Everyone wants to achieve success in their respective fields. But it’s not as easy as we think, especially if you are in a creative field like music, the path of reaching your dream is much more difficult. You might feel that your music is of a far superior class than the music of some other musicians. Yet, they are gaining much more success than you. So, does that mean that your music is not as good as theirs? Probably not. What your music lacks is a professional edge that is hindering your music levels’ growth. Many musicians get lost amidst the crowd. It happens either because their music lacks the professional makeover, or their music has reached a plateau which they don’t know how to break from. Below we will share some tips which will help you learn how to take your music to the next level.
Tips on How to Take Your Music to the Next Level
Here you will know about some great tips that will definitely heighten your music levels and teach you efficiently how to take your music to the next level-
Always Stay Proactive
Firstly, you have to be proactive and take charge of your career, as you are your sole cheerleader when following your dreams. So, you have to take the driver’s seat if you want your career to take off. At first, no one will know you. So, you have to promote yourself and your music. Try to engage with the essential people in your field and introduce them to your music. Because no agent or PR manager will make you a success if you don’t play the proactive role, especially at the beginning of your career.
Plan Your Funds
You must know that at this age, it is almost impossible to grow your music career if you do not have enough money. You have to plan your funds if you want to increase your music levels. And you also need money to hire any PR agent or Social Media manager to promote your music. So, you must save your own money or convince your family and friends to sponsor you. You may also ask your fans to invest in you via any crowdfunding service.
Schedule Efficiently
Next, you have to schedule your tasks efficiently. You have to prioritize your tasks to finish the most urgent tasks first and gain enough resources to support your career. Also, you need to schedule your tasks to finish each task within the allotted time and budget.
Work Smartly
If your career is still stagnant despite working hard and you still don’t know how to take your music to the next level, then you should probably start working smart. For instance, you have to be constantly updated about modern technologies and their advancements. Because they will significantly affect the promotion of your music. For example, you have to keep in mind the social media sites’ algorithms. You should know when to post your work on social media to gain better reach. Also, you might have to use paid promotion to help your music reach a greater audience.
Don’t Spread Yourself Too Much Online
You should prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to your social media presence. It is pointless to create 10 social media profiles while you have only a few hundred followers. Instead, focus on gaining several thousand followers while having only one or two social media profiles. Also, try to engage with your followers on social media. Follow the basic social etiquette online that you use offline. For example, address people with their first name and put up an attractive profile picture. Also, do not be too pushy while asking people to follow you or share your work. Because that might be counterproductive.
Follow Up Diligently
After you have sent off your initial correspondence (emails, tweets, etc.), remember to follow up. If the intended receiver does not reply in a week, you should follow up once every week. You might even need to use other modes of communication ( calls, letters, etc.) to reach the intended receiver. Also, do not forget to be friendly and courteous in all your correspondence.
Delegate the Workload
Do not keep your teammates engaged in only one role. Find out their unique skills and try to capitalize on them. For example, the drummer can manage your social media profiles, and the guitarist can be in charge of the booking. And if you are a solo musician, try to find a dedicated fan and assign them some of the duties.
Don’t Be Hesitant and Afraid to Sell Yourself
Selling yourself is not a dirty thing. That is why you should not be afraid or hesitant about selling your music as necessary for your career growth. Many musicians get lost after some time despite having excellent music levels as they don’t know how to sell themselves. You have to promote yourself wherever you can. For example, if you decide to sell your brand merchandise after a concert, post about it online before the concert to keep your followers informed.
Social Media
In today’s time, being active on social media is necessary for a musician. Promoting yourself and your music is very important to gain success. But if you are always busy writing new songs or arranging music for them, it becomes challenging to find time to promote yourself. This is where social media comes to use. You can promote yourself on social media in a minute by posting a picture of your new album on your Instagram or Facebook page. If you want to know how to take your music to the next level, start promoting yourself on social media. This will keep your fans updated about your new releases and your upcoming show schedules.
Research What Your Fans Want From You
After your career reaches a certain height, you will have a significant amount of social media followers. And you should use the following to gain wider success. Before you plan to try new leads, take the suggestions of your fans. This will help you understand the taste and choices of your fans, and they will also feel more engaged with your works. You can send out surveys or questionnaires to your fans to know if they resonate with your ideas and plans. This will reduce the risk of your failure significantly.
Public Relations
If you don’t know how to take your music to the next level, don’t worry. Some companies can do the work for you. They will help you to navigate the modern music industry with methods personalized for you. And they will also use popular streaming platforms to promote your music professionally. So, taking help from Public relations agencies will be highly beneficial in boosting your career growth.
Collaborate
While it is possible to succeed on your own, it becomes much easier when you collaborate with another musician. When you collaborate with another musician, your exposure immediately increases as the other musician also has his or her own set of followers. Also, when you write or make music collaborating with another individual, your work’s creativity and music levels increase and can open many new avenues of your art.
Use Feedback System
In the music industry, you might have to face several failures before you finally achieve success. The producers, music labels, radio stations can sometimes reject your music even if you think your music levels are high. But you should not take their criticism personally. Instead, try to take their feedback positively to improve your music. Many successful artists like Elvis and Madonna also had to face several rejections before they made it big. So, be eager to get feedback from influential people in the industry.
Increase Your Exposure
When you are new in the industry, you have to focus on increasing your exposure. You cannot be too picky about the time and venue of a gig. If a gig matches your music genre, has your target audience, and gives you a good amount of exposure, go for it. You should know that ‘The Beatles’ was the most challenging working band in Europe before success.
Practice, Listen and Play: Do It for Perfection
While recording a song, don’t invest most of your time trying to perfect the chord or worrying about installing plugins. Instead, focus that time on practicing. Practice the song several times until it feels like your second nature. You can record all the practice sessions and listen to them to understand what is lacking and how to take your music to the next level.
See The Technical Tips Also
Besides the general tips, here are also some great technical tips listed below which are bound to increase your music levels.
Use Online Tools to Save Your Time
To save your time, you need to be updated with the latest online tools to elevate your marketing plans and increase your productivity. Two such online tools that you are recommended to use are Hootsuite and Bitly.
Virtual Gigs
If you are worried about taking your music to the next level while you are stuck at home in this pandemic, you can opt for virtual gigs. You can host an online concert from YouTube Live or Facebook Live and engage with your fans. You can do it for free, or you can make your fans buy tickets for this. Either way, you can still stay in touch with your existing fans and even attract new fans.
Stereo Widening
Stereo is an essential aspect while trying to create a ‘bigger mix.’ Without stereo widening, your mix will sound flat, 2D, and boring as it manipulates the perceived source of a sound.
Track Layering
You have to give importance to track layering while you record a song. Before, the standard procedure of tracking a guitar was to record a guitar track twice. But now, most of the bands record four guitar lines all in all for any section. After that, what you can do is track the vocal lines down the middle, between the guitar tracks, so that the lyrics and melody of your song can pierce through the rhythm section.
Turbocharge Your Marketing Plan
Marketing is necessary to promote your music to the world. If you don’t do it well, your music will get lost with time. Also, it is suggested that you hire a good publicist. Hiring a good publicist might be expensive, but it is worth the money invested. A good publicist will help you promote your music in newspapers, magazines, and all over social media. Thus they can maximize the impact of your new release by creating the much-needed hype and buzz that your work deserves.
Images: A Window Into Your Art
What is the one thing that is common among all the famous musicians that you see? It is their image, literally. From Madonna to Lady Gaga, all of the famous artists have iconic images that are recognizable all over the world. At this age, your image can make or break your brand. So, besides focusing on increasing your music levels, you should also focus on your image and brand.
Include Mono Tracks In Your Mix
All musical instruments are not suited to stereo widening. For them, mono tracking is essential. Instruments with mono elements, like sub-bass, kick bass, and vocals, should be kept in Mono.
Final Thought
As you can see, focusing on your music levels is not enough if you want your music career to take off. There are many other things in which you need to invest your time and money. You have to know how to use social media to promote yourself and keep yourself updated about the latest online tools. You need to take care of every little detail to achieve success in your career. But it is also true that career development is an ongoing process. You cannot invest all your energy in planning your career. Instead, enjoy the journey before you reach your final destination. Follow the tips mentioned above to boost your career but don’t forget to enjoy your journey. If you are passionate about creating music and practicing it regularly, you will become successful one day.
