4 Key Actions to Kick Off 2025 the Right Way as a Music Producer

2025 is approaching, and the sooner you start planning for it, the better it will be for your music, your results, and your career. Therefore, here are a few things that you need to start preparing and tackling right now…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Tackle your challenges in your music career as soon as possible.

Whatever is not working in your music career should be your top priority for 2025 and you must put time and effort into it first and foremost, regardless of whether it’s a technical, inspirational, or even equipment issue you have. So, here’s a checklist to make sure you don’t have anything stopping you from making good music:

1. Get the gear you need before anything. A good pair of headphones and a good computer are all you need to make good music. Audien and Skrillex, for example, do their work mostly on their headphones, and if they can do it, so can you. Buy a good pair of headphones (HD650 is my recommendation, but I’ve heard awesome things about the DT770 which is more affordable), listen to tons of music to understand your equipment, use tons of reference tracks to help you create, and you’re ready to go;
2. Fix your technical issues. Write down 10 things you feel can technically improve your music, but be specific. For example, don’t say ‘songwriting’… say ‘I need to make better leads’, and find a way to fix them by yourself or with someone’s help (check this post or this post to learn how);
3. Fix your mindset towards your music. One of the biggest reasons why most producers give up is because they don’t have the right mindset towards their career, problem-solving, development, motivation, and dealing with rejection, so don’t neglect this. To start 2025 right, read these posts to learn how to:
   • Deal with rejection or bad feedback (read more here);
   • Keep your motivation high (read more here);
   • How to grow as an artist (read more).

2. Prepare your release schedule and stop thinking about 2024.

The first thing to prepare for an awesome 2025 is your release schedule since, as any PRO artist, you need to be consistent and release many songs throughout the year. Therefore, here are a few steps that I’m already taking and that you should to:

1. Stop thinking about releases in 2024 and start focusing on 2025. If you’re doing self-releasing, you have a few windows still, but even then, or if you’re thinking about label releases, it’s better to plan your release for 2025 as the big labels are already closing their schedule for the year, and you don’t want to miss out;
2. Start sending your demos to labels for releases in 2025. If you’re going with the label route, now it’s time to start pitching your songs to labels to get release dates earlier in the year. The longer you take to submit, the longer it will take for you to release, so get moving;
3. Build a consistent release schedule with your songs. Instead of planning releases every one or two weeks, plan one song every 4 to 6 weeks, so you can always hit your fans with content throughout the year and also make it manageable for you to put time into the release promotion as well;
4. Build a catalog before sending your songs. If you have zero tracks now and considering you can finish one track per month, make 3 tracks in 2024 and hold your releases until you have a backlog. This will give you more wiggle room to work with crazy release schedules from labels, while also give you more time to make your songs since you won’t need to rush to finish songs to avoid running out of releases.

3. Expand your circle of friends and contacts in the music industry to open new opportunities for you.

When you meet new people in the industry, you’ll be able to expand your opportunities as a producer in the industry, which can be highly beneficial for your releases, for your promotion, and also for your career over time. Now, for that to happen, you need to put some time into it, and here are some things you could do:

1. Reach out to the companies you admire and ask to be their beta tester. Send an email to their support asking to be a beta tester, and you’ll likely (a) get a license for your favorite plugins for testing, saving you money, and (b) meet new people in the industry, who could later introduce you to other people in the industry;
2. Go to ADE, attend parties and clubs and meet people there. One of the best way to connect with your favorite producers is by attending smaller and more intimate label events during ADE or big music events. For example, for melodic and progressive house producers, Sekora and Colorize are hosting events that feature artists like Boxer, Jordin Post, Klur, Matt Fax, Jono Stephenson, Tube & Berger, Thysma, Bound To Divide, UOAK, MXV, and many other artists that you can meet and connect to, who later could help you somehow;
3. Be the person who wasn’t there for you and help others. If you can’t go to big events, the BEST way to expand your circle online is by randomly giving feedback without expecting anything. Just go to our discord, or discords like Anjunabeats, Enhanced, Spinnin, and This Never Happened and give feedback to producers, as this creates an ‘opening’ for a friendship, which could later become a collab.

4. Prepare yourself to invest time (and maybe money) in promoting your work.

It doesn’t matter if you have the perfect release schedule, but you don’t put time or money into promoting it as even the greatest pieces of music, without promotion, won’t hit the right people. I’m planning some stuff for myself in 2025, and I recommend that you do the following:

1. Set aside a budget for every release instead of buying unnecessary VSTs. A lot of producers, including myself, claim they don’t have money to invest in promotion while putting up hundreds of dollars on VSTs and gear during Black Friday. Instead, set aside as much as you can, USD $50 being already a good amount, and put that into your music;
2. Find the best way to invest in your music and promote yourself on social media. How can you best promote yourself on social media and streaming platforms? Use platforms like SubmitHub, Groover (I’ve heard some good recommendations), and PlaylistPush to push your songs to playlists on Spotify, but also send your tunes to YouTube channels and try to get on their playlists as well. Lastly, learn how to build your playlist and promote it as these can help you have your own way of pushing your songs online;
3. Find something else to complement your release strategy that could also help you promote your music. Creating production content, a podcast, a newsletter, vlogs, DJ sets on YouTube, managing a label, networking intensively, collaborating with someone at a top label, any of these activities can help you by complementing your promotion and opening more doors for you when you release your songs, so think what else could you do, that you also enjoy, that could help you expand your reach.

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What else can you do to make 2025 the best year of your music career?

1. Collect social media posts, videos, and reels that you like:
Before making your own, try looking for the posts that you like and engage the most so you can later do something similar;

2. Develop a strategy to monetize your music career:
Try to think about how you can make money in the music industry while also having fun with it to help you create funds to invest in your music. You can watch this video which I show 14 ways that I make, and plan to make, money with the music, or this video with 57 ways of making money by Multiplier;

3. Review your music and your genre: Is your genre growing, steady, or on a downfall?
It’s important to embrace change when your genre is not looking at all promising for the next year and try to find a new genre that makes you happy. Start by listening to podcasts and thousands of songs on Spotify until something clicks with you. Also, going to clubs can be really helpful!