An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1

March 31: Indie Music Financing, Product Strategy and Other "Stuff"

Practical stuff

Backup: I started my day with my Backup device stalling. Grr... Don't know what is wrong with it. Made other backups just in case. That's life...Turns out I turned the Seagate backup switch off and on again and now it is working again. Sigh of relief!

Clean up continuesI added some automation to help the timing of words. Bringing down the volume on all vocal tracks and even the comp guitars just before important words made everything more articulate. Panning fixes add power there too. Sounding great!

Continued to watch The MusicHelpTechGuy video from yesterday as I still have some routing problems I need to change. Changed them. Sounds even better.

Mastering

Then I read this article from Ian Shepherd that came in my mail. http://productionadvice.co.uk/mastering-plugins-1intro/?awt_l=OwAqS&awt_m=L8EKYv0.qwbEYV Good one. I wish I had time to listen to his podcasts on Soundcloud more often but that will be later....

Financing

Among all the crazy 1000 things an indie artist has to do to get their music created, promoted etc is to have some kind of income. Many get a day job and try to get by. That is not an option for me. I see that this music business requires all my time in order to roll. I have the luxury of having food, clothing and a roof over my head taken care of by my dear husband. BUT, the many and increasing costs to run Featherhead Media are becoming a problem for us. Last year, for example there was a negative result for the third year in a row. This has to stop. Somehow, I have to get the music, my books or my videos to help me support what I am doing while not selling out.

I can't do this for "free" for long. Making music is not free - it is costing me an arm and a leg every month. If my husband and I are ever going to be able to invest in a new computer when this one breaks down for example, then I have to find a way to make this music business work. At the same time I would rather give everything away just to make people happy. So, what do I do?

The plan (not on stone) is to slowly increase the number and quality of products, creating value and meeting people's needs in such amazing ways that they are willing to invest in what I do so I can keep on encouraging the masses and get by well.

Mixing

1. Release the debut album to show people that I can do editing and mixing on the tracks I did. (2018 to all streaming and to Amazon)

2. Offer to do mixing for others (two or three for free) then take $XXX/hr for it.

3. Mix and master the next album I will be releasing

4. Do mastering for other people first for free and do it extremely well and then get paid to do it per hour for all future customers. A worker is worth their pay.

Music

1. I am almost done with my first album. It will be streamed on all major outlets. Streaming doesn't pay well. But it is a calling card to say. I am a songwriter, and artist and I do mixing. i am the real deal and I intend to make people happier through what I do and this is just the beginning.

2. Get onto a community donations-based site and start producing music regularly to get patrons.

3. Do (house) concerts

4. Merch If I do (house) concerts, make merch and offer that at the concerts. I will do free concerts if they are evangelical , but I will always try to have merch with me to help the cash flow. (I can airbrush paint t-shirts, paint watercolours, make inspirational posters....we'll see)