This morning I had a talk with @drewley and I have him on the books for tomorrow to start tracking for his upcoming Piano Instrumental album. Drew and I are good friends and if you are part of the #openmic you have probably heard his tasty piano playing. He is not a beginner and with him I am not worried about everyone of these tips, but I do have a check list that I look over before doing any recording or producing.

First let me give you one little mini tip....

That tip is money. If you are a first timer in this business you may not know what is a fair price. You probably have thoughts going through your mind like:

• Should I just do this for free because I don't even really know how this is gonna sound?
• What if he laughs at me when I tell him my price?
• Should I just charge him 1$ (or Steem) per song?

These are are all understandable thoughts and none of them are really wrong answers, but let me give you some other info that might help you make a decision. There are three main things that you must take into consideration when deciding on how much you will charge.

1. Has the client heard your work before?

If he has then that is great! You could probably charge him at least $50 a song because he knows what the outcome will be.

2. Do you see this person as an investment?

What I mean by this is sometimes as producers we look for talent and make a deal with them. It could be royalties or it could just be them giving you big shoutout for recording their song. If this is the case then you might want to work for free.

3. See your time as valuable.

This is the most important. No matter what you are spending hours of your time to record, mix, and maybe master this song and time is money. so don't always sell yourself short. Good or Bad labor is still labor and you should be compensated at least a small amount for it.

I probably should have made that my next producers tip but oh well... haha

So you are about to start tracking someone albums...

First, discuss the whole project with your client

This is important!! You need to make sure you are on the same page with your client because if you aren't then really bad things could happen. Ask them how many songs they are planning on recording, the overall sound they are looking for, the main things they are expecting from you, etc. These things will keep you in the know as well as the client so that you will never have to worry about what they might want.

Set you goals for deadlines

This is another biggie!! Make sure there are deadlines for the client and yourself. I have had way too many projects fall through because we just never got around to finishing it. It is unprofessional and you will never be successful if you do this. This is also important in your own music. Challenge yourself to write songs at least once a month and get them recorded and produced. If you need more incentive then follow my friend @meno. He has a songwriters challenge in #openmic that could give you the motivation to write. The winner of the first contest is going to get a free acoustic guitar!! That's a pretty awesome prize!

Last, make sure you have EVERYTHING you need...

There is nothing worse than showing up to a piano tracking with no piano. I have done that before and trust me it is pretty awkward. So learn from my mistake and make sure you have instruments, mics, mic stands, energy drinks, and maybe some snacks because you don't want to waste time by turning around to go get those things because time is money.

Let me know if this helped you!!

If you benefited in any way let me know with a comment, upvote, or resteem.