At the end of the day, music licensing is a numbers game. You need to produce one song a week. The more songs you have out there, the more likely you are to have the right song for the right client. Having more songs means your songs are more likely to be found by prospective clients, and it also means that there are more songs that might fit a specific need.
Plus, the more frequently you write songs, the faster you'll start to improve!
But having more songs means writing and recording more songs!
And that takes time. I don't know about you, but I never seem to have enough of it.
Over the past few years I've been thinking hard about how I can finish more songs. And that's lead me to a bit of an assembly line process.
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How I FINISH One Song a Week
The first thing to remember is that the goal isn't to just have recordings on your hard drive. You actually need to FINISH your songs. It's not good enough to just say this is a demo. Even if the song isn't perfect, you have to finish it and move on.
In other words, this isn't about creating the demo of one song a week. You still need to do that. But you also need to finish another song in the meantime.
So with the goal being to actually finish a song, this is how I keep things moving at a nice clip.
The 5 Phases to Producing One Song a Week
Basically, I break up my process into 5 steps, and try to do a different one each week.
The 5 steps are:
1. Songwriting
2. Demoing
3. Recording
4. Mixing
5. Mastering
I try to have 5 songs going at a time, each at a different stage of the process. This way I don't get bogged down working on a specific song, and I can maintain a sense of perspective. Plus it prevents burnout.
I only focus on the step that I'm working on at the moment. And I never say that if "there's a problem with the recording I can fix it during mixing." Well, I say it, but I don't let myself get away with it.
Doing the Administrative Work
Then, of course, there's a 6th and 7th step: uploading my song to Pond 5 (and adding the keywords) and registering the song with BMI. I try to do these administrative steps in a batch process, i.e., once I have 3 or 4 songs mastered, I'll take some time to do the administrative end.
What do you do to speed up your process?
From a Frustrated Producer in a Ragtag Bedroom Studio to Major Placements on TV Earning $1,000s!
My name is Evan, and I've been making music since around 3rd grade. I'm from San Diego, California, but I've lived in Washington, DC for the last 20 years.
While I still have a full-time day job, I have created systems that have allowed me to produce dozens of songs a year in my spare time.
My songs have been on Netflix, TV shows like the 90 Day Fiance, an award-winning indie film, and NPR’s “All Thing Considered.” They've also been streamed millions of times.
In addition to being a music producer, I am passionate about teaching people how they can make professional-sounding music and earn money licensing it, all in their spare time.
Thousands of musicians, like yourself, have trusted me to guide their musical journey. My YouTube videos have been watched nearly a million times. And my story has been in Forbes, Side Hustle Nation, and the Side Hustle School.
