5 Lessons YOU Can Learn From My Mistakes: I Spent $20,000 Making an Album I Can’t Even Give Away

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October 16, 2012{ 17 Comments }

LivingIllusionSufferingAlbumCover 298x300 5 Lessons YOU Can Learn From My Mistakes: I Spent $20,000 Making an Album I Can’t Even Give Away[This article was written by guest contributor Shane Lamotte of the band Living Illusion.]

 “What was I thinking!?”

It was the logical next step for my band Living Illusion. We had played tons of local shows, did some minor touring and gained a little buzz, so we decided it was time to get serious. Our first album was an experiment more than anything and considering it was self-recorded & produced in a friend’s studio it sounded pretty good. For our next album, we wanted more. It was time to throw our best material out there and build a future for the band. Go big or go home.

To be honest we could have went “bigger,” but seeing as I was the sole financial backer on the project, we kept going until I literally ran out of money. I learned a lot from the process but it’s scary to look back at how naive I was. Full of piss and vinegar, I wanted to get the best product out there to the world, assuming that this would lead us to success. Initially when we decided to record our second album “Suffering” it was only supposed to cost around $10k, but once production started it became a never ending slew of unforeseen expenses. Going through 3 different mixers had to be the most expensive addition. It also didn’t help when you get so far in over your head that you think, “What’s another $3k when I already spent $10k”.

If there was one thing I would’ve done differently it would’ve been to save my money for marketing and promotions, because spending a whack load of money on the album to get the best production did not lead us to success. It’s not to say quality production has no value, it’s just that production alone is no longer enough to get your music heard and praised by others like it used to.

We’ve hit a crossroads where more quality music is being self-produced than ever before and a person’s interests and tastes can be more hyper specified than ever. Giving access to your music has become easier for independent bands, but that’s not where the problem lies. It’s about getting it in front of the right people, people who like your style, making them a fan and hopefully a customer. You have to seek out your fans now. No one will be googling your band unless you give them a reason to.

I now present to you the lessons I learned along the way that will hopefully help you avoid some of the mistakes I made, give you a leg up and assist you on your path to building successful music careers.

1) Build Your Buzz FIRST!

There are plenty of great bands out there that DON’T have an album or recorded songs released who can still draw people out to a show. Through word of mouth, social media and by having an engaging live performance you can actually gain an audience without investing in recording your music. Once you start performing, people will ask YOU for the recorded music if they like your songs. Build your audience first before you go investing money into a product you aren’t certain if people even want. This isn’t to say you can’t record yourself affordably; it’s just a matter of making sure the songs themselves are solid, that the music has legs and that people want it. When it comes to recording, the best plan is to start with just one great song, not a whole album. So…

2) Strive to Write One Great Song… then keep writing!

When it comes to songwriting and the deciding factors of what make a great song, it can be difficult to measure, as taste is subjective. People’s musical preferences can vary greatly, but as far as songwriting itself, there is a simple test that I am going to be using from now on: you should be able to break the song down to nothing but the chord progressions, melody lines and lyrics.

If it’s truly a great song, especially for popular music, it should be catchy, relatable, and emotional; it should make the listener feel something. Once you have the foundation it should translate well into most other styles not just the genre that it is in. Obviously this wouldn’t work to well with Death Metal or Dub-Step, but for most styles of popular music, this is a great philosophy that I will be adopting going forward. If you break the song down to an acoustic guitar with a strong vocalist and great lyrics and it’s well received, you might have something worth investing in. Once you do…

3) Give Away Your Music for FREE

One of the promoters that I work with in the industry is strictly against this. He says that giving away your music for free devalues your work and people perceive your music to be better if you charge for it. As much as I understand his sentiment, I’m going to have to agree to disagree. You can’t devalue that which has no value. No one can judge the value of your music without listening to it first.

The music itself has become a promotional tool to get people interested in your band and get them out to your live shows. If people really like your music and want you to keep creating it, they will give you money to invest into your creative works. However, they need a point of reference first to formulate their opinion. They can’t be expected to invest when they have no context. Also, over the years I think people got tired of being duped into buying an entire album of music when all they wanted was the single. Which means…

4) Promotion is as Important as Production

If you build it, they will NOT come… unless they know about it! This rings true for all creative projects but even more so for new ventures, musicians in particular.

When it comes down to it, you need to invest just as much energy if not more into promoting your music as you do into producing it. Production no longer separates independent bands from the heavy hitters with big money. You need to find creative ways to get your music out there through promotions, advertising and word of mouth. If your music is appealing, people will share it with others. People love to say “I was listening to that band long before they were famous,” your songs just have to be good enough to get people to share them. Invest in online promotions, upload your songs to blogs and send CDs to College & University Radio.

There is also an abundance of indie movie producers looking to acquire new music to use in soundtrack compilations. Offer them your music for free! There are a lot of opportunities available to you. Do whatever you can to get your music out there! And lastly…

5) Never Give Up!

As musicians we will face many obstacles on our journey to make a successful career out of our creations. It’s the ones who keep pushing through when obstacles appear that are able to reach the next level. Make music that makes you happy. When mistakes are made or things don’t pan out the way you expect, take time to reflect and learn from your experiences. You have to be willing to grow, to learn and keep going. Rejection is rampant in this industry where some ones subjective opinion decides the fate of whether you get that awesome gig or those spins on a radio station.

The best advice I can give is to just keep going. Every album and performance you make will only get better than the last one if you stick to it, work hard and actively participate in evolving your abilities. How many popular bands have 3 or more CD’s out there before they become popular? Your relationships will develop as well and things will get easier, the snowball bigger. Don’t be discouraged and remember why you are doing it in the first place, because you love it!

And there it is. The 5 biggest lessons I learned from this whole experience. I really hope it can help other artists out there. I love making music, so this isn’t going to stop me, but let me tell you, I wish someone would have mentioned this stuff to me back before I invested all that money! icon wink 5 Lessons YOU Can Learn From My Mistakes: I Spent $20,000 Making an Album I Can’t Even Give Away

Would love to hear feedback so please feel free to comment below!

Shane Lamotte
Musician / Blogger
Digital Media Designer

Twitter: http://twitter.com/shanelamotte
Band: http://LivingIllusion.com
Blog: http://ShaneLamotte.com

PS If you want a copy of the $20,000 album here’s a link to a FREE download of the whole thing. Living Illusion: Suffering – http://bit.ly/QV6Mkg

* Big thanks to We Are the Music Makers Reddit community who helped make this article possible.

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About Shane Lamotte

Shane Lamotte has been an independent musician for the last 12 years with his band Living Illusion (http://LivingIllusion.com) and his new band Pistols at 20 Paces (http://Pistolsat20Paces.com). He is also an event coordinator, internet marketing consultant and digital media designer working with many entrepreneurial based businesses.

Shane Lamotte 202x300 5 Lessons YOU Can Learn From My Mistakes: I Spent $20,000 Making an Album I Can’t Even Give Away

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  • http://ilanceleste.com/ Ilan Celeste

    Thanks for the reminder. I’ve reduced my per song cost to comfortably under $100 (mixed and mastered) by taking the time to craft more carefully in my home studio before taking my files to be polished off by my favorite pro studio. Imposing a strict per song budget has gently forced me to learn how to do things I used to pay other people to do for me. As one example of this, I’ve been forced to learn mixing techniques I used to ignore. It’s more work to be sure, but as a result, I’ve grown as an all-around musician and feel much more satisfied with my work at the end of the day.
    Your statements about making better songs and sinking your resources into recording and producing only your best work are spot on.
    Thanks again.

  • Mike_Threatt

    great post.. I would love to work with you.

  • Andrew

    Thanks for sharing your experience man, good luck and keep this going on :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrew.roudny Andrew Roudny

    I’ve been making what I think is quality music for years, and hearing nothing but what I think is garbage on the radio for years as well. And it makes me ask : Is the music even a factor anymore? Seems to me that it ranks a distant fourth to having money, being popular and knowing influential people. So what is good music? Can anyone even tell the difference anymore or is it just marketing?

  • Eman

    I’m sorry but I disagree with you on the music for free thing. I think streaming it for free is great! That’s what I do. All my music is readily available on bandcamp as well as Spotify, and people can hear it there for free all they want, and I encourage it. But frankly, I’ve been given so many free CD’s or download links that when I get them, I hardly ever even care to listen. I’ve invested nothing into it. If folks want my music, they can find it easily online and listen to it in full. If they want to keep it, they can easily buy it from pretty much anywhere. I think that’s a good medium rather than giving it up in every form. Even the $8 price tag on our bandcamp page kind of signifies that the music has some meaning, even though they can hear it all for free. Just giving it away, especially in a physical form, is purely wasteful. I doubt even 10% of people will listen, and far fewer will even give it a chance.

  • Janet Swain

    Oh my God, i completely relate to this article, because I did the same thing! Why didn’t someone tell me to stop! I spent about $16000 on making an album that probably sold 50 copies – and I still think it is a great CD, but if you don’t do the other stuff, it is a TOTAL waste of money – unless you have plenty of money to swish around!

  • Brandon Reese

    Bro your band is awesome!!!!!!!!

  • http://mikeechlin.posterous.com/ mechlin

    Great insights Shane, thank you. The big problem to be solved is how the average music fan discovers new music. The action is still passive for most people, unless they are a musician.

  • chris

    good info…and i like the spirit of it…you share so, when i get the opportunity i will send people your way…and i am going to post your music on my fb page…good luck to you…now it’s time to listen to your music!…thanks :)

  • Jo

    cheers for sharing this., it’s always good to hear the true stories and the real advice to learn from…

  • Kyle

    Well said. My band is currently pushing 60,000 albums sold, 5 singles to hit major market radio, multiple national tours and our current single is charting Top 30s at active rock radio. Of all the milestones we have hit, DIY boundires we’ve crossed and perceptions we’ve disproven about “Making it”…. you certainly touched on what I believe to be the MOST important thing right now: Promotion. Peoples attention spans are shorter now, more music is available and everyone and their mother can put a song on iTunes. New artists will WITHOUT A DOUBT go unnoticed if they don’t focus their efforts on promotion before production. Despite how much YOU love your own music…. it doesnt exist to the world if you don’t make them hear it. My 2 cents. Good article man :)

    • SpotlightGlobal

      Kyle, CONGRADS man! That’s some major success. We’ve been trying to hammer this message home to artists, and so we’d really appreciate a chance to have you share your success story, which is a great way to give back and both inspire and guide struggling artists who are willing to listen, and act. Of course, the extra exposure won’t hurt either :) Please contact me at jason@spotlightglobal.com.

    • http://twitter.com/shanelamotte Shane Lamotte

      Thanks Kyle! Would love to check out your band! The Promotions lesson has definitely been the toughest of all to learn. People want to believe that their music is so good that they don’t need to promote because it will spread like wildfire because people will share it… sadly that is an extremely rare case.

  • mac77/66

    Awesome dude, I pray success will find you. When so many people in the business particular love to not give up info,it’s refreshing to find one who will. I seriously learned something. Thanx Bro!

  • Torey

    Great advice. I’ve put out one album, albeit a collection of children’s music, (I’m no indie rocker lol) but the information is just as relevant. Thanks, will put this knowledge into practice and share with others!

  • Richard Patterson

    Anything you luv and invest in, ISN’T a waste of money, no matter how much it is!!!! You can win or lose in life, no matter what it is!!!! By the way, I’m a songwriter, who writes strong lyrics. I live in the LA / Hollywood area and a (ASCAP) member in music. I might have some material that could change your band’s outlook. I’m lookin’ for a team to join. I like your attitude.

  • http://twitter.com/TuneCitydotcom TuneCity

    Hey Shane, thanks for sharing your insights.

    Recouping your costs might be a bit of a challenge, but I’m sure your album could become an effective promotional tool for your band, even if it’s just part of your press kit.

    There really are no silver bullets in life. There isn’t any one thing that makes an artist or musician successful. It’s the daily discipline of practicing, rehearsing, networking and marketing that makes all the difference.