Hi, there is this thing that is holding my back for years. When you look at the top ones of one particular niche in bandcamp you can see that they barely reach a hundred sales, and sometime you see that maybe 10 sales on fully professional mixed and masterd EPs and albums. That´s fucking sad. But when you go to their spotify profiles it´s even worse. I´m talking about really good and stablished artists within its niche, with outstanding sound and reputation in their scene. And I know their albums gets at least mastered profesionally because they usually belongs to a label that go for some kind of cohesive sound.

So, is this somekind of hobbie where you put your money on knowing that you will never see that again? Do their labels master those for free and hopes they can scrap some coins from behind of the couch?
I know I´ve reached some kind of cealing in terms of where I´m able to reach with my mixes to the point that they (sometimes) sound decent enough, and I know they are niche within the niche traks, so the "sound" it´s not really fully stablished yet on the scene (meaning that maybe I can get away with it).

But the question is, do I have to use my inexistent savings in order to make me a present of a professionally mastered album?, Or Is it better to go to distrokid with what I have and use that inexistent savings to try to reach my niche people? Sadly I cannot do both at the moment or anytime soon.

I´m talking about what me me fell like "not so wasted time and money and maybe a little happy" in the long run, I´m not doind this to be Rosalía.

 

Maybe 10 years ago but life is just shit right now. No one's cares about how you landed to a sound that no one's heard anymore can it make me feel good? does it have the vibe or not? So no.
Or maybe your niche has those prperties, idk. That would surely help. But "niche" sounds experimental and I'm sorry nows not the time

 

Companies have only one goal - to make a profit. More and more songs are uploaded every day and the competition gets bigger and bigger with every song uploaded. The bigger the market is the less you earn. I would not invest any more money.

An example from me: I have been doing presets sound design for 11 years, the first soundset had 80 000 downloads it was the first Xfer - Serum soundset, right after the Serum VSTi came out. Then other new soundbanks came and the competition and the offer became bigger and bigger. Today there is a saturation of presets for Serum and if I had a soundset for the Serum today, I would be at about 50 downloads.

We have a music overkill today- a preset overkill and a sample overkill. You just have to lower your profit expectations.

 

There are some straightforward and honest answers to this. These come from asking yourself some honest questions.
Possibly the most important one if I was in your position is I would ask myself "How would I like to feel about my journey in music at the end of my life?" Do I want to set an example through following my dreams the importance of doing this or do I want to purely attempt to make a living and money by succumbing to mass popularity?"

This leads to the answers - If it does not matter what you do you will have no regrets then make money. If your own personal integrity is worth more to you than money, then it does not matter what anyone thinks of you trying to break boundaries, you may as well say "Fuck it" and create something new and even if not, you will die with your integrity intact. If creativity is your goal then you have to be prepared to struggle and possibly not be popular for a very long time if ever.

Any decision in music that involves money as the driving force is not an artistic decision, it is a business decision.
Cheers

 

There is no way in hell I would pay someone to "pro" master a track or album. To do what, sell it online?
Absolutely not.

 

I´m talking only about losses here. How much to loose and if it is worth it, and if its more likely to at least recover a portion of the little investment from a good sounding track from a master engenieer or by doing somekind of segmental adverstaising with a less decent mix and master. I´m doing this for the love of it and while I´m enjoy to listeng to myself like some kind of musical onan and showing it to friends, I think maybe someone, somewhere will enjoy my craft also. But I also know that to ever have a chance to get to that someone somewhere, not to buy from you but to just be aware of your existence, some kind of advertising are needed or you are a drop in the rain. And then there is this thing of quality standards were you know how you want to sound, but you are close but not quite there in terms of mixing and mastering, and knows that maybe it´s time to ask for paid professional help.

That´s what I´m trying to balance here without a clue here. Or just ranting. Or trying to satisfice my cognitive biases. Idk.

Cheers!

Poe´s law here. I cannot tell.

 

Poe's Law, not exactly. The comment uses the quotation marks to indicate I do not think you are going to have an actual pro master your record. They may charge you some money, but that is not the point of the comment.

I am not directly aware of your abilities. But I would venture that between some practice, good software, good monitoring; the difference between your results on your own and that of a pseudo-professional will be less than 5% difference in bottom line better result.

There are a lot of unaccredited, uncertified, etc. " Professsionals" and "Recording Engineers' running around out there with no formal training. But they will certainly take your money.

something more like that. I would not spend the money for such minimal difference in end result, where the only listeners that will even notice the difference; are you and the person doing the Post-production work.

 

Yes, you already explained everything. I also wrote how I see it, but you didn't go into that either.

Give away your music generously. also to your fellow human beings in the city where you live.
even after your death your music will still exist. Burn 100 CD's the ideal birthday present.

 

thats the point! do you think pro mastering helps selling? or do YOU wanna have such a shiny album?

 

I do not have that answer for you only you do. I can say from my own experience that every creative venture I have undertaken, the goal and reward I aimed for was the quality and finishing it. I went in each time accepting I may run at a loss. For some people that is not acceptable and I acknowledge that. This is why I suggested you have to decide which of these suits you

 

I think you're putting too much emphasis on "mastering". I've hated it in the past when my music has been "professionally mastered" by the record label to what they think sounds "better".

 

I would not gamble money, where the winning payout is getting "most of it back". That's a waste of your time. Nearly all risk. No thanks. Better odds playing the lottery.

 

Hey, I get the struggle, man. It's tough when you're pouring heart and money into something you love. Reminds me of when I wanted to level up my music setup. That's when I stumbled upon the concept of a mega backdoor Roth IRA - a strategic move to amplify long-term gains. So, maybe think of your music like a diversified portfolio - invest wisely, and over time, it might just hit the right notes.

 

Last edited: Feb 23, 2024

Those niche artists aren't getting their money from there, that's more of a showcase. Of course they sell some music in those medias but it's mostly work for others, sales to libraries (in countries where they still exist) and a lot of esoteric work that adds up.

Brian Eno doesn't live off record sales and if you want to be in that sphere you can not just be an online only presence if you "need" to make a living off of it.

 

You can do your thing but with minimum money investment that you stay in full control of.

It's currently the best time ever in world history to do that and actually release your own music. You don't know if it's going to pay out big in the end, but since you aren't footing huge monetary costs to put out your from-the-heart artistic project, you don't have to worry about it. You're doing it because you want to, not with the expectation that it's going to get you any money in the end.

Well known artists in niche little scenes may have almost zero money coming from their online stuff, but that's not the point if they are focused on gigs or perhaps selling merch, yet you need to have that online presence to do all the rest. They also typically have friends who are into mixing and mastering, so that's how you're hearing relatively professional results in that area - and they're almost certainly not paying a fancy mastering house to do it for them. There's just no need, they work with a buddy or mastering dude they got to know online and they all like the work of.

 

Why make music when nobody cares?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 14, 2024

Yes, which alternatives we have? Now everyone can be a mini star, in past a few superstars, now infinite little stars.
I don't like this kind of defeat, if you produce oranges they pay you oranges, if you produce yubari king melon you can obtain 18000 per unit.
How you diferentiate as an artist?

 

Years ago in dealing with record companies and their thieving ways to take all my money and pocket it themselves, I decided not to go that way and am content to share and enjoy music amongst friends...my niche. I guess I don't have what it takes to body up in the industry.

 

I confess that there is so much being released by everyone everywhere all the time that - at least for me - it has become utterly impossible to find any niche at all (apart from some acquaintances and friends).

I think, as others pointed out, this is the main issue: much too much being produced/released, so that practically everything has become redundant, insignificant, disposable. Everyone has become numb, blinded and confused among so much information and excessive exposure to data that we just cannot truly connect anymore.

 

Last edited: Feb 14, 2024