HOW TO MAKE A SONG FOR THE MARKET?
Do you have goals to publish a song to iTunes, Spotify or Pandora? Do you want to get a million hits streaming your music on YOUTUBE NOW > DTUBE? If yes, you need to be sure that the song has its own “earworm” effect and comes with much energy to make a lasting impression on the ears and hearts of your fans. Your fans need to remember you for releasing that song which sticks in their minds for a long time.
If you want to use a song as a movie soundtrack, you need different elements to make it market ready. We shall cover that angle in a future blog.
Before we delve further into the topic, let’s first understand what “music” means.
If you thought it was just a simple word that recently came into use, you might have made the first big mistake of your career as a musician. Music is a two-part word that goes way back into time. The first part “Mus” relates to the ancient name of “Mausas” the ancient name of the Israelites who lived in Egypt in the year 3000 B.C. The name means “that something has been taken out of a thing,” while the second part “ic” originates with the ancient gods of Egypt, the god of “Spirits.” Therefore, we can say that music is a combination of sounds taken from the spirits, something very special.
Going into the process of creating a song, we can say that a song is a tune that came to your spirit or mind as the case may be. It comes into your mind and sticks. It does not get out of your head. When you experience this, you know that you have a song that needs to be created.
At this point, you have never played it on an instrument nor sung it in the shower. Not ever. However, it is still in your mind, waiting patiently. Waiting to be released to the outside world. An idea yearning to be heard. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Now, to get this song out of your spirit into the air, you need to record it with a musical instrument or by just humming it. Once any one of these happens, Voila! You have a music idea.
Remember though, that it is still just an idea. A song idea that you need to release to your audience. To successfully do this, you need to deal with this idea as a real estate unit. In the music industry, this idea is called a “unit” because you can rent it to a filmmaker who wants a soundtrack for a movie.
You may sell it to a publishing record company or label who want to share a profile with you by helping to publish this unit, and as long as the unit is successful, people will live in it. They may take it along to school, listen to it on the road, or dance to it at a wedding, all because they love your “unit.”
To say the song is a real estate unit may sound strange but, it is a very accurate expression.
Around the world, a typical building would need an architect first to draw a plan to show what your building will look like. Included in this blueprint would be every detail that makes a complete structure including the doors, floors, and finishing details such as colors of the walls and interior decorations to make the house appealing to its beholders. Next, the plan would need to be put on the ground by a civil engineer and then completed by a decorator who puts finishing touches on your building to make it habitable. Just like this hypothetical building, you also need to put in much work to make your music ready for release to your audience.
Let us explain this building using an example from the world of music.
The Idea: It all begins with an idea as mentioned above. The idea is an “earworm” tune in your mind that came out of your creativity.
The Plan: You need an architect to build your phrases, music lines and rhythms into sounds, demos or even the song itself with the whole sounds library, synthesizers and more available on the scene now. At this stage of building, you may be delighted with the results.
The Builders: These are the musicians who will play the solo for your song. The singers who will sing your words or melody, the chord makers, who can professionally create jazz chords for your song, the drummers who know how to rock the song. Everyone mentioned will need to build a part of your song to make it a complete real estate unit. Interesting, right?
The Finalization: You may need to visit the studio to record at this point. If you play instruments, you will need to take your tracks for recording. If you are a singer, you will need to record your takes. A list of what you need to consider while in the studio will be covered in the next article. At the finalization stage, you need to get the services of a sound engineer to balance the sounds in your composition or compress the track. This is the stage of finalizing your tune or including parts of the beats that were not included in your framework. It is essential for the sound engineer to fine tune your track during production as this will enhance the listenability of your song.
You can use the great new platform of DTube, to publish your wonderful art.
Polishing the building: You know quite all right that after building a house, you need to polish the floors and install furnishings in the interiors to give visitors a pleasant sight to behold. That is what a mastering engineer does to your track. He masters the song for you.
Why is this so important? It is because your song might sound right in your car, but sounds horrible on your computer or someone else’s speakers. Thus, you need to master your song to make it sound pleasant on all devices on which your song will be played.
This is my blog for today, thanks for reading and I talk about Egypt because I am an Egyptian as well. I will read your comment and will respond.
Good Day,
Ramy Adly