Complete Beginners Guide To Becoming A Professional Rapper/Singer
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datpaki
Members Posts: 6 ✭
Hot Rap beats and R&B beats, along with dope rhymes are the life blood of the urban music industry. And everyone knows beats and instrumentals (even free beats) are available everywhere on the internet. It makes music creation efficient and easy. But what’s the purpose of making music if you’re hoping to “break into” the music business? It’s to get it heard and to become successful as a professional music artist. It is a very difficult road, but it’s unquestionably more possible at this point in time than ever before. The real secret is to “do it yourself.” What you have to do is make the most of the resources you have available to you.
So obviously step 1 in being a rapper or singer is to get a few beats and instrumentals to use in your new music. There are TONS of producers and beatmakers online you can utilize. Check out soundclick.com and then do a google search for “beats for sale.” Make sure you buy your beats so you have the high-quality and tagless versions. This is important in branding yourself as a professional, so go for either the exclusive license or lease. You can, of course, download free beats online, but her – I though you wanted to do this for real? And besides, you cannot license or sell music you make on free beats. You don’t have the rights for it.
Next up, it’s time to write and record your song(s). Once you’re ready with your song written, make sure that you’ve memorized your lyrics and rehearsed them a whole lot before you decide to record. This will make sure everything sounds much smoother in the final recording. Once you’re in a position to record make the choice of whether you want to do it yourself, or hire a studio. If you cannot or do not want to learn to do it yourself (it’s not that hard) consider a recording studio in your neighbourhood where you can record the lyrics onto your beats. A basement or project studio is fine - you do not have to record in a big, highly-priced location. Basement and project studios are not all that expensive and still sound really great.
Once you've got your music recorded properly comes the part where your song starts to truly sound professional and “industry.” This step is called mixing and mastering. Mixing and mastering is the process of applying different filters and effects to the sounds (lyrics, beats, drums, melodies, etc.) so your whole song sounds professional, polished and industry. If you are truly focused on presenting yourself as a serious music artist then this part is crucial! You can, of course, learn to do this by yourself as well, but it’s an extremely scientific and sophisticated task that usually takes quite a few years of practice to accomplish properly.
Once you have a finished song, mixtape or album you're ready to get your tracks into the market and be heard. This step, the marketing and promotion of you music, is where most rappers and singers fail. It’s unfortunate because, next to making the actual music, this is the most important part of the music business. Nothing will happen if no one hears your music. There are certain things you’ll need to always use in your career. These include professional press photos, a well-written biography, and videos. Again, you want to present yourself as a professional, so hire a photographer to take some professional photos of you in a studio.
With regard to marketing your own music, the internet will be your best friend, especially as an unsigned artist. Get your music into every avenue online you can think of! Hit up blogs, forums, music related websites, online radio stations and get your music out there. This is a HUGE area of study and we cannot possible hope to cover even a small portion of the concepts involved here. So always make sure you’re constantly learning about music marketing and promotion. Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are perfect solutions to showcase your music to potential fans and keep them updated. However, you are also going to want a website of your own (a home) where your potential supporters can always come to learn everything about you. Buy yourself a domain name (www.YourBandName.com) and maybe begin a blog. In the offline world, promote yourself locally by giving away your music to anyone willing to listen. Build relationships with radio stations, djs, promoters and the like. Play lots of live shows, whether they’re open mics or opening slots. Just get out there.
The real secret to making it in the music industry is basically to do all of it yourself for a while. And you have to keep doing it with patience, perseverance and dedication. Don’t worry about giving your music away for free. You are going to have to at first to get people to take notice.
Beats, instrumentals, lyrics and the like are all important when coming up in the music business, but don’t ignore the rest of the business! It take planning and effort to do this, because it is a REAL business. Do not treat this as a hobby, and you will eventually see amazing results.
So obviously step 1 in being a rapper or singer is to get a few beats and instrumentals to use in your new music. There are TONS of producers and beatmakers online you can utilize. Check out soundclick.com and then do a google search for “beats for sale.” Make sure you buy your beats so you have the high-quality and tagless versions. This is important in branding yourself as a professional, so go for either the exclusive license or lease. You can, of course, download free beats online, but her – I though you wanted to do this for real? And besides, you cannot license or sell music you make on free beats. You don’t have the rights for it.
Next up, it’s time to write and record your song(s). Once you’re ready with your song written, make sure that you’ve memorized your lyrics and rehearsed them a whole lot before you decide to record. This will make sure everything sounds much smoother in the final recording. Once you’re in a position to record make the choice of whether you want to do it yourself, or hire a studio. If you cannot or do not want to learn to do it yourself (it’s not that hard) consider a recording studio in your neighbourhood where you can record the lyrics onto your beats. A basement or project studio is fine - you do not have to record in a big, highly-priced location. Basement and project studios are not all that expensive and still sound really great.
Once you've got your music recorded properly comes the part where your song starts to truly sound professional and “industry.” This step is called mixing and mastering. Mixing and mastering is the process of applying different filters and effects to the sounds (lyrics, beats, drums, melodies, etc.) so your whole song sounds professional, polished and industry. If you are truly focused on presenting yourself as a serious music artist then this part is crucial! You can, of course, learn to do this by yourself as well, but it’s an extremely scientific and sophisticated task that usually takes quite a few years of practice to accomplish properly.
Once you have a finished song, mixtape or album you're ready to get your tracks into the market and be heard. This step, the marketing and promotion of you music, is where most rappers and singers fail. It’s unfortunate because, next to making the actual music, this is the most important part of the music business. Nothing will happen if no one hears your music. There are certain things you’ll need to always use in your career. These include professional press photos, a well-written biography, and videos. Again, you want to present yourself as a professional, so hire a photographer to take some professional photos of you in a studio.
With regard to marketing your own music, the internet will be your best friend, especially as an unsigned artist. Get your music into every avenue online you can think of! Hit up blogs, forums, music related websites, online radio stations and get your music out there. This is a HUGE area of study and we cannot possible hope to cover even a small portion of the concepts involved here. So always make sure you’re constantly learning about music marketing and promotion. Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are perfect solutions to showcase your music to potential fans and keep them updated. However, you are also going to want a website of your own (a home) where your potential supporters can always come to learn everything about you. Buy yourself a domain name (www.YourBandName.com) and maybe begin a blog. In the offline world, promote yourself locally by giving away your music to anyone willing to listen. Build relationships with radio stations, djs, promoters and the like. Play lots of live shows, whether they’re open mics or opening slots. Just get out there.
The real secret to making it in the music industry is basically to do all of it yourself for a while. And you have to keep doing it with patience, perseverance and dedication. Don’t worry about giving your music away for free. You are going to have to at first to get people to take notice.
Beats, instrumentals, lyrics and the like are all important when coming up in the music business, but don’t ignore the rest of the business! It take planning and effort to do this, because it is a REAL business. Do not treat this as a hobby, and you will eventually see amazing results.