When it comes to sending tracks to labels, we often overthink how developed should your track be and end up overworking our track; if it needs to be extended or radio version; if it needs to be mastered or not, etc, and this could hold us back from finishing our song…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. You will never have a perfect song, so you gotta commit. There will always be something to fix in your song… all it takes is a different feedback from someone and bam! Back to square one of your to-do list. However, you gotta commit to what you believe and what you want with the track, otherwise, you’ll never finish it. In some situations, setting a deadline for yourself can be really helpful to make you commit to the decisions that you’ve taken and let go of small changes that the final listener might not even perceive.
2. Stop working when you don’t know what to do. It’s quite common for producers, including myself, to work on songs way beyond the work you originally identified that it needed, which can end up ruining your song. If you don’t know what else to do, just stop working, or you will probably start finding problems where you thought everything was ok. More important than that, the best way to avoid overworking is to make a list of things you have to do and, once you finish them, you can move on since you’ve covered the things that bothered you. Don’t let this list keep on growing and ‘stop trying to find the hair in the egg’.
3. Get feedback on your track. After you finish your to-do list, send your song to friends and get feedback, which normally will bring a new to-do list. Screen through these to-dos and only correct the ones that you believe could improve your song, and once you correct these issues, try to resend the song to the people who gave you feedback and ask if the problem is now fixed. If they ‘approve’ it, then you can stop asking for feedback to, again, stop overworking your tracks and move on to the next one. If you don’t know anyone to send your tracks to for feedback, feel free to send them to us at Abstrakt Music Lab, or you can find feedback forums like Bound To Divide‘s, Zen World‘s, Mercurial Tones‘ Discord Channel.
4. Avoid getting feedback from too many people. Limit yourself to 3-5 people you know that are trustworthy and give constructive feedback. Lots of people will have different opinions on your track and if you listen to all of them, you’ll never finish your track as too many opinions can get you stuck or can lead you to overworking your song. You don’t need to correct everything they say as someone might say he loves A and B about your track, but the other says A and B are not working. When this happens, ask the other 3 to 5 people if they agree with the comment that A and B are not working as this could be a personal opinion rather than a fact.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
When you encounter a problem in your mix, ask yourself the following question: Is this a problem that could break your track?
1. Would a label reject my song if I didn’t correct this, or would they just ask you to fix it? Sometimes they can love something you tried to correct.
2. Would you be ok with releasing this track without fixing it? If it’s something personal, correct it, but make sure to not overdo it.
3. Is it only me or are there any other people that think the same? When mixing your own song, you can be so precious about something that someone else may not even hear or notice.
