Be Creative With What You Have or Can Afford

Since I have recently started my “entertainment business finance” class, I wanted to write something that dealt with that while at the same time staying true to the tone of my blog as well as the readers. So I was trying to find something, Entertainment Business Finance is a new subject for me, so I cannot say that I actually can relate yet. Sometimes we look so much that we tend to overlook and sometimes well most times, when you stop looking you end up finding what you were looking for. So once I stopped searching, I log onto my school and I saw an article titled “ You don’t have to break the bank to make a hit”.

This article was written by one of the associate course directors (John Haupert) at my school, Full Sail University but it made a lot of since. Basically he was saying that long gone are the days where you have to spend a lot of money in order to have a studio. These days with the technology advancements that have surfaced, all you need is the right equipment. So what is the right equipment? Well for starters, a laptop, most people prefer a MacBook, the right recording programs: Logic Pro, Pro Tools, etc. Mr. Haupert gives examples of people who have had hit records and even won Grammies from just having the right the equipment.

One example that John used was RedOne who is a two time Grammy award winner, he is a producer and a songwriter. He is best known for producing Lady Gaga’s hit song “Poker Face”. Redone says that the only equipment he uses is a  “MacBook, Logic, an Oxygen 8 keyboard, and an Apogee Duet audio interface”. I thought to myself how inspiring is that! I think that would inspire most artist, producers, etc to know that these days you do not have to have a big fancy studio to get things done! In fact, John states that you really only need a studio for tracking vocals, which I believe is true.

John also used examples of the producers such as StarGate (a group of producers) who has produced artists such as Katy Perry and Rihanna and Dr. Luke who has produced for artists such as Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha and Pink. Stargate mentions that they use Pro Tools and that all you really need is a laptop and a small keyboard.  Dr. Luke says that he uses a Yamaha Keyboard but that he made his number 1 hit with a 20-dollar keyboard! So that goes to show you that it is not really how much you pay for the equipment but it is about how well you use what you have.

I decided to do a little research and reach out to the Independent Artists that I knew and see what they use to record their songs. I thought that would be interested to see how it compared to the article that I read by John Haupert. I reached out to my classmate and business partner Mr. T’Andre Harris from Fort Wayne, Indiana also known as Phenom!  When asked about the equipment that is used, he stated that he uses “Pro Tools software on the mac book pro, a digi design mini m box, a condenser microphone and two sound monitors”.

Next I went to Mr. Salter also know as Moze Ella hailing from Aurora, IL, says that he uses Samplitude or Pro Tools depending on where he is at. Anthony "Atlaz" Swoope from Chicago, IL stated that he uses Logic Pro for recording and also Cubase, which is good for rock and singers. He also mentioned that he uses Pro Tools and his brother uses FL studios (fruity loops) for producing beats and he said that Adobe Audition is good as well. Lastly Mr. Darious "Church' Lyles also hailing from Chicago, IL stated that he uses FL studios, Logic Pro and Pro Tools.

So there you have it! As you can see most of the artists that I spoke with are in fact using some of the same equipment that Mr. Haubert talked about in his article. So where can you find these products at? I am sure that there are many places but you are for sure to find them at Amazon.com or Best Buy. You may even be able to find them cheaper floating around the Internet somewhere!  So to the all the aspiring artist out there, I say to you as usually BE ENCOURAGED! Things may not happen over night but they will happen. Take time to plan and just make use of what you have and can afford right now and be creative!