  always remember the music industry started with   the mob who thinks the mob plays Fair okay so if  you want to play in that casino go for it we're   not discouraging anybody to do that but what my  point is we created a completely new path and   it all started with a small seed that small seed  has now influenced Millions around the world to   go help Millions more around the world to go help  Millions more around the world and we have to keep   looking forward and keeping that vision in mind to  say where are music producers going in 2024 beat   stars is blown up we've seen people on YouTube  get crazy deals through YouTube twitch produces   going crazy we've seen all types of stuff over  those years that did not exist before we started   really investing energy into this this Vision that  we had so what does it truly take for a producer   in 2024 to be excellent to grow your business  to you know get more clients to create better   product to master the craft what does it truly  take in 2024 I'll say it this way when you're   first getting started producing you probably  think all you have to do is just make beats   upload to a website and the the universe will just  magically do everything else that is just not How   the Universe Works in fact when you create that  delusion for yourself you're actually shooting   yourself in the foot metaphorically speaking so  the way it works is that we have to sew seeds and   seeds turn into plants if you don't go out in  the field and sew seeds energetically speaking   that energy won't return and the key though is  that a lot of people are sewing a lot of seeds   but they're not creating the bridge the resonance  Bridge the transactive bridge for the energy to   come back and that's the esoteric stuff that I'll  teach later down the line but for now let's just   focus on what do you need what skills do you need  as a music producer firstly you not only need to   know how to make beats you need to know how to be  an online content creator the reason is being is   because I have industry music producers asking  me how to do this online thing it's way deeper   than just hey create a YouTube channel and blow  up we have to also think about longevity creating   leverage creating a brand all these things require  distribution you don't get distribution for free   you know YouTube offers distribution for free uh  Twitter Facebook Instagram but in Tik Tok but all   those algorithms are completely different for  example let's just create a difference Tik Tok   it's not a search-based platform they say that  it's going up in search but it's searching for   trendy stuff it's not searching how to mix your  808 into Tik Tok okay so it's not a search-based   platform it's called inter interuption based so  the way Interruption based platforms work they   distract people and put your stuff in front of  other people so it's not nobody's going on there   with an intent to find something you just kind  of stumble upon it based on different metrics   and tags and metadata okay and depending on how  your your user behavior is is how they feed you   information or content so that's a whole different  style of content called Interruption based content   Instagram does the same thing you're not on  Instagram searching how to mix an 808 that's   Interruption based cont content for Interruption  based content you have to do all this flashy stuff   and all this entertaining stuff that has nothing  to do with the value creation value creation is   about solving problems sometimes that problem is  that people want entertainment but most of the   time the problem is a real problem how do I mix my  808s they're not trying to look at a goofy video   about sliding 808s out of key and doing all this  stuff they're trying to learn how to mix their 08s   and so when people divot off of the value Creation  in order to achieve this entertainment thing that   was kind of put to the Forefront because everybody  saw the casino called Tik Tok so they said oh I   have to I have to be funny I have to uh entertain  people in the videos and then they switched their   whole approach to helping people remember all  this starts with helping somebody creating value   for somebody the moment we started distracting  people and creating entertainment videos and all   this stuff that's when a lot of folks are  not seeing the results is because we pivot   into entertainment World entertainment world is  not about value creation it's not about solving   problems it's about distracting people from True  Value creation and escapism and so all I'm saying   is we need to understand the purpose of each  social media platform YouTube is about search   because why Google bought YouTube YouTube is the  second search engine next to Google in the world   that means everybody who goes to Google types  in how to fix something how to do this how to   do that now they go to YouTube for more specific  information or for video forms specifically so   how to do that the same thing how to mix this how  to do that they'll search it into YouTube they're   not going on YouTube like funny video and then  stuff pops up randomly now the homepage is more uh   random so to speak but it's based on user behavior  and all that type of stuff and algorithms and your   custom feeds but in comparison to Tik Tok YouTube  is not trying to be this random content machine   okay even shorts are you could search up shorts  okay so because the core identity of a YouTube   is search based and Google is search-based once  you understand that those platforms are about   value creation that's where you need to Center  everything else is just a way to get more eyeballs   and then pull them into value creation it's not  to lean your business into the entertainment and   that's where a lot of music producers get stuck  okay because they're not you get have millions   of Tik Tok followers and zero dollars okay that  does not translate to money money is about solving   somebody's problem giving getting them over a  pain point and then exchanging or transaction   transacting for the thing that gets them over the  pain Point okay they have a real problem they need   solve they're not trying to laugh you know their  way through this they're trying to solve a real   problem so that's the fundamental mistake that  I see a lot of producers doing when it comes to   content creation is they try to lean heavy into  entertainment world that's a way to get people's   eyeballs but it's not a way to get to serve people  you know at the end of the day we're here to serve   people add value to them so as a music producer  you have to have to think about yourself as more   than just upload a beat to YouTube It's how do we  reframe our beat to create value or curiosity for   somebody to dig deeper you know can go through a  lot of examples here but there's a producer who   remade Playboy card's beat on Tik Tok and he  did it through the Nintendo DSi I think it's   called so the reason that's cool is because one  we already know the Playboy cardi beat so it's   not like we're listening to something random  but two we're hearing that same beat through   a different lens and that's what people are  are focused on it's like kind of like a cover   but instrumentally and he used that hyperbole of  using these Nintendo DSi which is very strange   of an object to build a beat on okay you would  think of it as a toy but he made entire Playboy   card beat on it and that's why it had so many  views and we're seeing the same thing we want and   understand through a different lens okay the same  way a painter looks at nature and we look through   a different lens called the artist's brain and  the artist paints out what he just saw in nature   it's the same exact thing so you need to focus on  content creation because this is going to give you   what's called distribution without distribution  you have zero power you have zero power without   distribution if you don't own your distribution  you do not have power online if you do not own   your email address list and your text list you do  not have power online no social media no service   no software as a service nothing online the only  assets that you have is your communication with   your audience and the only way you can truly own  that is through email and text lists even some   text platforms like Community back back in the  day well Gary ve was pushing it pretty heavy but   the problem was you don't own the text list they  own it who owns the communication Channel you have   to own that information because when you own that  information I say this all the time I say imagine   you know I give you my phone you go to a music  industry networking event you collect a thousand   contacts in my phone now at the end of the event  you hand me my phone a week later you want to call   up Sony's VP of whatever but the problem is you  don't have my phone and now you have to ask me for   my phone again to contact that person and if I say  no you're out of look so what we're doing mostly   on social media platforms is building up a contact  list on somebody else's phone okay the TR the goal   is build up that contact list on somebody else's  phone but then tell them how we can communicate   with them directly through our phone number for  example okay so that's the first first first   step you need to build on that on the internet  if you're not building around an email list or   text list you are wasting your time in this online  business I will tell you that Instagram followers   do not matter if if they could change overnight  and you can't reach your audience that goes with   any platform okay so and you could test this  you can go on Instagram and see hey I put up a   story 10,000 people see it put up another story  with a bunch of text and say hey buy this thing   it's going to say 10 times less a thousand people  and to put it simply it's because these platforms   want you to buy into their advertising they want  you to see a little growth so you go oh if I just   10x this growth through ads I'll go to here they  want you to buy advertising it's kind of like you   know the food on the stick at the mall they give  you the chicken on the stick so that you go buy   the actual meal they give you one little slice  of chicken so that you go buy the meal the same   thing with social media they give you a little  success so that once they put the limiter on or   the governor on or the filters on or the algorithm  on to kind of block your success then because they   want you to buy the whole meal called advertising  so that everybody could actually see you most of   the time with social media it's about fighting the  algorithm more than it is about being creative and   that's the new thing about 2024 that you have to  understand with the advance of AI and you know   all these technological advances a lot of these  platforms are going to be marking and flagging a   lot of content way harder than usual and they're  going to be looking for different things to to   limit the reach of things because they don't want  AI content creators to go out here and just Spam   everything with a th000 posts a minute and then  everybody's feed is flooded with bull crap so   they have Governors and ways to go about that in  the code and their algorithms so you have to you   have to start rethinking 2024 now if you want  a a list of the music industry stuff about your   IPI how to get your IPI number which is basically  an identification number so for example let's say   busy Works beats puts out a song called Forever  okay now the song's called forever but in Chinese   they might not know what the letter letters f o  r e v r r and they might not understand what busy   Works beats means in Chinese like the letters  like the same way I can't read Chinese letters   I'm like hey person I don't know how to read your  to name to even say what's up in the live streams   the same thing with um you know characters and  different languages so what we do is they create   a number system and instead of calling me busy  Works beats they'll call me by my IPI so if my   song is streamed over in China or Japan they say  okay he's number 3,19 9 7765 754 321 instead of   saying he's busy Works beats because there could  be another person saying they're busy Works beats   but they're not busy Works beats now you got to  figure out who's the right busy Works beats so   they give you something called an IPI number and  you get the IPI number by signing up with a pro a   performance royalties organization and basically  ASCAP and BM like the main two ones in America   they give you the IPI number so once you sign up  I think it's free I don't even know the prices but   I'm pretty sure ASCAP is free I can't remember but  I'll link them below if I remember and once you   sign up as a songwriter and a publisher which  is basically what you are the songwriter and   the publisher because you own the distribution  back in the day you didn't have you didn't have   social media you didn't have an easy way to get in  front of people you had to go through a publisher   because the publisher was the only way to get  your stuff printed on CDs or whatever tapes to   even go out into the stores that's why you needed  a publisher and Publishers are basically they own   distribution okay so in the older days the reason  you have songwriter and publisher and they're two   different things is because the songwriter was  the person who made the music okay they made the   songs and they own the copyright of the song great  now you have a publisher okay crap if people can   only listen to my music through this tape that I  recorded at a studio how do I get my tape out to   the world I need this tape Mass printed I go to  a publisher who wants to own a percentage of it   because they're going to be Mass printing this  thing like a factory and they're going to put   it out into stores or wherever else they put the  product that's why you have a difference between   songwriter and publisher because back in the day  it was not as easy to just put your song online   nowadays you could just upload your song you  are the publisher you are the songwriter so so I   believe if you register on ASCAP as a songwriter  and publisher it's free from what I remember I   could be completely wrong so disclaimer but I'm  pretty sure it's free okay so all I'm saying   is you need that IPI number because that's how  people track and know who to actually pay like   again if I'm in China they don't even know how to  read your name in English most of the time so you   have to they give it they give you a number so  that that number is tracked and they can simply   Target when they play your music in a Chinese  restaurant over to your IPI number and now you   get credited for that song being played wherever  okay now there's other organizations and I have   a whole list on our Discord so go to discord. gg/  busy Works beats to sign up for all those ways of   getting paid basically in short the reason there's  so many places you have to sign up to get paid is   because they all have different tracking software  or different tracking mechanisms that's basically   what it comes down to like PR's track the IPI  number and the IPI number gets tracked through   a certain ecosystem of stuff I'm not a tech guy  I hope to bring on hakee soon he can explain all   that but they're all different tracking mechanisms  you have trackers that track online radio play you   have trackers that track Social Media stuff  you have trackers that track radio play you   have trackers that track per performance and live  in restaurants you have track so everybody has a   different tracking system and that's why there's  so many things to sign up for when it comes to   music royalties and collecting your money as far  as the totality of your money okay now signing   up to even get your music distributed to stores  it's the same metaphorical concept of hey I have   this song that I created but how do I get into  Best Buy and how do I get into you know what's   that one store eball no no I'm making that up  Best Buy you know FYE how do I get into Circuit   City how do I get into Walmart how do I get into  okay so that's what the Distributors are for they   will get you into those stores because they have a  relationship and what they do is they give you all   the metadata so that when you go into the store  you get credited if somebody buys your stuff in   those specific stores that's what Distributors are  for they track that stuff so all these different   things and all these millions of websites you have  to sign up for are just people who have different   trackers for different things once you simplifi  to understand that you be like oh they're just   it's this different tracking software or Hardware  whatever they use so all I'm saying is you need an   IPI so that you're credited when you get your  IPI then you need to worry about Distributing   your music okay because when you distribute your  music that's how you basically get it on the apps   and different things okay the virtual stores okay  the apps that people actually listen listen to on   their phone and then from there you want to make  sure also that you're copyrighting your stuff for   many different reasons I'm not an entertainment  lawyer I'll bring on more entertainment lawyers   over time but the copyright is mainly so that if  anybody takes your stuff you have the rights to   then sue them or whatever for a certain amount  I think it's like 150,000 or something like   that don't quote me I'm not a lawyer this is not  legal advice at all my point in saying all this   stuff is if you want to play that casino game in  the music industry and you want to worry about   streaming and being on Spotify and doing all that  type of stuff then you need all these different   softwares to track your stuff in their systems  okay so I'm not going to tell you not to do it   I'm just saying that's what you need to get that  list you need to go to our Discord it's discord.gg   busyworksbeats the link will be below so in 2024  if you don't have those Basics if you want to go   into the music industry then you're kind of  behind because you don't even have the like   if your song gets played they're like who do I  pay you don't even have an IPI to know who to pay   so the basics have to be taken care of first but  in 2024 I want to encourage more music producers   to lean into content creation why it's because  when you have your own brand and you have your   own distribution tion you can go to Brand saying  hey I have 100,000 followers who are interested   in X Y and Z you make X Y and Z how about we do  a deal you pay me $5,000 up front and then I'll   promote your thing in front of my audience for  x amount of episodes or x amount of videos five   videos 10 videos whatever the value is for you and  then you can say okay now you have leverage now   you can create your own placements now you don't  have to worry about chasing an artist in order to   get a a paycheck okay so it's just a different way  of thinking and the cool part is that when people   watch your content they trust you a lot more so  by the time you know somebody decides to buy your   beat or work with you they already feel like they  know you a lot about you and so that just builds   up your clientele anyhow so it makes sense to  work into content creation because that is the   foundation of building your distribution which is  your ultimate leverage without distribution you   have no leverage without distribution you have  no leverage credit is not leverage credit is   just social proof to help people make a decision  faster it's not leverage just because you have 50   plaques and 75 Grammys does not mean you're going  to get paid more being paid more means how do we   take this ultimate end product and distribute  it to more people Whoever has the more people   or the higher value people those people get paid  more because I'm turning my $1 into $10 with you   so of course I'm going to pay you more because  you just made me 10x if you if credits don't   multiply stuff and once you understand that basic  concept you'll understand what I'm talking about   so moving into 2024 here's the checklist you guys  need to do if you don't have your IPI go grab it   through ASCAP or BMI okay two we're going to give  you a whole list of music industry sign up things   to get paid okay so that's your s Sound Exchange  song trust your mlc your you know I'm forgetting   the entire list there three is that you need  to lean into content creation I'm not just   talking about uploading a beat to YouTube with  a static picture and saying whatever type beat   to me that's a product that's not content content  is when you either solve a problem or you create   mystery around something or a Hot Topic and then  tie your thing into that piece of content okay so   it's not just uploading the product which is the  beat that's not content that's the product that's   the thing you're selling okay I'm using content  to get people's attention so that they go buy   something okay it's not here's the product buy it  you know you have to make it interesting the same   way with pet you have to like squeak the toy you  have to pour the water from a high distance so it   splashes into the water bowl you know you have to  like make sounds out of stuff that doesn't really   truly have a sound by itself you have to animate  things to make it sound cooler and look cooler   that's what content is about is the marketing  is the you know it's like this camera right here   like for example this camera has what's called  saturation if I turn the saturation off this is   what it I don't know if you guys can see that  but this is what it looks like with saturation   off if I turn the saturation back on now it looks  like the video Pops I don't know if you guys can   see what I just saw but now the colors pop that's  called marketing that's called you know increasing   the value of something it's the same way as we EQ  the beat to stand out at certain frequencies same   thing with your your stuff you have to demonstrate  your product show why your product is worth buying   demonstrate the process of how to use the product  that's content not the product itself that's not   content okay like switch the beat out in your  head for a boat how would you sell a boat you   wouldn't just put a picture of a boat up and say  Here's a boat you would be like the Sham wow guy   you would spray with that stuff that fills out the  boat holes you would you know Shine the boat show   how shiny it is you would you know show people  they could see dolphins with the boat you know   you would demonstrate the boat you wouldn't just  show a picture of a static picture of a boat and   that's what most people are doing with their  stuff online they just upload a video and they   think that's it you have to like really make your  thing cool so all I'm encouraging people to do is   get all your music industry stuff situated which  is super easy secondly is we need to move into   2024 thinking about content creation that's how we  build leverage in the industry and with you know   dealing with Brands around the world and thirdly  I would say the producer Community to be a music   producer specifically we have to build our skill  set what does that mean here are some skills I'm   going to Rattle off if you want more detail I'll  do another podcast but this video is already 23   minutes long I need to wrap it up I'm just going  to list skills okay so this is in no specific   order pardon me you need to firstly have video  editing skills grab cap cut okay it's completely   free secondly you need to have Photoshop skills  or Graphics skills Photoshop is what I would go   to there are free options like Photo and and maybe  a canva trial but I would recommend Photoshop okay   so you need graphic design skills you need to have  Mastery of your craft which is music production   mixing recording whatever your thing is you need  to master that craft you need to have customer sub   uh service skills and not only skills you have to  have a system the biggest bottleneck I see music   producers run into early is they have too many  inputs and not enough outputs in other words you   have too many people trying to hit you up and you  can't process the messages fast enough to send the   outputs out so the way you do this is you look at  her istics and you say what are the common things   people hit me up about I need to use the Instagram  you know default reply and save about three to   five replies because people are always going  to hit me up about FL Studio mixing and music   theory so I go okay you want to learn about FL  Studio go here I have a pre-made message okay so   if people hit me up and they use certain keywords  my messages go out and it just automatically uh   sends them a message that way I'm not constantly  going back and forth with people back and forth   and back and forth eating up so much time in the  DM or message or or comments people take time with   all that stuff is you know you got to create a  linear I'm not going to get into a whole thing   cuz I'll make a different video about this but  you have to create a linear experience with your   customer experience until you scale your company  where you have employees who could monitor each   Channel until then you need to lead people to  one Communication channel for your customer   support mine is info busy works.com if people you  know go to my Instagram and I say hey this is not   for customer support and they don't go over to  info you know email me at info@ busy works.com   then I know that they were just trying to waste  my time you have to you have to get rid of people   who are wasting your time they don't think they're  wasting your time but they are and it's not their   fault it's just that you have to be a machine at  this level so the biggest bottleneck I see with   producers is not managing they messaging and it  becomes the biggest bottleneck because you have   10 messages that you have to answer and like  five minutes and it's impossible to do that so   we can make a video about that if you want but you  have to have let me start back over video editing   cap cut graphic design Photoshop you need to have  customer service systems and like pre made scripts   okay that's there's different solutions for that  you need to have skill of your actual craft music   production mixing recording whatever it is you  need to be learning how to count your money and   pay attention to your money okay you need to what  else do music producers do on the average you need   to stay up on the new tech and the new trends  you need to learn how to build products that's   a whole different concept all right so if you  have a team then you have to understand how to   manage teams manage people's emotions man there's  so much that goes into being an entrepreneur AKA   a music producer in the music industry it's not  just do one thing and expect everybody else to do   the rest for free you got to really think of this  as a business and maybe you guys just don't know   what it takes to run a business so if you want  this part two let me know in the comments below   I'm also open to all um the things that I may have  missed in this video so leave that below too peace

Channel: Busy Works Beats

Views: 15,323

Keywords: FL Studio, fl studio 20, fl studio tutorial, how to make beats, Logic Pro x, Ableton live, Ableton live 10, music theory, mixing, chords, melody, music producer in 2024, music producer, 2024

Id: 8c4NIrORSig

Length: 26min 52sec (1612 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023