The Producer Files Issue #22
Read time: 6 minutes
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In this issue (#21) of The Producer Files:
ϟ Discussion: Will YouTube be essential for music producers in 2024?
ϟ Quick Tip: How to become an opportunity magnet (by using The Two E's)
ϟ Welcome: Dark Label inks consulting deal with RIAA Diamond Award winning producer Dave Hillis
ϟ Plus our recs (recommendations) of the week!
DISCUSSION: Will YouTube be essential for music producers in 2024?
Want to hear something funny?
Whenever I ask an industry producer to describe their perfect business/lifestyle now that they have played the game and got their credits…
They almost always describe a “YouTube Producer” (and without even knowing it)…
“I want to have multiple income streams.”
“I want to build more assets that earn money.”
“I want to just work on music that I want to make.”
“I want more control and stability.”
“I want the highest return on my effort.”
The only producers I know that tend to have all of that (besides top super-producers, of course) are producers I've met that have YouTube channels.
So will YouTube be essential for producers both now and in the future?
Well, study this image real quick…
That is the data from a single video, which is just 10 minutes long, only has one camera angle, and took about 4 hours to create.
It's just me telling the story of how I built & scaled my music production business.
So far it's brought in around $100,000 worth of client engagements for us here at Dark Label.
Of course, this doesn't happen with every video, but scroll back up and take a look at those yellow arrows.
For the first 3 months, the video performed well but nothing crazy.
Then at day 90, it popped off.
And again at day 250.
Followed by some steady growth ever since.
Like clockwork, every time it popped, we saw a massive influx of new clients.
So, we made this “asset” one time, and it continues to work for us every day…
And as you can see by the chart… It is not promoting us LESS over time. It's promoting us MORE. The impressions are going up.
Now imagine the power having an entire library of these videos out there working for you.
That is what makes YouTube such a unique marketing tool for music producers.
Many of you probably know Nathan Larsen, and if you don't, then he's a great composer & musician that lives in Nebraska and has a big presence on YouTube.
As an experiment, under just ONE of his videos, I had him put a link to a form where people could hire him as a producer.
The particular video was not even a high-performing one for his channel, but by the time it had reached only 8,000 views, he already had $15,000 worth of work in his pipeline.
If he had put that link under EVERY one of his videos then I don't think anyone would hear from him for like 3 years because he would be slammed lol.
Nathan doesn't often do client work (because he's focused on his own projects and his digital products pay the bills), but it was eye-opening to see those results.
He ended up having to REMOVE the link under that video because there was too much demand.
The first time I really diversified my income as a producer was back in 2016 when we started the Make Pop Music channel.
I found YouTube to be the best “central hub” for promoting multiple products/services that all related back to one entity or individual.
But is YouTube really essential?
In general, my prediction is that producers with strong YouTube channels are going to weather things a lot better in the future than ones that don't.
That's not a fact, just a prediction.
With that said, that doesn't mean it's right for everybody or right for you right now.
If you have zero interest in YouTube then don't force yourself - it probably wouldn't work.
But, if you've been seriously considering it then I hope this inspires you.
I see producers with new channels take-off all of the time (despite everything thinking it's too saturated).
Of course everything has an upside and a downside.
And to ensure we're being real with you here…
Every example I just showed you… It took at least 2-4+ years of hard work for each of us to get to that point.
Think of YouTube kind of like music publishing and building a song catalog: It's a lot of work upfront to reap an ongoing reward later.
I am not going to address all of the downsides here because it would add 10,000 more words, but I'll hit those in a future issue!
If you're curious about implementing a YouTube strategy into your business as a producer, then I'm happy to chat about it and help you determine if it's right for you. Just reach out.
QUICK TIP: How to become an opportunity magnet (by using The Two E's)
Have you ever met (or seen) someone in the music industry who just seems to effortlessly attract new opportunities on a consistent basis?
I mean… What is that?
Are they just lucky?
Were they just born with it?
It's because they are good at: The Two E's
On Saturday, I had a little Zoom meetup with a few producers in Dark Label, and one of the issues that came up was this. Maybe you can relate:
“I have a lot of artists telling me that they DO want to work with me, but almost none of them are moving forward. It seems like there is ALWAYS some reason or timing issue to not get started."
I understand how frustrating that can be, and it happens to us here at Dark Label all the time too.
Most producers initially assume that they just need to find artists who are “more serious” and then this problem will go away.
But if that were the case, then our producers who already work with higher-level artists wouldn't be having this problem, but they are too.
Serious or not, every human (artist) has what I call unspoken concerns.
And they can both A) be stoked to work with you while B) still have unspoken concerns.
And many times, these unspoken concerns have less to do with you and more to do with them.
And this is where The Two E's come in to save the day.
These are two very slept-on skills that producers easily overlook…
When I tell you what they are, I want you to think about the last time you heard any sort of music industry tutorial mention these. It's rare.
I've worked with a small handful of producers that I would consider to have that unique “opportunity magnet effect” in their career…
And the common thread between all of them was that they have high levels of Encouragement and Enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is always a breath of fresh air in an industry that rightly leans more cynical.
Let's face it… Optimism is magnetic, and deep down, we all love it (when it is genuine, of course).
And I'm not sure if you realized this (because I tend to often forget) that enthusiasm is actually a skill that can be practiced.
In practice: Before you have your next sales call with an artist or meeting with a fellow producer, go seek out a cool success story (someone who had a win in the music industry) and open up the conversation by sharing that story… ie “have you heard about ____?”
It'll completely change the tone of the entire conversation.
And then let's not forget encouragement.
I started to realize recently that on my demonstration calls for Dark Label, I was leaning WAY too hard into all of the cool stuff that we've done in hopes of proving that it would be a smart decision for the producer.
I approached the conversation with a lot of logic because I wanted to ensure working with us made sense.
However, making sense of something and having enough confidence or clarity to pull it off yourself are two very different things.
And the second is a much more powerful root issue that affects ALL of us. (Yes - even those of us that are “serious” about our careers)
More logic is not the solution in this scenario, but more encouragement is.
In practice: Encouraging people doesn't have to sound like you are hand-holding them. Just use the word itself and then reinforce it whenever you're discussing someone else's goals…
“Well hey Ted, I encourage you to follow through with getting those 4 singles out this year. It sounds like that would make a huge difference to your catalog since X label is already looking at you.”
Honestly, I've found that just reminding myself what The Two E's are before I get on a call helps me do more of them (without even adding any fancy tactics).
Hope that helps!
WELCOME: Dark Label inks consulting deal with RIAA Diamond Award winning producer Dave Hillis
Dave is best known for his work on one of the most iconic rock records of all time, “Ten” by Pearl Jam.
We're excited to have Dave in our client community and to help him make a smooth transition into the next phase of his decades-long career in the music business.
Can't wait to hear all of his stories!
*And if you too want to be a part of a strong community of working producers helping each other build multiple income streams, then fill out this quick form and we'll give you a shout when we have spots*
Recs of the week
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Recs of the week 〰️
ϟ Well, since we just mentioned him… Here's a great interview with Dave Hillis on the Working Class Audio Podcast discussing his experience working with Pearl Jam and much more. Check it out here.
ϟ And this video discusses the 3 habits that put music producers in the TOP 1% (financially). Watch it here.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading The Producer Files and when you're ready, feel free to reach out to us…
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