One may think that my opinion is that all custom deals are bad, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, a custom deal if done right could be the BEST way to go especially if you don’t have "personal" access to the right tools to get your music out there! IF you can fund it - you're chances of making money are drastically increased!
First you would need to get your new CD ready to be recorded. Whether you release it one song at a time or not doesn’t really matter, what’s important is that IF you don’t have your own studio with GREAT MIC’s and MIC-PRES and you don’t know how to record extremely well on your own, you may be better of hiring a studio that comes with an engineer. After all, that studio should be pretty much set up and ready to go and if your smart choose a studio that’s already got the drums set up, tuned and mic’d extremely well. That could save a days worth of studio time alone!
Also, try to book the studio in blocks and AFTER hours would be your best bet. There’s more studios than you can count and if you go with a busy studio, then booking times when the studio is idle is the cheapest solution. Remember a studio has to pay rent/mortgage payments, electricity and all of the other bills that any other business pays so they are more than happy to block out time for you at a cheaper rate.
Once you’ve negotiated a good price then work really hard on your pre-production. Make sure all your gear it working, you all know the songs, etc – try not to waste a single MINUTE that you don’t need to. Then go in and cut your record. Just remember that cutting basic tracks, and overdubs should NOT take you very long is you are PREPARED. The mixing is what is going to take time – but you can also take your tracks somewhere else to mix if you can. Just make sure you have somebody that KNOWS what they are doing. And THEN worry about the mastering! Just try NOT to mix the record in 10 different room or it will sound like it – try to make the product as uniform as possible and keep an A-B source handy at all times so you can compare each track to the “true north” and have uniform sounding product.
Once you’ve got your CD, then you need to make SURE that you work with the RIGHT people to help you with Marketing and Promotion because having a 100 songs on iTunes is NOT going to make you much money – so before you even think about your recording budget – make sure you have at LEAST that for Marketing and Promotion. And lastly try to come up with the most unique video you can to promote your music for FREE! In fact, be prepared to work the social networks as hard as you can – just be careful not to PESTER people or you’ll end up losing friends on My Space of FaceBook. Also, don’t ever put an audio or video PLAYER on My Space as a COMMENT –you’ll end up making more enemies than getting exposure.
You may even have an investor that can help but make sure to spend your money wisely and always think about your ROI! There are a LOT of people out there that are dying to find the next big record and work with you – just don’t expect them to work for FREE! Work out a decent deal so that it’s a win-win situation! And then get ready for it – TOUR, TOUR, TOUR! And be ready to work every angle you have to get people to your shows! After all – if the fans come, then you’ll be on your way – if can’t establish a good following, you’ll won’t get a major deal and you won’t be able to make a living as the MONEY is on the road – don’t expect ROYALTIES to pay your bills!
Keep chasin' your dreams - and remember nobody is waiting on you to do anything!
SM @ MSO
