tag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:/blogs/tone-s-blogTone's Blog2024-03-04T12:44:17-05:00ToneJonez.comfalsetag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/73614952024-03-04T12:44:17-05:002024-03-04T15:29:26-05:00Stop Overthinking<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/671ff30ee0b12da41c0ce51590644c67f660a936/original/stop-overthinking.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" height="2000" /><p>Analysis paralysis (overthinking) is one of the biggest things keeping you from achieving your music goals! You overthink every detail to the point that you never take action. We've all been there! If you're struggling with overthinking right now, I wrote this blog to help you navigate these thoughts and hopefully break through to taking action.</p><p>In order to stop overthinking, you have to address the root cause: <strong>Fear</strong>. Although there’s a variety of reasons people are fearful of taking action, the most common 2 reasons are fear of what others will think and fear of failure. So in today’s blog post, I’m focusing only on these 2.</p><p><strong>Fear of what people will think.</strong> You know exactly what you want to do, but you’re terrified of the things people will say or think. It’s completely understandable! In today’s world of brutal comment sections full of trash can 🗑and doo doo emojis 💩, it can be intimidating to shoot your shot. But the thing you have to realize is no matter what you do, no matter what level of talent you have, no matter how you look, no matter how you sound, no matter how hard you try to perfect your strategy, somebody will always have something negative to say about you! Always! Free yourself fam and understand you can’t prevent this! This has always happened and will always happen! So since it’s going to happen anyway, why not just go ahead and do what you really want to do? Your stuff isn’t going to be for everybody and that’s okay! I understand some people will verbalize their dislike very disrespectfully (like saying you're trash or 💩 lol), but WHEN that happens, just block them and keep being great! Don’t stop or derail your plans over a few comments. Most people who make shrewd comments are really just afraid or lazy. They can't stand that you have the audacity to actually follow your dreams lol! It’s much easier for them to cut you down than to put in the work required to build themselves up. They've already given up on themselves. Don't let them trick you into giving up on yourself. Get up and go do what you want to do! </p><p><strong>Fear of failure.</strong> The perfectionist in you loathes the thought of having a few mishaps or failing altogether. Again, free yourself and understand you can’t avoid this! You are a human and you won’t get everything right. This has always happened and this will always happen! So since you’re going to mess up anyway, why not take action and go try stuff? The reality is no matter how much advice you receive, how many detailed plans you make, or how many preventative measures you put in place, you WILL experience failures. This is actually necessary. You can’t figure out what does work/doesn’t work until you stick your neck out and try things. Thomas Edison had many failed attempts before creating a successful light bulb design. The Wright brothers had many failed attempts before creating a successful airplane design. Henry Ford had many failed attempts before creating a successful car design. If just these few people had gave up from not getting things right the first time, we probably wouldn’t be enjoying indoor lighting, air travel, and automobiles today. Understand you're going to have to take a stab at things multiple times before you strike fire. You’re not going to have it all figured out on the first attempt so start taking action and be resilient. Learn from mistakes/failures and improve as you go. You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take. You only truly fail when you stop taking shots.</p><p>If your life ended right now at this very second, would you be happy with how much effort you've put towards your goals? Would you be able to say you gave it your all or would you be filled with regret? If your answer is regret, you can change that starting right now. Don’t over plan and don’t overthink. Break everything down into small actionable goals that you can start doing now and then go do. Months from now you'll look back in disbelief at how far you’ve come. But it all starts with freeing yourself from limiting thoughts and putting one foot in front of the other. Hope this is encouraging! Blessings. -Tone</p>5:31ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/73570182024-02-25T11:49:22-05:002024-03-04T12:43:32-05:00You're Talented<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/c738600e23c51fa36482d6efeece4acc07e98742/original/youre-talented.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" height="2000" /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">You're talented fam! But when you don't get the results/support you desire from your music, sometimes self doubt can creep in and cause you to question your talent. Don't doubt yourself! You have unique value that people will appreciate! But to get the results you desire, it's going to take asking yourself a few specific questions and then putting an action plan in place based on those answers. Here are the questions you need ask yourself:</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span><strong>Question 1:</strong> Who is your ideal supporter? Who is it that you're specifically trying to communicate to with your music? What demographic traits do they have? The clearer picture you have of who that is, the better you can define every part of your brand to connect with them.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span><strong>Question 2:</strong> What message/value are you trying to communicate to that supporter? What benefit would you like your ideal supporter to get out of your music? At the end of the day, people care more about how they benefit from what you're offering vs the thing you're actually offering. The clearer you are on your benefits/value/message, the better you can define every part of your brand to connect with your ideal supporter.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span><strong>Question 3:</strong> Does your social media content/website/music clearly communicate your benefit/value/message to your ideal supporter? Everything we do/create should be framed to communicate our benefit/value/message to that ideal supporter. That's how we attract the right people to us. Many times we cast too wide of a net and end up missing the people who would authentically resonate with what we do. So we have to constantly re-evaluate our strategy to make sure we're communicating the right thing to the right people. It's not about reaching everybody because what you do isn't going to connect with everybody. It's about reaching the right people.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span><strong>Question 4:</strong> Does what you do elevate your ideal supporter's life? At the end of the day, regardless of what business you're in, we're all in the solutions business. People have problems, we create solutions, and people pay us for our solutions. Our music (and anything else we do) should be providing some type of solution that elevates our ideal supporter's life. Whether that's just entertainment, encouragement, confidence, faith, consolation, etc. We have to constantly re-evaluate what we offer to make sure it's providing solutions/elevation because that's how you keep winning. People may forget your lyrics and melodies, but they'll never forget how you make them feel. It's all about impact! </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span><strong>Question 5:</strong> Do you have a vehicle in place (outside of social media) to frequently reinforce your benefit/message/value to your ideal supporter? Social media is great and necessary, but all these algorithm changes can quickly throw a wrench in your strategy! One month your reach may be fantastic and the next month nobody is seeing your posts. This is why you also need email marketing, text marketing, or both in place to capture your audience's contacts and reinforce that connection. You can use email services such as Aweber, Mail Chimp, Get Response, etc to create an email signup for your ideal supporters and then stay connected through a valuable weekly/bi-weekly/monthly email. You can do the same via text with companies like Textedly, Simple Texting, etc. I'm assuming you already have a website but if you don't, you can easily build one with sites such as Wix, Squarespace, etc. Any time you have some value to offer, new music, new products, etc, you can let your audience know directly via email/text marketing. Social media is an amazing tool to gain exposure for your brand but if you don't capture that audience via email/text marketing, you're doing yourself and your ideal supporters a huge disservice. </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.5;margin:0px;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span>After you answer these questions for yourself, identify the weak points in your strategy and put an action plan together to fix them! As you consistently demonstrate brand clarity in these 5 areas, results will come! But it's a continual process. We all have to frequently revisit and answer these questions for ourselves in order to keep moving the needle forward. So as I continually do this for myself, I hope it helps you as well! Blessings -Tone</span></div>5:32ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/56054032023-06-02T10:34:32-04:002024-02-25T12:02:25-05:005 Social Media Growth Tips for Indie Artists<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/b9e2aa220db9ff6cb4a18697b4d20b320607a246/original/tone-ig-2023.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p>Are you having a hard time gaining exposure and support for your music? Frustrated? No worries! This blog post will give you the tools to help you change that! In today's climate, social media is THE most effective tool to gain exposure to your music and attract warm leads that can become supporters! But unfortunately, so many creatives are using social media in an ineffective manner that fails to garner the results they're looking for. Society romanticizes follower counts but the real gem is engagement! You generate engagement by creating valuable and entertaining content that people resonate with. Although I've grown my IG following to over 21K followers in the last few years, I was still achieving amazing support and engagement with way less followers because of the strategies I'll share today. No bots, no buying followers, or any of that crazy stuff lol! Just solid practical strategies. Today I want to change your perception on social media and show you how to use it to your advantage. Let's get started!</p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Tip 1: Build Your Bio </strong></span></p><p>When people visit your social media page, within seconds they should clearly be able to identify who you are and what you do! Many artist profiles either lack information (name, what they do, contact info, links, etc) or are so all over the place with info that people are turned off from trying to figure it out! <strong>Here are a few key parts of your social media bio</strong>:</p><ul>
<li>
<strong>Artist Name/Image. </strong>Your social media profile should clearly display your artist name and image/logo. For some artists I've literally had to search through their profile to figure out their artist name. Also I've seen artists use profile images that have absolutely NOTHING to do with their artist brand! These are two super simple things that you must have in place! Get a social username as close to your artist name as possible AND make sure your artist name is clearly communicated at the top of your social profile. </li>
<li>
<strong>What You Do/Accolades</strong>. Your social media bio should clearly communicate what you do and briefly include a few accolades (or recent releases) that you may have. This tells people what you do and also shows them that you're actively doing it.</li>
<li>
<strong>Links</strong>. You need to provide links to your assets outside of social media (your website, your music, a special offer, vides, contact, etc). I personally use <a class="no-pjax" href="https://linktr.ee/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url">Linktree</a> to do this as I can include links to multiple things by using one link on my social profile, but there are plenty of other similar services that are awesome as well. Or you can create a page on your website with all your links and post a link to that page in your bio. Whatever works best for you! </li>
</ul><p>Usually if a person sees your content on their feed and they like what they see, they're going to visit your profile to seek more info. Don't make them jump through hoops to find your info! Keep it clear, simple, and easy.</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/de16dda74f78e8f1735a9abc0df5f02e62de121e/original/grammy-post-screenshot.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Tip 2: Post Consistent Engaging Content </strong></span></p><p>You could have the best music on the planet but if you're only posting things like “Check out my new song!” or “Check out my new album!”, you're not going to get the results you desire. Firstly, when people are scrolling their feed they intend to stay on the app not leave the app. So when your post is asking them to leave the app to check out your music, unless they already rock with your brand, they probably won't do it. Secondly, you have to understand that everyone, their grandma, and their dog are doing music these days lol! Around 100K new songs are being released on platforms everyday and everyone's social media feed is filled with “Check out my new music!” posts so how are you going to stand out? <strong>Here's how to make engaging content that stands out</strong>:</p><ul>
<li>
<strong>Show Your Skills. </strong>Instead of just posting your album cover with a "coming soon" description or a video of a still image with your music playing, you've got to dig deep creatively and let people see you in action! Yes you need to get in front of the camera and show your face! We all have amazing cameras on our phones now so there's no excuse lol! Getting real comments, likes, follows, link clicks, post saves, etc come from you demonstrating your craft on camera. That gives people the opportunity to get to know you and engage with you as a person!</li>
<li>
<strong>Post videos and photos of you working on music or music related activities:</strong> People love seeing the behind the scenes process of how things are made. When you’re writing your records, making your beats, getting records mixed, working on designs for your merch, at a photo shoot, getting ready to do a show, mingling with supporters, etc., let people see that! These things are more effective than just playing your music. Everybody makes music now so content like this helps set you apart. Some of my most popular videos are of me sampling unusual items (animals, vacuums, washing machines, cars, etc) and then making beats out of them lol! Showing myself making beats out of those items lead to more sales of the actual beats when I posted them for sale (and increased sales overall in general).</li>
<li>
<strong>Post tips/tutorials for other musicians:</strong> If you're extremely skilled in what you do, hop on the camera and share a few tips every once and a while! Everybody has their own unique way of creating music so sharing how you do certain things could be extremely valuable to another musician! Things in our process that we consider as "insignificant" can be life changing to another creative's work process. A few examples are tips on writing lyrics, producing beats, mixing songs, performance strategies, how to book shows, sharing chord progressions, and the list goes on! These are things that you're spending time doing anyway so you might as well document the process for others to benefit. If you grow the demand for your skills high enough through social media, you can even translate that into course products which creates another stream of revenue for you. The opportunities are endless really.</li>
<li>
<strong>Go Live:</strong> Sometimes people need to see you in your element live! Pre-recorded content is amazing but nothing can replace the experience of real-time interaction. People can engage with you real-time and build a deeper rapport/relationship with your craft. Admittedly, I've never went live before so I'm preaching to myself as well here lol! But it's a strategy that is undisputedly effective when it comes to engagement.</li>
<li>
<strong>Get Personal:</strong> More than what you do, today people have to buy into who you are as a person before they fully support you. You must post content that gives people a view into your mindset and how you see the world. In regular life you're more apt to connect with people who share similar interests/experiences as you and it's the same thing online. It's a people business! Let them see YOU the person. This helps people connect with you on a personal level and also helps them understand your music even the more.</li>
<li>
<strong>Show Your Ups and Downs</strong>: One of the most powerful things about social media is it allows people to see your journey and growth. Don’t be afraid to share your failures and your struggles. People need to see that stuff because as you continue to grow and evolve, it gives others a front seat view into how possible it really is to accomplish your dreams. In addition, it further cements your supporter base when they can see your growth and feel like they were a part of it. Some of my most consistent supporters were there from day 1. One of my biggest passions is encouraging people by sharing my experiences. My encouraging content is honestly one of the major reasons people follow me, maybe even more-so than my actual music. </li>
<li>
<strong>Share Your History:</strong> Of course you can't tell everybody everything lol, but within reason share your story with the world! You may not think the town you grew up in, your favorite foods as a child, that college course you flunked, or whatever else is significant. But there's always going to be somebody somewhere that shares the same experience and will feel more deeply connected to you because of these things. Old videos, old photos, etc help people see and understand your roots. Back when I first started I had people connect with me because I like oatmeal, seriously lol! I used to joke about it all the time, even doing contests where if people tagged me in a picture of them holding a container of oatmeal, I'd give them a free beat lol! It's corny I know, but it was authentic lol!</li>
<li>
<strong>Show What You Do Outside of Music</strong>: Everything doesn't have to be about music. What are your favorite tv shows? What do you do for fun? Do you have any hobbies? Do you suck at sports (like me lol)? Let people see it! One of my best performing videos on social media was of me showing how terrible I am at basketball lol! Some of my others were me just acting silly pranking my daughter lol. It doesn't have to be super thought out/polished just show that you're an actual human lol!</li>
</ul><p>As creatives it's super easy for us to get so locked into pumping out new music that we forget to add other points of value that people can connect with. I fall into that hole sometimes too (honestly I have been the last 6 months) but we have to snap out of the music grind and find other ways to add value and connect with people. Lately I've been so lost in creating beat after beat that I forgot how much I enjoy blogging and creating engaging videos on social media. Seeing people's lives be impacted by my content is always an honor. I want to do better by my supporters so this post isn't just for you guys, it's for me too!</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/cb5b466027159aa23db1cd8b675441b55356481a/original/screen-shot-2023-06-02-at-10-48-35-am.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Tip 3: Capture Warm Leads! </strong></span></p><p>What is a warm lead? This is a person who's seen, enjoyed, and engaged with your social content on a consistent basis. They enjoy what you do and if given a chance would most likely actually support by purchasing your music/merch. But when you drop a post letting people about that new song/project/merch, it's going to have a hard time reaching your warm leads due to these insane social media algorithms! Even if these people follow you, you're still going to have a hard time cutting through! Even if you spend money on advertising, you're still going to encounter difficulty cutting through! Not to mention, a platform could randomly shadow ban or disable your account for no reason at all. How would you reach those warm leads you worked so hard to attract then? This is why it's ESSENTIAL to convert warm leads into email subscribers! <strong>Here's how to do that</strong>:</p><ul>
<li>
<strong>Social Media is a Funnel. </strong>Have you ever used a funnel to pour oil or other types of liquid into your vehicle? The point of the funnel is to give that liquid a path to get to the intended destination which could be the oil tank, windshield wiper fluid compartment, etc. Understand that social media is just a big funnel! The point of social media is to draw the right people to your brand (warm leads that authentically enjoy what you have to offer) and THEN convert those people to email subscribers so that you can continue a direct relationship from there! From that point you can easily and directly give FREE value AND keep them updated on new paid offerings that you have (like music/merch) instead of fighting with algorithms to do so! Not to mention, it's much easier (and less expensive) to sell to people who are already interested in what you're offering vs selling to people who don't know you (also known as a cold leads).</li>
<li>
<strong>Create a Mailing List</strong>. There are plenty of email marketing platforms available and they're all pretty affordable! A few popular options are <a class="no-pjax" href="https://mailchimp.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Mailchimp">Mailchimp</a>, <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aweber.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Aweber">Aweber</a>, <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.constantcontact.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Constant Contact">Constant Contact</a>, and <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.getresponse.com/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url">Get Response</a>. Once you join an email marketing platform and you create a mailing list, you also need to create a lead magnet page or opt-in form. This is basically a place where people can input their Name/Email and join your mailing list. If you already have your own website, you can just create an opt-in form and embed that form onto a page of your website. But if you don't have a website, most of these email marketing platforms feature the option for you to create a lead page (which is basically a web page with your opt in form). To create the most effective opt-in/lead page, I suggest offering a free incentive in return for people signing up to your email list. It could be a free song, exclusive content that isn't available anywhere else online, etc. If someone is already rocking with your brand, in addition to having that direct connection via email a free song/exclusive content/etc is icing on the cake! So make sure to offer that! Most email marketing platforms feature a way to offer downloads in exchange for sign ups so take advantage of it!</li>
<li>
<strong>Put a link to your opt-in/lead page on social media</strong>. Once your list and opt-in/lead page is ready, you need to put a link to it on your social media. This could either be your main link on social media or if you're using a multi-link service like Linktree, this should be near or at the top of your links. As you create engaging content on social media, warm leads are going to naturally click on your link and join your mailing list! Also in your content (when appropriate), you should include a CTA (call to action) in which you ask people to click the link your bio to join your list. This could be verbally or as text in the description of your post. Make sure to let people know about the sign-up incentive as well as that will encourage more warm leads to sign up!</li>
<li>
<strong>Give subscribers value</strong>. After people have signed up to your list, give them value on a consistent basis. Again this can be exclusive FREE content that's only for your subscribers, exclusive PAID content that's only for your subscribers, exclusive sales/discounts, keeping them updated on new content that you've posted on social media, keeping them updated on new music/merch available, etc. It's up to you! Just make sure you're giving value and NOT overloading them unnecessary with emails. I generally only send emails a few times a week and always for a specific purpose. I don't like wasting people's time so my list only hears from me when I have something valuable to offer. </li>
<li>
<strong>Don't add random people to your list</strong>. PLEASE don't grab a bunch of random emails off the internet and start sending these people emails. This will lead to alot of unsubscribes and possibly your email marketing account being suspended (adding unsolicited emails is against the law). The only people that should be on your list are people who signed up to your list themselves. All my subscribers either come in from my lead page or after purchasing my products. I never just add emails to my list and I suggest you don't do that either.</li>
</ul><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/00a330c570f68cfde22d1933c93d73cae353fbe1/original/dont-spam.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Tip 4: Never Spam </strong></span></p><p>Now that you have an email funnel in place to capture those warm leads, let's jump to a big social media mistake that could ruin this whole process for you. You may have the greatest intentions when you share your music links in the comments section/inbox of other people's profiles/channels, but when it's unsolicited (aka they didn't ask for it) that's considered spamming. Tagging people in your music posts unsolicitedly is also spamming. It can feel like you're forcing your content on people when done this way. <strong>Here are better ways to share your music</strong>:</p><ul>
<li>
<strong>Post your music on your own social media profiles/channels. </strong>As you consistently post quality content with the proper hashtags and formatting on your own profile/channel, more and more people will be drawn to your content over time. It's going to take time. Sharing/tagging your links with your friends or people who are personally invested in your music can be ok. But try to avoid doing that with people who aren't invested as it will be a turn off. Honestly, I wouldn't overdo tagging friends either. For me, I usually only tag people who were actually involved in whatever I'm posting. If I'm the only one involved, I don't tag anyone as tagging can be annoying to people. But do what you feel is best within reason.</li>
<li>
<strong>Share your Music through your Mailing List</strong>. In all honesty, if you're looking for real support, the absolute best place to share your music is to the mailing list that you've already built (continuing to build) with warm leads! As I've said before, these are people who are already invested in your brand and are already primed to support you! </li>
</ul><p>Spamming never works (long-term) to get people authentically engaged in your music. The best way to gain engagement is through creating engaging content. When I first started I used to spam so trust me when I tell you, it doesn't work. At all lol!</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/4910052f4d5c3f445290b031ed505d1c27998e40/original/beyou.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Tip 5: Be Yourself</strong></span> </p><p>Last but not least, the most important part of your strategy is you should always be yourself! Stick to your own natural personality and what makes you YOU. You don't have to put on a fake persona. You don't have to chase what's trending to grow. Although some social media challenges can be fun and spark some engagement, you don't have to rely on challenges or gimmicks to get real growth! It's all about fully examining your own life, pinpointing the things that make you unique, and then finding your own unique way to share that with the world on a consistent basis! Unless you somehow go viral, this is a process that usually takes time and energy but it's worth it. Don't expect to do this overnight. Don't even focus on the number of followers. Just focus on putting out amazing content consistently, serving warm leads that turn into subscribers, and let the chips fall as they may!</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/978c9df21783bd91438d146d362ac6891a7ceb07/original/boost.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Bonus Tip: Boost High Engagement Content</strong></span></p><p>If a post you've created is getting alot of organic response, you can take that post to the next level by utilizing paid advertising! If you spend the money the right way, it can definitely be to your advantage! <strong>Here's how</strong>:</p><ul><li>
<strong>Boosting the reach of my most popular content with ads</strong>: On instagram specifically, once I see that a piece of content is growing legs organically, I like to further that by creating an ad campaign targeting my followers (and people like them) that links people back to my actual instagram profile. Sometimes I may only do this for a few days or if it's something that's really catching fire, I'll make it an ongoing ad that runs until whenever I decide to stop it. The fact that the content is already doing amazing organically signals that more people would be interested in it too if they could see it! Putting ads on this type of content takes it's exposure to the next level and this has been a win for me every time. It's lead to more followers, more engagement, and most importantly more warm leads joining my mailing list. You could use this same strategy for any social media platform that has advertising capabilities. Just make sure to be wise in your daily ad spend so you don't lose your shirt lol! If I'm only boosting something for a few days, I spend $50-$100 a day. If it's an ongoing daily ad, I usually spend $25-$50 a day. Do what works best for you!</li></ul><p>At the end of the day, the only way to achieve authentic engagement is through posting quality authentic content. When people go on these platforms, they're mostly looking for value and entertainment (not to be sold to). Everything you post is either adding to or taking away from your brand. So before every post, I encourage you to ask yourself these 3 questions: Why am I posting this? How will this post provide value for other people? What do I intend to achieve with this post? I hope this blog post has been helpful for you! Time to turn up and show the world who you are! Blessings! -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/65089542021-01-18T08:43:59-05:002022-05-11T06:21:33-04:00Major Key for the New Year<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/36d927ebed910a4f378fbd56f1e00506792a7b16/original/red-clock.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" />As we move into the new year, many are looking over their goal lists optimistically proclaiming what they'll accomplish during the year. Every year people burst at the seams with zeal on January 1st but fizzle back down to the same ole same ole by the middle of the month. Why does this happen year in and year out? Many become discouraged pointing at haters, a lack of talent, support, or resources as the reason for their demise. But in all honesty, 90% of the time the lack of accomplishing goals boils down to one major key: time management. This isn't a sexy subject I know lol, but it can lead to sexy results. Let's talk about it!</p>
<p><strong>Manage Your Time</strong></p>
<p>No matter where you fall on the socioeconomic ladder, everybody has the same 24 hours in a day. There's nothing you can do to add even a second more to your 24 hour time period. The only way to get more out of your day is to manage the time that you have. You have to put more respect on your time and stop freely giving it to things/people who don't provide an adequate ROI for your time. Fortunately, this is an area that anyone can improve in and there will always be room for growth! When it comes to success, being disciplined with your time will level the playing field in ways far greater than just talent. Most people don't manage their time well so if you want to have a leg up this year and really get to your goals, this is the area to focus on! So how do you improve in your time management? Here's a few ways!</p>
<p><strong>Get Up Early</strong></p>
<p>One of the easiest ways to improve time management is to establish a proper sleep schedule so you can get up early and utilize more hours in your day. Freeing up just a few hours extra in your morning can make a massive difference towards reaching your goals! As an example, I usually go to sleep around 8pm so that I can wake up at 3am. This allows me to get proper sleep and attack my goals in the early hours before all the distractions of life wake up lol! The first few hours of my morning are spent on fitness/audio books and then I get into my work for the day. The fitness/audio books are a powerful two punch mental combo that prime my day for success. By the time 7am arrives, I've already done what most people will do in a full day of work PLUS I have the rest of the day to do more work! This allows me to have much more precision when it comes to accomplishing goals.</p>
<p><strong>Limit Distractions</strong></p>
<p>These days, you don't have to look too hard to find a distraction. Honestly, 90% of our distractions come from our phones. We sign up for all kinds of social media platforms, services, and other things that bombard us with constant notifications. Not to mention also receiving actual calls and texts as well! If you want to really level up this year, you have to learn how to put the phone down! You have to limit your availability in order to maximize your goals. </p>
<p>Go through your notification options and only allow notifications from apps that are super important. You don't need to know that Angry Birds has an update available while you're working on your goals lol! Turn off every single notification except for the things that matter most to you. Also I recommend turning your phone off (or atleast on do no disturb) when you're working on your goals. This may sound extreme lol, but I don't think people realize how addicted we are as a society to our phones. Most people check their phone every few minutes (or even seconds lol) and that's a major distraction when you're trying to get goals accomplished. Work on establishing a more healthy relationship with your mobile device and it will make a big difference for your success!</p>
<p>In addition to the phone stuff, you need to limit your availability physically as it pertains to going out to events. You can't afford to go to every party, be at every event, or hang out at every social function. It's grind time! Establish boundaries and make sure you're prioritizing your time to your goals over leisurely activities. Having some leisure is necessary for balance, but don't over do it! People will be okay if you can't come. It's not the end of the world lol!</p>
<p>Speaking of people, there will never be a shortage of people asking you to do things for them. It's always an honor to help others, but helping must be done within reason and wisdom. You need to get very comfortable with saying NO to people. Start to thoroughly investigate every YES before you hand it out because that yes may not be in your (or their) best interest. Very often people get upset with me for giving them an honest no. But, I'd rather them be upset with me for that than be upset because I didn't follow through on a YES that I handed out prematurely. Never let people pressure you into a yes that you can't handle. It's not worth the cost of your time. Time is the most valuable asset you have.</p>
<p><strong>Establish Consistency</strong></p>
<p>Another way to manage your time is by establishing consistency. In addition to your early morning routine and limiting distractions, you need to have a routine for your work days that you can realistically stick to. You have to create a strong consistent foundation that enables you to scale your efforts over time. If you're just winging your days and not operating by any type of plan, you can't expect consistent results. Like they say, if you fail to plan you plan to fail. At the top of every week, you need to create a detailed roadmap of what needs to be accomplished during the week and HOW you're going to accomplish these things. The more structured you become with having a consistent schedule the more you're going move in the direction of accomplishing your goals. </p>
<p>As a music producer with artist customers all around the world, I always encourage artists to release music consistently. As I mentioned in my <a contents="How To Use Leased Beats" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://tonejonez.com/blogs/tone-s-blog/posts/how-to-use-leased-beats" target="_blank">How To Use Leased Beats</a> blog, the days of pushing one song for months or years is OVER. These days it's about consistently building a catalog a of high quality music so that your streaming/digital sales can grow! It's not about the "Big Hit" it's about building a snowball of residual income over time. It's always inspiring to hear the story of how music artist RUSS consistently released a song every week and took his Tunecore sales from several hundred monthly to 6 figures monthly in one year! (<a contents="see his video here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/ovc9mcUwK4s?t=55" target="_blank">see his video here</a>) He's also stated before that he makes much more off the sales of his actual music than doing shows (due to touring costs). This is all the result of consistency. Of course that won't be the case for everyone lol, but I know very few artists who release music very consistently. Most times it's a song every few months (if that) and that's not going to cut it today. Map out a schedule and do it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and...............</p>
<p><strong>Real World Example</strong></p>
<p>As a real world example, I recently let a close friend come stay with me for a few months after he fell on hard times. He had so many things he wanted to accomplish in life but he felt like life was throwing him to and fro. Being able to observe him on a daily basis, it became clear to me that the culprit that was hindering his success was poor time management. He knows how obsessive I am about time so he usually refers to me as a "Time Guy" lol! To help him out, I decided to put him through "Time Guy" training lol!</p>
<p>We sat down, reviewed every aspect of his life, and came up with a schedule and plan that would provide the structure for his success. He began working out with me every morning at 3am and during this time we'd have potent conversations about life/business. I could be a bit brutal at times with how hard I was pushing him physically/mentally lol, but these things drove him to reshape his mindset. I'd faithfully knock on his door at 3am every morning. No matter how little sleep he'd gotten or what mood he was in, I pushed him to execute the morning ritual unwaveringly. Times that he wanted to give up due to fatigue, pain, or frustration, I'd push him a further so he could see his potential. Him being able to experience pushing pass his limits and succeeding taught him a lot. He started to realize how powerful the early morning ritual was for his mindset and emotional health. I consistently drove home the point that success in every area of life is found in embracing and learning how to thrive in discomfort. These tough mornings were giving him the tools needed to start conquering his days. </p>
<p>With the newfound hours added to his day, he began getting to his goals much earlier (and much more productively). We were able to identify multiple things that were clogging up his time during the day and reconstruct things to make him much more efficient. One thing in particular that was complicating his day was an independent contractor position he held for a courier company. They'd call him all hours of the night so he never had a consistent sleep schedule. By meeting with them and establishing concrete times for his availability, he was able to then reliably schedule out his days (and sleep).</p>
<p>Brick by brick, he was able to come up with new business strategies and make progress towards his goals. Through establishing structure and focus through time management, in several months he was able to build 2 streams of residual income! These new streams put him in position to leave his courier position and pursue his passions full-time. I may have guided him a bit, but honestly the answers were already inside of him. He didn't have to buy some expensive course with "secrets" or anything like that lol! It simply took the discipline of locking in a consistent sleep schedule, consistently executing his morning ritual, and consistently scheduling his days in a way that made achieving goals the #1 priority. These things put his mindset in a position to realize and actualize opportunities that already existed inside himself.</p>
<p>So with all that said, before you go out and spend ridiculous amounts of money on gear/courses that you're convinced you "need", simply start with taking back control of your time. It's free and will pay dividends the rest of your life. It just costs discipline. Once you learn to master your time expenditure, the opportunities will be endless! I hope this was an inspiring read and I wish you an amazing year full of actionable goals and achievement! Let's get it! -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/57733182019-05-30T07:52:42-04:002022-08-30T07:16:14-04:00Success Sucks Too<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/b68fc2002308f745750f5f48df952de8e9ce380e/original/lifesucks.jpg" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>I've spent the last few days in my hometown riding around reminiscing on old times. Actually, I just got back from playing basketball at the park with my mom at 5AM in the morning lol! Ironically I remember many days as a struggling bachelor walking through that same park fraught with frustration. I used to believe my life sucked. But looking in retrospect, I'm so thankful for every experience. As a matter of a fact, walking the same paths now as a successful entrepreneur brought me to a sobering revelation: success sucks too. </p>
<p>When most budding entrepreneurs and creatives hit me up for advice, they look me as someone who has arrived. They assume that I've somehow surpassed the realm of having problems. But I'd be remiss to let that assumption grow legs. Truthfully, I have ALOT of problems. Attaining success does solve certain problems, but it also brings new (and sometimes bigger) problems. From longtime relationships failing before your eyes to Uncle Sam digging deeper in your pockets lol, it gets real. Gaining success opens your eyes to how ugly people can really be. </p>
<p>Of course there are lots of wonderful things about success as well! Taking care of the ones I love and being able to bless others is the best part of my new life. And of course doing music for a living is a dream come true! Sometimes I still can't believe that everything turned out the way that it did. But being on both sides of the financial coin has given me a very balanced perspective on life. I realize that no matter where you are in life, you'll never escape problems and there will always be elements of your life that suck really bad. I've experienced people asking me how to get on my level while my actual life was in shambles. I've experienced making crazy money while being severely depressed from real situations at the same time. I've been there more times than I care to admit. Many terrible things have happened in my life since attaining success. Things that if people knew, they'd wonder how I was able to keep pushing in the midst. You can't buy your way out of tears and pain. They come with the territory.</p>
<p>This short blog isn't meant to discourage, but actually to encourage readers to find peace and contentment in the life you live TODAY. Definitely shoot for the stars and work hard towards attaining your dreams. But don't feel like you have to get to a certain point before you start living. Cherish this moment because the next year, month, week, day, minute, or second isn't promised. When I visited my grandmother's grave yesterday, it was shocking to see how many other people I personally knew that were buried in the same graveyard. Several of them were fresh graves. Several of them around my age or younger. I would pay anything to have another moment with some of the people in that graveyard, especially my grandmother. She sacrificed so much for me and I wish I would've had the opportunity to pour back into her the way she poured into me. She died a little over a year before my business really took off. I actually missed phone calls from her the same week she died because I was busy building my business and thought I could call her back later. Later was too late. You never know when the end will come so you have to find peace in your situation and learn to appreciate the good parts of the life you live now. Honestly most of my best experiences happened before success. Success only adds fuel to the fire. You have to build a good fire first or success won't last long. With all the success I have today, I can't buy back the people or experiences that are gone and that hurts.</p>
<p>So in closing, I understand that elements of your life may suck. But no matter how far you go in your journey, you will ALWAYS have parts of your life that suck. Find the stuff in your life that doesn't suck and learn to appreciate that. Especially appreciate the people in your life because people don't last forever. No matter how tough your situation is, there are plenty people out there in worse situations that would happily trade places with you. Enjoy today. Be encouraged! -Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/53087462018-10-26T07:21:04-04:002024-02-25T12:03:06-05:00How to Use Leased Beats<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/a81a3609971beb1b653cdc127c5886eea52648b1/original/screen-shot-2023-09-13-at-4-23-47-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p><p>The way people consume music has changed drastically over the last 5 years. I've felt the impact as a producer so I'm certain you've felt the impact as an artist. The days of creating one song/album and working that for an entire year are over. People are consuming music at alarming rates, licking their chops, and waiting for more immediately after a release. Consistent content is the name of the game now. With so many expenses attached to creating and releasing music, how do you navigate in this new space without losing your shirt? This is where leased beats come to the rescue!</p><p>One of the main reasons I switched my business model from leases and exclusives to primarily leasing is because I believe leasing is the best move for most independent artists. Very few indie artists are at the point where buying Exclusive Rights makes business sense. Exclusives, while awesome, are expensive and if you don't have the budget or fan base in place to justify the expense, you will be in hole FAST. I've seen so many artists buy exclusives too early in the game only to have their song sit on Soundcloud with minimal response. Good music doesn't deserve to die unheard. Today I aim to shed light on how to use leases to take your independent grind to the next level! Hope this helps! </p><p><strong>Audience Building Tool</strong></p><p>If your fan base is small or non-existent, you need to throw the idea of albums and EPs out the window for a while and just focus on releasing consistent music. What defines "consistent" will be different from artist to artist, but I recommend releasing new music at the very least on a monthly basis. Leases are the most affordable way to achieve that goal!</p><p>Starting out on a smaller budget, I'd recommend going with basic leases just to get things moving. With most producers making basic leases so affordable, there's really no excuse to not find a few tracks you like and get to work. Basic leases are a great tool to get out there and test the waters before heavily investing in your career. You get to see what type of content resonates most with your audience without draining your pockets.</p><p>But if your budget is larger I'd recommend always going with lease licenses that include trackouts (individual instruments like kick, snare, bass, etc). A common complaint I hear about why some artists prefer not to use leases is because they don't want to sound like another artist. This is why I recommend trackouts as either you or your engineer can go in and customize the arrangement of the beat to be unique to your needs. Add sections, take out sections, add new elements, etc. Having the trackouts puts you in full creative control and takes away the excuse of sounding like someone else. I've heard some artists do AMAZING things with trackout leases that totally set them apart. </p><p>Another important part of building your audience is taking time to properly promote your music online. This is the area where people usually get in trouble. Marketing and spamming are two different things. Spamming is constantly asking people to listen to your music and tagging people in your music posts. Sending unsolicited emails to people about your music is also spamming. But marketing is posting captivating content relating to your music that attracts them to naturally consume it. You can take that even futher by setting up ad campaigns with whatever social platform you're using to further the reach of your content. </p><p>As far as email, the proper way to market is to sign up with an email marketing service (Aweber, Mailchimp, Getresponse, etc), place a sign up form on your website, and let people interested in your music sign up to your email list. The key is letting them sign up themselves. Don't just grab a bunch of random emails and add them to your mailing list. It's much better to market to people who've actually signed up to your list than send unsolicited emails to people who haven't. Once you start building your list, then you can send out emails to your mailing list (at a reasonable rate) keeping them engaged with your music. If you don't have a website or a mailing list in 2018, these are two things you need to jump on ASAP. Building your audience on Spotify, Soundcloud, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc is awesome! But the reality is none of these platforms are guaranteed to still be here later down the road. Remember Myspace? The key is building on these platforms but then also routing that traffic to your website and your mailing list so that you can retain your audience. </p><p>As you're building your audience, keep in mind that your content doesn't always have to be the actual music itself. In the past artists/brands could be very impersonal in their approach but today people want to KNOW YOU as much as they can. Your whole life is content. It's not wise to share everything in your life of course, but find unique ways to showcase your life to your audience. Remember you're not selling your music. You're selling YOU. The more people resonate with you as a person, the more they will resonate with you as an artist.</p><p><strong>Income Generating Tool</strong></p><p>So you're releasing music consistently now and you've set up a solid marketing plan to get your music out to the people. But how do you make money? Can you make money with leased beats? Absolutely you can! That's the whole point. Using affordable leases to build an audience which leads building your income. You can profit from leased beats many of the same ways that you profit from exclusive beats. The actual leasing terms will be different from producer to producer, but I personally keep my terms pretty relaxed as my aim is to help independent artists build their audiences. Here are just a few ways:</p><ul>
<li>Streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc)</li>
<li>Digital Sales (iTunes, Amazon, etc)</li>
<li>Sync Licenses (songs on tv, film, etc)</li>
<li>Youtube (*more info on this below)</li>
<li>Merchandise (shirts, hats, etc)</li>
<li>Shows</li>
<li>Royalties</li>
<li>Etc. (With creativity the ways are endless)</li>
</ul><p>As far as Youtube, using leased beats on Youtube can be tricky if not done correctly. Make sure when you submit your music to distribution services (Distrokid, Tunecore, etc) that you DON'T enable any option that submits your music to Content ID. When you submit music that contains leased beats to the Content ID system it causes issues for you and any other artists who have used that particular lease. It's best to just choose the monetization options in your Youtube video when uploading. Only submit your songs to Content ID via a distributor if you own the beat in full (exclusive rights). FYI, when using <a class="no-pjax" href="/beats-for-sale" data-link-type="page" data-link-label="Beats For Sale" contents="ToneJonez.com">ToneJonez.com</a> instrumentals if you ever receive a claim, simply <a class="no-pjax" href="/contact" data-link-type="page" data-link-label="Contact" contents="email me">email me</a> the video URL and your Airbit Order Number and I'll have my team remove the claim! I have all my instrumentals registered within Content ID via Airbit Distribution so that I can fully administer Youtube claims for my customers!</p><p>When used properly, leases can take you a long way down the road before it makes sense to shell out for exclusive rights. I've seen some artists use leases all the way up to getting a major record deal. A record deal isn't necessary today, but it just shows how far you can utilize leases. The whole point is to use leases to build an audience of people who authentically enjoy your art. Once you have an audience, the ways to monetize that audience are endless. But if you don't have an audience, and you stay in the archaic mindset of only buying exclusives, and only putting out albums/eps, many opportunities could pass you by. </p><p>In addition, one of the major keys of generating income with your music as an artist is so that you can invest that money in investment vehicles outside of music like stocks, real estate, other businesses, etc. Even though we love music, you don't want to have to solely rely on your music making ability to bring you income for the rest of your life. You must actively save and invest so your wealth can grow to the point where making music isn't "necessary" but you keep doing it because you love it! So many of our legacy artists made amazing music but are struggling financially today because they didn't have a financial plan in place to properly utilize the money they generated from music. If you take the time to educate yourself on how to save/invest your income from music, and you actively save/invest that income, in the long run that's going to place you ahead of ALOT of people in the music industry. Everything that glitters isn't gold and many artists you think are wealthy are not! Leases can be an effective part of your strategy to help you get there! </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/164f91bcbff0473a087bf2b7e1430228d377f286/original/action-plann.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p><strong>Practical Action Plan</strong></p><p>With all that said, I'd like to end things off with a practical example of how to turn this info into action! Before I get into the steps, if you haven't created a website or email list yet, you need to do that first.</p><p>Go to Godaddy.com and buy a domain name for your website. Your artist name would be best but if that's not available, choose something as close to it as possible. Then either get your website built professionally or create your own website with services like Wix, Weebly, Bandzoogle, etc. Make sure your site is clean, easy to navigate, and loads quickly.</p><p>For your email list, make sure you sign up with a professional email marketing platform like Aweber, Mailchimp, Get Response, etc. Some website building sites have a mailing list feature built in, but a dedicated professional platform will be much more robust with features and deliver your emails in a more reliable manner. Create a sign up form with the platform of your choice and then embed that sign up form on your website. There are tons of Youtube videos and articles that explain how to set up these types of things in detail. Please do your due dilligence in making sure you setup everything properly. Don't rush the process.</p><p>Once these two things are in place, you're ready to move forward! Let's say you'd like to consistently release 4 songs per month utilizing leased beats. Here's a way to do that:</p><ol>
<li>Go to your production site of choice and select your beats. Most producers have discounts and specials so you should be able to get 4 leased beats for a decent price in most places. </li>
<li>Write quality material and then get your songs recorded at a professional facility if possible. You can most definetely record the songs yourself, but if you don't know what you're doing, it's best to leave it up to the professionals in order to get the best end result. I recommend recording with the WAV or MP3 version of your leased beats unless you're working an engineer/producer who's going to help you arrangement the record. If that's the case, it's a good time to bring the trackouts into the session so you and your engineer/producer can get all creative edits/arrangements needed done at that time.</li>
<li>Once your songs are recorded, it's time to get them mixed and mastered! Definetely get your songs mixed and mastered by quality engineers as these things will either make or break your record. It's a travesty to spend money and time working on your songs only to have them destroyed at the end of the process. Don't skip getting quality engineers! There are places to go online, but I'd recommend finding good engineers in your local area that you can sit down with and establish a personal relationship with. If you're going to be releasing music regularly, it'd be ideal to have someone who you can build a consistent sound with.</li>
<li>Make sure to get quality cover art for your releases. Digital store are very particular about make sure your cover art is quality enough to be accepted so make sure and hire a quality graphic designer to do your art.</li>
<li>Once your completed songs and cover art are in hand, it's time to get the music out to the people! Start with choosing a quality distributor to get your songs on iTunes, Spotify, etc. There are several available, but for the best bang for the buck I highly recommend Distrokid! It starts at only $19.99 a year to upload unlimited songs/albums and you get many other perks like instant Spotify verification and more. If you released 4 songs every month with something like Tunecore, that'd be $9.99 a year per song. Doing that every month, that'd be $480 a year to release 4 songs a month. Ouch! Distrokid works perfect for today's environment of frequent content. Remember when submitting your content with leased beats to your distributor, DO NOT enable Youtube Content ID. </li>
<li>Once your music is up in all the digital stores, it's time to work on marketing! Upload your music to audio platforms like Soundcloud and also Video platforms like Youtube so your music can easily be found. Create frequent content for social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc in order to let people know what's going on with your music. In addition to music content, make genuine content that shows people who you are as a person. The more people buy into who you are, the more they'll buy into whatever you have to offer. Get creative! Make sure a link to your website is in your bio. Remember the goals is to always route people to your website. To make things neat and easy, I recommend using Linktree (most notably for instagram) to put all your links in one convenience link. When people click your Linktree link, they will be brought to a page that includes all your links (website, contact, mailing list etc). </li>
<li>If you'd like to take your social media efforts even further, try experimenting with ad campaigns. Setting up campaigns can be a tricky process and cost alot of money if done wrong so please do research on how to setup your desired campaign. I've personally used Facebook's ""Boosted Post" ads, Instagram's "Promote" ads, Twitter ads, and currently experimenting with Youtube display ads for some of my Youtube videos via google Adwords. I've experienced decent results with all of these except for Twitter ads. But your results may be different! Set aside a reasonable budget and experiment with different platforms until you find what works for you. </li>
<li>Once traffic starts coming to your website and get a few email list signups, start sending out a newsletter every now and then to keep your subscribers engages. How often you send emails depends on your audience and what you provide, but no more than once a week usually works well. If you start sending emails daily or multiple times a week, that can come off as spam and people will unsubscribe or file complaints with your provider. Make sure you only send quality content and only at a reasonable pace.</li>
</ol><p>This is how you start building an audience! Keep making music and repeating these steps over and over again and your audience will grow over time. It's not an overnight process, but with patience it's possible! With growth, you can start to monetize your audience even further by doing shows/tours, selling merchandise, and countless other things. As your brand gets more exposure, you'll start to see more and more opportunities come your way. It's like a big snowball effect. You start small but as you are consistent things grow larger and larger. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you have a fan base in place to properly monetize an exclusive beat and that's when exclusive beats may make sense. Producers will be much more willing to sell you exclusive rights when you have a vehicle in place that will generate royalties/publishing on the back end. And as mentioned earlier, save/invest that income till the point that one day you won't "have" to pick up the mic if you don't want to. There's plenty of different ways to invest and plenty of different resources to learn about investing today. From a free resource like Youtube, to purchasing books (paper or ebooks), to even purchasing courses, invest in your knowledge about investing TODAY. If I have one regret it's that I didn't learn how to invest sooner! It's never too early to learn about investing! That's the key to long term success.</p><p>In summary: build, monetize, invest, repeat. I hope this blog post gets a few wheels turning and inspires you take action towards growing your fan base. Thanks for reading and much success! -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/49999932017-12-30T11:18:43-05:002022-08-30T07:16:26-04:005 Ways to KILL Distractions<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/febea00a84d5fb31efa141ba2b2bc444e21d7b12/medium/1-zd2mplgoibjulg3cqh8bqw.jpeg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>How do you feel about last year? I'm sure there were more things that you wanted to accomplish. The top of a new year is the time when we all write our long list of new years resolutions. While well intentioned, distractions often end up causing us not to complete much or any of that list. Today I want to discuss 5 ways of keeping a lid on distractions! Hope it helps!</p>
<p><strong>Make Yourself Unavailable</strong></p>
<p>Phones are unequivocally distracting. With every ping and ding, we end up checking our phones every 5 minutes (or less sadly). This has led to us being one of the most distracted generations ever! It's hard to get stuff done when you're distracted every few minutes. So whenever you're working on your business or goals, make yourself completely unavailable. Set your phone to only receive calls/texts from your significant other during this time. All other notifications should be turned OFF. This way you're 100% into working when you're working. Designate a few time slots to catch up on messages, but when it's time to get back to work, unplug yourself from the phone! If you don't have a significant other or anyone that needs to contact you frequently, then turn the phone off completely while working. Don't be a slave to notifications. They'll still be there after you get work DONE. This will work wonders for your productivity!</p>
<p><strong>Say No ALOT, A WHOLE LOT!</strong></p>
<p>There's no shortage of people wanting you to do something. While it's great to help others the problem comes when you take on more than you can actually follow through with. When you over-obligate yourself, you end up being distracted from getting YOUR stuff done. Time is a valuable resource that we can't get back. So, make sure you don't get the short end of the stick by spreading yourself too thin! Many times, a NO is appropriate even if you don't feel too nice saying it. Stop worrying about being "nice" and fully evaluate what is attached to that YES before you give it. If you feel pressured by someone to give a yes, ALWAYS tell them "let me think about it and I'll get back with you later." That way you have time to really evaluate if you're able to do what they're asking and how it will affect you. Then, get back to them with an appropriate answer. Don't just give a yes under pressure to be "nice." There isn't anything nice about agreeing to something you can't or shouldn't do. If you're not careful, you can waste a lot of your precious time being tied up in things that have no lasting value for YOU.</p>
<p><strong>Keep Your Circle Tight </strong></p>
<p>When you're serious about accomplishing your goals, you have to be very careful of who you hang around. If you associate yourself with unmotivated people, you will eventually become unmotivated. There's nothing more distracting than being in a circle full of people who have no ambition. Your circle needs to be full of people who are as serious or MORE serious than you about getting goals accomplished. An effective circle should sharpen each other and push each other towards greatness. If you're doing ALL the sharpening and pushing, it's time to find a new crew. You can only go so far lugging around dead weight. Honestly, sometimes you may need to be alone for a season and there's nothing wrong with that! </p>
<p><strong>Don't Tell Everyone Your Goals</strong></p>
<p>When you're excited about your goals, it's very tempting to share them with everyone. The problem is everyone isn't going to be excited about you accomplishing your goals. Frankly, some people don't want you to succeed. The minute you start going hard for your goals, they'll go equally as hard at bringing every distraction possible your way. That may even apply to some of the closest people to. That family member that you've been close to since childhood may be unhappy with their own lives and seek to keep you unhappy with yours. So keep a lid on it! If you're gonna say anything, just give them a glimpse but not the whole picture. Sometimes it's best not to say anything at all. Work hard and let your success do the talking. </p>
<p><strong>Clean Up Your Social Media Timeline</strong></p>
<p>An easy way to deflate your motivation is by browsing through negative social media posts. While there are alot of positive people to follow (including myself <a contents="@officialtjonez" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.instagram.com/officialtjonez" target="_blank">@officialtjonez</a>), there's a plethora of negative people posting all their problems on social media. Then you have the overly opinionated type who thrive on debating with others. Then you have those who are jealous of you and post subliminal (or not so subliminal) comments under your posts. Have you ever been caught up with these types lol? It's a drain and a waste of time. The more you feed into that stuff the more it will distract you from what you need to be doing. It's amazing how you'll randomly stumble upon a negative post about the EXACT goal you are trying to pursue. So I highly encourage you to go through your timeline and unfollow/delete anyone who isn't adding something valuable to your social media experience. If their posts or comments aren't encouraging you, motivating you, inspiring you, making you laugh, or anything else constructive, cut them off fast! One negative post or comment has a lasting effect on your whole day. It will stay in the back of your mind and influence your decisions. You get out what you put in so be very intentional about the type of content you allow yourself to consume via social media. </p>
<p><strong>Bonus Tip: Focus on Accomplishing Just 5 Main Objectives Daily</strong></p>
<p>Goals can contain a plethora of variables and it can be distracting trying to focus on too much at one time. So, I highly recommend breaking your goals down into just 5 main objectives that you can accomplish daily. This way everyday you are getting SOMETHING done. Personally I use the notes app on my iPhone and list my 5 objectives in a checkmark format. I'll schedule 2-3 days at a time and then check off each thing as I complete it. For instance, my 5 objectives for today were to take a rental car back, finish writing this blog post, finish one instrumental, shampoo the carpet in my studio, and catch up on emails. Of course I have more things to do, but these are the main 5 priorities that I have REQUIRED myself to get done today. I've taken the car back and now I'm finishing this blog post! 3 more things to go!</p>
<p>I hope this blog post has been helpful to you! Distractions have caused us all to miss out on opportunities to get things done at some point. But, that's the past and this is now! Forget about what did/could have happened and focus on what you're going to do now. Kill those distractions and grind like never before! Much success to you! -Tone</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/47975902017-08-04T12:43:43-04:002023-05-16T19:20:57-04:0012 Quality Vocal Microphones Under $1000<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/db722aafb3623e5f0e04bd1371a62cca5fd2fa59/large/6d1d34c5-930e-411c-887f-b3651de484db.jpg?1501525845" class="size_l justify_center border_" alt="U87ai in Tone Jonez Studio" /></p><p>If you’re reading this, I know that you’re passionate about your sound quality! Because we all want to create the highest quality music possible, we're always looking for ways to improve our home recordings. There are plenty of areas where our sound can be improved but one universal area that is plagued with a seemingly never-ending search is the microphone. With so many brands and types of microphones, it can be downright frustrating trying to find the right microphone for our voice. Especially at an affordable price. </p><p>After buying and selling a small army of microphones over the last 10+ years, there’s one expensive truth that I’ve learned. As long as you record in a noise-free acoustically treated space and use a quality microphone that captures a balanced representation of sound, you can achieve a great sounding vocal mix! Of course higher quality mics will net a greater end result with less effort mix-wise, but in general getting a clean balanced recording at the source enables your mixing engineer to give you quality results.</p><p>With a sea of microphones that range from sounding muffled to having piercingly high amounts of treble, here are my personal recommendations for balanced microphones under $1000. If you have any favorites that weren’t mentioned, feel free to leave them in the comments! </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>Almost No Budget Options</strong></span></p><p>If you’re just starting out, I know you don't have alot to spend on equipment but you still want a decent sound at home. You won't find a ton of excellent sounding microphones at this level, but here are two nice quality options for around $100!</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AT2020" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Audio Technica AT2020 ($99)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Audio Technica AT2020 ($99)</strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/95a95c06464cae45f0f244129f91857181347672/medium/audio-technica-at2020-1-rec0003504-000.jpg?1501864829" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Audio Technica AT2020" /></p><p>The AT2020 is a solid choice for artists looking for a microphone around $100. It's a little on the bright side eq-wise (as most mics are at this price level), but it isn't overbearingly bright and cheap sounding like alot of others at this price point. It has a pretty decently balanced sound and will get you going without breaking the bank. Give it a go! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/P120" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="AKG P120 ($99)"><span class="text-big"><strong>AKG P120 ($99)</strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/2e5b58d2cb9fded810097bbdbdb73b0fe196bcec/medium/akg-3101h00400-p120-cardioid-condenser-microphone-1083342.jpg?1501864828" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="AKG P120" /></p><p>In the almost no budget category, this would be my personal pick! I have a friend that I used to mix for all the time that recorded on the older version of this mic and his vocals always came out with great quality. Out of curiosity, I picked up the older version of this microphone for dirt cheap locally (at a store ironically called Dirt Cheep Music lol) and it performed surprisingly well! Like I mentioned earlier, mics at this level are usually pretty bright but the brightness on this one sounds decent! It sounds even better to me if you open it up and take out the foam they have attached inside, but I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you're a somewhat handy person. I loaned it to a friend of my mine and he never gave it back. That says something surely lol! Either buying it new at $99 or finding the older version (AKG Perception 120) used for a good price, you can't go wrong! If I only had a few coins to buy a mic, this would be my choice. </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>Low Budget Options </strong></span></p><p>If you’re on a low budget, you may have already been through a few cheap microphones and you know how horrible they can sound. But don’t worry! You can definitely still get quality on a budget! To skip a lot of the bad apples, I suggest you start at the $250+ range. </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NT1Kit" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Rode NT1 Kit ($269)&nbsp;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Rode NT1 Kit ($269) </strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/5679fcc6f87afe120227a9d10efedd9364e8e2aa/medium/rode-nt1-kit.jpeg?1501535323" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Rode NT1 Kit" /></p><p>This microphone has a very natural and clear tone. In addition, it is one of the quietest microphones made today! Having such a low noise floor is a helpful advantage when trying to achieve clean recordings. The more popular version, called the NT1-A, has been around for many years and is also a great microphone. The main difference (besides the color of the microphone) is it's high frequency response is more aggressive than the NT1 kit. But since our goal is achieving a balanced sound I'd recommend the NT1 kit as a better choice.</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OriginMic" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Aston Origin ($299)&nbsp;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Aston Origin ($299)</strong> </span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/2391d35321e9b02626d1c301b771f2e595e10684/medium/aston-origin-front.jpg?1501535322" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Aston Origin" /></p><p>I actually own this microphone and I’ve had awesome results with it! I mainly use it for background vocals but it’s certainly clean enough to get a great lead vocal as well! It’s also built like a tank so a drop or two won’t destroy the microphone. Sometimes when you buy microphones, the price is inflated due to all the costs that are associated with packaging and other non-essentials that are included with the mic. The awesome thing about Aston is their packaging is very basic and 100% recyclable. This saves YOU money as a consumer. When you buy an Aston mic, you're paying for a quality microphone not a fancy box. I love that! Aston is a relatively new microphone company but they're shaking up the microphone industry with quality products at amazing prices! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SM27" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Shure SM27 ($299)&nbsp;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Shure SM27 ($349)</strong> </span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/4dc9b98e8eec5136cfa60fd817782ee9a605b907/medium/shure-sm27-multi-purpose-microphone-272.jpg?1501535326" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Shure SM27" /></p><p>Shure has a very long history of creating quality products so you know you're getting the goods when you buy anything from Shure! This microphone is actually my personal pick within the Low Budget options. I used its predecessor (the Shure KSM27) exclusively from 2007-2013. Here’s <a class="no-pjax" href="https://soundcloud.com/tone-jonez/love-unconditional-feat-tone" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="one of my most popular tracks">one of my most popular tracks</a> featuring the KSM27 on vocals. It’s one of the most underrated and versatile microphones I’ve ever used. Throughout my time with it, I've recorded all types of voices and it's done a phenomenal job! The newer SM27 has the same sound quality but a lower self-noise and upgraded electronics. I highly recommend it! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BluebirdSL" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Blue Bluebird&nbsp;($299)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Blue Bluebird ($299)</strong></span></a></p><p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/7afcb0f401f2ad17763f2f753b170cf026cca4b1/small/bluebirdsl-xlarge.jpg?1501535323" class="size_s justify_center border_" alt="" /></strong></p><p>I’ve never personally used this microphone, but the results I’ve heard with it have been awesome! It has a very balanced tone that enables it to be very versatile. The bluebird has been around for years and still has many fans today. I've even heard of people preferring it over the more expensive Blue Baby Bottle because of it's strength in the versatility department. If you’re looking to record vocals AND instruments on a budget but can only afford one microphone, this is a great choice! </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>Mid Budget Options</strong> </span></p><p>If you have more than $400 to spend, here a few great balanced microphone options! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Spirit" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Aston Spirit ($449)&nbsp;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Aston Spirit ($449)</strong> </span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/4df91d7040a9982060960a77411a5f78c97b64b5/medium/aston-spirit-angle.jpg?1501535324" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="" /></p><p>The Aston Spirit is the big brother of the previously mentioned Aston Origin. While the Aston Origin has a clean clear sound, the Aston Spirit is more reserved with a warm vintage character. If you naturally have a bright voice, the Aston Spirit is a great option to smooth over your vocal while still having a nice sheen. </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CV12" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Avantone CV-12 ($499)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Avantone CV-12 ($499)</strong></span></a><span class="text-big"><strong> </strong></span></p><p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/221326915ca6c0921ce2dad759b587a308838b28/medium/avantonecv12shockmount.jpg?1501535326" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="" /></strong></p><p>Unlike the other microphones mentioned here, the Avantone CV-12 is a tube microphone. For the most part, tube microphones tend to have a warm sound signature with a sweet top end. The examples I’ve heard of this microphone have been balanced but with a little extra sheen on top. It seems just a tad scooped in the midrange so if your voice is naturally peaky in the midrange, this may be a great microphone to smooth things over!</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://microphone-parts.com/products/s87-microphone" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Microphone Parts S-87&nbsp;"><span class="text-big"><strong>Microphone Parts S-87 ($569)</strong></span> </a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/98ef4beb242c147ccaa78704da9d571147ecc19d/medium/s12-6fe20327-aaa1-46b5-88c5-d90c4b0d1cdd.jpg?1501535325" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Microphone Parts S-87" /></p><p>If you’ve wanted to get your hands on a Neumann U87 but don’t quite have the budget, this microphone may do the trick! It’s modeled to closely replicate the sound of the Neumann U87 and from the examples I’ve heard, it comes remarkably close! One of the strengths of the U87 is how great it sounds within the context of a mix. The U87 takes processing extremely well and you can pretty much mold it into whatever sound you desire. My friend uses an S-87 and it seems to have very similar mix traits as the U87. Being SO MUCH lower in cost than the U87 (which is currently thousands brand new), you really can’t go wrong with this microphone! If you have soldering and electrical experience, you can get this microphone over $200 cheaper by buying the <a class="no-pjax" href="https://microphone-parts.com/products/s87-microphone-kit" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="kit version">kit version</a> and putting it together yourself! Check it out! </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>Top Budget Options </strong></span></p><p>If you have close to $1000 to spend on a microphone, these are in my opinion some of the best options! I’ve personally used all of these microphones and can attest to their quality. </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TLM102" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Neumann TLM 102 ($699)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Neumann TLM 102 ($699)</strong> </span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/d45c845db05bcbab8daf0dafa8a5fa08f6d4a108/medium/preview-1.jpg?1501535323" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Neumann TLM 102" /></p><p>This microphone is shockingly small but it packs a punch sonically! It’s the little brother to the more popular TLM 103, but I actually prefer the sound of the TLM 102! It has a very balanced frequency response that reminds me of the U87. If your heart is set on Neumann, this is a great way to get that classic Neumann sound at a fraction of the price! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KSM42" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Shure KSM42 ($799)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Shure KSM42 ($799)</strong></span></a><span class="text-big"><strong> </strong></span></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/1c96aeb9b051368dc01fa68c67a8c082dd1a49e1/medium/shure-ksm42-sg-ksm42-side-address-condenser-vocal-726845.jpg?1501535326" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="Shure KSM42" /></p><p>If you’re looking for a warm, smooth, and balanced tone, this microphone fits the bill! It’s one of the best microphones I’ve ever owned. I really miss it! It added a special something to my RnB vocals that I haven’t really found with other mics. I used it on <a class="no-pjax" href="https://soundcloud.com/tone-jonez/forever-love-2-feat-tone-jonez-lease-at-tonejonezcom" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="this hook beat">this hook beat</a>. I sold my KSM42 and several other mics in order to buy the U87, but I still miss this one! </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/C7e" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Miktek C7 ($899)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Miktek C7 ($899)</strong></span></a><span class="text-big"><strong> </strong></span></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/beec7e88d312251b664f24bb192469484c375548/large/c7-und-cv4.png?1501535825" class="size_l justify_center border_" alt="Miktek C7" /></p><p>Several years back I caught this microphone used at a great price and I jumped on it ASAP! I’d been hearing a lot of great things about it in comparison to the U87 so I thought I’d give it a shot. My experience was stellar! It reminded me of the U87 in some ways. Whenever I wanted something U87-ish but a little brighter, I used this microphone. Another great thing about this microphone is it has an internal switch that toggles between different voltages. The lower voltage will give you a more vintage tone while the higher voltage gives you a brighter and more modern tone. In a sense, you’re getting two mics for the price of one! Either at full price or on sale, this is a great option! </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>High End Options </strong></span></p><p>If you have over $1k to spend and you want the best bang for your buck all around, here's my personal recommendations!</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RefMic--manley-reference-cardioid-microphone-large-diaphragm-tube-condenser-microphone" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Shure KSM42 ($799)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Manley Reference Cardioid ($3499)</strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/a3712d4a7ec39417c0877760bc262477fe08a2ef/original/e68073-refmic-detail6.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p>The clarity on this microphone is amazing! It has a very professional sound out the gate, is extremely versatile across many voices, and super easy to work with in the mix! Of all the microphones I've had, this is the easiest one to work with. I get the sound I'm looking for at the recording stage so that way when I'm mixing, I don't have to do much to the vocal! I've recorded instruments, solo vocals, created choirs, and all types of recordings with this mic. Highly recommended! I actually ended up selling my U87 and only use this mic now because it's that good!</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/U87SetZ--neumann-u-87-ai-set-large-diaphragm-condenser-microphone-nickel" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Shure KSM42 ($799)"><span class="text-big"><strong>Neumann U87 ($3695)</strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/55585/4000797119541221d06f74d5abbed35e7cdbce60/original/productimagedesktop.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p>Even though I've sold mine, I can't leave the U87 out of the high end options list! I recorded so much music with this mic! A few of those recordings led to 2 Grammy nominations and also a grammy win! The U87 is used as a reference point for quality microphones all the time and often regarded as a holy grail mic. But the first time most people record on a U87, they won't understand the hype. I was one of those people as well! The beauty of the U87 isn't the initial sound that you get at the recording stage. It's in how malleable this microphone is in the mixing stage. You can literally get any sound you want out of this mic! It takes processing amazingly well while still retaining professional quality. It also works on lots and lots of voices plus instruments. Versatility is the reason for the hype! If you're only going to be recording your vocals and no instruments, the U87 probably won't be the best choice. But if you're going to be recording a variety of different voices and sources, this is an amazing choice! </p><p><span class="text-big"><strong>Disclaimer</strong> </span></p><p>I hope you’ve enjoyed my personal picks for microphones under $1000 (and a few high options)! Of course every voice is different so these microphones may not work for you. I suggest trying them out before purchasing if you can. If you’re unable to try them out, make sure the company you’re purchasing from has a return policy enabling you to return your purchase if the mic doesn’t work out for you. Also some of you may have the budget for a much higher microphone. You can certainly go for the gusto and go well beyond $1000 when it comes to microphones (as I’ve done). But understand once you get into a certain league of microphones, the rest of your recording chain has to be up to par in order to achieve the full intended potential of the mic's sound. That means your room needs to be acoustically treated, your microphone preamp should be top notch, any other complimentary gear in your signal chain should be top notch (such as compressors, etc), and the audio converters in your interface should be top notch. To start, I’d definitely recommend staying under $1000 for your first microphone and then slowly upgrading every piece of recording your chain as you go. Take your time and enjoy the process! I’ll provide more info on other quality choices for your recording chain in future blogs. Hope that helps! Thanks for reading and happy creating! -Tone</p><p>P.S. If you need high quality instrumentals to compliment your high quality vocals, browse my catalog of original <a class="no-pjax" href="http://www.tonejonez.com" data-link-type="url" contents="royalty-free instrumentals">royalty-free instrumentals</a>! Enjoy!</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/42231522016-06-10T09:44:32-04:002022-05-11T06:24:26-04:00The Year I Almost Quit<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/c3ea7ede089dae19ba9d84896ba4fbae8876b7cd/medium/o-how-to-quit-job-facebook.jpg?1465561163" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><br>Most times people assume that successful people are "lucky" or that they have everything easy. On the outside everything may appear all together, but trust and believe nothing glitters without an abundance of buff and polish. For every successful person you run across, there's an abundance of obstacles they had to face or are currently facing. Here's a small piece of one of my obstacles from several years back. <br><br>It was the beginning of the year 2013. At this point I'd been a Full-Time entrepreneur for about 2 years and I was getting the hang of what strategies worked best for my business. Things were going pretty well so I was finally able to move my family into our own place. Being used to living with in-laws and barely having any experience living on our own (besides a short stint in an apartment), me and my Wife largely miscalculated how different it would be financially. With a 4 figure monthly rent and a host of new expenses, I realized I needed to kick things up a notch. I dug deep and started spending most of my time in the studio working. I missed meals, lost sleep, and whatever else I had to do in order to get work done. Things were going pretty good business-wise but your body can only do so much before it breaks down.<br><br>I'm all for grinding hard, but one thing I've learned is how valuable rest is. Because I wasn't taking care of myself, I became very stressed and started burning out. I have a long history of stress/emotional eating so unfortunately I turned to food for comfort. The more stressed I became, the larger I became. The harder I worked, the harder it became to be creative. Many days I remember being in the studio frustrated because it was so difficult to create. I started throwing back 5 hour energy drinks which seemed to boost my performance, but that was only a small bandaid on a gaping wound. Slowly but surely I was winding down.<br><br>As the year drew to a close, I was fighting tooth and nail to create. Ideas went from a steady stream to a sporadic drip. The bulk of my income came from Exclusive Rights sales so since I wasn't creating, things started to dwindle financially. I found myself selling off beats at extremely low prices to try and stay afloat, but that only created a bigger problem of clearing out my inventory too fast. No inventory, no sales. Music had became THE priority in my life and I wasn't spending nearly enough time with my family. I was severely lacking as a Husband and Father. As financial issues came into play and I gained more weight from stress/emotional eating, problems started to arise in my marriage. I felt like a failure and less of a man. It seemed like I was stuck in a circle of failure and there was no way out.<br><br>I kept these things under wraps so only a handful of trusted people knew what I was going through. Although I maintained a positive exterior, I was dying inside. December 2013 turned out to be one of the worst months of my life. My marriage was on the rocks and I didn't even make enough to cover the rent, just one of many expenses. We were months behind on the car payment and everything was at the brink of being turned off. I started to believe maybe this was it. Maybe it was time to give up music as a business and find a job. After creating music almost all my life, maybe I was washed up and needed to wake up from my dreams. Maybe I didn't deserve my Wife. Maybe I didn't deserve life. These were the things that were going through my head. After going through a bitter-sweet holiday season, I said I was going to give it one more shot at the top of 2014. If it didn't work, I was going to move on. <p>I went into January 2014 feeling like I had a clean slate. I'd been avoiding calls from the bank concerning our car for months, but I finally mustered up the courage to call them back. The lady explained had I not called, they were actually coming to get the car the following week. Without knowing where the money was going to come from, I set up a weekly payment plan that would avoid them repossessing our vehicle. Knowing of my financial troubles, the lady asked how I was going to come up with the money. I told her I trust God will make a way. Not really a reassuring statement in the eyes of a creditor, but that was all I had to stand on. Over the next few days I had a strong feeling to try out one more strategy that I'd been a bit apprehensive about pursuing. There's a platform called Soundclick that many successful internet producers are a part of. I'd had an account with the site since 2005, but I never really used it completely. People always used to say how hard it was to break through on the platform so I didn't mess with it. Some producers were also complaining about how it was dead so that pushed me further away from it. But after realizing most of the top producers were still using it actively, I finally gave it a go. I felt like it was what I was supposed to do. <br><br>Soundclick works on a promo based system in which you purchase advertisements in order to put your music in front of prospective buyers. As your music gets more plays from prospective buyers, you rise in the soundclick chart system which further increases your visibility and probability of sales. The more money you invest in promo, the higher your exposure. I barely had any money so the first week I started small. As I began to make money back, I'd re-invest it into more promo. By the second week I was making larger investments and getting back larger profits. Things were still tight, but I was able to make the car payments that I agreed to. Week by week, I started to see more and more growth. We were able to start catching up on bills and things were finally looking up! Then in February 2014, everything changed. My exposure skyrocketed through the roof and I generated 5 figures in one month, the first time ever! Most of it went towards paying off bills, but I was just happy to be able to take care of my responsibilities! Needless to say, I caught up on the car payments and haven't missed one since! I've been blessed with steadily increasing 5 figure months ever since! 2 years later and things are even better! I have supporters all around the world in multiple countries and it just blows my mind how large my business has grown. Now I'm able to provide the best for my family and spend lots of quality time with them. Just to think, I almost threw in the towel a couple of months before my breakthrough.<br><br>I know this is some super personal stuff, but I shared this to encourage those of you out there that feel like you have no hope. Those of you who feel like your dreams will never come to past. I've been in your shoes, several times. No matter what it looks like, keep pushing! For most successful people, it always becomes the worst right before it becomes the best. You could literally be right around the corner from your breakthrough. Wake up everyday and give it everything you've got. It may be that one small thing you keep overlooking that tips the scales. I hope this inspires someone! Be blessed! -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/41736492016-05-10T12:06:45-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:00Patience Makes Provision<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/3fde3cdbbc711bc7bad32523b1898706f4de8580/original/patience.jpg?1462896381" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><br>It goes without saying that today's world is all about instant gratification. Patience is a lost art. As the world becomes more impatient, we're starting to see quality go down the toilet. Whether it's food, music, products, etc., everything is taking a hit in the quality department because creators are rushing to keep up with the hyper-consumerism of consumers. The lack of patience has even crept it's way into entrepreneurship. I see this all the time and it's disheartening. I've actually had people get upset with me countless times because I wouldn't give them my "secrets" to success. There are no secrets! If there are, I certainly don't have any! People want success right away but it doesn't work that way. A baby isn't born one day then starts walking and talking the next day. There aren't any magical formulas. You can't go from 0-100 without 1-99. Don't be fooled by "get rich quick" schemes. Long-lasting success takes time and and constant cultivation. There's no way around that. </p>
<p>People fail to realize all the things that actually cause you to be successful happen DURING the waiting process. You need to go through dissapointments, failures, setbacks, frustrations, and a host of other things in order to LEARN what works for YOU. That takes time. Often YEARS. People on the outside see the shine and glisten but don't realize the magnitude of buff and polish. If you want to get somewhere in life, you have to work for it. Work seems to be a foreign concept in the land of convenience we reside in, but work will ALWAYS be required. I think the frustration comes in when you're looking for other people to show you exactly how to attain your success. That's not a realistic expectation. You should definitely grab advice from different people and try it out, but nobody can tell you EXACTLY what you need to do in order to make yourself a success. That's entirely your responsibility to figure out. I really hope you take that to heart because it will save you much heartache and wasted money. You can't skip the YEARS of grind that it's going to require in order to prosper. You can either cut corners and get short lived instant gratification or do things right and have long lasting success. </p>
<p>There's also a common misconception that once you have attained success, you have arrived. It's supposedly a cake ride from there. I'm sorry, but that's unequivocally FALSE. People think successful people have it easy and hold all the secrets. What people don't realize is successful people work even harder to keep and grow their success. The hardest part of success is sustaining it. The more successful you become, the more "new" obstacles there are to overcome. You also take on new responsibilities and obligations that take up more of your time/energy. It's a constant recalibration of priorities and time management. Being successful is HARD work. You have to continue growing and evolving. Each level brings a new challenge. You still have to exercise patience, invest plenty of time in, invest plenty of MONEY in, and grind hard EVEN when you've attained success. The grind never stops it just evolves. It all STILL takes time. Without the wisdom that patience affords, you won't know how to sustain any success you attain. </p>
<p>People think waiting/patience means being inactive but that's not the case. You should constantly be improving, cultivating, and educating yourself. You'll find that as your craft continues to grow, you will attract opportunities to you. Success is really all about attraction marketing, advancing your skills to such ever-increasing heights of quality that your craft commands attention purely on it's own strength. That takes time. There's a reason why it generally takes 9 months for a baby to develop. There's a reason why it takes so many years of schooling in order to become a doctor. There's a reason why home cooked meals taste better than fast food (they should at least lol). And there's a reason why I personally spend days, months, or in some cases YEARS perfecting the music that I display on this website. Quality things take time. Patience makes provision. I hope this inspires somebody! Be blessed. -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/41051412016-03-25T13:03:01-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:00Be Slow with the Pen<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/0f6ceb92efe29e5a55fd386e43143f9a5ae3864c/original/tumblr-inline-mno1vvermc1qjmi40.jpg?0" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>Every artist at some point has had dreams of getting signed. But as the landscape of the music business is changing and more tools are being afforded to indie artists, the allure of a record contract is becoming less and less appealing. Still and yet, there are still some good opportunities out there. The problem is sifting through them all and not falling victim to bad opportunities out of haste. I've been through my fair share of contract related disasters so I thought I'd share a few things to get your wheels turning.
<p>Most times when it's a bad contractual situation, money is flashed in your face. They'll offer all types of things and make all kinds of promises that they will not keep. Earlier in my career, I was offered houses, cars, and lots of other things that I was unfortunately gullible to out of youthful ignorance and financial struggle. Thankfully, none of the situations I got into were so serious that I couldn't get out of them. People will say and do anything to get you to sign on that line. Sometimes a situation can appear totally legit and still be a contractual nightmare. That's why you cannot base your decision solely off of how things look, how you feel about the company, or their track record. The only thing that matters is what's written in black and white. PERIOD! You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. Don't get sidetracked by the money and sign out of haste. Anytime a recording or publishing contract is involved, ALWAYS get it reviewed by legal counsel. You'd be surprised what type of crazy clauses are buried deep in these agreements! You could be giving away your royalties, publishing, creative control, ownership, and even future earnings on things that have nothing to do with the contract. Now 10% of a lot is better than 100% of a little, but are you happy with that in the long run? What about things that could potentially happen in the future? Do you want to be locked into one situation? Are you willing to take that risk? Now lets look at it from a different angle. </p>
<p>If you stay independent, you have 100% creative control of your art and retain 100% of your profits. You are in full control of your career. If you're the type of person that needs constant guidance and needs to be pushed to do things, this route may not be for you. Getting signed would probably be of more benefit to you. But if you are a business savvy person with extreme work ethic, being independent is a very rewarding route! Getting up and doing what you love everyday without being tied down to a contract is the most liberating feeling! As a creative, the main thing we have is our creativity. Your art is your legacy. When you no longer have creative control over your own art, it takes all the fun out of the process. This is one of the main reasons I thoroughly enjoy being independent. People think that you need millions of fans to live off of your art. As a major label artist, that's true due to the many hands that are in the pot. But as an indie artist, you don't! If you setup your income strategy to include album sales, merchandise, shows, licensing to film/tv, royalties/publishing, session work, crowd funding, non-music related jobs/gigs, and whatever other creative strategies you can think of, you really don't need a ton of supporters. But the beautiful thing is that when your music really resonates with people and you consistently release new music, your supporter base starts to grow in a snowball effect! There's no limit to how successful you can be as an independent creative. There are some people that are highly successful while still retaining their independence! One popular example is Macklemore! He’s had major billboard and sales success without the middleman of a major label! He harnesses the power of social media and truly connecting with his fan base via touring to propel his success. In a recent interview with <a contents="techdirt.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20130401/03115322523/macklemore-explains-why-not-being-label-helped-him-succeed.shtml">techdirt.com</a> he explained why he doesn’t want or need to sign to a major label. </p>
<p><em>“Macklemore: Yeah, there’s no reason to do it. With the power of the internet and with the real personal relationship that you can have via social media with your fans… I mean everyone talks about MTV and the music industry, and how MTV doesn’t play videos any more – YouTube has obviously completely replaced that. It doesn’t matter that MTV doesn’t play videos. It matters that we have YouTube and that has been our greatest resource in terms of connecting, having our identity, creating a brand, showing the world who we are via YouTube. That has been our label. Labels will go in and spend a million dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars and try to "brand” these artists and they have no idea how to do it. There’s no authenticity. They’re trying to follow a formula that’s dead. And Ryan and I, out of anything, that we’re good at making music, but we’re great at branding. We’re great at figuring out what our target audience is. How we’re going to reach them and how we’re going to do that in a way that’s real and true to who we are as people. Because that’s where the substance is. That’s where the people actually feel the real connection. And labels don’t have that. </em></p>
<p><em>So you sign up for a label. There’s not some magic button they’re now going to push and it means that people are going to like who you are. Or that they’ll identify with your vision or your songs. It actually comes from sitting down, staring at a piece of paper for months or years on end, trying to figure out who you are as a person, and hoping that it comes through in the end. But a label’s not going to do that for you.“ </em></p>
<p>Macklemore said it best! What has worked in the past isn’t necessary anymore and I truly believe as more artists keep their creative control and put out their own authentic content, we’ll start to see diversity and richness in music again. So do you personally think you NEED a major label or are you better off as an independent? Think about it! Be blessed! -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/40034272016-01-23T00:15:02-05:002022-08-30T07:16:36-04:00Chasing Excellence vs Chasing Approval<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/8c670a0bb2d1142a3ea25420a54d14246cfaf916/medium/you-are-already-valuable.jpg?1453526086" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><br>I've always been the type to let my craft speak for itself. I've found things to be much more effective when you put the work/energy into creating excellence instead of doing things out of a craving for approval. One of my funniest experiences with this happened about 4 years ago. </p>
<p>I went to this popular studio with a friend to shop some music to an artist. When we pulled up, I saw a Bentley and several other luxury vehicles parked outside. I was only driving a humble Ford, but I parked my Ford right beside them with no shame! When I walked in the studio, nobody made any effort to acknowledge my presence. I greeted them but received no reply in return. They underestimated and ignored me as soon as I hit the door. Most people would take offense to that, but I actually thought it was hilarious lol! See I've experienced this plenty of times. People will try to "size you up" and make assumptions based on all kinds of meaningless criteria. But they didn't see all the hard work I'd put into the music they were about to hear. I already knew how much time I'd put into these tracks and I knew everyone's demeanor would change once the engineer hit play. I was 100% confident in my value. I didn't come to seek approval I came to make a sale. As soon as the engineer hit the play button, everybody in the studio got overly excited! They all began to greet me and ask for my contact info all of a sudden lol! I cracked a grin and made my sale. </p>
<p>I said all that to say this. If you feel like your music is slept on, don't get sidetracked and go out of your way trying to "impress" people. Stop basing your own value on other people's opinions/assumptions/approval. Sometimes people won't see your value right away and that's okay! That's not your concern. The only thing you can do is keep increasing how much value you are bringing to the table with your craft. Chase excellence and everything else will take care of itself. Be encouraged! -Tone</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/31854882016-01-09T15:47:02-05:002022-05-11T06:24:54-04:00How to Respond When You Don't Get A Response<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/522d555b2e9561edf077348172a8fb3b6e385e52/original/0bece2340b2d690808686732aaea65ee4eccebf07e0f6d57698b44f862d8873f.jpg?1432142910" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>You just spent a lot of effort typing out a nice long message to someone you look up to and you hit the send button with delight! 10 minutes later, no response. Hours later, still no response. Days later, still no response. How should you take that? Most people get upset, but I'm going to explain why you shouldn't even let it bother you. Relax!<br><br>The number one reason most people get upset is because they think that person is ignoring them. While there are times where ignoring is the case, most times it isn't. Everyone that doesn't respond isn't "hollywood." You have to take into account several things: Who are you contacting? Why are you contacting them? How are you contacting them? <br><br><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Who are you contacting?</strong></span><br><br>If the person you're contacting is someone without many obligations, they'll quickly answer every time because they can. Especially younger people who only support themselves. But for people with large platforms that also have families and other heavy obligations, their time expenditure is vastly different. It's impossible to catch every single message. Back when I was single trying to figure this music stuff out, I used to hit up artists and other producers all the time with questions and wonder why people didn't respond. I'd get mad at them and think they were hollywood, then later when I met them in person I saw that wasn't the case. Now that I'm a 30 year old husband and father with a high demand business that I run completely by myself, I completely understand! No matter how hard you try, unfortunately some messages will slip through the cracks. When you're contacting a busy person with a lot of obligations, realize that you are just one of MANY others who are also contacting them. For every 5 people they respond to, there's at least one person that won't get a response. So never assume they're hollywood because most times, that simply isn't the case. <br><br><strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Why are you contacting them?</strong><br><br>You also have to take in consideration why you're contacting them. With so many things in play, busy people have to conduct their life in a prioritized manner in order to remain productive. Time is usually very slim for them so every minute must be accounted for in order to avoid any waste of time. If your message is vague you most likely won't get a response. Don't use open ended statements and questions. Be as detailed and direct as possible in your message and you'll increase your chances of a response. Also make sure that your message is reasonable. If you're asking for something for free or for people to listen to your music, those types of things are going to be lower on the priority list. That doesn't mean that you're not important or that they don't want to listen to your music/help you out. It's just that they have to handle all their high priority obligations first before they can even entertain something like that. Don't send an ugly message if you don't get a response lol! Be patient and you may get exactly what you're looking for! <br><br><strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">How are you contacting them?</strong><br><br>Another thing to consider is how you're contacting them. People check and respond to messages faster on some mediums more than others. For instance: If you send someone a message on Facebook but they rarely check their Facebook messages, that's going to be a problem. Find out a person's best form of contact and concentrate on that. I recommend getting emails if you can. Social media inboxes can be a mess and your message will easily get lost among the multitude of other messages. Any other forms of contact may get a delayed response or no response at all. A business email can also be delayed if there's an abundance of incoming mail, but it's usually the best option.<br><br><br><strong><span style="color:#FF0000;">So how should you respond?</span></strong><br><br>Instead of getting upset, just reach out to them again in a professional manner! Your message could have ended up in their spam folder. Maybe they didn't see your message. Maybe they did see your message but just didn't have the time to respond. Simply remind them in a respectful way. Even if you never get a response, you have to respect that. Here's the 100% raw truth: Nobody is obligated to respond to your messages or support what you do. Every response and every piece of support is a gift (not a requirement) and you should treat it as such. Be appreciative when people do respond/support and be respectful when they don't. Nobody is obligated to read my blogs/emails or support my music and I'm 100% ok with that. I'm not concerned about how many do or don't support me. You can't control those types of things. All you can do is keep being excellent at what you do and appreciate any support you receive. <br><br>In closing, if you're so emotionally invested in a response to the point that you actually get upset when you don't get the response, it's time to to look deeper into what you're asking and why you're asking it. Remember that you don't need anyone else to validate or approve of what you bring to the table. Be confident in your craft no matter who does or doesn't give you a stamp of approval. Keep striving for excellence, remain humble, and everything that's destined for you will come. Consider all these things before sending a message and after it's sent, let the chips fall where they may! Be blessed! -Tone<br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/39475712015-12-03T15:15:21-05:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:005 Productivity Tips for Creatives<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/c7d0d7c8acf5ceb0d98bb58565cb3f0319e9c14f/original/tumblr-mr4w8odypt1s6uduro1-400.gif?1449164494" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><br>As a creative, being productive is the crux of our success. If we're not being productive, it's most likely due to a halt or block of creativity. The end of October 2015 going into the majority of November 2015 was by far the most unproductive season I've ever had. I was already progressively declining in productivity over the previous few months, but this dry season was the final straw. I became fed up and determined I was going to create new habits/strategies that prevented me from EVER getting back in this place.<br><br><strong>"The Hamster"</strong><br>So what does the hamster have to do with anything lol? I literally felt like a Hamster. I was incredibly busy toppling over myself trying to make a variety of things happen, but it seemed like I could never accomplish what I set out to do. I was going in circles. But, I was determined to get myself off of that hamster wheel! It took alot of self-discipline, but I am now bursting with productivity/creativity! Through overcoming this situation, I've learned 5 KEY tips that I think will dramatically help all creatives. <br><br><strong>Tip 1: Get Up Early</strong><br><br>If you want to be productive, it all begins with how you start your day. Getting up early allows you to get the ball rolling before the distractions (emails, calls, etc) come pouring in. I personally made a habit of getting up at 5AM, but choose whatever time works best for you. In my opinion, getting up early and going to sleep at a reasonable time is much more productive than the popular "no sleep" adage people cling to. Your body works better when you have a consistent sleep schedule.<br><br><strong>Tip 2: Feed Your Mind First</strong><br><br>I've made a habit of using the first hour of the day to feed my mind. This is my time of studying scriptures, prayer, doing research, mapping out my objectives for the day, sharpening overall goals, reading/watching motivational content, etc. Basically, do whatever works for you to get your mind right during the first hour. This helps to keep you laser focused on accomplishing your objectives for the day. As a side note to feeding your mind, keep social media activity at a minimum when being creative. Social media is an excellent tool but too much time spent there can be detrimental to progress. <br><br><strong>Tip 3: Stay Light</strong><br><br>When it comes to creativity and productivity, nothing hampers you like a heavy diet. Your body can't put a pronounced amount of resources into being productive if it's working hard to digest heavy food. Especially food that isn't healthy for you. You have to feed your body(nutrients, vitamins, etc), not just your stomach (being full). This was something I had to change primarily for health reasons, but it made a huge difference in productivity/creativity. I made a habit of drinking fresh homemade veggie juice and eating healthy light meals every day. It's time-consuming making the juice, but I've disciplined myself to wash/prepare produce and make a days worth of juice (64 Fluid Ounces) every morning. In case you're curious, my juice contains the following: Celery, Spinach, Kale, Zucchini, and 2 small green apples (to lightly sweeten but keep sugar content low). Sometimes I add carrots and other veggies but this is the bulk of it. I also take a multi-vitamin, B12, and drink lots of water as well. Feeling better helps you do better. <br><br><strong>Tip 4: Stay Moving</strong><br><br>Getting some form of exercise daily helps to keep your body running fluidly in every area the way it should. Most creative work requires sitting down for long periods of time so if you don't get up and get moving every day, your creativity (and waistline lol) will eventually suffer. I made a habit of hitting the gym every morning before I get into my work. These first 4 tips equip me with what I need to successfully execute tip 5. <br><br><strong>Tip 5: The Creative Blitz</strong><br><br>Any creative worth their salt has a passion to create excellence. Sometimes that pursuit of excellence can prompt us to put so much time/energy into one idea that it stunts our output. I've discovered a new creative strategy that allows you to still chase excellence while maximizing your output and time expenditure. This is what I call the creative blitz.<ol> <li>Instead of putting all your time into creating and finishing one concept at a time, use the first 2-3 hours of your creative time to come up with 4-5 concepts. Create whatever comes to mind. Don't think too hard just be in the moment and go with the vibe. No creative boxes. Go with whatever comes out at the moment. It's totally ok if you create a WACK concept lol! The point is learning to just let go and let your creative juices run wild without over-analyzing every move. Over a short amount of time, your percentage of good concepts will increase.</li> <li>When you have a nice frame for the concept, move on. Don't get stuck. Totally forget about the last concept and move to the next one. Then the next one. Then the next until you have 4 or 5 concepts.</li> <li>When time is up, store the best concepts in a specialized folder and focus the rest of the day on completing one of them. Now is the time to put in the long hours needed to analyze, cultivate, and perfect the most minute details of your concept. </li> <li>Repeat this process every day.</li>
</ol>By separating the idea generation phase from the completion phase, you allow your creativity to birth forth something brand new everyday instead of harping over the same old concepts for months. Not only will you produce more ideas, you'll also notice your creativity start to flow easier and faster! Your concepts get dramatically better and you also get dramatically better at completing your concepts! My favorite part of this whole process is since you run through concepts so fast, it prevents you from getting tired of hearing your concepts. You'll totally forget how they sound and be surprised when you revisit them! You'll always have a fresh stash of concepts to complete. P.S. If you really want to stretch yourself from time to time, try a 10 minute creative blitz! Start a concept from scratch and see how close to completion you can get in 10 minutes. It's fun to see what happens!<br><br>Thanks so much for taking time to read this post! Seeing how these things have helped me so much, I thought it only right to share the knowledge. I hope this post encourages someone! Be blessed! -Tone<br><br><br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/39058152015-10-29T11:27:08-04:002017-07-31T12:24:43-04:00The Power's in the List<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/217f25a27f7d561ad4a9366d5797ac46b311f895/original/email-marketing-for-associations.png?1446126498" class="size_l justify_center border_" />The most powerful and most important tool every indie artist should have is a mailing list. Your mailing list is your #1 tool to connect with your supporters and keep them engaged with your brand. Without one, you're essentially shooting yourself in the foot. Here's why.<br><br>Before social media and cell phones, the way you stayed engaged with family and friends was to either visit them or call their house phone. But with that very limited form of connectivity, it was difficult to stay fully engaged with everyone simultaneously. This is sort of how it is when you don't have a mailing list as an artist. Yes we have social media now, but people may not visit your social media that often. And even if they are your social media friends, everyone won't see all of your posts on their timeline due to them having so many friends. Although social media is a necessary tool, it should not be your only or primary tool. Also, when you do shows, you need a way for the people who enjoyed your performance to stay engaged. This is where the mailing list come in.<br><br>Email is still the most powerful and reliable form of marketing. When you have a mailing list, you can easily contact all of your supporters simultaneously at the click of a button. You can easily share new music, give away content, encourage your supporters, keep them informed, and keep them engaged. But with all that power comes a great responsibility. If you want your mailing list to be successful, you have to go about it the right way. DON'T add random people's emails to the list and start sending out unsolicited emails. I see this happen all the time. This method is not effective at all and will get your email address blacklisted. You have to give people the choice to sign up on their own. Provide a signup form on your website with an incentive for sign up (free music, etc). You get much better results that way because they are already interested in your brand. <br><br>So how do you start a mailing list? Here a few options:<ol> <li>
<strong>Aweber:</strong> I personally use <a contents="Aweber" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aweber.com/" target="_blank">Aweber</a> for my mailing list duties. It's a very reliable, professional, and advanced mailing list system. It starts at $19.99 a month with a 500 subscriber limit. The price goes up in different levels as you grow your mailing list. Although extremely powerful, it is strictly an email platform. If you don't have a website, here's a more cost effective option below. </li> <li>
<strong>Bandzoogle:</strong> I HIGHLY suggest using <a contents="Bandzoogle.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.bandzoogle.com" target="_blank">Bandzoogle.com</a>. It's a total package platform in which for $19.99 monthly you can have an unlimited subscriber mailling list, your own website, sell music, sell digital downloads, sell merch, and a ton of other features for one price. And best of all, they don't take any cuts or percentages from your sales. The email portion of Bandzoogle isn't as advanced as Aweber, but it's more than enough to get the job done. My website is actually built with Bandzoogle! I've been a customer for years and highly recommend this company. One side note though is if you decide to go the Bandzoogle route, purchase your domain separately via GoDaddy or other domain sites. Bandzoogle's $19.99 plan offers a free domain name, but if you ever decide to delete your account or want to transfer the domain name, you won't be able to. </li> <li><strong>Mail Chimp:</strong> If you don't have a budget at all, you may want to check out <a contents="Mail Chimp" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.mailchimp.com" target="_blank">Mail Chimp</a>. They have a free plan in which you can have up to 2000 subscribers and a 12,000 email limit per month. This may be just what you need to get the ball rolling. I don't have any personal experience with Mail Chimp, but I've heard great things about the company. The best thing about all of these platforms is that you can download your subscriber list to a .CSV file so if anything ever happens, you still have your list. </li>
</ol>We live in a time now where indie artists are building their own fan bases and sustaining their own careers. Shining examples of that would be people like Ryan Leslie and Tech N9ne. These guys are creating the music THEY want to create and making some serious money in the process because their connection to their supporter base is on point. Artistic freedom is way too valuable and powerful to sign away. If somebody's going to benefit from your value, let it be YOU. You don't even have to have a ridiculously high number of supporters to sustain yourself as an artist. If you stay focused on putting out excellent content consistently and stay engaged with your supporters via your mailing list and other tools, everything will fall in line over time. I'm an example of how that can happen. I hope this was helpful! Be blessed! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/36998642015-10-17T21:53:17-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:005 Ways to Maximize Facebook Post Interaction for Your Music<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/1e3de44a14293c16bbb5e91b71e4e293bcf53bbf/medium/facebook-like-thumb.jpg?1431119804" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></div>
<div>I hear complaints from artists and producers all the time about how they hardly get any interaction on their personal Facebook page when posting about their music. As a creative myself, I've been there and know first hand how frustrating that is. You spend large amounts of time and effort creating something special and then when you share it, nobody responds. This may sometimes leave you discouraged and thinking something is wrong with your music. If that sounds like you, then I'm glad you're reading this! In reality, there are more variables involved in Facebook interaction than you realize. For personal pages, Facebook has put algorithms in place to minimize spam exposure. They analyze your posts and then determine how many people on your friends list will see your content. If your post seems to be more of an advertisement, the exposure will be minimal to your friends list. In order to get the most exposure for your posts, here are 5 key things I've learned through much trial and error (and mistakes lol).<br><br><strong>1. Stick to 1-4 High Quality Posts a Day</strong><br><br>In this new social media era, we tend to document and share a large portion of our daily activity. Sometimes, the things you share aren't necessarily conducive to your brand. If you want to be taken seriously (by both your Facebook audience and Facebook's algorithms), you have to start being more mindful of the quality and quantity of your posts. Be genuine in your approach and share your heart. Focus on posting high quality content one to four times a day. So what is a high quality post? Anything that positively builds up either your brand or your audience. Examples would be content showing you working on music (pics or vids), giving people a back story of how you got started, giving people a glimpse of who you are as person, sharing encouraging/inspiring words your audience, sharing tips, giving things away, etc. These are the types of posts that will generate interaction and interest. These are also the things that Facebook's algorithms lend the most exposure to. Tasteful advertisement posts are also okay from time to time but keep those at a minimum. You may be thinking that you've already been sharing links to your music, youtube videos, and instagram content so why aren't you still getting interaction? That leads to the next point.<br><br><strong>2. Keep link posting at a minimum.</strong><br><br>When it comes to personal pages, Facebook hate's outside links (especially links to their social media competitors). They lean more towards giving exposure to internal content, not external content.This is one of the main reasons why when you post links to your music or website, you will get a much lower response than other types of posts. If you want to post more links, you should strongly consider creating a Facebook fan page. From there, you can post your links and setup paid ad campaigns in order to get better exposure for your links. But when it comes to your personal page, the next point covers your solution for more content exposure.<br><br><strong>3. Upload Your Content Directly to Facebook</strong><br><br>Instead of sharing links to your videos and pictures, upload them straight to your personal Facebook page. Your content will get much more exposure this way. Besides well written and impactful posts, I've found photos to get some of the best interaction. One thing to keep in mind though is don't put too much text in your photos/videos. Facebook will see this as advertisement and limit the exposure to your audience. Stick to mostly organic content not advertisement material. As far as your music, try highlighting your music in vlog type videos. Show people a snippet of what you're working on and also some behind the scenes footage. Only share direct links to your music occasionally. Don't worry about people not knowing your links. When people watch/listen to your videos, the one's who feel your music will either ask for your links or look you up themselves. That's really the whole point. Focus on providing value and generating interest.<br><br><strong>4. Avoid Spamming at All Costs</strong><br><br>This should go without saying, but I think alot of times people don't realize that they are spamming. I certainly was an avid spammer at the beginning and I had to learn the hard way. Spamming is basically when you send or share unsolicited messages/content. Don't post links to your music on people's pages, inboxes, group messages, comments, tagging people, etc unless they tell you that's okay. Most people DON'T want you to do this stuff. These things drive people away rather than entice them to listen. People will report you which means Facebook will allow even less people to see your content. Don't assume people don't like your music because you're not getting a response. It could simply be the way you're presenting it. You may be too aggressive.<br><br><strong>5. Be Mindful of How You Present Your Content</strong><br><br>I think sometimes people have a false perception of how sharing music works. I surely did when I first started lol! It's not your job to tell people what to do in regards to your music ("Buy my music", "support my music", etc). Your job is to create the highest quality art that you can possibly make, create options for how that art can be consumed, and then put it out there. From there, you have to give people room to make their own choices about your music and be okay with their choice. Honestly, nobody is obligated to listen or respond. You have to avoid the feeling of entitlement and realize that every listen/response is a gift not a requirement. Treat it as such. Don't worry about the response. Just keep putting out excellence because quality music always rises to the top. Be patient. You can do this!<br><br>P.S. I meant to add a very important point. Alot of times I see frustrated artists/producers complain on their Facebook pages about people not supporting. Never do that, ever. It presents a bad image and actually drives potential supporters further away. I know it's frustrating, but if you need to vent, call a friend or chat with someone privately. Airing your frustrations on a public platform like Facebook will do alot more to harm you than help your efforts. Hope this helps! </div>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/37532972015-06-24T18:37:57-04:002023-12-10T12:28:49-05:00Attraction Marketing: Attracting People to Your Music<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/4d72a5c2fcccd3966d6dfd716878d9070d66c1dc/medium/people-magnet-web.jpg?1435177040" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Attraction is a major part of how we operate as humans. People don't pursue things they aren't attracted to. Whether it be dating, business, music, etc., there has to be at least a base level of attraction in order for people to become intrigued. If you find yourself constantly asking people to listen to your music to no avail, this blog is for you. Here are several ways for you to start naturally attracting people to your craft. <br><br>Attraction marketing is all about positioning yourself to be chased instead of doing the chasing. As it pertains to beauty, an attractive person never has a problem with generating interest. They put a lot of work into making themselves attractive and then go out to places where people will naturally pursue them. They don't ask to be pursued. They position themselves to be pursued. This is the exact same concept behind how you should market your music.<br><br>Put your time and energy into making the most high quality attractive music possible, put your music in the right places (your social media profiles, your website, paid advertising, music blogs/websites in your genre, etc), provide options, and then let people naturally be drawn to your craft. Never spam your music as it will just turn people away. I did that when I first started out to no avail so I know from experience lol! If you aren't receiving much interest in your music, get back in the lab and take your music to the next level. The best way to attract people to your music is by making your music and they way you present it more attractive. <br><br>Here are 5 things that will attract people to your music.<ol> <li>
<strong>QUALITY- </strong>Go above and beyond to make your music TOP NOTCH in every way. Don't cut any corners. Adopt a #QualityOrNothing mindset. Stop rushing your music. Take time writing your songs. Don't fix it in the mix, get the source recording right in the booth. Get a quality mix and master for your music every time. Get quality art work. Get quality video work. Quality, quality, quality!! Quality is an area in which you can continually improve and set yourself apart from the pack.</li> <li>
<strong>CONSISTENCY-</strong> Consistency is how you sustain and grow a solid long-lasting supporter base. Consistency is truly the key to success. With so many fly by night artists jumping in the game, people need to see that you're passionate about what you do. Passion is the backbone of consistency. When you're not consistent, you portray the appearance of not being truly passionate about what you do. Being consistent doesn't necessarily mean always putting out music. When you're not releasing music, be consistently active in engaging with your audience on social media. Go out and do shows/meet and greets. Never fall completely from view. Keep them in the loop with what you're doing. </li> <li>
<strong>CONFIDENCE-</strong> Confidence plays a key role in any type of attraction. When you're confident in your music, it shows in the way you present your music. This is why it's so important that you position yourself in a way that you're not constantly asking people to listen to your music. Put it out with confidence and let them make their own choice. When you constantly ask people who aren't already interested in your music to support you, it gives off a "needy" sort of vibe that turns people off. </li> <li>
<strong>PASSION-</strong> I already mentioned this above, but passion is super important. People need to see that you really love what you do. They need to see that you live, eat, and breath your craft. They need to see your drive, dedication, and tireless determination in regards to what you do. The emotion/excitement you display about your music is a barometer for how others will respond.</li> <li>
<strong>TRANSPARENCY-</strong> Last but not least, be transparent. You don't have to tell all your business lol, but give people a look inside your life music-wise and beyond. The more you can relate and connect to your supporters on a human level, the more they will be attracted to what you have to offer. Take time to encourage, enlighten, and inspire those who follow you. In times when you're down, you'll find your supporters will pour that encouragement, enlightenment, and inspiration right back into you. I've experienced my day being lifted countless times by encouraging emails from my supporters. </li>
</ol>When it comes to my music, this is how my attraction marketing sales funnel works:
<ol> <li>I put all my energy into making the best most attractive product, put it in the right places, provide options, and then let people make their own choices from there. I'm constantly investing money into new equipment and tools to make my music increasingly better. Besides music, I'm also very active on social media uploading studio footage and just giving general words of encouragement. I have a passion for inspiring people so that resonates with a lot of people. This is the front end of how people usually find out about me and become interested. I also do paid advertising with social media and other sites. </li> <li>After hearing my music or seeing my content, people either follow me on my social networks, purchase my music, sign up to my mailing list, or do all three. At this point I retain their interest by working hard to consistently put out new high quality content. </li> <li>For those that join my mailing list, I only send out emails when I have something new and valuable to share (no more than once a week). I never spam my subscribers and I don't ask them to buy anything. There's 0% sales pressure in my emails. I simply give several details about the new music, tell them how to access the music, give artist tips/updates, and then tell them that I hope they enjoy the content. That's it! I never send out unsolicited emails or messages. The only way people get my emails is if they sign up for my mailing list themselves. That way I'm only reaching those who've already expressed interest in my music. </li>
</ol>This is the core of how I market my music. At the end of the day, I'm just a passionate musician who enjoys creating art and inspiring people across the globe. That genuine spirit shows in how I market myself and attracts people to what I have to offer. When you focus on creating value and you free people up to make their own choices, you and your music become much more attractive. Hope this helps!!! Be blessed! -Tone<br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/37119792015-05-24T08:56:31-04:002022-08-30T07:17:07-04:00Dealing With Haters on Social Media<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/3fc71fe44f20e0844c43bcc78c59bf8f103349b5/medium/tumblr-m0cdbrqqfb1rqfhi2o1-500.gif?1432470557" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Don't you just love that moment when a person comes out of nowhere with a negative comment on your social media account lol? The more successful I've become, the more I've had encounters with haters. I wake up almost every morning to some type of hater activity these days. I actually did this morning which is what inspired me to write this blog post lol! I'm a nice guy that's always extending my hand to help others so initially I was taken aback when people started hating. But what I've realized is, it doesn't matter how helpful/nice you are, how talented you are, or how encouraging you are. Some people just choose to hate lol! And you know what, that's okay! They're doing their job. Use their hating as fuel for motivation. Here's why they hate.<br><br><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Why Haters Hate</strong></span><br><br>Haters have two flaws in their thinking called pride and insecurity. They have an overwhelming desire to be better than everyone else. So when they feel they aren't better than you, rather than gain knowledge from you, they get jealous and hate. They look for what they "deem" as your weak spot and stab away at you to get a reaction. This never gets them anywhere and they end up stuck in a frustrated state of non-productivity. You usually don't have to look for haters because they'll expose themselves. They'll add a negative comment under the most positive post lol! There are all kind of haters. You have upfront haters, subliminal haters, "friend" haters, inbox haters, tagging haters, and the list goes on. Don't give them any attention! <br><br>When "normal" people like us see others doing well, it inspires and motivates us! We make it our business to soak up knowledge and learn from the successful person. Not for the purpose of being "better" than them, but for the purpose of bettering ourselves and being the best we can be. Jealousy never enters the picture. Haters cannot process things this way due to their pride and insecurity. So when haters get at you, don't get mad. They really admire and want to learn from you! They just don't know how to express that admiration. <br><br><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>How Do You Deal With Haters</strong></span><br><br>So how do you deal with haters? Block them. Delete them. Ban them. Why? You don't have time to feed into their negativity. See, they're only saying things to get a reaction out of you. Once you give them that reaction, they'll either back off with the satisfaction of knowing they got to you, or they'll egg on the argument. They will NEVER see your side of things so don't even waste your time. The only end result is that they end up taking time out of your day and possibility altering your mood. My Wife used to get onto me ALL the time because I'd spend 1-2 hours conversing with a hater and end up in a bad mood. Don't let haters alter your day!!! In the spirit of being productive, you literally don't have time to deal with haters. The minute they hate, cut them loose and keep it moving! What you're doing is pruning your friends list down to the people who really rock with you. I know we all deal with haters so I hope this was helpful! Take it from me, stop responding to these haters lol! It's a waste of your precious time. Be blessed! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/37114362015-05-21T12:00:44-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:00Getting Professional Quality Vocals at Home<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/ac390927798de4784c2223b94ba61f60c8fe7aff/original/maxresdefault.jpg?1432217286" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>I enjoy working hard to provide <a contents="high quality instrumentals" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.tonejonez.com" target="_blank">high quality instrumentals</a> for independent artists all across the globe! But after you've licensed my instrumentals, the journey of quality continues with YOU! So how do you get professional quality vocals at home? There's many factors to getting quality but today I'm going to speak specifically on equipment. If you invest in quality equipment, you'll help the mixing engineer to give you a high quality end product. <br><br><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Recording Interface</strong></span><br><br>So where do you start? Assuming you already have a computer and recording software, it all starts with having a quality recording interface for your computer. There are many options on the market today, especially depending on the type of computer you have (PC or MAC).<br><br>If you're on a budget, I recommend the <a contents="Focusrite Scarlett 2i2" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/1qbRXBv" target="_blank">Focusrite Scarlett 2i2</a>. With a price tag of only $149.99, it's a great entry level piece to get you started. It's one of the most popular pieces for musicians on a budget. This USB interface works with PC or Mac.
<div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/a1447c3a3cca0b66a95549f5a4a527cb82e8721e/medium/41gtihub1vl.jpg?1432218699" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 $149.99</p></div>If you have a bigger budget, I highly recommend the <a contents="Universal Audio Apollo Twin interface" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/21Pyl1X" target="_blank">Universal Audio Apollo Twin interface</a>. This is the interface that I personally use and the quality is top notch! At $899.99, this interface will give you pristine sound quality. However, the thunder-bolt version only works with the Mac platform. If you're on PC, you need to grab the <a contents="Apollo Twin USB" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/21PyxxY" target="_blank">Apollo Twin USB</a> for PC. <br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/82d7b9b9bd39cd11c0307f0a9da1529c61d95d6d/medium/apollotwind-large.jpg?1432219489" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Universal Audio Apollo Twin $899.99</p></div><strong style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Condensor Microphone</strong><br><br>After you get a nice recording interface, you need to grab a quality microphone. Just like interfaces, there are a multitude of options on the market for microphones but these are a few of my suggestions.<br><br>If you're on a budget, I recommend the Shure KSM27. Shure is a very reputable company that makes quality products. At $300, the Shure KSM27 is a workhorse mic that works on a wide variety of voices. I used the KSM27 exclusively from 2007 to early 2015. Every hook track you hear on my site was recorded with this mic. Unfortunately, this mic has been discontinued. But, you can still find it used on sites like ebay, amazon, and craigslist though. If you don't like used mics, Shure released an updated version called <a contents="Shure SM27" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/21PyT80" target="_blank">Shure SM27</a>, but I haven't personally used it so I don't know if it sounds the same or better. It's supposed to be an improved version so it may be winner! Either way, Shure is a quality company so you can't go wrong! <br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/84446992b656360523a2f31d236d3925d8d35219/medium/b294ogve3lq.jpg?1432220012" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Shure KSM27 $299.99 (or less used)</p></div><br>The KSM27/SM27 is a more neutral mic for a wide variety of voices, but if you looking for something brighter and have a higher budget, check out the <a contents="Avantone CV-12" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/1VQg2tR" target="_blank">Avantone CV-12</a>! At $499, it's becoming a popular choice amongst home recording musicians and is the next step up from the CK-7. Here's a youtube video that demonstrates the quality of the CV-12. Make sure to watch in HD <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj1KOBcFcf4" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj1KOBcFcf4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj1KOBcFcf4</a><br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/f078128a2c7460ff72a211f66733852ab8862bbc/medium/avantonecv12psutube.jpg?1432220596" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Avantone CV-12 $499.99</p></div><br>My personal mic recommendation is the <a contents="Shure KSM42" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/21PAhr3" target="_blank">Shure KSM42</a>. At around $800 (with shock mount), this is my favorite mic for my voice and the quality is amazing! It sounds great on a WIDE variety of sources. If you don't have the budget to purchase more than one mic, that's something heavy to take into consideration. More bang for your buck! I've gotten the most compliments from tracks that I've recorded with this microphone. One recent example is my hook beat <a contents='"Forever Love 2"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/tone-jonez/forever-love-2-feat-tone-jonez-lease-at-tonejonezcom" target="_blank">"Forever Love 2"</a> which was recorded with this microphone. Shure is a world class brand that has been around for ages. They don't make low quality products. If you're trying to get top quality at home, the Shure KSM42 will do the job fantastically.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/f8fbaa009fed7931663c187a834d27b103f82c9b/medium/61yq3jhvfvl.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Acoustic Treatment</strong></span><br><br>Now that you have a great interface and microphone, it's time to handle the acoustics. When recording vocals, we tend to expend a lot of air with syllables and this often causes bursts of air (plosives) to enter the mic. In order to avoid that, you need a pop filter. There are two types of pop filters: Metal and Nylon. I recommend metal pop filters as they sound better and they're much easier to clean. Nylon pop filters can sometimes diminish higher frequencies and they can get really smelly over time lol! My personal recommendation is the Stedman Proscreen XL. At $49.99, it does an excellent job preventing plosives and has a wide coverage area. <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/ebdfb2f91f4fbd030b6c6d58f911a801f78e53fa/medium/stedmanxl-large.jpg?1432221821" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Stedman ProScreen XL $49.99</p></div>Also when recording, our voice tends to reflect off walls and the surfaces around us. In order to avoid this, you need to purchase acoustic treatment. One thing you can do is place acoustic panels in your recording area to reduce the reflections. I recommend Auralex acoustic panels. They come in a variety of colors, sizes, and styles to fit your room. Acoustic panels must be glued to your walls so they're best for use in housing properties you own. Rental properties may not appreciate the messy aftermath of removing the panels lol! You can get a 24 pack of these panels for $129.99.
<div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/7a93803e0c6e6d5867fbeb18656451df2ee95434/medium/purple-charcoal-acoustic-wedge-soundproofing-studio-foam-tiles-2.jpg?1432222316" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Auaralex Acoustic Foam (24 Pack) $129.99</p></div>Another option is placing acoustic blankets around the area you record in. Unlike acoustic foam, they don't require being glued to your walls so if you're renting, the blankets may be your best option. The most popular product is the Audiomute blanket. You can view different pricing and options <a contents="here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.audimutesoundproofing.com/audimute-sound-absorption-sheets-materials-that-absorb-sound-soundproofing-blankets.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>.<br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/0c2b37ac655832e9b409634f7840e733c45014a3/large/foamvssheets.jpg?1432222842" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Audiomute Blankets</p></div><br>Another way to help tame reflections is by using what's called a Reflexion filter. This device attaches to your mic stand and is positioned behind your mic to block your voice from reflecting off walls and other surfaces. You can get the Reflexion Filter pro for $249.99. For the best results, I recommend trying a combination of the Reflexion filter and acoustic foam or Reflexion filter and Audiomute blankets. <br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/96e99403ca068fa23fdbb2504304f0136d79776b/medium/90286-l.jpg?1432223726" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">SE Reflexion Filter Pro $249.99</p></div><br><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Additional Upgrades</strong></span><br><br>These are all the tools you need to get you on your way. But, if you want to take your vocal quality a step further, I recommend buying a dedicated microphone preamplifier. A mic preamp powers your condenser mic and amplifies your mic's signal. There are mic preamps included on your interface, but the quality of a dedicated outboard preamp can be far superior. If you're going to get an outboard preamp, I highly recommend the <a contents="Avalon M5" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/1UxAYqh" target="_blank">Avalon M5</a>. At over $1600, this is one of the preamps that I personally use. It's expensive, but I recommend you skip the budget outboard preamps and only get high quality preamps. You'll outgrow interfaces, but high quality preamps will always be useful for years to come. They also retain their value well in case you decide to sell them later. It's a great investment. You can also further advance your quality by buying high quality cables from companies like Monster and Mogami. <br> <div class="captioned justify_center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/73695088e3541f565f6b422955d2da005d60da35/large/m5big.jpg?1432223737" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><p class="caption">Avalon M5 Microphone Preamp $1665<br>Another preamp that I highly recommend is the <a contents='Great River ME-1NV' data-link-label='' data-link-type='url' href='http://amzn.to/1VQiFvA' target='_blank'>Great River ME-1NV</a>. This is currently my favorite preamp! I actually use it more than the Avalon. At only $1150, this masterpiece allows you to dial in a wide range of tones. This is the kind of piece that will serve you well for years and years to come. It also pair amazingly well with the Shure KSM42 that I mentioned above. The KSM42 with the Great River preamp is actually my favorite vocal chain (which says alot considering I also have a Neumann U87ai and Avalon). Those two together are a killer vocal chain for under $2k. Highly recommended! <br><br><img class='size_l justify_center' src='//s3.amazonaws.com/content.sitezoogle.com/u/55585/bfe3a896cbb627d30b1d51059ffdc2454b7b6045/original/me1nv.jpg?0'></p></div><span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>How to Pay for All of This</strong></span><br><br>The links that I've provided above are all for Amazon. But if you don't have the full amount needed to pay for your gear right now, the following website makes buying gear super affordable for almost any budget! Since 2007, one of my favorite places to buy gear has been <a contents="AmericanMusical.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.americanmusical.com">AmericanMusical.com</a>. For orders over $249.99 and under $1000, they allow you to do a 3 payment plan with no credit check! And your gear ships to you after the first payment! It's by far the best way to get the gear you need when you're on a budget. If your order exceeds $1000, then the system will resort to the 5 payment plan which requires a credit check. But if you call in and speak to a rep, you may be able to do a 3 payment plan and avoid the credit check. You can find all the products I've listed here (except for the audiomute blankets and Great River Preamp) on their website. <br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.americanmusical.com"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/bb56b84db9a805206a1fc757efea1a680745fa0e/medium/mylogo.jpg?1432224238" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a><br>I hope this blog post was helpful to you! If you're frustrated with how your vocal quality is coming out, making the upgrades suggested here will help you improve your sound. As always, I thank you for your support and I wish you the absolute best!! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/36998662015-05-08T17:30:55-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:00Generating Interest: Tips for Generating Interest as an Artist/Producer. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/be17324a92d86068d07c46c498fbed0b2205df28/medium/social-media-interesting.jpg?1431120646" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><br>Today we live in a very overstimulated society. With everything being so easily and quickly accessible, and with so much automatically thrown at us so rapidly, we tend to be quite desensitized. Patience is at an all time low. These are the obstacles you're fighting against when trying to generate interest as an artist/producer. I hear so many complain about how saturated the market is and how they feel they can't get a fair shake. Contrary to what you believe, you can use this saturation and overstimulation to your advantage! There are many ways to do this, but for sake of keeping this status length readable lol, I'll focus on the core of it. Your music.<br><br>From an artist/producer standpoint, the plus side of this overstimulation is that it's the result of large masses doing the exact same things. It's the same song/beat over and over again. You need to set yourself apart by providing different and higher quality stimulation. The foundation of it all is your craft. In this day and age, you can't afford to cut corners and follow the masses anymore. Everyone's doing that already. You have to be original, musicianship-oriented, quality-oriented, focused on consistent excellence, and equipped with strong work ethic to stand out today PERIOD. If you're approaching your craft with a "that's good enough" mentality, you're hindering yourself.<br><br>Take your time creating. Relax! I don't know why people hold creating music fast as a badge of honor. Get everything RIGHT before releasing. Create from the heart. Go the extra mile every time. Don't think "oh I'm just putting this out to create a buzz it's cool." Think about what you're saying. How can you create a proper buzz with something not done in excellence? You only get one first impression. Make quality and excellence your first impression every time! Your music should be so concentrated with excellence that it changes the demeanor of the listener. The music should evoke a refreshing stirring of emotions. I love seeing people completely switch gears when I hit play lol! There's nothing like bringing joy to others via your music. That's what music is for! But without excellence, you'll fall short of that goal. People have varying degrees of talent, but excellence can be achieved by ANYONE. If you can't do something right, don't let that slide. Pay the right people to help bring your vision into excellence. The general public may not understand the technicalities of how music is created, but they can tell when things are done half-hearted.<br><br>See music isn't just something you hear. Music is the only thing that has the intrinsic capability to get past the barriers of the mind. It transcends all nationalities and demographics. It's so powerful! When you create music from your heart, it will connect with the hearts of others. When you can connect at the heart, you gain a true supporter. This is the core of how you generate interest.<br><br>Now I know many will read this and think their music is already there. But if you're putting your music out there and it isn't generating much or any interest, that means something needs to be improved somewhere. Get from around people you know and let unbiased ears hear your music. Be open to constructive criticism. Everyone has room for improvement no matter how great. If your music doesn't generate interest on it's own, then it will make all other aspects of generating interest even more difficult. Before you focus on marketing or anything else, you have to get this part right. All it takes is having the right mindset and putting time into your craft! This is pretty long so I'll stop lol! I hope this info is helpful! Be blessed! -Tone<br><br>P.S. Never openly complain about people not supporting your music. That's about the worst thing you can do! It drives people even further away. Resist the urge to post that negativity on your social networks, bite the bullet, and go back to the drawing board. You can do this! Keep your head up fam.ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/36630242015-04-17T10:30:51-04:002017-01-14T13:18:21-05:00Keep Calm and Pay Your Dues<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/02897fd8d95b5c6dc421a41b0cdf63bf4237341a/medium/keep-calm-and-pay-your-dues-2.png?1429278675" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Society today thrives off of comfort, ease, and laziness. New products and services are popping up all the time to decrease the chances of us having to lift a finger to do anything. But when it comes to being successful, NOTHING is comfortable or easy about it. There is a common thread among everyone who has achieved some degree of success. We've all had to pay our dues. Paying dues is that disturbingly ugly road between where you are now and your future success. It takes extreme mental strength to make it down this road. It's not a comfortable route to travel, but if you really want success, there's no alternate route. Prepare for the trip.<br><br>When paying your dues, EXPECT for doors to be closed. EXPECT to be slept on. EXPECT things to just not work out. You will suffer with scrapes, bruises, and even breaks at times. These things are guaranteed to happen. Live in that moment and never forget it. Instead of using these times as an excuse to give up, use rejection and failure as fuel to push through. Learn to accept and enjoy the challenges that come. Believe it or not, this process is making you better. Persevering through paying your dues makes you incredibly strong mentally! It bestows upon you an abundance of endurance, patience, and humility. The things you learn while paying your dues are the very things that will sustain your success later. <br><br>Paying dues is similar to someone bending your arm back the wrong way. It feels very unnatural and is PAINFUL. But just when your arm is bent to the MAX, you feel like you're about to pass out, and your arm is about to break, that's when they let go. That's when you experience success. Can you push through the pain? YES you can! But, that's entirely up to you. If you're in the process of paying your dues and you're about to give up, cut the crap and get back on your A game. Hit the pavement HARD and try new things, take risks, be aggressive about it! You should be aggressively pursuing every way possible to make your dream work. Pity parties and a depressive mindset are doing NOTHING for you. Don't get hung up on "Why this" and "Why that." The answer is because this is supposed to happen! Your success is waiting on YOU! Keep calm and pay your dues. <br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/34522742015-01-29T10:42:36-05:002020-02-26T07:57:05-05:00The Truth About Selling Beats Online<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/86007a4adb2aa433fe1820392f7856faaa306a98/original/screen-shot-2015-01-29-at-10-38-14-am.png?1422545932" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><br>In a little over the last decade, the internet has provided a way for music producers all over the world to provide for their families doing what they love. It's truly a beautiful thing! I've been licensing my music online Full-time since 2011 and my family has greatly benefited from this relatively new career option. As I've experienced more and more success, I've gotten emails from producers asking how they can do the same thing. I tried to answer as many of those producers as possible and even wrote a few beat selling eBooks. But at the end of the day, I learned the general problem for most producers was not learning how to sell beats. Let me clarify. <br><br>I started playing piano in the 80s and producing in the 90s. I've had a strong passion for music far before I ever gained one cent from it. I grew up simply having fun doing what I loved. It was my outlet and how I expressed myself. I truly love music. I've spent countless days and nights learning and growing as a musician and producer. In 2010 when I started sharing my music on soundcloud, I was doing it simply for listening purposes. I just wanted to share with others what made me happy. Eventually, people started asking about buying my beats and that turned into me selling beats off soundcloud Full-Time by 2011. Starting this way, I learned the true way to sell beats.<br><br>The true way to sell beats online is in an attraction based manner. How do you do that? Work HARD growing your craft musically to the level where people start hounding YOU to buy your production. Attract customers to you through excellence. Chase excellence and customers will naturally come. That's the angle that truly works and is most effective. When you do this, you really don't have to "sell" your music. Your job is to progressively make the most excellent music possible, make it reasonably affordable, and INVEST (spend money) in every avenue you can think of to get it out in front of the people (social media ad campaigns, google ads, your website, other beat sites, etc.). From that point, the music will sell itself.<br><br>But overall, have fun and enjoy what you are doing. Making music is one of the best things in the world but when you make money the PRIMARY reason you do it, the music suffers. The thing I hate about today's market is how hard the money factor is thrown around. Yes I make really good money doing this but I've been making music for years/decades and have been passionate about music far before money was involved. If you've only been producing for a couple of months or years, forget about selling beats right now. It's totally ok and respectable to have a normal 9-5 AND do music on the side. Enjoy the process of growing in your craft and create music for the FUN of it. Truly love what you do and it will love you back. <br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/33742852014-12-08T19:28:51-05:002020-07-03T23:04:42-04:003 Most Annoying Social Media Music Sharing Tactics <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/cc6da31f36728f63a031783553e55b5dc73476ba/large/forannoyingpeople-952.jpg?1418081078" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Every artist/producer loves when people listen to their music, gives positive feedback, and of course when they buy their music lol! As a result, it can be very frustrating when you don't get the response you desire from your music. Sometimes the way you go about sharing your music could be the cause of not getting that response. I think most times people don't know the way they're sharing their music is annoying. I myself made some of these same mistakes when I first started out. I wrote this post to educate and highlight some of these areas so artists/producers don't fall into any of these traps. <br><br><strong>1. Unsolicitedly sharing music links under someone else's post.</strong><br><br>Unless it's a post where you are asked to share links or you know the person is cool with you sharing your music under their post, don't do it. It's a HUGE turn off. Although you may have the best intentions, it sends a message that you have no respect for that person's space. When I first started sharing my music around 2010-2011, there were times when I posted my beats under other producer's posts lol! I don't know what the heck I was thinking. Thank God somebody hit me up privately and was honest with me because something like that could have ruined me before I ever started. I hope my honesty here will help someone. A better alternative is to promote your links on your own personal page, on your artist/company page, and in groups that are designated for music sharing. <br><br><strong>2. Unsolicitedly tagging people in posts about your music.</strong><br><br>Unless that person was involved in the creation of the linked material or unless you know that person is cool with being tagged, please don't tag them. Again, it sends a message that you have no respect for that person's space. A better alternative is to create an artist/company page for your music and invite friends to like/follow your page. Then you can share links on your artist/company page and market to people who have already showed interest in your music. And if you want to correctly reach NEW people with your music, PAY for advertising. Break bread! I personally have spent between several hundred to over a thousand dollars on social media advertising every month so please know that I'm not just blowing smoke lol! <br><br><strong>3. Sending unsolicited messages with links to your music.</strong><br><br>I must say this is definetely something I did alot when I first started out. If somebody doesn't know you and all you do is send them a link to your music, they're not going to listen to it. And creating an impersonal script that you copy and paste into every message with the links won't help either lol! And PLEASE never send grouped inbox messages for people to check out your music!!!!!! It's the most annoying thing ever because notifications are sent every single time somebody says something in that group. Stop it lol! The first time you hit people up their shouldn't be ANY links in your message. Genuinely reach out and build rapport. You'll have a much higher chance of getting a listen and a response.<br><br>Even if you do everything the right way when sending a message, you still may not get a response in the timeframe you desire. Have patience! You can't realistically expect people to cater only to you. Keep in mind while waiting for a response, you're competing with EVERYTHING else that is consuming that person's time (like family, school, a job, business, etc.) and their priorities come FIRST. Just because someone doesn't hit you back it doesn't always mean they're being hollywood lol! Most likely that person is getting an overabundance of messages from other people who want them to listen to their music just as passionately as YOU! It's impossible for them to listen/respond to EVERY person who hits them up AND remain productive AND balance family time AND get proper rest/nutrition AND etc. It's just simply an impossible task. So keep these thoughts in mind before you get upset and say inappropriate things. If you feel your music-related message is that important, contact them again in a reasonable time frame. Key word being reasonable. If you're compulsively hitting them up like you have a fatal attraction or something lol, you will push them far away from ever responding. <br><br>I hope this info aides in helping you come up with solid and tasteful marketing strategies for you and your music. Much success to you! -Tone<br><br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/33466402014-12-02T06:00:00-05:002018-11-17T16:14:42-05:00Number One Reason Why Your Music Isn't Selling <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/0f8df7c75f3b6b96ae9c6b2e7309de18666dc02e/original/falling-off-the-chart1.jpg?1417457857" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /> I get messages from artists and producers daily who are having issues selling their music online. They've put in the work to make music that they feel is top notch but people aren't really giving them the chance of day. Sometimes, this causes them to get discouraged and doubt their craft. The music could actually be a part of the issue, but selling is so much bigger than that. <strong>Most times when people aren't able to sell their music, the #1 reason is that they're focusing too much on selling their music.</strong> <br><br>Now I know some people aren't going to take heed to the information I'm about to share, but to those that do, it will help you out a lot. Selling anything anywhere is a complex process that takes TIME. That's the reason I wrote the last blog post on <a contents="steps to doing music Full-Time" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tonejonez.com/jonezblog/blog/4-steps-to-going-full-time-with-your-music">steps to doing music Full-Time</a> because I wanted people to see what it realistically takes to make that happen. In one of the steps I briefly spoke on the importance of making your music profitable. In this blog post, I'm going to give you a three step solid foundation to actually making your music profitable. But keep in mind, making music is about making music. Sales should be a byproduct of excellence. <br><br><strong>STEP ONE: CREATE A PROPRIETARY PRODUCT</strong><br><br>No matter how dope you think your music is, I really want you to pay attention to and digest this section. Today, with the advances in affordable recording technology, we have more artists and producers than ever making music. I don't really like to reference other artists/producers as competition, but because you're surrounded by millions of other people trying to do the same thing you're trying to do, you MUST be as unique as possible to stick out from the crowd. You have to be more of a leader than a follower to experience the most success in music. Take one of your songs/beats and play it back to back in a list with 10 other artists/producers music. If your music doesn't sound considerably different in some way (sonically, musically, lyrically, arrangement-wise, etc.), you need to go back to the drawing board and invest more time into your craft.<br><br>We live in a world where people want everything so fast and that mentality has poured over into the music. But quality music takes time, especially if you're working by yourself. The heart of excellent long lasting music sales is organic, original, polished, musically-rich, authentic, proprietary music. You really have to be passionate about and love making music regardless of profit. Your passion has to breath through your music. Music is such a personal and intrinsic thing. When you make music that truly resonates with you and what you've been through, it becomes much more than melodies, drums, and lyrics. Your feelings/emotions transcend the music and captivate the listener. Your craft MUST captivate the listener before you can even begin to get sales. It's all about creating VALUE.<br><br><em>So how do you create a proprietary product? </em><br><br>For artists, the key is experimentation and letting your life flow through your music. Turn the radio off and get away from all of that. Stop trying to sound like what's popular. You can be current and original at the same time. Find your own style/lane and lyrically draw from your own life experiences when you create. Lyricism is a lost art these days. Lyrical content overall has taken a trip down the toilet. But, it's not about having the craziest metaphors or word play. It's about writing and expressing what you truly feel. When you tap into those true raw emotions, listeners will literally feel that. When you can touch a heart, you gain a fan.<br><br>For Producers, I'd also say experimentation and getting away from what's on the radio. One of the biggest ways to separate yourself as a producer now is INVEST in your musicianship. I'm telling you, musicianship is resurfacing slowly but surely. If you want a long lasting career as a producer, take piano lessons and also learn other instruments to step your craft up. Chords, melodies, bridges, arrangement, transitions, etc. have become a lost art these days so by stepping up your musicianship you'll separate yourself by a long shot. If you're great at writing, create quality hook beats. Artists love hook beats because it gives them direction on tracks that otherwise they might not know how to rap/singer over. There are a lot of hook beats out there, but quality hook beats are hard to find. Draw from your life and write something that others can relate to. Take time to get a polished high quality mix on your beats. No matter how great the elements are in your beat, without a proper mix they won't be heard correctly. Also buy new sounds/drums as often as possible. Treat every beat like you're taking the listener on a journey. Spice things up and throw in a few unexpected changes. It's not the loud and obvious elements that make music special. It's the attention to nuance and detail. The beach is a beautiful place but what would it be without the slight warmth of the winds, gentle rustling of the sand, calming sounds of the water at the edge of the shore gracefully moving around the small rocks/seashells, and distant sounds of seagulls flocking together further down the beach? Details!<br><br><strong>STEP TWO: BUILD TRUST/RAPPORT AND A FAN BASE</strong><br><br>After you've tightened up any weak points in your craft and set yourself apart, you're still not ready to start selling. You have to get people excited about your craft. Building trust/rapport and a fan base is crucial when creating a brand. It's not about sending mass unsolicited emails/facebook messages/tweets/etc out to a bunch of people who don't even know you. You have to slowly and organically build a fan base over time. It never happens overnight. Realistically, be prepared for several years of hard work.<br><br>Content is king. Make videos, write blogs, share your life/thoughts, encourage others, give out FREE music, collab with other artists/producers, enter contests, build an email list and send out weekly/monthly updates (tastefully within reason), etc. Do these things consistently. Besides just hearing your music, people need to know who's creating it. People need to see what you look like, how you talk, how you think, how you create your music, etc. They need to know that you're passionate about your craft and that you really care about giving them value. They need to know that you're a real person and also feel like they know you. Get active on social media and engage people not only in relation to your music, but also check out and support other's music too. If people feel like you're only trying to sell them something, they won't buy it. <br><br><strong>STEP THREE: MARKETING</strong><br><br>After you've built trust/rapport and a fan base, then you'll have people that are interested and eager to purchase what you have to offer. But wait you're not quite ready yet! At this point, you have to INVEST in marketing. Meaning, you have to break bread lol! Yes it's true you have to SPEND money to MAKE money. You will not get your craft out to the masses without putting money behind it. You have to come up with a budget and pay for things like Facebook ads, twitter ads, soundclick ads (for producers), google adwords, banners ads on targeted music websites, splash page ads, flyers, promo cd's/flash drives, merch, etc. And before you dump money into that, you have to make sure your marketing materials are up to par visually and verbally.<br><br>In your marketing material's verbage, make the value of what you're offering more emphasized than the price. Now when you're having a discount/sale, of course you should emphasize that. But in your primary daily marketing efforts, your goal is to educate people on what makes your music valuable/unique. Their reason for buying can't be the price alone. Anybody can provide a great price. But what are you uniquely offering with your craft? Is your strength profound lyricism? Make that known. Is your strength musicianship? Make that known. Have you been doing music for decades? Make that known. By pushing VALUE you entice people to listen. Your goal should be getting people to listen to the highly valuable product that you've created. That's all! Let them decide on their own whether they want to buy your music or not. When it's more about the music than the sale, you win. <br><br><strong>STEP FOUR: BE PATIENT</strong><br><br>Most times when I give out this type of information, people are looking for the "secrets" that will blast them into an instant state of success. When they don't see any easy buttons, they write the info off as bullcrap. This is why I'm giving this out for FREE. I have nothing at all to gain from writing this post other than the satisfaction of helping others succeed. This is raw, straight-forward, honest information that I've written sincerely for the advancement and encouragement of independent artists/producers. The secret is precision calculated hard work for YEARS. There aren't any shortcuts. There is no easy way. This process separates those who are passionate from those who just want money. It's HARD work. I can't say that enough. But if you really love music, and you're really passionate about your craft, AND you take heed to what I've said, you CAN make your music profitable. It's all up to you. Shouts out to those who actually read this word for word all the way through to the end! That shows character and that you have the patience that's needed for the task. Much success to you! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/8447702014-11-19T17:32:43-05:002018-09-15T12:54:06-04:004 Steps to Going Full-Time With Your Music <p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/07c2dd35ce9a655b9bffd059681c1730fec4b8a8/large/how-to-quit-your-job.jpg?1416436070" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>So you wanna be Full-Time ay? I can’t blame you! The thought of waking up everyday doing what you love and setting your own schedule sounds amazing! Especially when you’re day dreaming about it while sitting at your day job lol! But if you don’t have the proper plan, work ethic, and consistency that it takes to be Full-Time, you’ll find yourself going back to that old faithful day job really quick! Here are 4 crucial steps needed to make that transition to entrepreneurship. </p>
<p><strong>1. MAKE THE PLAN</strong></p>
<p>Before you turn in that 2 weeks notice, you need to have a solid plan. This step is free and you can start on it immediately. When drafting your plan, here are 3 essential things you need to figure out: How you’re going to make your income, overhead(costs) necessary to make the income, and projections of how much income you're going to make. You have to take in consideration all of your bills and map out your income projections to take care of them. Be realistic with your projections. Most likely, you’re NOT going to make 1 Million dollars the first month you go Full-Time lol! Making good money as an entrepreneur, especially in music, takes years of hard work, focus and dedication. It even takes making mistakes and failing a few times. Honestly, it will be one of the most challenging tasks of your life. But if you stick in there, anything is possible! Going Full-Time is a totally different life than the paycheck to paycheck life so make sure you’re mentally prepared for the challenge! P.S. It does wonders to write or print out your plan then hang it on your wall. Making it tangible and visible in your workspace at all times helps to keep you focused. <br><br><strong>2. BECOME PROFITABLE</strong></p>
<p>Once you have your plan together, DON'T QUIT YOUR JOB YET!!! I know you're excited and optimistic, but before you leave your job, you need to ALREADY be profitable. Set profitability goals and meet them before you leave. First try to make half of your monthly job income. Once you do that, try to match your monthly job income. Once you do that, try to exceed it. Once you get to the point where you’re making about 50% more than your job income or double your job income, you’re in position to turn in your notice. If you want an extra layer of protection, have several months of your job income saved up before you quit. This process may take some time but doing things this way will be much better in the long run than just quitting cold turkey. Please don’t leave your job if you haven’t generated any money yet. You’ll set yourself up for a major heartbreak. Also you’ll be so pressured to make music because of finances that your creativity will take a major hit. I went Full-Time out of necessity. My job was paying really poorly and music(<a href="http://www.tonejonez.com">ToneJonez.com</a>) was the tool God gave me to exceed that income and finally leave. But with freedom comes responsibility!</p>
<p><strong>3. LEAVE YOUR JOB</strong></p>
<p>Now that you're fully prepared and already running, it's time to take a step into the unknown! But be warned. If you think that you grind hard now, you haven’t seen anything! When you finally go Full-Time, you will grind the hardest you’ve ever grinded in your ENTIRE life! It takes extreme precision, focus, organization, consistency, and goal planning to successfully go Full-Time in music and continually be successful over time. The first few months will be really difficult for a few reasons. You’re going to have to establish some type of schedule but truly you’ll NEVER be off work as with a day job. You’re going to have to get used to putting a lot of hours and concentration into your work. You’re going to have to get used to not knowing EXACTLY how much you’re going to make every week. But once you've been Full-Time for a while, you'll develop your own system and be able to gauge your monthly income much better. You’re going to have to sacrifice a lot of fun things (like movies, games, etc.) and bring down your standard of living(get rid of unnessecary bills) so you can be fully optimized for growth. But I believe the hardest thing, at least for me, is BALANCE. You’re going to have to learn how to balance out your time to include business, relationships, friendships, etc. Friends and relatives may start to feel some kind of way because you don’t have time to contact them as often as you may have in the past. You have to deal with that. Everybody won't understand this process, but it's important that you stay focused throughout in order for you to succeed. They'll get it later. The grind is real folks, but it is very rewarding when done with precision, focus, and BALANCE!</p>
<p><strong>4. PLAN FOR GROWTH</strong></p>
<p>Once you’ve established your work flow and you’re enjoying success, it doesn’t stop there! Now you have to constantly look for ways to innovate and grow beyond where you are. Every year your income, supporter base, etc. should be growing. Consistency is KEY! We live in a fluid society. If you do the same thing everyday, eventually what you offer will be outdated and irrelevant to your supporters. Goals are IMPERATIVE for growth! Pursue goals aggressively but strategically. Don’t try to do everything at one time. Break big goals down into small mini goals and focus on one mini goal at a time. Eventually, you’ll accomplish the big goal! Never stop educating yourself! Also it's important to have several different streams of income, whether that means you selling merchandise, finding multiple avenues to profit off your music, doing live events, offering a variety of services, or starting other businesses with other skills you may have. This avoids you from creatively tiring yourself out in one area. Never put all your eggs in one basket. BUT, build each stream of income ONE at a time before moving on to the next. If you jump around too quickly, your time expenditure will be so stretched that you won't have time to properly build anything. You don't want to be burdened with multiple non-profitable business ventures. When you get new income stream ideas, write them down and come back to them at an appropriate time. There's a time and season for everything. </p>
<p>I hope these tips will get your wheels turning and put you on a path towards going Full-Time with your music career. I’ve been Full-Time since 2011 and even though these years have been a challenging, they’ve been without a doubt the MOST rewarding years of my life thus far! I can’t complain at all! I wish you all success! You can do it! Be Blessed- Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/32736702014-11-09T12:21:17-05:002017-01-14T13:18:20-05:00What is the meaning of #NoSamples? <a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.tonejonez.com" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/9fc6fa70606a4357548ceca0ef44eec03d8f4d70/original/nosamples2.png?1415551366" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></a>I started the #NoSamples movement in the earlier portion of 2014. It's went on to become adopted by many producers. You may have seen these types of banners from me or either seen me mention #NoSamples a lot 2014 but you're still not quite sure what it means. Hopefully after reading this, you'll have a clearer understanding.<br><br>#NoSamples simply means when I create music, I don't sample from any existing records that have been released for commercial sale. Instead, I create music organically based off of life, my emotions, my physical environment, and my 20+ years of musicianship experience as a pianist. The #NoSamples movement was never intended to be a diss or shot to producers who actually sample from records. Sampling (the right way) is very creative, takes skill, and is an art in it's own right. I've enjoyed sampling many times and have absolutely no problems with it. This was simply my own personal journey to enhance my musicianship/creative skills and avoid sample clearance issues for me and my customers. It's a very personal and internal way of creating that encourages you to draw from yourself for inspiration. This journey has been VERY rewarding as I've increased my skillset immensly in 2014. <br><br>There's been some confusion about what constitutes "samples" in #NoSamples. As far as using samples, I don't sample from pre-existing commercial records but of course I still use sound libraries (in addition to live instruments and my own voice) to create my works. I also use drum kits, drum breaks, drum/percussion loops and effects that I PURCHASE from sound library companies. I use these tools to present my own vision and create my own melodies and patterns. I also regularly create my own "samples" and chop them. I've been a musician for a long time and I have a unique ear for music so my stuff can sound very convincing. But, no samples from existing commercial works are being used.<br><br><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/174104964&color=8ede04&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>One track I've gotten a lot of "sample" allegations about is "Harlem Nights 2" which I've added above. This track is #NoSamples as well. I played every single note of every single instrument via midi on a Triton Extreme. The drums are a drum break that I purchased. It was composed entirely in Logic with a big portion of the sounds coming from Native Instruments Komplete 8 Ultimate. I'm a big fan of old school music so my ear for it is very good. (<a contents="Follow Me On Soundcloud" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.soundcloud.com/tone-jonez" target="_blank">Follow Me On Soundcloud</a>)<br><br>The benefits of #NoSamples are that neither me or my customers have to worry about sampling clearance and my customers are getting unique content with every release. By starting this movement I was hoping to encourage producers from all around the world to take a look inside themselves and pull out the natural melodies they already possess and not rely on sampling for every record. I also wanted to encourage producers to pick up instruments or even random objects around the house and just see what you can create. Being open to experiment with different hardware/software is also a part of it. With imagination, you can create with literally anything. The point of #NoSamples is not to be limited to any particular production tool. It's a movement that equips you to freely express your creativity with anything that is put in front of you. You are the instrument. <a contents="#NoSamples" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.tonejonez.com">#NoSamples</a> <br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/32661232014-11-04T16:15:23-05:002017-01-14T13:18:20-05:00The Power of NO<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/f22825d12e526963eb7a1da048d57ea2411d2635/medium/640px-photograph-of-mrs-reagan-speaking-at-a-just-say-no-rally-in-los-angeles-nara-198584.jpg?1415132062" class="size_m justify_center border_" />I was raised to be respectful, nice, and remain humble. As a result, I developed a sincere heart for helping people and was generous with saying YES because I thought it was the right thing to do. Somewhere along the way, I assumed I was required to say "Yes" everytime someone asked me to do something. I would look past my own sacrifice/limitations and give a yes without fully thinking out the consequences of that yes. I thought saying no didn't demonstrate being respectful, nice, or humble. Well, through many unfortunate situations, I've learned a hard lesson in life. No matter how sincere or well-intentioned your yes is, if you have the slightest belief that you cannot live up to that yes, don't give it. Atleast not right away. There's no benefit in saying yes if you can't follow through. Being only one person, you can only do so much. It's impossible to follow through on every yes if you give it out too generously. Take time to evaluate what's attached to the yes. Treat every yes like a contract. Once you sign YES with your mouth, you're locked in buddy lol! <br><br>Being an exceptionally talented person with a heart to give, I've ALWAYS been heavily pulled on by people. And being the type of person I was, I tried to help everybody who pulled on me lol! This became even more of a problem after I started doing music Full-Time in 2011. Being new to business WITH a high demand, I was making mistakes left and right. I was taking every opportunity that was handed to me. I overextended and overdrafted my YES account too many times to mention. I often found myself over obligated musically. I had so much obligational weight on my shoulders that I wasn't even inspired to create. Stress is the best way to kill creativity. As a result, deadlines weren't met, word was not honored, customers were lost, and "unreliable" became stapled to my name. None of this was because I was a bad person or anything like that. You can be a great person with a horrible reputation if you say yes too much. People take your word seriously. Too much yes will cause you and others hurt when you don't follow through. People determine your character by what you DO, not your intentions. <br><br>It took me MANY years and situations to learn lol, but I'm a lot more generous with NO now. I only get involved in things I know I can handle. Anything else, I give an immediate no. Right now actually I've been turning down every project I've been offered because I have specific personal/business goals I'm trying to accomplish over the next 8 months (I turn 30 June 2015!!!). Sometimes you have to block everything out in order to get your goals accomplished. Too much yes can be a major distraction when trying to reach your goals. No avoids over obligation, wasted time, and a host of other things. Simply put, every opportunity is NOT for you. You have to be wise when you're constantly being pursued by people. Don't be pressured into a yes. Sometimes people will beg you for a yes until they break you all the way down lol! And when you give them that yes, they're gonna hold you to it just as passionately. Take time to think it out. Tell them you'll get back to them later. No matter who the person is, how much money is involved, etc., you can't do everything. You can't get too wrapped up in thinking you'll offend someone by saying no and then obligate yourself when you know you can't perform. Nobody likes no lol! People will be upset at your NO, but they can respect no a lot better than a yes with no follow through. Take it from somebody who's learned the hard way lol. If you want people to get an accurate picture of your character and what you're really about, be very selective with your YES. Remember, it's like a contract! When in doubt, just say NO. ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/31335812014-08-12T19:35:05-04:002017-01-14T13:18:20-05:00Stop Rushing <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/d757a6eaa1920bf4d6d86dbe1aecc17298d4c765/original/image.jpg?1407881704" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /> Today's society caters to impatience. With the convenience of technology, we can do things at lightning speed compared to previous years. This "need for speed" has carried over into every area of our lives and unfortunately into the music business. There's so much music coming out now at such a fast pace that consumers don't even get ample time to fully digest it before something else comes out. And MOST unfortunately, music creators are just slapping music together today with very little detail and nuance. It's become all about the sprint not the marathon. The quality of music overall has taken a nose dive but the solution is very simple: STOP RUSHING! <br><br>Being that my main source of income is music, I can understand why a full-time musician would want to rush music. Consumers are always hungry for something new and that demand can be a lot of pressure. But what I've found is that when you take your time making quality music, even though people have to wait for it, they will highly appreciate the end result. The reality is that you only get to release music ONCE. You may as well spend time making it quality! It's almost like preparing for an interview. If you rush through picking out/preparing your clothes and being ready for the interview questions, you aren't going to make a great first impression. Most likely, you won't get the job. You may be the BEST person for the job, but the interviewer would never get a chance to find out due to your poor first impression. You may be a very high quality artist or producer but if you don't take time to make music that is a true high quality representation of your craft, you're selling your self short. Making half-effort music is not a shortcut to long term success. Just think what if Michael Jackson or any of the other music greats had rushed their most praised albums. Their legacy may not have been what it is today. <br><br>Many times this rushing stems from a need for finances. You need to make this money FAST so the faster you make the music, the better. No lol! People can tell when you put time and detail into something vs just throwing it together. Focus on QUALITY. Chase QUALITY, and the money will chase you. This information may sound "cliche" but I promise you if you do this, you will be more successful in the long run. I've been able to make a full-time income off music for the last 3 years but ONLY because I've always strived to put out quality. Artists rock with me because they can hear the time and dedication in my <a contents="music" data-link-label="Beats For Sale" data-link-type="page" href="/beats-for-sale" target="_blank">music</a>. I'm not trying to just sell them something. I'm providing an ASSET to their career. When your supporters know you're working hard to give them your best, they will give you their best. I've had people skip paying bills to purchase my music lol! I DON'T condone that type of activity, but it has happened haha! Shows how much people value quality!<br><br>If you've gotten caught up in the "sprint" of putting out records as fast as possible, you can change that today! Instead of trying to finish multiple things in one day, spend several days on 1-2 tracks. Take time to add in that chord change you thought about but figured it'd take too long to do. Re-record that take and stop trying to fix it in the mix. Spend extra time making the mix impeccable. It's all about details! Even though the average listener may not be musically inclined enough to understand every detail, they can definitely FEEL it. So with that said, take your foot off the gas pedal lol! It's OK if people wait a little bit. You won't be forgotten. Be blessed! ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/31061632014-07-29T18:25:35-04:002017-01-14T13:18:20-05:00Leave The Nest<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/f6640114bc7c12e835bf903b3de70ea0fc3102ec/original/baby-bird-learning-to-fly1.jpg?1406666395" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br>I believe everyone has some type of dream in life. Many people don't pursue their dreams out of fear but some aggressively pursue their dreams and are very successful! But then there is that middle section of individuals who work hard to pursue their dreams but nothing is working. You grind for months, years, some even decades with no change. After evaluating yourself, you come up with the conclusion that maybe it's not meant to be. But often there is one area people tend to overlook before they throw in the towel. It may simply boil down to this one thing: you're still sitting in the nest. What is the nest? It's a comfort zone that consists of a variety of things. But for this blog post, I'm speaking specifically on being stuck in a physical location. In other words, where you're living right now. Often times this nest is where all your family/friends are and it's the only thing you've ever known. You feel comfortable in this place and it would just be so perfect if everything would work out in the nest. Some dreams may work in your area! But some dreams realistically work better in other locations. Sometimes, you MUST leave. Sometimes it takes getting out from around everyone and everything you've ever know to do something you've never done and be something you've never been. The demographics, economy, general mindsets of people, and the vibe of where you are matter BIG TIME. If you're in the wrong location for your dream, you'll never achieve your full potential. <br><br>It's very difficult to leave the nest. The thought of leaving everyone and everything you know is disheartening to say the least. Relationships will suffer. People, even some you love, will talk very bad about you. They'll even discourage you intentionally. Friends will fade away. You will be misunderstood, slandered, and hated. It will most likely be one of the most physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting processes you've ever experienced in your entire life. But when you know deep down in your heart where you're supposed to be, staying in the wrong place does MORE damage than leaving. Resentment will grow in your heart. You'll settle for a life below your worth. You'll end up working a job or jobs you really don't care for. You may even settle for relationships with people you know are not for you. You will live a life of regret and take your dreams to the graveyard. Doesn't sound too appealing huh lol? Make your life count for something. If you're living in a city/state right now where no matter what you do you just can't seem to find happiness and purpose, most likely you're still in the nest. Here's a few tips on how to leave.<br><br>First, you need a PLAN. Don't just pack up your stuff and leave without a plan. Of course things never go 100% according to plan, but having a road map will help avoid a lot of bumps and bruises. Start researching this location and outline how you'll make your dreams happen there. Take into account that you NEED to live beneath your means for as long as possible until things take off. Budget, Budget, Budget!! This is not the time to ball out lol! Struggle now so you can flourish later. I'd strongly suggest taking a few trips to this location before the move to scout places of residence and get a general vibe for where you'll be. Trust me, you'll know if you're in the right place! If you're having any doubts, keep looking. Once you have your plan together, here's a very important step: shut up lol! Don't go telling everybody your plans. Some people don't want to see you succeed. And some people just won't be able to understand your vision. If you're a believer especially, some people will say God told them this/that but will really be telling you their own agenda lol! I think most people mean well, but take all opinions with a grain of salt. If you do decide to run and tell, at least don't give away all the details. Keep your plan very close to your heart and only reveal the extent of it to very trusted ears. Seek wise counsel only. Why is this necessary? Words are powerful. You don't need to hear any negativity or ill intentioned words during this stage of your life. Stay focused on the plan and execute. Yes, the backlash will come. Be prepared. No matter what happens, continue to love people unconditionally and conduct yourself in a decent manner. People may be angry with you initially, but eventually you'll be the one that inspires them to take their lives to the next level and follow their dreams. Everybody is looking for a leader and an example. Focus on being that. <br><br>Now everything I've said up until now would be void if I'd never experienced it. But I have. The first time I knew I was in the wrong place was in 2007. I was living in South Carolina at the time and made a trip to ATL to be in a beat battle with my brothers. I don't know how to explain it, but I just KNEW Atlanta was the right place for me. The way I felt when visiting was unexplainable. There was no doubt in my mind about it. I actually tried to fight this feeling because I figured there was no way I'd ever end up in ATL. It was "impossible", so I thought lol! From 2007-2008 I made several more trips to ATL and felt stronger about leaving the nest every time I went. I would dread going back home. I was terribly unhappy with where I was in life. Not because I didn't love the people around me, I just knew my purpose and correct location. Once you know these things, you'll go crazy until you do something about it. So when an opportunity was presented for me to leave the nest, I took it. I was nervous and honestly afraid, but I took the opportunity. It was hands down the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. I left behind many people I love. Things were said about me that hurt deeply. Relationships suffered. There was a big readjustment process. My entire mindset had to be reconfigured. In the nest, I was shy, easily stepped on, lacking initiative, and simply unhappy. After I left the nest, I discovered things inside of myself I never knew I had. One of those things is leadership skills. Being a follower my entire life, I was shocked about how much of a leader I truly was. I began speaking with people. I maintained my friendly character, but gained the boldness and backbone that was needed. I began taking strong initiative. Business ideas were flowing. And musically I had a HUGE growth spurt. I was finally happy. Just like certain animals thrive better in different environments, we as people must be in the right environment to reach our full potential. Figuratively, you can't be a polar bear in the Kalahari desert and expect to thrive lol!<br><br>The road from the nest to where I am today was riddled with many twists, turns, bumps, and bruises, but I'll NEVER regret leaving the nest. Not only did it change me, it changed people around me and put me in the position to do things I couldn't do when I was in the nest. Today I can say I'm truly at the happiest point in my life. So if you're reading this blog right now and these words are connecting deeply with you, I want you to know that you can do it. Yes it seems unrealistic and yes it will be rough, but you can make it happen. Don't be like others who have came before you and taken their dreams to the grave. Be that leader and example. You alone could be the person that revolutionizes the lives of everyone around you by taking initiative. Take that first step today of mapping out your plan. Take the next 6 months to a year to prepare yourself mentally, financially, and emotionally. You know deep down in your heart where you're supposed to be and you'll never be truly happy until you turn that into reality. I believe in you, but I need you to believe in yourself. Leave the nest :)<br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/30775142014-07-15T15:35:03-04:002017-01-14T13:18:20-05:00How to Sell Beats Online Part 2<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/9fdc5f6ef252cc270417f30e248b596f132f3483/large/3329300-1.jpg?1405440814" class="size_l justify_center border_" />What's good my fellow producers! I hope you're enjoying the posts! There are so many great resources available on how to sell beats, but with these free posts, I aim to touch on the important foundational elements that enable you to get great sales. After all the great feedback I got from last week's blog post, I decided to write "How to Sell Beats Online Part 2." The first post focused primarily on the importance of mastering your craft. If you haven't read it, make sure and read <a contents="How to Sell Beats Online" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tonejonez.com/jonezblog/blog/how-to-sell-beats-online">How to Sell Beats Online</a>. This week's post focuses primarily on branding. This is a very important foundational element.<br><br>According to Entreprenuer.com, the definition of branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. Besides your craft itself, branding is the other area that enables you to separate yourself from the pack. So let's just say you've worked hard on mastering your craft and you have an arsenal of phenomenal music. But, you're not getting your desired amount of sales. It's time to work on your branding! To keep this post from being too long, I'll touch on just a few elements of branding as it specifically pertains to being an online music producer. <br><br><strong>YOUR NAME</strong><br>Let's start with the foundation of your branding. The first question to ask yourself is how can customers identify your brand? Do you have a unique business/producer name? All of the successful online producers I've encountered have ALWAYS had their own unique name. Not something generic anyone would think of. This name is usually also their domain name. If you can't even buy the domain name for your own producer name, then it's definetely time to consider a new name. Your name plays a MAJOR part in separating you from the pack. Here are a few ways to generate your producer/business name: Use your real name (works best if your real name is unique), use a creative variation of your real name, think about your greatest strength(s) as a producer and build your name around that, use a nickname that a lot of people call you (if it's an embarrassing name don't do that lol), etc. PLEASE don't intentionally create a variation of another producer's already existing name lol! Don't make your producer name Superstar P, or Donny Juliano, etc lol! Be original please! Also having a tagline can be useful as well when branding. It's basically a short sentence that sums up what your business is all about. I'm all about musicianship so my marketing visuals will usually say "Premium Quality Musicianship" or "Producing Music, Musically."<br><br><strong>YOUR LOGO</strong><br>After you come up with a great name, you need a CLEAN logo to represent that. Key word being CLEAN! Most times when producers get graphics done there are all kinds of distracting elements cluttering up their designs. You don't want your general image to be too complex. You must realize although music is an art, SALES are all about having simple, clean, and easy to read/navigate visuals. Think about some of the most powerful companies and their logos. Sony, Coca-Cola, Apple, Wal-Mart, General Motors, McDonald's, etc. Pay attention to how these companies brand themselves and use that as an example of how to brand yourself visually. I believe logos are even important down to the colors. Colors give people different emotions. Colors can also trigger customers to think about your brand if you brand yourself strong enough. Look at the color chart below. The first chart is strictly on how people process colors emotionally. The second chart is related to how people process colors when purchasing. Keep these in mind when choosing the color for your logo and other branding materials: <br> <div style="text-align: center; "><span class="font_large">Colors and Emotions Chart</span></div><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/d7d215b72b04423c9adbdbcf48360b7e5f434ddb/original/colorwheelemotions-1.png?1405445986" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="font_large">Colors and Purchasing Chart </span></div><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/4a94ea789eb65cc56c5cef12a5ee1e899d6f9749/original/6a00e54fd9f05988330148c69f645e970c-800wi.png?1405446001" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><strong>YOUR WEBSITE</strong><br>Your name and logo will be the foundational elements for everything you do going forward with your branding visually and otherwise. Next I'd consider your website. Does your website exemplify your name and logo? Is your website clean and easy to navigate? Is your website's loading time acceptable? Can people view your website on mobile devices? All these things are very important and music be assessed/addressed. Your website does not have to have bells and whistles flying each and every way and have an explosion that turns into your name lol! That's the easiest way to cause slow load times. I can't stress enough to make sure your website is clean and easy to read. Get your site designed in a way that your beat store is the central item on the FIRST page. People don't feel like clicking a bunch of links or taking a bunch of steps just to hear what you have to offer. Make it as easy as possible. Potential customers should be able to pull up your website and be listening to your beats within a few seconds. Internet connection plays a big part in this so make sure you optimize your site to load as fast as possible on a variety of connections. Make it creative but simple. Don't believe me? Look at the e-commerce sites for big name brands and you'll find a consistent string of clean and fast loading websites. Here are a few: <a contents="http://www.walmart.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.walmart.com">http://www.walmart.com</a>, <a contents="http://www.ebay.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ebay.com">http://www.ebay.com</a>, <a contents="http://www.overstock.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.overstock.com">http://www.overstock.com</a>, etc. Now you get the picture. <br><br><br><strong>YOUR PERSONALITY</strong><br>There are many aspects to branding, but now I'm going to touch on the KEY that makes it all come together. In today's social media climate, branding also includes the personality or character of your business. Consumers today have a strong desire to build a personal connection with their favorite brands and that can only happen through brands having a personality. As an online music producer, you're the face of your business. You are the brand. That means your personality/character must be represented in your brand in order for your customers to connect with you. People need to know YOU. See you may look at it as you're just selling beats, but you're actually selling yourself. Your real authentic self. People have to be sold on YOU before they buy anything from you. You can't be ignorant, disrespectful, prideful, and unappreciative then expect people to support you. Once a customer is sold on you as a person, they'll be open to buy pretty much anything of value that you provide. Now although personal relationships are wonderful, I don't expect you to have personal relationships with ALL of your customers. That's impossible! But thankfully, it's possible to still create and maintain a somewhat personal connection.<br><br>Your branding strategy must include tools like your own personal blog, mailing lists, youtube videos, and interacting via social media to show transparency and let people get to know YOU. These things allow people to see how you look, hear how you sound, know how you think, and know what you stand for. This is how you build trust and familiarity with potential and/or existing customers. Don't sleep on these tools. Stop only thinking about sales. Your customers are people. They most likely won't always need your product, but everyone can always use a word of encouragement. Take time to encourage people, get to know people, share your life, and be human so that they can relate to you. Then when the time comes for you to sell something, they're buying based on the CONNECTION that you've established not just a product. <br><br>Don't expect everyone to like you. Some people won't care for your music, your brand, or anything related to you PERIOD. That's life! I've had people unsubscribe from my email list (which I only email once a week maximum) and call me every name in the book. Especially other producers sadly lol! Did I get upset? No! That just means they weren't for me. People have different tastes and like different things. Don't be offended or feel like being less human if someone doesn't like your brand. Keep pushing and catering to the many people who DO support you! <br><br>Branding encompasses a wide scope of things, but these are the specific areas I usually see producers fall short in when they're having problems selling their tracks. I hope this information is helpful to you! Always remember a stellar product, stellar branding, and humility will take you a long way before you even attempt to sell anything. Be blessed! - Tone Jonez<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/30591262014-07-06T12:26:51-04:002020-05-04T17:48:32-04:00How to Sell Beats Online<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/0914322d0ae4da0a9f119f0e00cd7412ceccd984/large/718e-u-pnxl-sl1500.jpg?1404620727" class="size_l justify_center border_" />I constantly see producers asking <a contents="how to sell beats online" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tonejonez.com/jonezblog/blog/how-to-sell-beats-online">how to sell beats online</a>. Type "how to sell beats online" in google and you'll get links to all kinds of videos and articles/products. I've even written ebooks in the past about selling beats, but I'll never write another one. The information I and many others have provided is legit but the main problem is not sales strategies. So for any producer who is having a hard time getting beat sales, I'm going to answer the question right now honestly for FREE based on my real life experience. You can learn every beat selling strategy ever invented and buy all the promo in the world but the core of your success all boils down to one thing: your CRAFT. Unfortunately, this area is not prioritized most times in the beat selling game. Producers simply copy whatever sound is on the radio to the letter with the primary goal of making money. It may seem logical, but it's not the way to go if you're trying to build your own unique sustainable brand. By developing excellence in the FULL art of music production and finding YOURSELF musically, you'll become empowered to create uniquely valuable music that naturally breeds demand. Create phenomenal music! <br><br>Now I know a lot of producers don't want to hear this. You want to hear about secrets to making a KILLING online. You've probably even paid for that type of info. In reality, sales strategies should come last in the big picture. Yes there are sales products out there that really work but they're not going to work to there fullest potential for YOU based on where your craft is at currently. Save your money at this point and worry about that later. Rather than sell you a dream I'm going to tell you the truth. The value and importance of stepping up your craft is immensely more crucial than any sales product you could buy at this point. Your craft should always be your first area of examination when your sales aren't doing well. You never get too good to step up your craft. There is always a next level to attain. Creating music that breeds demand will cause people to look for YOU! Word of mouth spreads very fast when a product is phenomenal. I hate to use this for an example, but look at the economics of the drug game lol! Before folks start trippin, I'm in NO WAY condoning drug use lol, but rather using it's business model as a point of reference. From a business standpoint, drugs are a very high in demand product. Nobody has to drag customers down and make them buy drugs. People DESIRE the product and actively search for it! As a music producer in general, your goal is to develop your music to such a level of excellence that when you put your music out there, word of mouth spreads and people actively search for you! <br><br>So how do you do this? FORGET about selling beats for a while and focus on aggressively improving your craft. Dedicate your time towards striving for excellence in musicianship, engineering, songwriting, arrangement, producing vocals, etc. Search for videos on youtube, read articles, get advice from producers you admire, get critiques of your music from seasoned ears (don't start sending a bunch of unsolicited emails to people though lol), and do tons of trial and error. Learn, implement, grow, and repeat. When your potential customers see and hear you putting strong effort into your music, you become valuable in their eyes. In addition to learning the technical aspects of these things, you also have to learn how to create music that authentically resonates with you. This doesn't mean that you have to be stuck to one style or genre, it just means that no matter what kind of music you make, people can feel YOU through your music. For more detailed instructions on how to find yourself musically, <a contents="read about the originality cleanse" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tonejonez.com/jonezblog/blog/the-originality-cleanse">read about the originality cleanse</a>. When your music contains this authentic emotional element, people can literally feel that. That feeling is the spark that causes customers to be attracted to your music. Humans are emotional creatures and people can tell when you're just throwing something together vs creating music from your heart. If producers would learn and focus on these things first, then the actual "selling" part is ALOT easier because it's not forced. People will genuinely want what you have to offer and actively search for you.<br><br>After you begin to accel in the FULL aspect your production craft, the other side to this equation is marketing. Put simply, the process of putting your music in front of people. Utilize your own website, social media, and other beat hubs (beatstars, soundclick, etc.) to promote your music. Be creative and tactful in your approach. There are many different strategies for doing such, but I want to keep this article strictly focused on the craft aspect. A simple google search will give you plenty of marketing strategies and products to implement. <br><br>So you're reading this and some of you will say "Well Tone Jonez it's easy for you to say that because you're very talented." Let me tell you something. Talent is like a seed. I believe we're all born with some type of talent seed. Development is like the sunlight, water, soil, etc that's necessary to make that seed grow. Talent means NOTHING without development. It takes WORK. I've put in YEARS of hard work and dedication to get my craft to the level that it's at. It's not simply "having talent" lol! You must give yourself adequate time to develop. I've been developing my craft since 1988. Musicianship was the first part of my journey, being a piano player. I built a strong foundation of chords and melodies by heavily studying gospel music. I started learning production in the 90's. I studied a lot of 60's and 70's records to step up my arrangement skills (intros, verses, choruses, bridges, transitions, surprise elements, etc.). You can learn ALOT by studying records in the Motown era. In the early 2000's I started learning about engineering by reading articles and ALOT of trial and error. Youtube wasn't around yet. I also made my first songwriting attempts around this time. I made ALOT of wack songs until I got better. 2007-2008 I moved out on my own and REALLY grew by practicing all the elements of full production on a daily basis. Youtube was around at this point so I was able to pick up on a lot more things. I experimented with all kinds of genres and styles. During that one year period I discovered my sound and strengthened the signatures that make me unique. After I moved to ATL in late 2008, my craft grew even stronger. So by the time I took a really serious Full-Time step into the online beat game in 2011, my craft was already very solid. That first year I didn't have a problem selling my beats. The beats literally sold themselves off of my <a contents="Soundcloud profile" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.soundcloud.com/tone-jonez">Soundcloud profile</a> I just wasn't putting out enough music to keep up with the demand nor setting the right prices to sustain a comfortable Full-Time income. Too much demand and not enough supply lol! As my output and business savvy grew, things dramatically improved the next year. These days I have so many people actively searching for me and contacting me that I couldn't possibly take every opportunity. I'm nowhere near a savvy internet marketing genius. It all boils down to me displaying excellence with my craft and people resonating with that. <br><br>So to sum it all up and answer the almighty question about <a contents="how to sell beats online" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://tonejonez.com/jonezblog/blog/how-to-sell-beats-online">how to sell beats online</a>, FIRST develop a unique and undeniable product. Not predictable and average, UNIQUE and UNDENIABLE. It takes work but it's possible! That is the core of selling anything PERIOD. From that point, it's just about using savvy marketing strategies to get your music in front of the right ears and having attractive sales options that work for a variety of budgets. There's your answer for FREE lol! Don't sleep on this info. If you take heed to what I've said, with hard work and patience you'll be on your way to a valuable and sustainable brand. Not just selling beats. Master this stuff first, THEN worry about sales strategies. You can do it! Much success to you! Grind time fam! -Tone<br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/30499182014-07-01T10:40:31-04:002017-01-14T13:18:19-05:00Things Aren't Always What They Seem<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/699e8247e7d329c0dd25d299e947a08e592ffffb/original/screen-shot-2014-06-30-at-9-36-10-pm.png?1404179045" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><br>We live in a VERY visual society. People often utilize what's obvious to generate their perspectives/opinions on other people, things, etc. But many times what meets the eye can be very misleading. If a guy pulls up in a Bentley coupe and hops out wearing the latest designer clothes, then automatically this guy is considered successful. But, a wealthy CEO may pull up right behind him driving a normal car and wearing normal clothing. He most likely won't be considered successful right off the bat. In reality, the guy whipping the Bentley could be just like the rabbit above on the right side. Looks impressive in public, but in reality all those things could be loaner items from his record label to make him "look" the part. But the modest CEO could be like the rabbit above on the left side. Not too impressive at first glance, but having a massive amount of wealth under the surface! Who's society going to deem as successful off looks alone? <br><br>Now with that said, my reason for writing this post today is to encourage you. You may look at others and feel unsuccessful in comparison. You may feel like other people are making more progress with their craft than you are with your craft. You may think another person "has it made" and you can't wait to get where they are. You may even start questioning why you aren't already where they are. Don't fall into that mental trap! It will stifle your productivity big time. The spotlight can be very misleading. There are plenty of successful people outside of the spotlight. Everyone has their own unique path to take in order to get to what they consider "success." Focus on your path and don't waste time comparing yourself. On the flip side, you may be a person that knows you're successful. The problem may be that other people don't consider your success as real success. Don't let that get to you! People are going to think what they want to think no matter what you say or do. Let them believe whatever they want! You don't have time to prove anything to anyone. It's not your responsibility to shape their opinions. Be YOU and let the chips fall where they may. Enjoy your success in silence!<br><br>As I often do with my blog posts, I'm going to give a personal example just to make what I'm saying practical. Part of my income strategy involves me being an internet music producer. It's not considered as glamorous as being a traditional industry music producer, but I love it! I don't have grammies, I don't have a ton of placements, I don't have big shot industry friends, and I don't drive a Benz/Beamer/Audi (even though I could). Amongst the massive amount of support that I've graciously received from a lot of you (Thank You So Much!!!!) I also receive very unfavorable commentary from some. People say things like "You're undervaluing yourself," "You're wasting your talent," "I would be a millionaire if I had your talent," "you can't make REAL money selling beats online," "if you want real success you should do this or that" and my personal favorite lol "You're messing it up for everybody else." All these and more are VERY erroneous statements, but it's a waste of time trying to correct people's opinions lol! You won't catch me passing out my bank statements, running behind people constantly trying prove anything, or shooting a Tone Jonez edition of MTV cribs lol! I enjoy my success and keep working! I let them think whatever they want. When I wake up in the morning and do what I want for a living everyday, that's what success means to me. Not being a slave to any contracts, labels, jobs, drugs, etc., that's what success means to me. Being able to fully take care of my family without any lack, enjoy as much family time that I desire, and help others along the way, that's what success means to ME. Enjoy your version of success till the wheels fall off, even if others don't consider it success.<br><br>Have you ever noticed how so many rappers make all these songs boasting about money this and money that, but in reality they are only worth a few million? Some not even worth that! They blow through their money trying to look so outlandishly rich. But then you have these business guys who are super rich and live very modest lifestyles. I have a rule of thumb that I go by. Most times when you see a person trying to flex SUPER hard about what they have, there is usually a major lack somewhere else in their lives. They're usually dealing with life issues, things that can't be solved with money. Money becomes a tool to cover up the emotional depravity, pain, and unhappiness that lies underneath. Why do you think there have been so many "successful" people that have committed suicide? Aren't they supposed to be happy? Having money alone doesn't automatically equal success or happiness. Success is about a balanced combination of a good spiritual life, finances, health, character, family, and relationships. Most times, the spotlight only highlights the financial portion. Stop looking at other's success and comparing it with your own because you may be very surprised to find out that you're the one with the bigger carrot underground. Things aren't always what they seem. Be blessed! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/30366792014-06-24T21:51:30-04:002020-08-31T00:56:52-04:00WAIT<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/bb8d6ef1c2a39d89ad66c9915302114bb1099832/original/wait.gif?1403637933" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Wait. Something nobody likes to do. It's irritating, it's stressful, and it takes soooo long! For anyone who is trying to pursue goals or do anything special in life, waiting can be one of the most frustrating things to go through. But, it's through the "WAIT" process that we achieve the development that propels us towards and helps us flourish in the "Success" stage. This is one of my longest but probably one of my most inspirational Jonez blogs. If you need some encouragement, it'd be worth your time to "WAIT" it out and read the whole thing :) <br><br>Today (6/24/14) is my 29th birthday! Today I enjoy a life that didn't even seem possible 10 years ago. Many people see my success now and think things are that way just because I'm extraordinarily talented. There's ALOT more that goes into success than talent. I myself went through the "WAIT" process just like everyone else. Here is a portion of my 10 year wait process (2004-2014). <br><br>I remember it like it was yesterday. It was my senior year of high school 2004. I'd been perfecting my musicianship skills since 1988 and my beatmaking skills had grown immensely since I started in the 90's. Everyone would always compliment me on how talented I was. Although I started making beats on keyboards and tape decks, I eventually graduated to making tracks on my cousin's computer. I was so hooked on the sequencing power and freedom of software that I would be over his house all the time making beats. I used to dream of having my own computer so I could make beats in my own room at any time. I remember sitting impatiently waiting for my turn to get on the computer so I could make music. And when I finally did get there, I could barely hear because he was blasting BET and making all kinds of noise. I wanted to make music so bad that I eventually learned how to concentrate in the middle of the madness lol! The wait was very long, but eventually I got my own computer! I got a job at Fire Mountain and saved up enough money to go in half with my Mother on a new computer. It was a wack computer lol, but it was MINE! The day I took that computer home, I told my Mother I was about to blow up lol! I thought it would happen in no time. I was very wrong! <br><br>I enrolled in college for computer science. Even though I loved computers in general, I found myself spending most of my time creating music on the computer. I was putting so much attention into it that I flunked out of college. Most days in class I'd be reading mixing articles rather than listening to instruction. And I definetely didn't do any homework lol! I acquired a better job at a records processing business but got released after my boss said she didn't have anymore work for me to do. Being 19 years old with no job, I felt like a bum and at that point decided to make something serious out of this music I'd been spending all my time on. So I grabbed a free Net Zero cd from the local store so I could get dial up internet on my computer. I created an account on soundclick, uploaded my beats, and sat back waiting for the money to pour in! Nothing. So, I joined online forums and started sharing my beat links. Nothing. I even made posters to put on my car and pinned cards inside the local laundry mats (what chance would I have selling beats in a laundry mat lol). Nothing. I felt like a failure. <br><br>With no job, no school, and no income, I figured I had to do something to make money. I grew tired of waiting on music so I started selling things on eBay. It was a nice side hustle! I started with my college books and ended up selling studio equipment and all kinds of things! I was making a little money but nothing serious at all. Due to the unpredictability of selling things on eBay, I eventually ended up getting a job at chik-fil-a in 2005. I would have rather been at home making music, and the pay was horrible, but I learned ALOT about customer service at Chik-Fil-A! This job taught me how to interact with people in a professional manner. I was doing so well that I was offered a management position, but I ended up landing a job as a bill collector at a major utility company in 2007. I hated that job with a passion! Getting cursed out everyday for a living was not favorable, but this job taught me a lot about conflict resolution. I learned how to de-escalate situations and generate solutions. Often calls that started with the customer calling me every foul name in the book (even racist terms) ended with apologies and many thanks. I gained a great deal of patience as a bill collector. I also learned how to type very quickly, how to handle sensitive information, and how to conduct a professional phone call. I didn't see it at the time, but I was in heavy development for the success stage. <br><br>Often times I'd sit at my desk with a couple copies of Scratch Magazine and just dream about doing music as a career. Until my supervisor would come and tell me to put my magazines away lol! I ended up moving out of my Mother's house and living in a trailer with my best friend. Now I could stay up and do music as late and as loud as I wanted to! I only worked 16 hours a week so a lot of my time went towards my music. My craft grew tremendously during this period! One day I got reconnected with an old friend, Bdunn, in Atlanta that did music as well and we began to talk on the phone all the time. I'd tell him about how I wished I could do music for a living and how much I hated my job. He had a passion for music as well so eventually me, Bdunn, and my cousin LT formed a production company called Strong Foundation & Co., LLC. We officially had our own business! We were having meetings, attending beat battles in ATL, and making awesome music! A pastor (now my father-in-law) even prophesied to me that I'd be moving to Atlanta, getting married, starting a business, and having multiple bank accounts. I was excited at the time but had no clue it would take 7 more years for all those things to come to past lol! There I was waiting on music again. Tired of waiting. <br><br>Things began going downhill for me. My only means of transportation, a 94 taurus, suddenly broke down and I had no way to get to work. My Mother ended up helping me get a car, but now I had car payments to make. With only making several hundred dollars every two weeks at my job, things were looking very grim for me financially. I got a credit card thinking that would help my situation. Due to poor choices, I made things worse lol. My roommate was out of employment a lot so with both of our finances being hit so hard, there was barely anything to eat. Also an animal had got under the trailer and tore up the ventilation system so there was no air conditioning or heat available. I remember plenty of days working on music hot in the middle of the summer and freezing in the middle of winter just wishing for something to pop off with this music so I could finally enjoy my life. I knew God had blessed me with the talent but nothing was working. I felt like giving up. I'll never forget the day I hit rock bottom. There was nothing left to eat but canned corn, old bacon bits, and faucet water to drink. After I finished my "meal", I had a long talk with God. I was tired of my situation and needed a change desperately. As Bdunn saw my situation decline, he felt bad for me. He saw all the potential I had inside of myself, even though I couldn't see it. Desiring to help me get of my situation, one day he dropped the sentence that would change my life. He told me I should move to Atlanta with him and his Wife. This is the point where the struggle inside of me began.<br><br>South Carolina had been all I knew my whole life. I knew I would never reach my potential by continuing to stay there, but I couldn't imagine leaving everyone I love and everything I know. Bdunn kept telling me I need to move to ATL. He was pretty aggressive about it lol! After much thought and prayer, I decided to make the jump. This was a HUGE decision and it was the first time I EVER took a risk. This decision gave me the initiative that I needed to take risks business-wise today. I turned in my resignation letter, packed up my things, sold my old Taurus to the scrap yard, and prepared to move to Atlanta in 2008. I thought surely things wouldn't take long to pop off now! But, again I had to wait. Upon arriving to Atlanta, I began work as courier driver. But, music was still my primary focus. Me and Bdunn did enough networking that eventually we caught some ears and our production company got signed to a label with major distribution! Surely the wait was over now! With us having photo shoots, being promised houses by the summer, and being assigned our own manager, how could things not pop off? You guessed it. Things didn't pop off. Again, left waiting on this music.<br><br>But, one awesome thing that did happen during that time is I got married in 2009! Being so captivated by the married life, I let the music industry dream take the back seat for a MINUTE. I was still making music, but only for my own personal enjoyment. I did routes for a while then worked a few office jobs. Being sick of working for other people, I took a second shot at being an entrepreneur! I created several websites/ventures in different industries that failed really bad lol! One in particular was a headlight cleaning business. I never made a dime haha! So..... it was back to the music again! I started uploading my beats to soundcloud and created the first ToneJonez.com in 2010! Word caught on with my music pretty quickly and by the summer of 2011, I was doing music Full-Time! The wait was over!!!!! Actually not. I was failing miserably by the end of 2011 with my back up against the wall. Desperate for change, I switched up my strategies and had an amazing 2012. I had an even better 2013. And now in 2014, I'm finally where I wanted to be in 2004! I have my own successful business, financial freedom, a family, and business is now at a level where my wife was able to leave her job to pursue her dreams of owning her own daycare! This is only the beginning! <br><br>It took 10 years of struggle, mistakes, and WAITING to finally get here! But along the way I learned these and many more powerful skills that I use today: Focus, perseverance, humility, customer service, de-escalation, conflict resolution, risk-taking, professionalism, business savvy, and most of all, PATIENCE. So why would I write all this? Because I want to encourage you to stay focused during the waiting process. You're being prepared for something greater and this is the only way you're going to get the skills you need. Discomfort comes before comfort. Don't give up! Don't rush the process! Similar to having a baby, being pregnant with an idea is only the first stage. But you must WAIT and give that idea time to develop and grow so that one day it will be healthily birthed into existence. Keep believing, keep learning, and keep waiting. Your time will come! <br><br><br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/29883102014-06-03T12:56:33-04:002020-05-06T17:37:09-04:00Creating Multiple Income Streams<div style="text-align: center; "><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/c8abea4edc21718fa116f4069c85b954080e6e35/original/money-bag.jpg?1401814564" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></div><br>The last Jonez blog was a bit heavy lol, but today I'm going to lighten it up and talk about something we can all relate to. MONEY lol! If you're looking to increase your profitability as a producer, multiple streams is THE way to do it! Although this post is primarily for music producers, I'm sure everyone can find a nugget or two that will help them out! Thanks for reading! <br><br>All of our life we are taught to go to college, get a job, work there for decades, and retire to a comfortable and secure financial future. Unfortunatley, in today's world, that system doesn't quite work so smoothly anymore. Jobs (especially GOOD paying jobs) have become hard to come by even for people with college degrees. Many people are caught up in the cycle of working to pay bills, never having much of anything left to actually enjoy life off of. Due to all these things, people have resorted to working at multiple lower paying jobs to generate the income they need. Even though the money is being generated, their quality of life suffers dramatically. So how do you escape a life of working to pay bills? Multiple streams of income! <br><br><strong>How do you create multiple streams of income as a producer? </strong><br><br>1. <span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>License your beats in as many online places as possible for residual income. </strong></span>There's a huge market of artists looking to license beats and realistically you cannot reach them all with your marketing efforts alone. Create your own website and also sell your beats on other sites like Soundclick, Beatstars, Myflashstore, etc. Also try to join already established production team sites like Shadowville, Anno Domini, JeeJuh, etc. By licensing your beats in multiple places, you can make a VERY nice residual income off of that singular time investment of creating the beat(s). This is your top income generator as a producer. I currently license my tracks in 5 different places.<br><br>2. <span style="color:#FF0000;"><strong>Create other unique residual streams. </strong></span>This is one of the major parts I discussed in the last blog. You have to assess your talents/skills and come up with a way to turn that into unique downloable products. This could be a beat tape, an album, a drum kit, a subscription website, a blog (making money via ad revenue), information products, etc. Also, if you have funds to invest, you may want to look into non-music related residual streams like the stock market, real estate, parking lot ownership, laundry mat ownership, vending machines, storage unit ownership, etc. Get as many income streams on auto-pilot as you can. I'm currently working on 4 unique residual income streams to launch in 2015 and I got a few more ideas while writing this blog! I write these for myself too ya know lol! <br><br>3. <strong><span style="color:#FF0000;">Get your music in situations that will generate publishing/royalties.</span></strong> Publishing/royalties is also residual income. This can come in the form of artist placements and placements for tv/film/games/advertising. Although publishing/royalties from artist placements are only really significant with big projects, you can get some VERY nice royalties from synch placements! Established music industry producers are getting MORE money from tv/film placements than in the record industry!!! Rodney Jerkins, A.K.A. Darkchild, has said exactly that (<a contents="click to watch video" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yKsuiSWBc4">click to watch video</a>). I know people doing the tv/film/game music grind full-time. I currently get publishing/royalties from artist projects but am working on jumping into the synch side of things as an additional stream! One thing I was told though is create two different catalogs. Make one catalog for all artist related stuff (selling beats online, etc) and create a totally separate offline catalog for synch stuff. As I get more knowledge on the synch side I'll definitely share! <br><br>4. <strong><span style="color:#FF0000;">Get paid for services rendered.</span></strong> Most times producers will stick to services like custom production or mixing but there's so much more! You can do consulting/training in your area of expertise, be a session musician, freelance studio engineering, open your own full studio, offer music services for weddings/funerals (I can't STAND doing funerals but if you can manage it go for it), create jingles for companies, etc. Since music is such a big part of life there's a lot that can be done with it. Also don't neglect non-music related services! If you can cut hair, be a barber on the side! Do you love driving? Be a courier on the side! I've been a courier on the side for many years and if you get the right route it can be VERY easy money. Are you good at landscaping? Do it on the side! There are two guys outside cutting my lawn right now as I type this because I don't have time to do it myself lol! Take a good look inside yourself and you'll be surprised what kind of services, music related or non-music related, that you have to offer! Recently I've discovered something in myself that could be a VERY lucrative service and nobody is doing it! Working on it for 2015! Being the first one to jump on a lucrative service or source of residual income is the BEST position to be in! Read that again lol! <br><br>When you're coming up with your multiple income stream plan, you want to make sure and incorporate more residual income sources than services. Why? Time is money. Residual income continues to be generated after the initial time investment but services usually result in a one time payment. You want to make sure you have a lot of residual things going so while you're out rendering services, you're getting paid on top of getting paid.<br><br>While making all this money is awesome, make sure you're using it correctly. Money is just a tool. Don't go crazy balling out buying all this stuff you don't need. It's ok to splurge every now and then but wise investing is the new retirement plan. Make sure you're pooling a percentage of your profits into Roth IRA's, CD's, Bonds, etc so that you're saving/growing money for your future. Some people call all of this stuff hustling lol, but multiple income streams is the future! Also some streams will be smaller than others and that's ok! The point is they all add up to one big lucrative income so be patient when trying out different ventures. Eventually you'll come up with the perfect combo that works for YOU! Hopefully I've given you a few ideas to get your wheels turning. I wish you much success with your plans! See you next tuesday! -ToneToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/29732792014-05-28T17:36:58-04:002017-01-14T13:18:18-05:00PRODUCERS: Stop Complaining and Start Innovating<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/c7f1dbf264daa8d64f64d1b7bf7472765555db4c/medium/e35292134aa70e729e8076f5259e6bc1.jpg?1401198068" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />I'm a nice guy and I really don't say much, but this post is something I've had on my mind for a while and this really needs to be said. My intended audience for this post is producers who used to make their primary income off of selling Exclusive beats. I know you don't like what's going on with the beat selling market today, but times change and you have to find your unique way of changing with them. Hopefully this article will provide you with the knowledge you need to get to the next level in this new business climate. <br><br>Over the years, I've heard complaint after complaint from producers about the "beats" market. I've even been the subject of some of those complaints at times. Many producers strongly dislike and complain about the overall business model of what producers are doing today. A lot of this complaining stems from the desire for things to be how they "used" to be. But realistically, nothing stays the same. Things have evolved in good and bad ways. You can't expect to use the same methods from decades ago and still be profitable today in a totally different business climate. And you can't complain about or be mad at another producer for using "newer" strategies that allows him/her to feed their family. If you want to remain profitable or scale your profitability, it's time to open your mind and start innovating.<br><br>A common complaint I hear (or receive) from producers is that because other producers are leasing beats, it's preventing them from getting sales. Not true. Nobody is holding you back from being profitable. Only YOU have that power. It's YOUR responsibility to be a savvy business person. Survival requires you to be crafty and creative in your strategies so you can adapt with change. There's no set it and forget it or easy buttons. You MUST have the ability to assess your target market on a regular basis and consistently create new ways to benefit from the strengths AND weaknesses of your market. You MUST have the initiative and drive to go above and beyond for your target market. The reality is that we're in a bad overall economic environment. Many artists just don't have the money to pay the prices we used to get on a consistent basis (keyword being consistent). Bills come every month consistently so you NEED a plan that allows you to take care of your financial obligations with the least stress possible. Be honest with yourself. You're upset because you're not making the kind of money that you used to make off of music and that is the main reason you are complaining. It's not anybody's fault and it's ok to be upset. Things simply change and there's nothing we can do to prevent change. It's time for you to adapt to the changes so you can get back to your desired income level or above. Here is the solution for you.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/07217edf77b2f6a3f2a57c8c47790fb82c637ea6/medium/creating-multiple-streams-of-income.png?1401311949" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br><br>You MUST find a way to create a downloadable product that is based on residual volume sales. Automation is the name of the game. Create a product that is of high quality, is affordable, and is available 24/7/365 on auto-pilot to a wide pool of customers in your target market. A product like this will save you TONS of time and energy and be MUCH more profitable than only selling Exclusive beats. Why does this work so well? Because it's a win win for everyone! The customer gets what they want, at the price they want, and at the time that they want it (instant downloads). You reap an amazing financial benefit and you save ALOT of time. You get to reinvest your newly found surplus of time into making better products for your customers. As long as you genuinely work hard at creating high quality products for your customers, they'll continue to support you. Leasing beats happens to be one of the easiest and most profitable ways to accomplish this. There are countless artists all around the world who want to take a chance at getting in the music industry but they cannot afford to buy quality production Exclusively. You meet their demand by licensing them industry quality production at a price they can afford. But, if you dislike leasing, here are several other ways to innovate and create a residual volume sales product. <br><br>1. Maybe you should create and sell beat tapes. You can sell high quality beat tapes at affordable prices on auto-pilot to ANYONE who enjoys music! There are many people out there that just love listening to music and if you have something unique, and are savvy in how you present/market it, you can make a pretty penny!<br><br>2. If beat tapes aren't your thing, maybe you should make some type of tutorial or information based subscription website model. Selling unique and highly sought after information is very lucrative. If you provide high quality info/tutorials and can get a mass amount of people to subscribe to your website, that's money every month on auto-pilot! You could even use a multi-level subscription package strategy to cater to a variety of budgets (Gold package, Silver Package, Platinum Package, etc.). Another spin on the website idea is you can create a website that is open to everyone but offer paid advertising spots to companies and music professionals. This route will take a while to become lucrative, but it is possible to make money via getting a percentage of sales from ads you place on your site or getting paid upfront for a CPC (Cost per Click) or CPM (Cost per impression) campaign.<br><br>3. If you don't want to do a full website, create an information or tutorial product! Things such as ebook courses, video courses, or audio courses are very lucrative. If you can put together a package with all three elements (ebook, video, audio, and even some type of merch), you'll be on your way! <br><br>4. If that still doesn't sound appealing, sell your own sound kits! Producers scour the internet looking for new sounds everyday! If you provide a unique product that meets the demands of what producers need, you could make some really killer money on auto-pilot!<br><br>5. The old school method is placements. The goal is to get as many placements as you can and watch the royalty/publishing checks pile up! The problem with this method is that placements are not abundant, at least GOOD placements aren't. So there's no consistency in this route. BUT, placements are excellent supplemental income and by building them up overtime, you could start to see a nice chunk of change every quarter. You may even catch a lucky break and get that placement that brings in the BIG check but don't chase that big check so hard that your day to day life is unstable financially. Especially if you have a family.<br><br>There are many things you can do but these are just a few things I'm throwing out there to get your wheels turning. The key to making a residual volume sales strategy work is excellent marketing. If you're not particularly skilled in marketing, then hire someone to market for you. Grind smart and create multiple streams of income. <br><br>I've experienced what I'm talking about first hand and am telling you all this to HELP you. When I first started selling beats online in 2011, I relied 100% on Exclusive sales. I managed to get sales every week but it wasn't anything crazy. Some months were really bad. Bills came up so I would have to lower prices drastically quite often in order to get sales and pay the bills. I did the first half of 2011 while still working a 9-5 job and the second half of 2011 Full-Time. After all that effort, I only made about $12,000 in 2011 off beats. Me and my family lost our apartment and almost lost our vehicle. I would actually hide the vehicle in other apartment complexes and walk home just in case the repo truck came to get it. That's no way to live so I knew I had to innovate. 2012, I started leasing my beats (residual volume sales product). I happened to be the first producer to provide instant download leasing to customers in my niche. My income TRIPLED in 2012. And since then through much hard work, savvy multiple-income stream strategies, and a quality over quantity mindset, I make my entire 2011 year income+ on a monthly basis. If I had decided to "stick to my guns" and never innovate, my business would not be around today GUARANTEED.<br><br>I know this blog post is long, but I'm really passionate about this. I really want you to open your mind and look beyond how things used to be. If you've found yourself struggling, it's time to switch things up. Find out what makes you unique and find a way to turn that into a downloadable residual volume sales product. Try as many strategies as possible because in this day and age you MUST have multiple streams of income flowing in. I know you're used to doing things a certain way, but one strong trait of a successful business person is having an open mind. The more closed minded you are, the more your profitability will suffer. If you take my advice to heart and DO IT, your stress level will decrease, your time availability will increase, your creativity will increase, and you'll just feel better overall because you won't have to work like a hebrew slave only to earn below your worth. I actually started losing hair to stress at one point lol! Don't be like I was. Innovate! You have everything already inside of you to make it happen fam. Get to work! <br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/25291842014-02-05T18:56:58-05:002017-01-14T13:18:18-05:00The Originality Cleanse<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/364050d0275b95885f5e7796fd0b0e96ba0f6bb8/original/the-original-and-profitable-business-today.jpg?1391644369" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><span class="font_regular">As a musician, it can be very tempting to create the same sound that everyone else is creating. While we ARE influenced by our surroundings to a degree, there's a certain uniqueness that resides in all of us that must be tapped into. It's by tapping into this uniqueness that you obtain that "special something" that nobody else has. Even if you're musically in a popular market, it's possible to put your unique spin on what's out and create something different.<br><br>So how can you be more original? By doing what I call an originality cleanse. God has already put everything you need inside of you. You just have to tap into it. This is how you do it.<br><br>1. You need to take time to find yourself musically. Stop listening to all other music for one month. I mean ALL music. Of course you can't avoid music on movies/tv commercials and such lol, but turn your radio OFF. <br><br>2. Get in the studio with a musician/producer and EXPERIMENT. If you're a musician yourself, then that's even better! Isolate yourself and dig really deep. Don't worry about what's current, don't worry about what's popular, just simply create whatever you naturally feel in your heart and let the chips fall where they may. <br><br>3. Don't put any limits on yourself . Remove CAN'T from your mindset. Try anything and everything (legal of course lol). Let your music be totally sporadic and organic. <br><br>4. Even if what you create sucks, keep creating until it doesn't suck. Keep trying. It may be uncomfortable or frustrating but PUSH. Similar to a health detox or cleanse, you may experience some resistance (creatively) to do what you've always done.<br><br>5. Create something every day of the cleanse. Don't miss ANY days. Doesn't have to be perfect, just create. <br><br>You'll be surprised what comes out of you! Instead of drawing from other people's music for inspiration, you'll learn how to draw inspiration from your own life. Your pain, your joy, your emotions, your senses, the environment, everything! Life is full of amazing song material! I've used a lot of material in my own life to create awesome <a contents="beats with hooks" data-link-label="Beats For Sale" data-link-type="page" href="/beats-for-sale">beats with hooks</a>, something I never saw myself EVER doing lol! Some of the most successful artists in the world have turned their pain into success through song. Something as simple as seeing a leaf fall from a tree can inspire an amazing record. Records created during a strong emotional state (sorrow, anger, etc) will be some of the best content you've ever created. Learning how to put your life into musical form will certainly breed originality because it's YOUR life! Whether you're a producer trying to create unique <a contents="beats for sale" data-link-label="Beats For Sale" data-link-type="page" href="/beats-for-sale">beats for sale</a> or if you're an artist trying to create unique songs, I hope you find this information very useful. Be blessed!</span>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/10417812013-06-29T11:20:29-04:002017-01-14T13:18:18-05:00Consistency is Key<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/1bc267a38910b1ca1f9b60354fcc6bff/tumblr_inline_mp67fu9I4L1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>When you think about a water fall or most bodies of water, you’ll realize that they are constantly moving. The only way fish and other forms of life in the water can survive is through the constant flow of the water supply. It’s in stagnant water that things begin to die off and rot away. This same principal applies to whatever we do. There must be some level of consistency in order to facilitate and build upon success.</p>
<p>Now, I have a lot of nerve talking about consistency considering this is the first Jonez Blog I’ve done in like 3 weeks when I WAS doing it everyday lol! But this is a perfect example of what I mean. We’ll start something great, but life gets in the way and slowly we drift further and further away from that thing until it stops. Keep going! Success is a marathon, not a sprint. There’s really no end to it, only constant evolution of it. </p>
<p>There’s a known saying “Out of sight out of mind" that is totally true. Whether you are a music artist, producer, painter, dancer, or any other type of creative entity, make sure you are constantly supplying your supporters with fresh content. Otherwise, you will slip further and further out of your supporter’s minds until they stop checking for you.</p>
<p>The key to this consistency is choosing a consistency that you can be consistent with. Tounge twister right lol? But seriously, you must set long-term feasible consistency goals. Doing something everyday is great, but some things you can not do everyday consistently without falling off at some point. If you find an everyday consistency difficult, focus on every few days. A certain day of every week. Every month. Every quarter. Every year. Something! Just be consistent with whatever you choose and you’ll give people something guaranteed to look forward to. As humans, we live in patterns and routines of consistency so this is important.</p>
<p>I know for me as a producer, this is an area that I have difficulty with at times because the demand for my gift is so broad that it can be very very VERY demanding lol! But really, it’s all about just setting a goal and sticking to it then building upon it which I’ve done numerous times. As I pinpoint more ways to improve my consistency, I encourage you all to sit down and really map out some ways that you can be more consistent with your craft. Let’s all consistently be more consistent about being consistent consistently lol!!!! I’m silly smh. Hope this helps! As always, keep pushing because I believe in YOU! God Bless. -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/8654972013-06-03T07:40:00-04:002017-02-02T01:34:10-05:00Work Ethic: The Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner of Champions<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/02823f3b162cf18093f222697c3a05dd/tumblr_inline_mntom2bJBo1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>Work. Something that everyone claims to do, but very little actually do! Common phrases such as “We Puttin In Work” are stated while doing what the guy in the picture above is doing lol! To really “put in work”, it takes an eat/breath/sleep type of grind and mentality. Of course balance is key, but you really have to be motivated, impeccably inspired, and fully invested into something to make it successful. This my friends is work! Nothing happens over night. For my fellow creative people doing music, here is something to get your motor running! Caution: This blog post may hurt a little bit but it’s good for you! Trust, I’m the first partaker of my own advice!</p>
<p><strong>What are you thinking about?</strong></p>
<p>How often do you think about your craft? Your wheels should be turning constantly about it. You should be constantly thinking of ways to innovate your sound, marketing strategies, branding strategies, etc. If you don’t have a physical notepad or a note pad app on your phone FULL of ideas and strategies, then you’re probably not thinking about your craft enough! Turn Up! Success is not a destination but rather a constant journey consisting of proactively planning and executing goals. As my homie Sherrod White says in<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOi0ittKlac"> “One In A Million”</a>, it’s not a sprint baby it’s a marathon!</p>
<p>Write down your goals and read them often. When you wake up, read them. During the day, read them. Before you go to sleep, read them. If you’re married or in relationship, get the love of your life involved! Basically the more your goals become a part of your daily life, the more you will think about them and naturally desire to achieve them. Don’t be the person that says “This is My Year” every year and nothing ever changes lol! Don’t get stuck in the “We About to Blow Up” or “I Can’t Wait Until We Blow Up” mentality. Don’t wait for somebody else to come along and grab your hand and “put you on”! We’re in the 21st century folks! You can do almost EVERYTHING on your own now so there is no excuse! Make up your mind today that TODAY is the day your future begins. Your journey of success begins right now! NOTHING is holding you back but yourself! Just Do it!</p>
<p><strong>What are you doing?</strong></p>
<p>One thing that I have noticed is that when a person doesn’t have much talent, they will work relentlessly and achieve major success while a person with a lot of talent is most times lazy. They figure their talent alone will carry them to success when in reality that is NOT true! Or either the person is just plain lazy all around lol! They put all their hope in making it big but don’t have a “right now” plan. Especially with producers. Cats will make a couple of beats and expect to sell them to regular people with jobs for an arm and a leg lol! The common statement is “People will pay for what they want.” But how often will that happen? If most of your target demographic doesn’t have a major situation, what would be their logical justification for spending so much of their hard earned money for your beats? Don’t forget you have bills to pay! Stop being lazy and WORK! Price correctly for your target demographic and get your desired income via a volume sales strategy. Until you get to the point where you can command high amounts per track from established full-time artists(totally different demographic), make more beats, drop your pride, and drop your price so you can build some clientele and be profitable NOW! Especially if you have a family! Your spouse doesn’t need to keep hearing how you’re going to make it big. They need some kind of results NOW.</p>
<p>Whether you are super talented or minimally talented, WORK ETHIC levels the playing field! In fact, I believe you need to work even HARDER if you’re highly talented! You have to show people that you are not lazy and that you are serious about your craft PERIOD. This is how you gain respect for your craft.</p>
<p>I’ve touched on marketing/branding in other posts but if you’re trying to get your stuff out there, content is key! You have to be putting out some type of content regularly. It doesn’t always have to be music. Get creative! Blog, Vlog, do live chats, make memes, grind on twitter, grind on Facebook, grind on linked in, send out a newsletter, DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY! Connect with the people that support you. Again, connect with the people that support you. Again, CONNECT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT SUPPORT YOU! I had to say that three times because that is the most important thing I can tell you in this whole post. Your work ethic should be 90% business(which includes engaging your supporters) and 10% music. No connection, no support. Genuinely engage your supporter base everyday in some way! People will appreciate that you care about them and in return they will care about you.</p>
<p><strong>Are you working in the right area?</strong></p>
<p>If you like something but find yourself not really being motivated to do it consistently, that may not be your passion. I think sometimes people get into music because of the money. They see the artists and producers ballin out and want the same lifestyle when in reality, although there are some that do live it, a lot of the imagery is false! You see LAVISH rented cars and mansions while a lot of these people go home to nice but a lot more MODEST vehicles and houses. It’s designed to sell you a dream! There are a lot of major artists and producers that aren’t doing so great. Some people are going through great lengths doing very bad things just to stay afloat in the music business right now. Don’t throw your life away for this stuff folks lol! It’s not that serious. You can’t just be in this thing for the money. If so, the minute profits sink you’ll want to quit or do something stupid out of desperation. You have to LOVE what you do in order to have that eat, breath, sleep, breakfast, lunch, and dinner kind of work ethic. You have to have true passion for your craft. When you truly love it, you will do it whether you make a million or nothing. I’m going to keep it 100% with you. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, don’t waste another minute of your time doing it. Re-focus your energy into finding what you’re truly passionate about. You’ll be much happier and fulfilled! It’s ok not to be a top selling rapper lol! It’s ok not to be a top selling producer! You don’t have to be in the limelight to be successful. Trust, there are many people behind the scenes that are VERY successful and fulfilled and you’d never know it. Some of these people stand beside you in line at walmart with a gallon of milk and you’d never know it lol!</p>
<p>I hope these words put a little fire under you to get to work and at the same time cause you to evaluate if you’re really doing what you’re meant to be doing. Work hard but work smart. You can do this fam! Be blessed. -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/8579742013-06-01T05:00:00-04:002018-11-22T20:48:20-05:00Branding Yourself as an Artist<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/4ca6d1941c6d7cb17515c8fbf7071c84/tumblr_inline_mnpumxnxXp1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
<p><span>There are probably MILLIONS of artists in the world today. Seems like everybody is doing music lol! You feel like you’re different and special from the bunch but you’re having a hard time figuring out how to set yourself apart. What’s really going to make you stand out as that One in a Million? Branding. T</span><span>his is a crucial area where you can carve out a unique place and set yourself apart from the pack!</span></p>
<p><strong>YOUR MUSIC</strong></p>
<p>With the oversaturation of the music market, it is very tempting to just do what everyone else is doing. You see another artist’s success and think “if I make music just like them, I’ll be successful just like them.” While this may seem like the most lucrative route, it won’t help you create your own brand. People buy into brands and movements these days. The best route is to create your own lane artistically! Use the market saturation to your advantage! It’s very easy to stick out when you’re different<span>! </span>Tap into your innermost creativity and make music that is true to who YOU are. Do things that are unconventional. This is a very crucial step in branding yourself as an artist. If everyone is creating the same sound and you do the same, what sets you apart? If a person listens to 5 different artist’s songs in a row, including yours, and everything sounds exactly the same, how is that going to make you stick out creatively? If you resist the urge to follow trends, come with something different,<span> </span>something that’s YOU, you will automatically stick out. I will touch on marketing in another post, but anyone can copy your marketing methods. They can do the same exact stuff that you do. Marketing is marketing. But, nobody will ever be better at the way YOU uniquely create your sound than yourself. Your music is always going to be the easiest and best way to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack.</p>
<div> </div>
<p><strong>YOUR ARTIST NAME</strong></p>
</div></div>
<div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>It all starts with having the PERFECT artist name that fits you. Choosing a name may seem easy, but </span><span>it can be a bit complex. You’ve got to have a name that stands out, or </span><span>either be such an eccentric artist that you stand out lol! For me, Tone Jonez came naturally as my name. My middle name is Antonio and my last name is Jones so being that I do music, my friends started calling me Tone Jonez. </span><span>I’d suggest you </span><span>create a name that is natural to who you are as a person. It will be much easier to identify with and to feel connected with the name. For instance, you could call yourself David the Mic Slayer but it sounds like a circus act lol! In a normal, non- musical situation, would you want someone to really address you as that? NO lol!</span></p></div></div>
</div>
<div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
<p><span>Try to shoot for a name that is as short is possible. It needs to memorable, relevant, and marketable. Write down a list of as many name choices as you can think of. Once you have a few solid names down, do a little Google research first and see if anyone else is using any of the names. Narrow your list down a bit more and check social networks to see if your name is available. You want a name that is available and unused on every social network. Next, narrow down your list again and check your remaining name choices in the Google keyword tool. See how much competition there is for the names. You want a name with low competition so you can really carve your own lane. After you narrow your list down to ONE name, you will build your entire brand from that name. Everything you do going forward must exemplify and vividly represent your name. </span></p>
<p><strong>APPEARANCE</strong></p>
<p><span>Your appearance is the next step in your branding process. This is a major part of Attraction Marketing, A.K.A. attracting your potential fans to you. This spans from the way you look as a person all the way to the graphics that you use. Create an image for yourself that people will be able to become familiar with and identify. Hire someone who is AWESOME at graphic design and photography to create images (profile pics, cover photos, album covers, etc.) that are in cohesion with your brand. This is very important. Your graphic/photo work paints a picture of who you are and your worth. Everything must be solid from the color scheme down to the design.</span><span>But, before you hit up any graphic designers, make sure you have a clear vision of what you want. This will help keep turnaround times proper for everyone. Hire awesome photographers and videographers to handle photo and video shoots. For some of the best video work in the game, check out </span><a contents="http://www.spacecherryfilms.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.spacecherryfilms.com">http://www.spacecherryfilms.com</a>. A++ work! Tell them I sent you. </p>
</div></div></div>
<div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
<p><strong>YOUR WEBSITE</strong></p>
<p><span>Another very crucial part of branding is having your own website. Having your own website is great for your branding because it is 100% customizable to fit your vision. With awesome platforms such as Word press, you can have a powerful website </span><span>up in a week’s time. If you’re not a great web designer, there are a variety of dope web designers out there for hire! </span><span>But, if you can’t afford a </span><span>web designer, there are other great options such as <a href="http://www.wix.com">WIX</a></span><span><a href="http://www.wix.com"> </a></span><span>for easily creating flash and html5 based websites on your own( I suggest HTML5). <a href="http://www.ning.com">NING</a> </span><span>is a wonderful platform if you’re looking to create </span><span>your own </span><span>social network for your brand. It’s definitely something to look into for future </span><span>expansion at least. <a href="http://www.bandzoogle.com">BANDZOOGLE</a> </span><span>is also great because it offers a variety of music specific tools for artists and musicians. Personally, I use Bandzoogle because it fits what I need it to do very affordably. For $19.99 a month, I get to customize my site, embed html, have a mailing list of up to 10,000 people(I actually recommend a different service to handle your mailing list such as <a href="http://www.aweber.com">AWEBER</a>), sell music downloads with no percentage taken out, sell physical merch and much more! It shows up great in the Google search engine and my monthly profits make this small fee look like a joke. </span>Whichever platform you decide to use, make sure your website is visually appealing, fast loading and simple to navigate.</p>
</div></div></div>
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
<p><strong>ONLINE PERSONALITY</strong></p>
<p><span>Having a great online personality is a must. </span><span>It’s a necessity in order for you to </span><span>connect with potentials fans and grow a fan base. Your online personality allows fans to build trust with you and your brand. Because you allow them to get to know you as a person, they will support you over and over again without fail. One thing to always remember is that people are not buying into your music. They're buying into YOU. You can express your personality via social media posts, blogging, videos, photos, and a variety of other things. Let people get a glimpse of your life beyond the music. As always, I hope this was encouraging and I believe in YOU! Be Blessed -Tone Jonez</span></p>
</div></div>
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column"> </div>
<div class="column"> </div>
</div>
</div>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/8343742013-05-28T19:45:56-04:002017-01-14T13:18:18-05:00Strategies to Get Through Creative Block<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/64e51f6111aa7f80ffb8d9c861d157dc/tumblr_inline_mnjl7qLLQV1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>As in this picture lol, sometimes when chasing the elusive hit song/beat, our creative output can get pounded over the head like an anvil. Creative block sucks! For me, wanting to create and feeling like I can’t create anything is the absolute WORST feeling there is! Seeing that this is something we all deal with, or something you may be dealing with right now, I want to share a few things I do when I get creative block.</p>
<p><strong>TAKE A BREAK</strong></p>
<p>One of the easiest solutions for me is to simply take a break. I’ll turn off my equipment, hop in the car, and go somewhere! Do something that isn’t related to music at all for at least an hour then come back to your project. If you’re a movie junkie like me lol, a great break strategy is watching a movie, or two, or three lol! Netflix and Hulu have been LIFESAVERS for my creativity! Often times, something I see in a movie will inspire an idea. So, stop what you’re doing and take a break!</p>
<p><strong>CHANGE YOUR SCENERY</strong></p>
<p>When you create in the same place over and over again, you will eventually get bored and it will become harder to be creative in that space. I know this from experience as there have been days where I’ve spent 17+ hours in the same room, in the same chair creating music! If your creative space has looked the same for a few months, take a few days out to change around your space! Re-paint the walls, re-position your gear, get new gear, add new furniture, change/enhance your space lighting (such as getting brighter or dimmer bulbs or new lamps), etc. There are many things that you can do to your writing room/production space to make it feel different creatively. </p>
<p><strong>TRY A NEW SOUND</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes you just need to abandon what you’re used to and try a new sound! Get totally outside of your comfort zone and don’t be afraid to try something else. By doing this, I’ve actually broadened the variety of genres that I can authentically create music in! It’s a great training tool and can be tons of fun! </p>
<p><strong>REMAKE OR REMIX EXISTING SONGS</strong></p>
<p>A great creative calibration tool is to completely remake or remix existing songs! Production wise, this can be a great training tool as you are required to have a very detailed ear when trying to remake existing music. From an artist standpoint, remaking or remixing songs enhances the detail of your ear as well! This method is definitely fun and you may end up with something better than the original! </p>
<p><strong>COLLAB</strong></p>
<p>Collaborating with another artist or producer is very powerful! You tend to cancel out each others strengths and weaknesses and create awesome content. This also takes the full load of pressure off of you to come up with an entire song/beat all by yourself. Two heads are better than one! Collaborating also has a magical way of bringing sounds out of you that you never heard before. It’s amazing what happens when two people catch each others vibe and let the music do it’s thing naturally. </p>
<p>There are many other things that you can do to get through creative block but I pray these strategies are a great start to getting that anvil off of your head! Have fun creating! I believe in you! Be Blessed! -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/8016712013-05-23T01:05:19-04:002017-01-14T13:18:18-05:00Mindset of Success<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<p><span><img src="//media.tumblr.com/678f03332b3e7c9b8ab93d334cdadc24/tumblr_inline_mn8xbf6oE61qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></span></p>
<p><span>Believe in Yourself: </span></p>
<p><span>The first step to your forthcoming success is your mindset. You absolutely MUST </span><span>believe in yourself. When you’re going to do anything major in life, </span><span>there will </span><span>ALWAYS be people who are against you. They’re normally referred to as, Haters lol! Don’t let haters cause you to devalue yourself. Be confident in who you are and your abilities. On the flip side, don’t become prideful. There’s a huge </span><span>difference. Pride will cause you to look down upon others and esteem yourself as being better than others. Always treat everyone with respect and remain humble. That will take you farther than your talent. A good name/reputation is better than riches. Think optimistically </span><span>about your success and where you’re headed as an </span><span>artist/producer. If you want to be successful in the music industry, then you have to believe </span><span>you will be without a shadow of a doubt. Besides, if you’re not confident in who </span><span>you are and what you have to offer, why would anyone else support your music? </span></p>
<p><span>Setting Goals: </span></p>
<p><span>This is one of my favorite topics! Write down all of your goals in life, not just music goals, on a poster board sheet and post them on a wall near your bed. If </span><span>you’re married like me though, </span><span>your spouse may not agree with you tacking a big ole ugly poster board in the room lol! Put it as near as you can to the room. Make sure that board is the last thing you see when you go to sleep and the first thing you see when you wake up. Audibly repeat your goals every day. Speak them as though they are already accomplished. The more you use these strategies, the more you will believe your goals. The more you believe your goals, the more you will think about your goals. The more you think about your goals, the more you </span><span>will naturally do things that work towards making your goals a reality. It’s great to </span><span>document your goals down in your mind or on your computer, but there is something special about physically writing your goals down and making them tangible and visible. When it comes to arranging and executing your goals, focus on several small achievable goals at a time. For the best probability of execution, set short periods of time to accomplish these small sets of goals. For Example: 21 days, 1 month, etc. If you try to accomplish your whole goal list at once, you </span><span>won’t get very far at all! Achieving your goals is all about balance, strategy, and </span><span>focus. </span><span>It’s an amazing feeling to check off your goals! You’ll find that certain goals that </span><span>seemed impossible become reality in a relatively short amount of time. It won’t be too long before</span><span> you will have checked off your entire list! Don’t stop there. Make another list! Markers and poster board are so cheap that you don’t have any </span><span>excuse! If you want to see someone look at you crazy, tell them that you can change your life for under $5 lol! Then tell them about goal setting and how to make their goals tangible with poster board and a marker! Pass on this knowledge!</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<p><span>Drive/Work Ethic: </span></p>
<p><span>Drive and work ethic is everything! You must be a self-starter to be successful in this business or any business. This section ties directly in with goal setting. Once you set your goals, aggressively work towards making them happen. If you have a goal to create a certain number of </span><span>songs/beats a year, then make it happen! If you’re looking to make a certain amount of money from your songs/beats, work HARD to make it happen. I’ve noticed something in life. Most times, when a </span><span>person is really talented at something, they believe that </span><span>they don’t have to work </span><span>as hard as a person that may not be as talented. This is a lie! A person of amazing work ethic and mediocre talent will BLAZE past a person of mediocre work ethic and amazing talent. I consider myself to be a very talented individual, but I made it up in my mind to work twice as hard because of that. No matter what your talent level is, you can rest assure of the fact that if you work really hard at everything you do concerning your craft, you will attain some level of success guaranteed. The reason why is if you work hard at anything every day, </span><span>you will naturally get better. I’ve especially experienced massive growth in my craft since I’ve been Full-Time. </span></p>
<p><span>If you’re planning on going Full-Time as an artist/producer, don’t believe everything </span><span>will be </span><span>easier lol! That’s a resounding NO! Being Full-Time </span><span>requires a completely different level of grind than when you have a job to support you financially. Every </span><span>penny you make is contingent upon how hard you work! If you don’t work, you don’t eat. </span><span>Also, you must learn how to eat, breath, and sleep your craft while keeping a healthy balance with the rest of your life. This is especially tough for guys like me who have a family. If you do have a family, the most important part of your work ethic is balancing everything to include a proper amount of family time. Never put your music as a priority over your family. All these things tie into your overall success.</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<p><span>Surround yourself with people who will reinforce this new mindset that you have. </span><span>You don’t </span><span>need to be around negativity, doubt, skepticism, discouragement, or laziness. Hang around a team of go getters, optimistic thinkers, encouragers, and self-starters. Push and encourage them in their pursuits as they do the same to you. Having a good team-oriented support system as an artist/producer is vital to your success. </span></p>
<p><span>It’s imperative that you work hard at staying motivated regardless of what may </span><span>arise. Everyone may not like you or what you stand for. Some people will take that a step further and intentionally do things to try and sabotage what you are doing. The harder the journey, the greater the destination. Embrace the friction that you get from others and use that as fuel to keep going. Imagine if there was a man in the desert who was so thirsty that he was close to </span><span>death. He’s told that there’s a </span><span>water fountain about half a mile away. Overcome with sheer agony but armed with a mountain of determination, he makes his way toward the location of the </span><span>water fountain. When he arrives, all he sees is a massive rock that’s both </span><span>taller </span><span>and wider than he is. Discouraged, he succumbs to his body’s failing organs and </span><span>dies. Sadly, the fountain was just around the rock. All he had to do was walk a </span><span>couple of feet around the rock and be nourished. Wouldn’t that be crazy? Well, </span><span>you are that man. The water fountain is your success. The rock is anything or </span><span>anyone against what you are doing. Don’t just die! Walk around the rock and be </span><span>nourished! Be blessed! -Tone Jonez</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/7944582013-05-22T00:00:00-04:002017-02-02T01:01:52-05:00How to Write Hooks <p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/4dfa57025b9faf3823faaffc3a27acf0/tumblr_inline_mn7h0mVNpZ1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>I know you all are probably wondering what does Albert Einstein have to do with writing hooks? Well, I just wanted to start off by saying you don’t have to be a genius to write hooks! Although things like creative block can make you feel inadequate, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to make it happen! All you need to write hooks is what you’re already equipped with, life! Start really paying attention to what goes on in your life. The good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, the serious, the perplexity, the simplicity, etc. Really pay attention. If you do that, you’ll realize that there are song ideas naturally floating around you 24 hours a day. Now I know nobody stays up 24 hours lol, but what I mean is that song ideas are even found in your dreams. Honestly, you have an endless supply of song content right in front of your face! Think about it. The most successful songwriters 9 times out of 10 had a very eventful life. Ironically, it was the tragedies that provided them with the content to create their success.</p>
<p>The hook without a doubt is the strongest part of a song. Besides the production of course, this is one of the things that draws the listener in to really hear the message of the song. When you find yourself having trouble thinking of the right words to say, use this as a point of reference. You and all the millions of people you want to buy your song all have the same thing, emotions! Humans operate by emotions. So, if you can emotionally connect with your fan/supporter base through your writing, you have a winner! Everyone goes through and can relate to life! While everyone may not be able to relate exactly to what you’ve went through or are going through, there are many people out there that can! Instead of letting the trials of life weigh you down, turn those negative things into something successful. Make a song! It’s very highly somebody else out there will connect with what you have to say.</p>
<p>Now I understand this sounds easier than it is to actually do, but just relax, think on your life, and draw from your emotions. If you have problems finding words or getting words to rhyme, there are plenty of tools online at your disposal! One such tool is <a href="http://www.rhymezone.com">http://www.rhymezone.com</a> which you can type in a word and find words that rhyme, synonyms, antonyms, and much more. Very useful tool. Don’t sleep on the dictionary either lol! It does wonders! Don’t worry about what others will think about your hooks. Just start doing it today. Even if they suck, keep grinding and eventually you will get better. Pick anyone who is at the top of their field and I guarantee you at one time they were terrible at it. I’m speaking from experience lol! You’ll see below.</p>
<p>When I first started learning how to write songs, I was terrible. Really terrible. I’ll let you hear for yourself! My absolute WORST SONG EVER (beat and lyrics included lol) was a song I did about my first car in 2005 called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdWtsjtrSQ">“94 Taurus.”</a> Terrible right lol? Now let’s fast forward 13 years later. One of my latest and most popular examples of hooks is <a contents='"Love Unconditional"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/tone-jonez/love-unconditional-feat-tone">"Love Unconditional</a>." If I can go from “94 Taurus” to where I am now, you can too! I’m not the best hook guy in the entire world, but my content is true to me and my emotions which has caused them to be successful sales wise. That makes all the difference! I hope this post was helpful in getting your wheels turning. Go make some hits! You can do it! Be Blessesd- Tone Jonez</p>
<p>P.S. I saved my shameless plug for last haha! If you’d rather buy tracks with hooks already on them, you can purchase several beats with hooks at <a href="http://www.tonejonez.com">http://www.tonejonez.com</a>! Enjoy!</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/7753382013-05-19T17:41:19-04:002017-01-14T13:18:17-05:00Producers: Being Unique is Recession Proof<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/d9a90f9d0ccc5862f6497a9393e2f980/tumblr_inline_mn2sj7fJIA1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></p>
<p><strong>Being Unique is Recession Proof</strong></p>
<p>The music production game has changed quite drastically over the past decade. With music production gear being made easier to use and easier to purchase (or pirate), it seems as if there are new producers popping up almost daily. As a result, the supply of beats in general is massive compared to previous years. This is especially magnified with the addition of thriving online production marketplaces such as Soundclick. This over saturation of the production market can sometimes leave producers feeling as if they are being overlooked. As a solution, they assume that duplicating the sound and prices of the more successful producers in the game will yield them the same success. Unfortunately, that is not true. Your financial success as a producer is not about other producer’s prices or what sound other producers are doing. It all boils down to you having a unique selling proposition (USP).</p>
<p><strong>Unique Selling Proposition (USP)</strong></p>
<p>A USP is essentially what sets businesses in the same industry apart from each other. For music producers, a USP is a unique attribute of your production or brand that causes clients to desire it strongly. Desire is a powerful thing. Consumers will purchase what they desire rain, sleet, snow, or shine. Without having a strongly desirable product, your success will be a slave to other factors (pricing, what’s current, etc). This is why above all other factors, developing a USP for your business is imperative. There are multiple ways to be unique, but in this article I will focus strictly on two of the most powerful ways to create a USP: your sound and branding/marketing.</p>
<p><strong>Your Sound</strong></p>
<p>A producer should be as well rounded musically as possible. Don’t get trapped (no pun intended) in one style. Whatever styles you decide to flourish in, find a way to put a unique twist on them. Focus on throwing a special flavor on your intros, transitions, bridges, breakdowns, and endings to take the listener on a journey with every beat you create. Throw something new in every few bars. You have to keep the listener intrigued because humans have a very short attention span. Switch things up and keep pushing the envelope with your sound. Every time you sit down to create, aim to make music that is undeniable. Constantly develop, experiment, and enhance your craft. In doing this, overtime you will identify distinct characteristics that stick out. Work on strengthening those characteristics and you’ll most likely find your unique sound. It took me 6 years to find my sound.</p>
<p><strong>Your Branding/Marketing</strong></p>
<p>Branding/marketing is a major area where producers drop the ball. Marketing is not simply telling people about your beats. Promoting just beats will only get you so far. It’s about marketing you as person. Your clients have to be sold on you as a person before they feel intrigued to buy anything from you, even if your beats are hot. Since you can’t most likely meet all your clients in person, you have to use tools like your website (your own domain not just Soundclick), logo, email list, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. as extensions of who you are as a person. Make sure these tools are representative of your uniqueness! Get your logo designed in a way that just uniquely screams who you are. This way when people see your logo, there is an instant connection to your brand. Huge brands, like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, have used logos for decades because the human brain makes connections with pictures much faster than words. For instance: Have you ever been on the interstate and noticed the signs that appear before the next exit? In representation of the gas stations and restaurants that will be found off of that exit, they place logos on the signs. Instead of having to read words while going 80 MPH, you can quickly identify each company by their logo. Your logo is very powerful so take it seriously. I highly suggest Bdunn at<a href="http://www.bdunngraphics.com/" target="_blank"> www.bdunngraphics.com </a>for all your graphic needs. He created my logo.</p>
<p>If you’re selling beats online, your website should graphically be an extension of your logo. This further solidifies your brand in the eyes of the client. Keep the design clean, fast, convenient, and efficient. Make it unique, but simple. Don’t go overboard! Too much stuff on your website will confuse the visitor and distract them.</p>
<p>Use your email list, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter to communicate your uniqueness to your clients/potential clients. More specifically, Youtube is very powerful for this. Most humans are audio-visual learners so videos are very powerful for retention of information. Videos also give the client more of a personal feeling as they see and hear you communicating a message to them. Use this to your advantage by showcasing your uniqueness through beatmaking videos, video blogs, etc. Advertise your website at some point in these videos and spread them through your social media accounts and through your email list. If you don’t have an email list yet, you’re missing out on one of the main things that will allow you to set your self apart through constant communication. Check out companies like Aweber, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, etc.</p>
<p>Pricing is also a part of your marketing/brand. There are a lot of split opinions on prices amongst producers, but I’d say find what works best for you and do it. Your situation is going to be different than another producer’s situation so your price will be different as well. Make your own prices. In whatever you decide, I suggest taking a diversified approach. Have specific prices for specific markets (Online vs Offline, Lease vs Exclusives, etc). Find a way for everyone who strongly desires your brand to be able to access it in some price bracket. Even huge corporate brands have an alternative affordable solution for people who desire their brand but can’t afford the more expensive items. This ensures that you don’t overlook potential sources of income.</p>
<p><strong>In Closing</strong></p>
<p>Business is supply and demand. You never want to be the person stuck in the sound that has more supply than demand. A mass amount of people may not catch on to your sound/brand at first, but I promise you, if what you have is undeniable, people will catch on. As word of mouth develops, it becomes a snowball effect. Your music will promote itself reaching places you couldn’t reach on your own. I’m talking from experience. From sales to listener responses, there is a huge difference between doing what’s popular (that everybody else can do) and operating in a niche market that you’ve established for yourself. In your uniqueness you build value and demand that lasts no matter what the market does. USP is the name of the game folks! God has already put everything you need inside of you. What flows naturally from your heart is your greatest asset as a producer. Do you.</p>
<div></div>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/7733312013-05-19T06:01:13-04:002017-01-14T13:18:17-05:00The Magic is in the Details! <p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/83353db6b7f05232a306637cd3605043/tumblr_inline_mn1v0p2QWG1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>So many times as creative people, we tend to work too hard trying to find that big melody (for producers), or that powerful lyric (for artists). There’s nothing wrong with that! But what I’ve learned over the 20+ years I’ve been sharpening my craft is that the magic is all in the details! Often times strengthening the details will naturally lead you to that BIG thing you’re looking for. This blog post is all about the art of arrangement. </p>
<p>Look at this picture for instance. It is breathtakingly beautiful! But there are many elements, some big some small, that add up to create this beautiful picture. Not to mention that a digital picture like this is composed of many many pixels. If any of these pixels were out of place, the photo wouldn’t be as beautiful. The same concept applies to the details/arrangement your art.</p>
<p>There’s a lot you can do with arrangement, but don’t do toooo much like you’re in a <a href="http://www.iknowremix.com">beat battle or some type of competition</a> lol! Intentional, subtle, and organized efforts makes hits. When you’re working on your music, first pay attention to the basic frame points: Intro, verses, choruses, bridge, ending. Make each section stand out by making each a little different from the others. The second chorus should include an element or melody that wasn’t in the first chorus. Ditto with the verses. And with the bridge, usually the point is to take the listener totally away from the melody they are used to hearing throughout the rest of the song, build things up, and then bring them back to the main melody for the finale (which most times is several repeats of the chorus and an ending). </p>
<p>After you pinpoint these sections and make them distinguishable, work on creating attention grabbing transitions. Use tools like quick instrument/artist solos, special effects, drops, pauses, etc. to create anticipation and curiosity in the listener. People have a very short attention span so you have to keep them engaged in your art. It takes no effort and is quite boring to simply switch from one section to the next. But throwing in something special on that transition makes all the difference with the listeners engagement level. You’re literally taking them on a musical journey with each section so that’s how you must think of your song. A journey. </p>
<p>Once you’ve got all these elements in place, browse back over your art and add what I like to call the “One Hitta Quitta” lol! This is basically that element that is super crazy DOPE but you only add it in the song one time. These types of things drive people CRAZY and they’ll go back and listen to that part over and over again! </p>
<p>There are many other detailed things that you can do when arranging your art, but I hope this is a good starting point to help producers/artists take their songs to the next level. I’ve been sharpening my arrangement skills for a long long time and you can hear the growth in <a href="http://www.tonejonez.com" target="_blank">MY WORK</a>. Rather than just keep what I’ve learned to myself, my desire to help as many others as I can so we can all share the success of an awesome creative output. There’s nothing like that feeling of creating excellence! So with that said, have fun arranging and as always, I BELIEVE IN YOU!!! Be blessed. -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/7345832013-05-13T20:18:58-04:002022-05-11T04:14:55-04:00The Art of Taking Criticism<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/e795e288cbe103b2722c6c32c7c8e341/tumblr_inline_mmruuqovyY1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="image" /></p>
<p>So, artists you’ve just written an amazing song, or producers you’ve just banged out a CRAZY beat! You’re feeling super good inside about your work of art so you post it online for people to hear. People are loving it and everything is perfect until that one person comments and says: “This Sucks” or “You should have done this or that differently.” All of a sudden, your excitement dies down and you read that comment over and over again. You start to re-evaluate what you’re doing and wonder if you’re good enough. You even consider quitting. You become frustrated and somewhat depressed about your art. You turn off the computer and refuse to have anything to do with music for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>WRONG!!!!! We’ve all been there! But, never let anyone’s comment STOP you from doing what you love! Even if your content isn’t top of the line yet, nobody starts off with top tier content! NOBODY! Tell me one person who came out the womb day 1 an expert in their field. I’ll wait………………………………………….. Thought so lol! Keep grinding!!! Use the criticism as as source of inspiration to improve! Quitting is a non-productive action, sort of like putting a bucket of water over your head to shelter you while it’s raining. If you place your self worth/confidence in the opinions and thoughts of other people, you are asking for a very unstable life. People will be people and everyone will NOT like you or your art no matter how great it is. That’s never going to change, but YOU must continue to be YOU!</p>
<p>For example, I want you to think of one of the biggest songs of all time. Something that blew up all over the world and was very successful. Search that song on youtube. I GUARANTEE you that there will be dislikes! Why? Everybody doesn’t like everything lol!!! But did those dislikes cripple the success of the song? No! So stop worrying about if someone likes your content or not and just do you! Take in the useful criticisms and ignore the garbage comments like “You Suck.” So with that said, are you still thinking about quitting? Better not be lol! Get to work! You can do it! -Tone Jonez</p>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/2852062013-01-21T09:20:00-05:002016-02-09T19:04:02-05:003 Reasons Artists and Musicians Fail<center>
<div align="center"><center>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 5px; text-align: left;" bgcolor="#ffffff"><tbody><tr>
<td class="body" style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(14, 93, 175); padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; ">
<div class="region">
<div aw-contents="1">
<table class="row" style="width:100%"><tbody><tr aw-contents="1">
<td aw-attributes="width, valign" class="container" aw-contents="1" style="width: auto; " width="auto" valign="top">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="headline-element" width="100%"><tbody><tr>
<td class="headline" style="font-size: 20px; color: rgb(14, 93, 175); padding-bottom: 6px; ">
<div aw-variable="value">3 Reasons Artists and Musicians Fail</div>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table>
<div class="definition-parent"><span><span class="floated-none" style="display: block; float: none; padding: 0px 0px 12px 0px; text-align: center"> <a class="aw-image-link" href="http://www.tonejonez.com"> <img src="https://hostedimages-cdn.aweber-static.com/kr4ae3/optimized/50fd709a2dd5055b98960c4e.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Image" height="450px" style="margin-top: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; width: 600px; height: 450px; " width="600px" /></a> </span></span></div>
<div class="definition-parent">
<div class="paragraph" style="padding-bottom: 12px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; ">
<div aw-variable="value">
<p sizset="0" sizcache017924214183707987="193362" style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Hey</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">!!</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 16px; ">Hope you're having a great day so far! Last night, me and my Bro-in-law were up late talking about the music industry. We've both had our negative experiences with the industry but have found success through unique avenues. We started discussing how there are so many truly talented people out there that seem to never succeed and identified three of the main reasons why.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><u><b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">Reason 1: GRIND</span></b></u></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 18px; "> For whatever reason, it seems like people who are not as talented have a grind that is SUPER strong. Through that grind, they put themselves in positions that yield them success. Alot of times people who are talented rely on their talent to push them to the right people when it's simply not that easy. No matter your talent level, you've got to push HARD to get your music in the right places. Talent just makes things easier but it's not something to 100% rely on. I make sure to push myself TWICE as hard just because i'm talented. You never want to get complacent or lazy. There will always be things to do, areas to improve, and NEW avenues to explore. You have to be able to create new content, keep in contact with your supporter base(SUPER IMPORTANT), improve your craft, and much more on a CONSISTENT basis. Constantly grinding is KEY. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 18px; "> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u><b><span style="font-size: 18px;">Reason 2: Being Unique</span></b></u></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 18px; "> When it comes to artistry, you have to be unique. There's nothing wrong with having influences of some of your favorite artists or musicians, but your music must be unique enough to set you apart. Consumers LOVE new things. You have to take time and experiment until you find your unique sound. Take TIME! Alot of times artists want to rush and put their project out and don't put enough time into it's development. When you look at some of the most successful people in the music industry or any other industry, most if not all were unique. They'll never be another Michael Jackson. They'll never be another Whitney Houston. They'll never be another YOU! Make sure you take time to find out who God has crafted you to be musically and then push your sound out to the masses. I believe the greatest asset you have as an artist or musician is what naturally flows from your heart. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 18px; "> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u><b><span style="font-size: 18px;">Reason 3: The BIG BREAK Mindset</span></b></u></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span style="font-size: 18px; ">Now this is something everybody has dealt with at some point. You sit around waiting for that Big Break. You think that all you have to do is get the right person to hear your music. You wait on that opportunity year after year after year. Every year you say, this is my year! The reality of this is, you're waiting on somebody else to facilitate your success when God has already put everything inside of you to make it happen for yourself. I'm speaking from experience. I remember plenty of days trying to find music industry executives on myspace or find their emails so I could send my music. I remember going out to different events and networking for the simple purpose of finding that big break. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; "> One day, me and my production crew got the "big break." Got signed to a label distributed through universal. Sat in the luxurious office. Saw the small fleet of luxury cars. Got the professional photo shoot and the press releases written. Heard the promises of big checks, houses, cars, and all the other material things these industry guys promise lol! Guess what? The big break wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It was all smoke and mirrors. What people don't realize is in this day and age, being signed to a major label isn't needed anymore. You have tons of tools out here to make it happen for yourself! Ever since I shed that big break mentality and stopped relying on other people to facilitate my success, I've experienced a HUGE amount of success and people have been searching to find me! That's where you want to be. You don't want to be the one searching, but the one being searched for. This is called attraction marketing. Get out there and push yourself and opportunities will come to YOU. At that point, you're looking for things to enhance what you already have going rather than the "big break." It is tragic the way these major labels do business these days. I know several industry people personally right now who got that big break but once the buzz died down, they found themselves in a difficult situation. One of these guys is a super talented Sony affiliated producer that has HUGE placements! The industry is cut throat folks! Make your own situation!</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><u><b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">Conclusion</span></b></u></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 12px; "><span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><span style="font-size: 18px; ">I hope this information was helpful to you! I wish everyone who has read this great success. You can do anything you put your mind to. You just have to grind hard at it, be unique, and stop looking for others to make you successful. Go get em! -Tone</span></span></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><b><u><br></u></b></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="definition-parent">
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="follow-me" style="color:inherit!important;"><tbody><tr>
<td style="padding:10px; font-size:16px;" height="35">Follow: <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/tjones.hbmatlanta"><img src="https://www.aweber.com/images/message-editor/social-facebook.png" class="size_orig justify_absmiddle border_" alt="Follow Me On Facebook" /></a> <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.twitter.com/OfficialTJonez"><img src="https://www.aweber.com/images/message-editor/social-twitter.png" class="size_orig justify_absmiddle border_" alt="Follow Me On Twitter" /></a>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="definition-parent">
<div class="paragraph" style="padding-bottom: 12px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; ">
<div aw-variable="value">Tone Jonez<br>
Owner of ToneJonez.com<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table>
</center></div>
</center>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/2574222012-11-27T04:00:00-05:002022-05-09T03:06:15-04:00Talent and Pride: A deadly mixture. <div style="text-align: center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/3f95d426b54c12ce9552d94db616c7d40f8fb5a8/original/swallow-your-pride.png?1375825190" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="400" width="400" /></div>
<br>
Just sitting here thinking about some of my life experiences in regards to talent and pride and wanted to share them with you all. Hopefully somebody finds some encouragement from this! <br><br>
From as early as I can remember, I've always been a talented person. At the tender age of 3, God blessed me with the ability to play music by ear. Over many years, through tons of ear training, he's cultivated that gift and enabled me to be able replicate the music in my head or existing music with precision. I have an advanced skill set that is a rarity amongst musicians and producers. But regardless of that skill set, I put humility above all. None of that makes me better than anyone. Being a musician for so long, i've been around alot of other musicians. I've seen many instances of pride. You ask for tips and they don't wanna give you any. During a set they turn up their amp so loud that nobody can hear you playing. You speak to them and they ignore you lol! From an early age I decided that no matter how talented I became, I would never be that way. That was one of the best decisions i've made in my life!<br><br>
See no matter how talented you are, your attitude towards others is what determines how successful you will be. Many times I've seen how being humble has helped me career wise. I've always known and understood that there are plenty of other people out there that are better than me musically. I stay FAR away from statements like "I'm the Best" or "Can't nobody see me" or any of those crazy statements because they're not true lol! Even in my advertising, I only stick to facts not prideful statements. My focus is only being the best that I can be as an individual, not being better than other people. <br><br>
But being that I am blessed at what I do, I've also witnessed a different side of pride. Jealousy. When you are jealous of another persons gifting to the point of dislike, that is pride. I've had people treat me so mean in my lifetime and even spread lies purely out of jealousy and it boggles my mind every time! People fail to realize opportunites to grow! There are plenty of cats that can run circles around me musically. What I do is when I find an amazingly talented person, I don't get jealous. I pay attention and LEARN! This is one of the keys to my constant growth. I study them. I contact them and ask questions. That is what you are supposed to do! At that point you should be thinking "How can I learn how to do that." Being jealous is a fruitless emotion. It doesn't do anything but get you off track from what you are supposed to be doing. When you spend your time envying another persons lane, you will crash in your own. <br><br>
People look at me crazy sometimes when I sell my beats so low and I give out so much information for practically free. They say, "Tone why are you selling yourself short?" My answer is, i'm not. See, before you can be in a high position of leadership, you must first be in a position of servanthood. Before I could ever be an A list producer working with all the "names", I must be willing to serve those without much of a "name." And I do that happily because it's all about impacting people at the end of the day. I love fascilitating the success of other people. You don't have to have a huge platform or a name to do that. Only humility. <br><br>
I said all this to say make sure you're not being prideful in either boasting or jealousy. Both are fruitless and will lead to stagnation. Never be afraid of others becoming more successful than you (PRIDE). Instead, help them become successful (HUMILITY). And never be intimidated by and dislike someone who is already more succesful than you (PRIDE). Instead, learn from them (HUMILITY). Humility is key! Be blessed! -Tone<br><br><br><br>ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/740612012-11-03T07:15:00-04:002022-08-30T07:18:59-04:005 Reasons Your Beats Are Not Selling<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/28c5d75e5fbe151cf9d61b77f963e7df5b365d4a/original/Profits-Down.jpg?1375825190" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="375" width="500" /><br><br> </div><span style="font-size: medium;">Over the last few years, there's been a rapid increase in music producers entering the online beat market. Unfortunately, most new producers often underestimate the level of work/grind that it takes to be successful in this market. I run into alot of producers who are having a hard time selling their beats and end up getting discouraged as a result. If that's how you are feeling, don't give up yet! Every producer has went through this stage including myself. Through years of hard work, I've been able to grow my business into a 6 figure business but I certainly didn't start out that way! Today I want to shed light on why your beats are not selling. There are a tons of reasons why your beats may not be selling, but today I'm only going to focus on 5.<br><br><b><u>1.Nobody Knows YOU</u></b><br><br>I'm not talking about you as a producer. Nobody knows you as a person. People buy from people that they trust. Selling something online is a lot different from selling something in a store or in person. When online, a prospective client cannot shake your hand, look you in the eye, or have the total human to human experience that is normally attributed to conducting business. Since that's the case, you have to simulate this experience by creating content that allows people to get a feel for who you are as a person. That's how you build trust. This can be done through youtube videos, blogs, facebook, snapchat, instagram, live streaming sessions, etc. Your first priority is to build rapport with people and get a GOOD name established. People need to see a track record in order to trust you. Once you do that, you'll experience the benefits of word of mouth and it won't be nearly as hard to sell beats. It becomes a snowball effect of more customers supporting your business over time. It's not an overnight process. Do everything in your power to keep a good name. You WILL make mistakes. I've made plenty mistakes. That's part of being human. But, you have to correct mistakes swiftly with your customers, get back up, and keep working towards maintaining a good reputation. People like trustworthy people. If you're genuinely a trustworthy person and you create personal content to help display that, then you'll gain their trust and be in a position to showcase your beats. The KEY to longevity in business is genuinely being a trustworthy, honest, and respectable person.<br><br><u><b>2. Your Beats and Website Are Not Up to Par</b></u><br><br>Of course everybody hopes this is NOT the reason, but it very well could be! Most times, honestly it's the music that causes a lack of sales. Everything starts with the music. Don't let your ego hold you back. You need a way to accurately gauge how good your beats are. Family and friends love you and they may not be honest with you. Ask several awesome producers and music professionals for critique if possible. BE PATIENT FOR THE FEEDBACK!!! You have to understand that people aren't just sitting around waiting to hear your music. Be patient and you'll get feedback from the right people at the appropriate time. Me personally, from what i've heard most times, the </span><span style="font-size: medium;">BEAT MIX</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> is what makes or breaks you. I've heard producers have dope beats in concept but the mix didn't do the beat justice. If you don't know how to mix audio, invest in getting your tracks mixed and just include your mixing expenses in the price for the beat so you can make your money back. I'd also highly suggest that you do research and learn how to mix yourself so you can be as self sufficient as possible. Invest is good quality studio monitors as they will make or break your sound. Translation amongst different listening sources is very important. The monitors that I personally use are the Yamaha HS80ms. They translate superbly and have helped me take my mixes to the next level in the last few years that I've had them. The HS80ms have been discontinued, but the new <a contents="Yamaha HS8s" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://amzn.to/21PwoSU" target="_blank">Yamaha HS8s</a> are an improved version so they should be even better. Sound selection is also another killer. One wrong sound can KILL a dope beat. Study the sound selection of the best in the business and take notes. Find some of your favorite beats and try to remake them for fun. See how close you can get to the original. Another thing is a lack of musicianship. If you don't know how to play piano or some instrument, I highly suggest that you get lessons or link up with a friend who is a musician. Having a solid foundation of musicianship will give you musical textures and longevity that span far beyond just beats. Being a musician also opens you up to take advantage of other revenue streams. Music will continue to change and evolve, but a skilled musician will never lose his/her place. It's a skill set with everlasting value. Lastly, another killer is the FEEL. Alot of producers rely too heavily on quantization so there is no FEEL to the beat. Create feel by only quanitzing certain parts, using lower quantize percentages, using offset/delay on certain tracks (mainly high hats and instruments), or either not quantizing at all!</span><br><br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.myflashstore.net/sell-beats?utm_source=Affiliate%20Referral&utm_medium=Affiliate%20Refferal&utm_campaign=Producer%20Services%20Affiliate%20Programme" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/55585/4c3c6d72af39a742a77b27d9bf1fc6c723e00f11/original/screen-shot-2016-03-28-at-2-31-43-pm.png?0" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /></a><br><span style="font-size: medium;">As far as your website, humans are all about perception. People trust and buy from brands that look good to the eye. If you're not good at graphic or web design, get your website done professionally. Your website needs to be clean, attractive, professional, fast loading, and easy to comprehend/navigate. Don't overdo it with tons of graphics moving all over the place. Not only is an over-abundance of graphics distracting to your customer, but they will also slow your website down drastically. Less is more. As you can see, my website is very simple and straight to the point but I generate 6 figures with it. When you're building an e-commerce website, simplicity wins. Also, buying beats on your website should be an easy and quick process for customers. I recommend using a automatic file delivery solution as that will give your customers the best purchasing experience. My favorite tool for this is <a contents="Myflashtore" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.myflashstore.net/sell-beats?utm_source=Affiliate%20Referral&utm_medium=Affiliate%20Refferal&utm_campaign=Producer%20Services%20Affiliate%20Programme" target="_blank">Myflashstore</a>. I've been a Myflashstore customer and top earning/selling producer with them since 2012. The plans they have a very affordable, you get paid immediately after every sale, and the system handles both beat delivery and contracts for you. A major time saver! Recently they've added all types of new features to the service that makes it even better. It's the best auto-delivery store out there in my opinion, but definitely shop around and see what works best for you. <br><br><u><b>3. You Give Away Too Many Free Beats</b></u><br><br>I'm not talking about giving away free beats in some type of discount package (Buy x Get x FREE). I mean actually giving away 100% free beats WITHOUT any purchase. It's okay to help artists out, but make sure there is a BALANCE! If you give away free beats often, you'll only be known for giving away free beats. Then, only artists who want free beats will come to your website. Giving out a free beats every now and then is great to keep your client base engaged in your brand, but please don't go overboard with this! Think about something you've gotten for free and something you paid for. If you really sit and think about it, you have more respect and honor for the things that you purchase than the things you get for free. If somebody gave you a Mercedes right now, you'd be happy but honestly you wouldn't appreciate quite the same as if you'd bought it. If you worked your butt off grinding on your business to the point that you were able to BUY a Mercedes with your hard earned money, that car would be a token of achievement to you. It would have concrete value to you. Now let's go back to your beats! Artists will not place as much value in your beats or in your brand if everything is free. Give them just enough to get a taste of how great your product is. Then, they'll want to support you. Balance is key!<br><br><u><b>3. You Don't Know How to Market Your Beats</b></u><br><br>This scenario is very common. Marketing beats online takes more than saying "BUY MY BEATS." Because there are so many other producers out there making beats and putting them online, you have to stand out! Standing out requires unique branding and marketing materials. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Once you have a unique producer/production company name, website, logo, and graphics, THEN you must create unique marketing materials! T</span><span style="font-size: medium;">hese are the type of things you have to do to get people's attention. You have to think outside of the box. Also you have to know where to market. Currently at this time, there is no other place online that has such a vast collection of people in one place as Facebook. About 70% of my traffic and sales comes from Facebook! I built my email list using Facebook! There plenty of other ways to generate traffic, but if you want to jump right into getting some traffic right now you need to learn how to market your beats on Facebook. And don't resort to posting your beats in groups 10+ times a day! That used to work SUPER well, but it's not as effective anymore. You should only be doing that at most TWICE a day and using other Facebook strategies to get traffic. I now get WAY more traffic than when I used to only do Facebook group posting! </span><br><br><span style="font-size: medium;"><u><b>5. You Need a "New Man Advantage"</b></u><br><br>I know some of you are probably thinking, "Tone, what the heck are you talking about lol?" Well, no matter how great your branding is and how dope your beats are, you WILL have times when beat sales decline. This happens with any business. You'll see this happen around rent time, holidays, etc. Or, it could be that you've simply been doing the same thing for too long. In any of these circumstances, you need to do something brand NEW to make yourself appear new to your client base. You can do things like change your website around, add new services and products, create a new series of beats with a dope marketing plan behind it, have a clearance sale, etc. When sales decline, you have to do something to switch it up. Business is similar to marriage lol! Strategies that work at one point may not work at another because marriage/business is a growing and evolving unit. Change is healthy and necessary! Make sure you are changing things on a regular basis to avoid having a stagnant brand.<br><br>I hope this post helps you out tremendously to pinpoint areas where you may need improvement. If you need further advice, always feel free to hit me up via my contact page. Because my schedule is hectic, sometimes I take a while to respond BUT I will respond! Thanks so much for reading and have an awesome day!!</span><br><br><br><br> ToneJonez.comtag:www.tonejonez.com,2005:Post/7217772011-06-24T03:58:00-04:002017-02-02T00:30:44-05:00Just Blaze comments on Tone Jonez's Anthem beat vid<p>Well, I got a pretty nice birthday present today! Well known music producer Just Blaze commented on my video of me making an Anthem beat. Here is our twitter conversation.</p>
<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnap69iXxA1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></p>
<p>View from his Twitter Account</p>
<p><img src="//media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnap77HOii1qjmi40.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></p>
<p>All I can say is I consider it pretty humbling that a monster producer like that would take time out of his day to encourage a young brotha like me. All glory to God. God gave me this gift to be an influence and he’s working it out for that to happen. Hope everyone has a blessed day!</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the vid <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgHwUySwqgc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgHwUySwqgc</a></p>ToneJonez.com