7 Tips To Build A Business As An Artist, Producer, or Composer

Who doesn’t want to be successful as an artist, producer or composer? All around you see other people making one big hit after another, do you wonder if that is possible for you as well? Let’s explore:

The music industry is a complex whole and it can be difficult to find your own way and turn your passion into a business. It is a huge challenge to get the recognition you deserve, let alone getting in touch with the right people. Then when you get in touch with them, do you trust them with your carefully crafted music productions?

We have teamed up with independent artist Shook aka Jasper Wijnands. Shook has been working for years to build his artist profile with a wide variety of sounds and genres. His song Milestones has been featured in the Netflix series Better Call Saul S01E01 and he has done remix work for major artists such as Kimbra, Jamiroquai, Phoenix, Ellie Goulding and many others.

VIDEO MILESTONES: https://youtu.be/3gM8_SL9BP0

Today he gets close to one million monthly streams from Pandora and Spotify with over 5 studio albums that he has released on his own record label Epicenter. That success was not built in one day. It took true dedication to convert his talent into a sustainable business. And the fine thing is, he has done it completely independently.

That is why we asked him to share his knowledge with you. Get ready for 7 tips to build a business as an independent artist, producer and composer.

It is not solely about making money

It is true though, money is important and it is a key factor to make a living out of your music. That said, music is a form of art. The exciting thing is that it easily merges with entertainment, which makes it such a powerful thing.

Today, you can reach millions of people with your creations, both on stage as well as from the comforts of your studio. You can truly touch the emotional side of your listener.

Do you remember when you felt down and listened to that specific song? It either cheered you up or got you even more emotional, right? Or when you were at that festival when your favorite artist played that amazing track?

Music is about emotions and memories. It is about reliving those moments and connecting with your inner self. In its true essence making money and making music have nothing to do with each other. Those are two completely different things.

You have to consider that “making money” is not a particularly smart metric to prioritize within your creation process. Why? Because you will never have enough, and there will always be others making more.

Also, you will lose focus. Money easily distracts you from way more important stuff as family, friends, love, health and allowing yourself the luxury to create.

To ensure you position your passion for music properly, it is wise to focus on building a balanced life. You have to consider that your love for music is about love and passion. Not about greed and obsessions. You really do not want to become that person. As success will simply become your greatest enemy.

VIDEO MIND UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHqsSMb8yf8&feature=youtu.be

It is about building a sustainable business model. A scenario of growth. Allowing yourself to fully focus on what you love to do. That is the main priority. That does not mean everything has to be nice and we all live in a constant state of happiness. Not at all. It is hard work.

You are the chicken with the golden eggs. You have to take care of you to ensure you keep laying those eggs over time. That is done by staying true to your inner beliefs.

Music is a powerful tool. And with that great power comes an even greater responsibility. You should handle your skills with care and treat your listeners with respect. That is in the end way more important than making money.

Learn to handle rejection

Rejection is a daily occurrence in the music business. It is often hard. Every known artist has had to deal with this disappointment. It is part of the process!

Building your career in the music business means that you have to open up. You have to open up to fellow producers, listeners and industry dinosaurs.

The rule is quite simple, you cannot please all people with your music. Consider that everyone is entitled to have their own opinion about your work. That means some will really like it and others don’t.

Therefore, you have to constantly process rejection, it is an essential part of your process. It is exactly that battle that makes it all worthwhile. Without that struggle, it all becomes worthless.

Of course, it is really satisfying when people like your work. It gives you the right energy to proceed with creating. That said, getting negative feedback is also really valuable. It gives you honest insights in what your listeners experience. It is a rocky road, but you can do it. Try to merge that rejection into something of real value for you.

It is about challenging yourself from a professional perspective. The adventure of mastering new skills. And taking your craft to the next level. When people like your music you know you are on the right track. When people dislike your music, you know what to improve.

SHOOK CALL ME V2: https://youtu.be/q2nFK3Lb1r0

When sending your music to major labels, they seek something you might not be able to deliver. Do not worry too much about that. Just take that feedback into account and thank them to have taken the time to listen to your work and provide you with some valuable knowledge.

Also, today’s social media is a brilliant way to be discovered and connect with fans worldwide. That said, it is also a little shit hole where people carry out aggressively insulting opinions masking their own frustration. They are allowed to do that. Do not bother too much.

Always look for the elements that allow you to grow by treating every opinion with respect. Do not try to be right and defend your work. Just ask them what you should do to make it better for them? It is their opinion. And that means they are always right.

Try to keep that in mind and try to trigger an honest debate with them. You might even convert a rejection into a valuable discussion.

There is a saying, “Make a lot of babies and then kill them”

This might be a bit harsh sentence, but it is actually really cool. It is certainly not about real human babies. It is about your work. Your music. Your babies. What it means is that you allow yourself to conduct many experiments, and let it be ok if they do not gain any traction. Every project you do you learn something and get better.

Try to challenge yourself without sticking to one genre or style. While making music it is important you understand the creation process. As a producer or artist you are influenced by many other artists, daily emotions and even other forms of art. Try to convert that into new approaches to create music.

Of course you have some kind of end goal in mind. With your music. With your career. That is a good thing. At the same time you want to challenge yourself to become a better producer. Therefore, it is essential that you try new stuff.

Go back in time. What was the music your parents listened to? What music did you like when you were young? Where did you first start? What influenced your musical taste during different periods of your life?

Take those factors and try to create new work from that point. Let go of primary purpose to create the next big hit. That only will become valid at a later point of your career. If you always start a new project with the intention to make the next hit, you are more likely to get stuck.

SHOOK LOST TRACKS VOL. 1 EP: https://shook.bandcamp.com/album/lost-tracks-vol-1

This tip is about practicing and learning, not about writing the next Billboard #1.

To build your profile as an artist you have to get experience. This is an adventurous route. Therefore you have to give yourself the space to experiment with as many forms and influences you can imagine. Do you think Van Gogh only painted those museum pieces? Not really, right?

To get to that point he made many studies and sketches to master those skills. That is exactly what you have to do. Study, practice & learn. This will allow you to become a more complete artist. You might even want to consider to create music you dislike. Try it. What musical genre do you really detest? Go try to make it. It will be a fun way to explore your true skills and you might even learn some new techniques along the way you otherwise would never come across.

That is about making a lot of babies. The next thing you want to consider that all those project files on your computer are certainly not all fit for release. That is why you should kill some of those babies. This will allow you to form your artist profile. You now allow yourself to get familiar with yourself as an artist. Where is your passion leading you towards? What is your talent? And where don’t you want to go?

It is about creating the why behind your music. In time this will give you confidence about your decisions you are about to make as an artist. You will become more aware of what you want and what you do not want. And that will make it more easy to truly stand for what you make later down the line.

Finding yourself being a self centered? Burst that little narcissistic bubble of yours

As an artist you are building something where you are the central point. That is why many artists become so arrogant. It is a logical human reaction. Think about it. When everybody says you are great all the time, and you make big money with your work, there is a big chance you start believing that you are some kind of chosen one.

That is why you should not do that. You should burst that bubble from day one. Arrogance and ego tripping will close your mind. A closed mind will have a negative effect on your creation process. Both are human defence mechanisms to mask uncertainty and insecurity.

Turn it around. Become vulnerable. Allow yourself to be open and welcoming to any outside influence. It is ok to be insecure and it speaks of you as a creator to be uncertain about your work. This means you are open to receive feedback and transparent about your capabilities. It is exactly that which will move you forward as a creator.

Also, it is not only about personality. It is about giving and taking. When you are only here to take out what you need, what do you have to give? There must be a balance. Otherwise in the end you have nothing left to take. The fertile water of the river will dry up. And you will no longer be able to harvest the crops of your work.

This might be a bit philosophical, but it is in essence related to your growth as a creator. When you are writing music you are inspired by many others. You will also inspire others. That is the simplest give and take.

INTERVIEW WITH JULIET & JASPER: https://youtu.be/L3Q-8K3-cGo

Also, an important factor of creating a sustainable business is your community. This is different from your fan base. In your community you interact with like-minded producers and artists. You exchange knowledge and ideas. It is really important to be aware of the fact that you are all equal. You are not better than others. Others are also not better than you. You can both learn from each other.

A key point is that you start communicating and opening up in your own community. Try to find one online. Try different ones. There are many forums with really dedicated individuals that nurture those groups without wanting something in return. There are many groups and platforms. Think only of Soundcloud and Facebook. And there is so much more.

It is important to get valuable feedback, you have to start by giving it. Be honest and open. You can be direct, but you do not have to be arrogant. Everybody is a start in its own way. At the same time, that means nobody stands out.

Of course, you have leaders and exceptional talents. They are actually quite limited. Most people who make a difference in the music industry carry two other things with them besides this talent. It is true admiration. Like passion. And dedication or devotion. It is hard work to make it in the industry. By doing so, you have to give and take.

That is why it is so important to not become your self proclaimed superstar. You are just a collection of influences cooked and boiled with your own recipe into something that makes you different from others. That is it. You are not better. Nor is anyone else. You are just different. And the differences are really small nowadays.

In retrospect, there are many other artists and producers that do their utmost best to make a living out of music. You are not the only one. Also, you are not the only one that will succeed. There have been many before you and there will be many following you. Just be sure that in time people will look up to you, like you look up to others. Again, it is a give and take. Handle that with precaution and respect. From day one.

Allow yourself to fail

It is about the journey, not the destination. That sentence is widely quoted numerous times on the internet. It is true though. Consider your career to be a journey where you allow yourself to fail to become a better producer. Rome was not built in one day.

You really do not want to become a one day fly. There is nothing more horrible to have had a taste of success and never reach that again. That is more painful than never having tasted it at all.

It is exactly failure that allows you to choose direction during your journey. You know, success is about making decisions. It is about allowing yourself to make wrong decisions. That will only lead to you making better decisions in the future. And that is growth.

Also, it makes sure you really understand what you want and what you do not want with your music. At least that is what mistakes are about. You do not want to repeat them. So you have to do better next time. It is that simple. This way, every mistake you make, carries a certain value. Therewith it is part of your process to grow and become better in what you do.

In the early days of Shook I was part of a big management company. It delivered much remix and commissioned work. It skyrocketed my career. At the same time I did not know about royalties and revenues. I was paid in flat fees. Today I see the value of ownership and getting those royalties. Although those times delivered great opportunities, it was also the time I learned to protect my work and keep control over the business side of my work.

SHOOK REMIX WORK: https://soundcloud.com/shookshookshook/sets/shook-remixes

What I learned back then, turned out to be a huge factor in the way I conduct my business today. I learned that besides having this huge success, that eventually to become truly independent, I needed to control my own revenue streams.

That is what I like to give to you. Success is most of the time a crafted PR machine that is showing that on the outside. At the same time nobody knows how it works on the inside. Is that real success? Think about it.

People follow the success. Therewith success becomes a PR tool. As we are in the entertainment business, we are really good at creating things that are not real. Consider every success you see as something you will never know how it is processed from the inside. It can easily be a fake to just grab your attention.

Therefore, never compare your inner self with what you see on the outside of others. You just cannot compare the two. It will lead to a total misunderstanding of success and that will have a devastating effect on your goals and learning curve.

Be a human. Allow yourself to fail. It is about trial and error. Eventually that is the thing that will move you forward. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you only have to learn.

Follow your gut feeling

This last tip is about music production and the creation process. It is a really simple trick to become more productive as a producer or artist. As said before, it is great to conduct a lot of experiments and create many different forms of musical works.

But how do you know which are good and which are not?

Sequential Synth Tips With Shook: https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=D3B2X5sVKm0

There are essentially two ways to find out. On the one side there is your community. It is recommended to test your concepts every once in a while with your inner circle. This provides you with some insights from real listeners.

On the other side you have to make your own decisions. Therefore the first minutes of creating any new work are of high importance. Try to get in touch with your inner self. What does your gut feeling tell you? Do you really feel this early concept?

Now give it a rest. Maybe a day or two. Now listen to this again. What do you feel? Do you have that same feeling? Is there magic?

If so, you are creating in line with your primary intentions. This is really good. You can reproduce this and carry on at any given point of time. That is what you want.

If you do not feel it at all, it is simply not worth proceeding. Don’t mind. Kill that baby. It was a good test and you’ve learned that this is just not it. Just stop it and carry on with a new experiment or create more magic with that song you truly feel as a creator.

Shook – Synth Funk – Demo Track: https://soundcloud.com/shookshookshook/shook-synth-funk-demo-song-1/s-rcyX1rD37y8

Choose your channels and fully dedicate to the chosen few

This last tip is about marketing and your artist profile. Making music is one thing, but getting a steady following and building your artist profile is just as important. Today you have access to so many channels. It can be really overwhelming. That is why you should focus on the chosen few.

In the early days of Shook it was really MySpace. Later it became Soundcloud. Followed Bandcamp and now we live in the Spotify area. I have had reasonable followings and revenue from all those channels. That said, we do focus on just a few at the same time. It is impossible to fully maintain TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, SnapChat and Instagram, while keeping focus on making music. And next focus on all those streaming services. You just cannot do it.

It is about making the decision. Ask yourself which social media channels fit your artist profile in the best way? Where can you have the most growth? And how would you like to interact with your fans and listeners?

Therefore my last tip is choose your battles and fully focus on the channels that work for you. After the tremendous growth of Facebook, we now focus on mainly two channels most of the time.

On the one hand it is Instagram. As Instagram provides a way to show my studio and love for synthesizers. Besides this, it is also a really nice channel to share live jams. And when you grow, it is really suitable for advertisement and it allows newcomers to discover your work through hashtags.

The downside is that it is not easy to link to other sources. That is why the focus is on the growth of the instagram channel with videos and images. And telling my daily story through Instagram Stories.

The connection to a revenue stream is based on Spotify as it delivers the most sophisticated platform with data and especially the playlists are a really nice way to be discovered. It is not about paid playlists.

What we do today is drop live jams on Instagram and connect them with my studio work on Spotify. It allows me to show different sides of my work. My fans and followers get curious and browse my catalog on Spotify to learn more. This is a perfect match.

I hope this all helps you to grow as an artist. As I said, it is about giving and taking. I hereby give these 7 tips to you. If you have any further questions, just call me!

SHOOK CALL ME IG CAMPAIGN: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_UtgZHhU-b/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

7 Tips To Build A Business As An Artist, Producer, or Composer

Who doesn’t want to be successful as an artist, producer or composer? All around you see other people making one big hit after another, do you wonder if that is possible for you as well? Let’s explore:

VIDEO MILESTONES: https://youtu.be/3gM8_SL9BP0

That is why we asked him to share his knowledge with you. Get ready for 7 tips to build a business as an independent artist, producer and composer.

It is not solely about making money

It is true though, money is important and it is a key factor to make a living out of your music. That said, music is a form of art. The exciting thing is that it easily merges with entertainment, which makes it such a powerful thing.

Today, you can reach millions of people with your creations, both on stage as well as from the comforts of your studio. You can truly touch the emotional side of your listener.

Do you remember when you felt down and listened to that specific song? It either cheered you up or got you even more emotional, right? Or when you were at that festival when your favorite artist played that amazing track?

Music is about emotions and memories. It is about reliving those moments and connecting with your inner self. In its true essence making money and making music have nothing to do with each other. Those are two completely different things.

You have to consider that “making money” is not a particularly smart metric to prioritize within your creation process. Why? Because you will never have enough, and there will always be others making more.

Also, you will lose focus. Money easily distracts you from way more important stuff as family, friends, love, health and allowing yourself the luxury to create.

VIDEO MIND UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHqsSMb8yf8&feature=youtu.be

It is about building a sustainable business model. A scenario of growth. Allowing yourself to fully focus on what you love to do. That is the main priority. That does not mean everything has to be nice and we all live in a constant state of happiness. Not at all. It is hard work.

You are the chicken with the golden eggs. You have to take care of you to ensure you keep laying those eggs over time. That is done by staying true to your inner beliefs.

Music is a powerful tool. And with that great power comes an even greater responsibility. You should handle your skills with care and treat your listeners with respect. That is in the end way more important than making money.

Learn to handle rejection

Rejection is a daily occurrence in the music business. It is often hard. Every known artist has had to deal with this disappointment. It is part of the process!

Building your career in the music business means that you have to open up. You have to open up to fellow producers, listeners and industry dinosaurs.

The rule is quite simple, you cannot please all people with your music. Consider that everyone is entitled to have their own opinion about your work. That means some will really like it and others don’t.

Therefore, you have to constantly process rejection, it is an essential part of your process. It is exactly that battle that makes it all worthwhile. Without that struggle, it all becomes worthless.

It is about challenging yourself from a professional perspective. The adventure of mastering new skills. And taking your craft to the next level. When people like your music you know you are on the right track. When people dislike your music, you know what to improve.

SHOOK CALL ME V2: https://youtu.be/q2nFK3Lb1r0

When sending your music to major labels, they seek something you might not be able to deliver. Do not worry too much about that. Just take that feedback into account and thank them to have taken the time to listen to your work and provide you with some valuable knowledge.

Also, today’s social media is a brilliant way to be discovered and connect with fans worldwide. That said, it is also a little shit hole where people carry out aggressively insulting opinions masking their own frustration. They are allowed to do that. Do not bother too much.

Always look for the elements that allow you to grow by treating every opinion with respect. Do not try to be right and defend your work. Just ask them what you should do to make it better for them? It is their opinion. And that means they are always right.

Try to keep that in mind and try to trigger an honest debate with them. You might even convert a rejection into a valuable discussion.

There is a saying, “Make a lot of babies and then kill them”

Of course you have some kind of end goal in mind. With your music. With your career. That is a good thing. At the same time you want to challenge yourself to become a better producer. Therefore, it is essential that you try new stuff.

Go back in time. What was the music your parents listened to? What music did you like when you were young? Where did you first start? What influenced your musical taste during different periods of your life?

Take those factors and try to create new work from that point. Let go of primary purpose to create the next big hit. That only will become valid at a later point of your career. If you always start a new project with the intention to make the next hit, you are more likely to get stuck.

SHOOK LOST TRACKS VOL. 1 EP: https://shook.bandcamp.com/album/lost-tracks-vol-1

This tip is about practicing and learning, not about writing the next Billboard #1.

To build your profile as an artist you have to get experience. This is an adventurous route. Therefore you have to give yourself the space to experiment with as many forms and influences you can imagine. Do you think Van Gogh only painted those museum pieces? Not really, right?

It is about creating the why behind your music. In time this will give you confidence about your decisions you are about to make as an artist. You will become more aware of what you want and what you do not want. And that will make it more easy to truly stand for what you make later down the line.

Finding yourself being a self centered? Burst that little narcissistic bubble of yours

That is why you should not do that. You should burst that bubble from day one. Arrogance and ego tripping will close your mind. A closed mind will have a negative effect on your creation process. Both are human defence mechanisms to mask uncertainty and insecurity.

This might be a bit philosophical, but it is in essence related to your growth as a creator. When you are writing music you are inspired by many others. You will also inspire others. That is the simplest give and take.

INTERVIEW WITH JULIET & JASPER: https://youtu.be/L3Q-8K3-cGo

It is important to get valuable feedback, you have to start by giving it. Be honest and open. You can be direct, but you do not have to be arrogant. Everybody is a start in its own way. At the same time, that means nobody stands out.

Allow yourself to fail

It is about the journey, not the destination. That sentence is widely quoted numerous times on the internet. It is true though. Consider your career to be a journey where you allow yourself to fail to become a better producer. Rome was not built in one day.

You really do not want to become a one day fly. There is nothing more horrible to have had a taste of success and never reach that again. That is more painful than never having tasted it at all.

It is exactly failure that allows you to choose direction during your journey. You know, success is about making decisions. It is about allowing yourself to make wrong decisions. That will only lead to you making better decisions in the future. And that is growth.

SHOOK REMIX WORK: https://soundcloud.com/shookshookshook/sets/shook-remixes

What I learned back then, turned out to be a huge factor in the way I conduct my business today. I learned that besides having this huge success, that eventually to become truly independent, I needed to control my own revenue streams.

That is what I like to give to you. Success is most of the time a crafted PR machine that is showing that on the outside. At the same time nobody knows how it works on the inside. Is that real success? Think about it.

Therefore, never compare your inner self with what you see on the outside of others. You just cannot compare the two. It will lead to a total misunderstanding of success and that will have a devastating effect on your goals and learning curve.

Be a human. Allow yourself to fail. It is about trial and error. Eventually that is the thing that will move you forward. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you only have to learn.

Follow your gut feeling

This last tip is about music production and the creation process. It is a really simple trick to become more productive as a producer or artist. As said before, it is great to conduct a lot of experiments and create many different forms of musical works.

But how do you know which are good and which are not?

Sequential Synth Tips With Shook: https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=D3B2X5sVKm0

There are essentially two ways to find out. On the one side there is your community. It is recommended to test your concepts every once in a while with your inner circle. This provides you with some insights from real listeners.

On the other side you have to make your own decisions. Therefore the first minutes of creating any new work are of high importance. Try to get in touch with your inner self. What does your gut feeling tell you? Do you really feel this early concept?

Now give it a rest. Maybe a day or two. Now listen to this again. What do you feel? Do you have that same feeling? Is there magic?

If so, you are creating in line with your primary intentions. This is really good. You can reproduce this and carry on at any given point of time. That is what you want.

If you do not feel it at all, it is simply not worth proceeding. Don’t mind. Kill that baby. It was a good test and you’ve learned that this is just not it. Just stop it and carry on with a new experiment or create more magic with that song you truly feel as a creator.

Shook – Synth Funk – Demo Track: https://soundcloud.com/shookshookshook/shook-synth-funk-demo-song-1/s-rcyX1rD37y8

Choose your channels and fully dedicate to the chosen few

This last tip is about marketing and your artist profile. Making music is one thing, but getting a steady following and building your artist profile is just as important. Today you have access to so many channels. It can be really overwhelming. That is why you should focus on the chosen few.

It is about making the decision. Ask yourself which social media channels fit your artist profile in the best way? Where can you have the most growth? And how would you like to interact with your fans and listeners?

Therefore my last tip is choose your battles and fully focus on the channels that work for you. After the tremendous growth of Facebook, we now focus on mainly two channels most of the time.

On the one hand it is Instagram. As Instagram provides a way to show my studio and love for synthesizers. Besides this, it is also a really nice channel to share live jams. And when you grow, it is really suitable for advertisement and it allows newcomers to discover your work through hashtags.