The rules have changed; the music industry is a different playing field now.
The last five years saw the music industry turned on its head. After 2005, CD sales started to bomb, and CDs stopped totally. Streaming’s come out; we all know what’s happened. That has totally changed the landscape, and the way music is delivered and made, as well as how you make money from music.
With the new rules, you don’t have to wait for somebody to choose you. You can choose yourself. You can decide “Okay, I’m going to go out there; I’m going to make music. I’m going to be a mix engineer or a mastering engineer, and I have social media to promote myself. I don’t have to wait for somebody to say “I want you to be a mix engineer,” or “You’re going to get a job at a studio so you can record things.”
You can get the equipment and do it yourself.
Then, it’s just down to talent. The same things go if you write music. If you’re a producer, you can then go out there and get artists, DM people online, and start mixing with people.
You don’t have to wait for a record company to say, “Okay, we think you’re good, and we’re going to put some money behind you to market you.”
You can market yourself now. You can get those fans yourself. You can come up to a record label and do joint ventures with them on an equal basis, where you own more rights to the track than you traditionally would, which was plain impossible a few years ago.
So don’t wait to be chosen; get out there, do your own thing, and make sure that you get online and get some social media presence. You don’t need a publishing deal anymore. You don’t need a record deal anymore. You don’t need to wait for somebody to say that you’re the right mix guy for the job.
Get out there, get the work, get the gig and get on with it.