Many people have contacted me in the past few weeks saying pretty much the same thing.
“We love your advice – but we REALLY need to get into the studio. Help!”
So this post is especially for you.
My favoured approach is to use a proven, fundraising system to raise the funds necessary to get you the equipment or studio time.
I’ll talk more on that in a later training. I’m working on something free, fabulous and really in depth for you on that. It’ll be ready about a month from now so keep an eye out for it!
However, today I’m going to offer a different route – and show you how to record an album in 45 minutes – and get paid for recording it.
This will also help those of you who don’t have a problem with funding – but have a problem with procrastination – or simply finding the time in a busy schedule.
We’ve all heard of bands who spend months or even years making an album.
But if you’ve got the songs, and don’t have the funds or the time, this method will be perfect for you.
Two Things At Once – Whether You Like It Or Not
First, let me reveal another concept that will help you through your life as an economically sustainable musician: Nobody ever makes just the one thing.
Whenever you make one thing, you have the capacity to make something else saleable as you do it.
So, whenever a carpenter saws wood, he or she is also making sawdust. The more enterprising carpenters will then bag it up and sell that sawdust rather than putting it in the bin.
I think of this whenever I undertake any project. What is my “sawdust” from this activity? What could I be producing in this moment simply as a by-product of what I’m already doing.
Think of Leo Babauta, the author of the top selling book The Power Of Less. He has an excellent blog called Zen Habits.
His blog posts later become books. The Power Of Less is just a structured collection of his blogs.
So now, when I’m writing these blog posts, in the back of my mind I’m thinking of other things they too might become.
It’s a really productive way to think, because I am alert to the multiple things I’m naturally creating at the very same time.
I’d like you to start thinking that way as a musician.
My Devious Plan
Which brings me to my devious plan for making an album in 45 minutes flat.
What is it that musicians tend to do most? Yes, we gig!
Now imagine if we rehearsed really well, and then recorded a 45 minute show featuring all of our planned “album songs.”
Guess what you’d have? A live album!
When I browse through my record collection, some of my favourite albums are live albums. They are authentic, energetic and atmospheric. So why not do one yourself?
You’re gigging anyhow.
All you need to do is get your sound engineer to record you, and by the end of the gig, you’ve got a live album ready to be pressed and released.
When I did the album launch gig for my studio album When The Sunlight Shines, I was my own support.
The full band was on in the second half playing the new album. But in the first half, I played some of my old favourites, plus a couple of previously unrecorded songs.
I had my front of house sound engineer record the lot. The result was my album “Live At 81 Renshaw Street.”
An Album in 45 Minutes Flat
If you’re worried about quality control and making mistakes, you could do this more than once and pick the best song versions – but essentially this method will get you an album in 45 minutes flat while doing what you were booked to do anyhow.
So if you’re struggling for funds, or you’re struggling for time – now you have the answer. Make a live album.
By the end of your set, you’ll have it in the can. And if it’s a paid gig, you get a wad of cash for recording your album too.
Let’s know how you get on!
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