Industry Knowledge with Akil Esoon "Working With Musicians."

This week: it's all about "Working With Musicians."

Whats Good Drum Snobs & Melody Monsters! Its been a while! I'm sorry guys, I had to step off last month to meet more song placement deadlines, Expand my sound, and of course start work on the new Formula412 project! Which I am proud to say we just filmed a new music video with...well you'll see! Anyway, I wanted to share some of what I have to deal with in PGH, ATL, and NYC in the studio and also what I have to do to make Formula412 beats come to life. I have to, collaborate with musicians!

Some of the greatest music ever created would never have seen the day of light if artists, producers and musicians didn't collaborate. Some times it only takes a small but important contribution from another musician to turn a good song into a great song. But how do you find the right collaborators? In that respect I got an interesting question I would like to share with you guys along with my answer.

Hey, I was wondering how I would get musicians to come record at my home studio. Do you have any tips or tricks that would make it easier for me to get people to record?

Actually there are several options for you to try. First of all, you can simply pay them to play to your tracks. Quite often getting a great guitarist to play on your beat can lift the beat to new heights and attract more established writers to work with the beat. In the end you could be getting that great song you need to get a break and being offered a publishing deal. Don’t be afraid to pay for quality to get that extra edge.

If you can’t afford to pay musicians to play on your tracks, try offering them a share of the song for their contributions. After all they do contribute to the finished song with their music parts and deserves a share if they are not getting paid a buy out fee. Of course they do need to believe in you or the song for that to happen.

Finally another good option which I have used quite often is to offer them a favor in return. Offer to record a demo in exchange for guitar parts. Artists (Emcees, Singers, and Bands) always needs good demos to help them get gigs and so on. Also artists needs demos to help them shopping a deal and will often record a demo free of charge if they can use it in their show reel.

There are much to be gained using this method. Learning good collaboration skills is very important if you want to get far in the music industry. Even the best songwriters and artists collaborate every day. One of the most important skills a music producer can have is good people skills. Learning how to get the best out of musicians and artists are essential. A great example is Dr Dre who is one the best producers in the world. He is famous for being able to get sensational performances out of Emcees, Musicians, even other Producers that no one else could do thanks to the way he interact with the Artists.