Spend $50, get $25 OFF — applied automatically.
Skip to Content Skip to Navigation Skip to Footer
Start freeJoin
Join Membership
Season 1 ·

S1E27 – Collaborating in the Music Industry

0:00 / 0:00
This media could not be played.

Never Miss an Episode

Get new podcast episodes delivered to your inbox.

Home/Podcast/S1E27 – Collaborating in the Music...

Collaborating can bring huge potential growth to your brand and music career, but.. it doesn’t come without its downsides.

In this episode I talk about my own personal experiences with collaborating, and how it’s accelerated my growth within the music industry, various ways to collaborate, and how to properly reach out to a potential candidate you’d like to collaborate with!

Beatmaking Collaborate

Community

Questions about this episode

Transcript

S1E27 – Collaborating in the Music Industry

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses, which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at itsgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, what's everybody? Welcome to episode number 27.
  10. In this episode, I want to talk to you about collaborating in the music industry.
  11. Okay. So collaborating is a very, very powerful tool.
  12. you know, other known as like networking and you know, trying to find someone else
  13. with similar interests to help your brand, your product, you know, to help it grow.
  14. Okay, you know, you you have the potential to reach different fans and everything
  15. like that. So I just want to talk a little bit about my story of networking and
  16. collaborating. Okay. So for my actual music, I really don't like collaborating
  17. with other producers. if I were to collaborate, it would be more with like a singer
  18. or maybe like another artist or something like that.
  19. but my main reason for that is because you know, I am a producer for the name of
  20. Jesus. And when I say that, I say it because, you know, I want to make sure that the
  21. message that I'm trying to portray stays the that message,
  22. okay. And you know, if you work with these different artists or different producers,
  23. and all of a sudden, you know, right now, you know, maybe they're working with you
  24. and on that same message. But later on in life, you know, maybe something might
  25. happen to them. And these decisions that they make can reflect on you if
  26. you do decide to collaborate with these different artists and producers.
  27. And that's just my own personal opinion when it comes to my own music, okay.
  28. But for my courses and products and things that I've created, you know, in the music
  29. industry, I like to collaborate with different you know, vendors and different
  30. online stores that that. you know sell my courses and stuff like that, and has done
  31. very, very well for me but for my music, I just kind of keep it separate.
  32. I like it to be kind of special, my own thing, and then again, maybe if I was
  33. working with like a female singer or something like that, that's where I'd kind of
  34. you know collaborate. That you know, that would be kind of like my goal.
  35. So I just wanted to kind of share that just to kind of give you a reference of how I
  36. look at collaborating. So my music is kind of separate, but when it comes to like my
  37. courses and products, I'm totally open to working with like you know, different
  38. online stores. So I have a whole bunch of kind of different questions for you guys
  39. to think about, and then I have some further points inside of those questions to get
  40. you thinking about networking and collaborating and things that you want to be
  41. thinking about, okay? Because there's a lot of pros to networking and collaborating,
  42. but there are some cons and they can be dangerous to you and your career if you
  43. don't approach them wisely, okay.
  44. You know, and it's to do with like someone's influence, right?
  45. Like if somebody is able to get a good reach, you know, like so.
  46. For example, if you look at like their Twitter profile or their YouTube channel or
  47. whatever, and you can see that they you know they're killing it, they're doing
  48. really, really good. but then you look at your profile, and you know, like not many
  49. followers, you know, so you kind of gotta be thinking that way, or it could be the
  50. other way around. If you're starting to do good and the other person isn't doing
  51. that good, you know, they could be trying to collaborate with you for their gain,
  52. but really you're not benefiting from that.
  53. So a network, you know, a collaboration is benefiting both parties.
  54. That's those are like the really, really good you know, I guess deals.
  55. Okay, so on to the first question.
  56. So, why does someone want to collaborate with someone?
  57. and my answer to that is, you know, the opportunity for bigger reach and growth and
  58. audience and income.. Okay So, you know, really how it works is you know, their fans
  59. find you, your fans find them, and your business, you know, just starts to grow.
  60. So that's really like the biggest benefit of collaborating is just the opportunity
  61. for more growth. Okay. So, what benefits does collaborating bring?
  62. To our second question, okay. you get to meet like-minded people within the music
  63. industry. So just because you've collaborated with this one, you know, maybe someone
  64. else sees that you've collaborated, or you can meet someone through that person, and
  65. you know, that's just kind of how it works.
  66. And you know, within the music industry, with us being, you know, behind a computer
  67. in our rooms, you know, it's like we're not really able to reach out and interact
  68. like we are in, you know, like a real job where you know, you can kind of meet
  69. different workers and you know, who knows where these relationships can kind of go,
  70. right? In the online world, again, since you're behind that computer, when you do
  71. collaborate, you know, on like a product or on a song or whatever, people get to
  72. start to know these different names, okay?
  73. Because you know, they kind of work together.
  74. it also makes working a lot more fun because for myself working
  75. solo, I do have to admit it's a very, very tiring process.
  76. I like it because you know, it's like me behind this computer, you know, when I when
  77. I create my courses, when I create my beats, you know, the beat tapes, you know, I
  78. do all the production, I do all the mixing, I do all the mastering.
  79. But at the same time, that means that it takes longer to kind of release because
  80. it's like I'm the one doing everything.
  81. eventually you kind of get tired.
  82. You know, for me at the moment, I still do work a full-time job.
  83. So by, you know, so the time that I have, it's like, do I really want to be making
  84. music when I just worked you know, 40 hours in a week?
  85. So, you know, those things kind of start to come into play.
  86. Whereas when you work with more people, it kind of sparks that energy, okay.
  87. You know, it makes it more fun.
  88. you might sometimes they can kind of spread half the workload, you know.
  89. So sometimes it's like, you know, maybe you can do like the mixing, they do like the
  90. mastering, or you know, so it just speeds speeds you know the actual process up.
  91. And then again, you know, the there's huge potential for growth.
  92. You know, their fans find you, your fans find them.
  93. Okay, so that is in the question.
  94. What benefits does collaborating bring?
  95. Now, the next question I want you to think about is collaborating something for you.
  96. Okay. Now, again, when it comes to actually collaborating with somebody, you
  97. got to be kind of thinking wisely in your choices of who to connect with and who to
  98. email and and how you word yourself inside that email.
  99. And I'll tell you right now, sometimes your emails, you know, go to the person and
  100. you actually get a response, and sometimes you don't.
  101. It doesn't mean that that person does not see your email.
  102. It could be either they feel that you know their influence is better than yours,
  103. maybe that you don't bring the benefit.
  104. but that's not to say to give up, because you know, maybe today you're not at that
  105. level. But if you keep working, you you keep learning the industry, you keep
  106. learning music production, music theory, you know, learning your piano, become
  107. better behind the keys. Eventually, you know, you start growing, and as you start to
  108. grow, you kind of get this foundation laid, and now other people will will want to
  109. connect and want to work with you because they see that you know you have skills
  110. that you've come further from when you first started, okay.
  111. So to repeat the question, is collaborating something for you.
  112. So who should you collaborate with??
  113. something you wanna be thinking about is, you know, does their like persona kind of
  114. match yours Okay. So, you know, like when you make your music, you know, kind of
  115. like the vibe you put out to other people, you know, you you don't have to stay like
  116. you know within that industry, right?
  117. But what I'm trying to say is you kind of wanna be working with like-minded people,
  118. okay? And then, you know, as you start to grow, maybe there will be that person, you
  119. know, or that brand or whatever that's totally different from you, but you know, you
  120. connect in such like a natural way.
  121. But when you first get started, you know, I would suggest kind of working with, you
  122. know, kind of similar people to your style of music.
  123. but again, just always think about your decisions and who you're collaborating with
  124. and the pros and cons of it, okay?
  125. So the pros is yes, you're getting that reach, but the cons, you know, is their
  126. lifestyle, is the things that they say, the things that they do, are those the
  127. things that you want portrayed on your name as well, okay?
  128. Because again, you know, when you work with somebody, your name is also attached to
  129. that. Now I want to talk a little bit about you know, so for our next question, so
  130. how should you approach someone to collaborate with?
  131. Okay. So again, you want to be thinking at your skill level.
  132. If you're first just starting, I would suggest don't even look at the collaborating
  133. aspect of any of this. You have to spend the time to learn your music production
  134. program. And this is the problem for a lot of producers, they don't want to spend
  135. the time to actually learn the program.
  136. Like for myself, like I know FL Studio so well now that it's just, you know, I don't
  137. even have to like watch tutorials or anything anymore.
  138. Like if I were to watch a tutorial, it's more like learning a specific technique or
  139. something.. It's no longer about you know learning how to use the program because
  140. it's like you know, on my keyboard, it's like I know all the shortcuts, you know
  141. If you hit F7 or F5 or F9, you know, F9's the mixer, F5 is is the playlist,
  142. F7 is the piano roll, right? So stuff like that.
  143. It's just it speeds you up knowing all these shortcuts, and you have to put the time
  144. in to learn your music production program before you even think about you know
  145. growing your brand and trying to network, okay.
  146. So your skill level, you know, the potential person you're thinking to connect with,
  147. does their skill level match yours?
  148. Now, sometimes someone may be you know, may have a better reach than you, you know,
  149. they're doing better than you in a sense of financial and social influence.
  150. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't work with you, okay.
  151. It all depends on how you approach them and what you're wanting out of it.
  152. You know, if you've just started up and you're not very good at music production and
  153. you're trying to reach out with like an established brand or producer, you know,
  154. it's like what benefit are you bringing them?
  155. You know, so again, the whole benefit of collaboration is both parties are bringing
  156. something to the table that they can both benefit from, right?
  157. Again, you know, imagine you both created one course, or imagine someone created a
  158. course and then someone else's website sells courses and you know they make a lot of
  159. money selling courses. Well, yes, you know, they they can work together and there's
  160. a good relationship there. You know, it's nice and healthy because one person
  161. creates the courses, the other person sells the courses.
  162. So again, it's kind of like half the workload.
  163. So when you reach out to somebody, you know, you you kind of gotta have this you
  164. know ingenuity to kind of realize is that person out of
  165. reach? And at the moment they could be, but as you proceed within your career, you
  166. know, it could be a year, it could be two years, could be three years, could be
  167. seven years. Like even for myself, when I first started up, you know, I've seen
  168. different stores or different producers or whatever, and it's like, oh, you know
  169. what, they're they're out of my reach.
  170. But as I've continued as I've started to grow, I've actually started to work with
  171. some of these brands and some of these stores, and it's really rewarding to see that
  172. after I've put in you know the effort and the time to learn all this stuff, that now
  173. I'm actually working with you know whatever brand that is.
  174. You know, when compared to when I first started, where you know I felt that all you
  175. know, there's no chance to ever work with that person or that brand, or okay.
  176. So I say that more as a kind of inspiration to you that you know, don't get greedy,
  177. be patient, and you know, work at your skills first, and then your skills will
  178. reap the rewards of your patience and the efforts that you've put in to
  179. learn, you know, your music program, your your tool, okay.
  180. one point I wanted to say here, it's on the same topic, it's about like the skill
  181. level. so sometimes people's clout, okay.
  182. So there used to be a website called clout, and it it was it just showed like your
  183. influence, you know, like your social influence.
  184. But sometimes people's clout is better than yours, or again, you could be on the
  185. same level, or sometimes you can be a little bit above somebody.
  186. but again, you just gotta look at what do both parties bring to the table,
  187. okay. One thing I want to talk about, I already mentioned it a little bit, but it's
  188. just the same. industry versus different industries
  189. So, for example, you know, music production, it's like, yeah, well, you're
  190. collaborating with these different producers or different artists or whatever to
  191. create this song. but to collaborate, it doesn't have to be with music, you know,
  192. and we see this all the time with like celebrities and stuff like that.
  193. but so that's just something to think about as you start to advance and you start to
  194. grow. You know, you can network within these different industries, and these
  195. different industries start to know you for what you do, and a healthy relationship
  196. can be built there as well. I just want to mention some different types of
  197. collaborating. Okay, so you know, I've already mentioned some of these.
  198. So you guys can create a product together, okay.
  199. You know, so for example, let's say it was you know, how to make your drums hit hard
  200. or something. You know, if you both went in on that course, it kind of gives maybe a
  201. kind of cool atmosphere to the actual student that you that they actually have two
  202. instructors, or probably the easiest way to approach you know collaboration is you
  203. create your product, you know, let's say it's a course, or let's say it's drum kit
  204. or you know, VST presets, and you create that product, now you can sell it you know,
  205. through these other stores, okay.
  206. So you guys are collaborating using the stores, you know, their reach.
  207. A lot of these stores, you know, reach thousands, tens of thousands of people a day.
  208. it just allows you to you know jump into that marketplace nice and easy, and they're
  209. willing to take you on because you know, if they can sell your product, they make
  210. money and they didn't really have to spend any time creating it, you know, they
  211. they're just selling it. So, you know, those are really, really good ways to
  212. collaborate. Another way is through sponsorships, okay.
  213. So, you know, for myself, you know, I have tons of courses.
  214. So let's say you know, a producer is putting on a contest or something, and you
  215. know, they reach out to me, they're like, Hey, would you be interested in you know,
  216. donating some prizes to the winner of this contest or something, you know, or even
  217. for myself, when I ran the website Beat Struggles, I used to run a couple contests
  218. and I reached out to different companies.
  219. I think there was like IK Multimedia, there was like sugar bites that donated some
  220. VSTs. so you know, through sponsorships, their brand is
  221. visible to these contestants and people who are listening to the contestants'
  222. results and stuff like that. You know, it's just awareness, you know, they're
  223. getting they're getting their brand in front of people's eyes, right?
  224. And it's through sponsorships.
  225. So it's kind of just like another form of like advertising, but you know, so that's
  226. just another way to collaborate.
  227. Okay, so that's pretty much all I have to say about collaborating in the music
  228. industry. It can bring you tremendous benefits, huge opportunity for growth.
  229. but it really it all comes down to finding the right people for you at that time in
  230. your life and in your career. again, don't get greedy.
  231. but at the same time, you do got to kind of have thick skin.
  232. And again, what I mean by that is if you reach out to someone through email or
  233. through whatever, and you get you know, you don't get a response or whatever, that
  234. doesn't mean to give up. It just means continue with what you're doing, keep
  235. practicing your skills, and when you get to that level, you know, it will be a lot
  236. easier to reach these companies and these brands.
  237. And I say that because I've experienced this myself, and it's an amazing feeling
  238. that you know, I know I've worked hard to get to where I am, and now I'm able to
  239. work with you know, other I guess brands and you know, companies that have also
  240. worked hard to get to where they are, right?
  241. So you can get to that level too.
  242. Just you have to put the time in..
  243. but collaborating can help you reach that growth even faster
  244. So again, for myself, I really didn't collaborate too much at all throughout my own
  245. productions and stuff like that.
  246. Like I have worked with a few artists and stuff like that, but later on in my
  247. career, more so I've just been strictly solo.
  248. I just enjoy creating music myself, you know, being original behind my music.
  249. Again, you know, I'm a big advocate for creating what you think sounds good, not
  250. what's you know what currently trending, which is trap.
  251. I honestly wish trap would go away and it's not going away.
  252. you know, it's it's it came here, you know, that 808, those hi-hat
  253. triplets, even like those claps and those snares, they're just reused sounds over
  254. and over and over again in every single song.
  255. And it's just like there's just no originality.
  256. And it's not like so much like the genre that bugs me, it's almost like that
  257. the producers aren't trying to, you know, just create something that is themselves,
  258. you know, they're trying to create what's in so that they can you know grow within
  259. that trend. And again, you know, that's to do with like the collaborating too,
  260. because you know, since whatever genre is popular, these producers are creating.
  261. But I'm a big advocate for you know, being original, creating what I think sounds
  262. good. Like if you even if you listen to like my beat tapes, my beat tapes are on
  263. Spotify. I currently have eight beat tapes out there.
  264. I'm working on my ninth right now.
  265. But if you just listen, like the variety, like it goes from like a dance track to
  266. like a hip hop track to like a really emotional urban track, and it's just you know,
  267. when I sit here behind a computer and to produce that music, it's just I just find
  268. it way more enjoyable to listen to to, mix, to work with.
  269. It makes me as a producer way more versatile..
  270. Like if I want to work with these different artists or whatever
  271. That was a rant, more about you know, just like this kind of like collaborating and
  272. why I just kind of stick to myself and I like to do my own thing, but you
  273. guys do have the potential for huge growth behind collaborating.
  274. So let me know what you guys think.
  275. You know, have you guys collaborated yet?
  276. Has it helped you? have you had a good experience?
  277. Have you had bad experiences? You know, so email me, reach out to me, tell me some
  278. stories. So, my email is hi, so h-i at it's gratuitous.com.
  279. I'd really really like to read it and kind of you know, I'm kind of intrigued by
  280. that stuff because like I said, collaborating has huge potential if it's done in the
  281. right way. So, thanks for tuning in.
  282. Hope you guys enjoyed. you know, I'm currently I currently do have ideas for new
  283. courses coming out here. I want to actually go over one of my beat tapes.
  284. I'll probably go over my volume eight.
  285. you know, I just want to go over each song, you know, how I produced it.
  286. you know, start start with like the drum loop, work into like the instruments, talk
  287. about the arrangement, talk about audio painting.
  288. Audio painting is what I use to describe how to transition from different parts of
  289. the song. I've written a book on that, it's on Amazon.
  290. It's called Audio Painting. And I want to come out with a bunch of other courses.
  291. Whenever I think of an idea for a course, I write it down like in like a list, and
  292. then I want to have time, you know, I kind of tackle that course.
  293. And you know, if you're a part of my membership on my website, it's gratuitous.com.
  294. You know, there's a monthly or a lifetime membership.
  295. Lifetime you just pay once, and you have access to all courses and all future
  296. courses. So if you're a part of the membership, you get all these courses whenever I
  297. release them. Okay. So I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
  298. So take care. Thanks for checking out the episode..
  299. If you had any questions, visit it'sgratuitouscom slash podcast, select an episode,
  300. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  301. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  302. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons, visit the link it'sgratuitous.com
  303. slash learning. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  304. I hope the best with your productions.
  305. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  306. episode.
GratuiTous Radio Start free Join Membership 0:00/0:00