You can certainly be your own music producer there’s really no rule against that. And most musicians these days are able to produce their own records. However it’s important that you gain the necessary skills needed to produce industry standard music.
Because while you might think producing for yourself would be a great way to have full control over your music, you may end up diminishing your career when your production doesn’t meet the standard that your audience wants.
So you have to tread lightly and have a game plan so you can go about it the right way.
Below are some steps you should take:
Be sure of why you’re doing it
Before you even get into the details of producing music for yourself. You need to know and understand why you’re doing it.
Most people choose to produce their own records because they have the conviction that they can bring their ideas to reality much better.
If you have great music producers around you that already do a great job at producing music for you…. I’d say stick with them.
You don’t have to micro manage everything because music is a delicate art and it’s sometimes created best by more than one mind.
So take this into consideration and also figure out why you actually want to do it.
Learn production
If you’re sure about producing your own music, then great. We have to discuss this step.
You need to learn how to produce music. You don’t just choose to start producing music today and produce a great record tomorrow.
It takes time to grasp the fundamentals of music production and this is something you’ll have to come to terms with.
Granted there are ways that a certain level of tenacity can help you learn production faster. But the fact is it will take you a reasonable amount of time.
You can speed up your learning curve by investing in a music production course or simply using YouTube because it has quite a huge number of creators in the music production space.
Befriend a producer
Another step to take now that you know the value of learning the craft is befriending a producer. Preferably more than one.
They say the quickest way to mastery is finding a mentor. This is true.
Having music producer friends that you can go to for information can help and ensure that you learn much faster.
Furthermore, you can use music producers around you as good feedback mechanisms. They can easily listen to your production and share advice and insights.
This is really important for somebody that is on their journey to learning production.
Don’t cut out collaboration
One of the mistakes that people new to production make is they try to do everything themselves.
Doing everything yourself will take up a lot of your time and it will essentially make it harder for you to master the fundamentals of music production.
Furthermore, not having people around to criticize your work is a disadvantage for you.
So don’t completely eliminate collaboration because it is important to your success.
Advantages of producing your own music
More money
As a Music producer producing your own tracks as a musician.
You’ll be able to make more money from your records because you’re essentially covering work supposed to be done by two people.
Which is great because it can mean huge amounts of money if you have a big audience.
Fewer let downs
Working with music producers can be stressful at times.
Especially for an indie musician that doesn’t have the clout or money to entice people to work with them.
Sometimes a producer isn’t available to work, other times they still haven’t finished mixing your track etc…
There are a number of other ways producers, engineers, mixers etc can let you down.
If you’re able to produce your own music. You can easily avoid such let downs that could possibly lead to music not being released on time.
Therefore one advantage that self production affords you is that you have more control over the production schedule of your music.
Control of your art
Producing your own music comes with the advantage of being in total control of your creativity.
This means you can ensure that all your ideas are executed in the manner you wish them to be executed.
As an artist this can change and improve your overall sound which can win you more fans and at the end of day make you more money, so don’t overlook self-produxtion.
It’s certainly not for everyone but if you can manage to learn the craft while working with music producers. It can serve you well.
