Hello again friends!
You’ve heard the term “you get what you pay for” at least a handful of times in your life I am sure. So you try your luck and try to save some cash by finding the cheapest mix and master that you can find for your song. The truth is, that is one of the most damaging things you can do for your music, your brand, and your opportunities for growth.
How It Hurts Your Music
One of the main issues with cheaper mixing and mastering services is that the final product may not be of the highest quality. Cheap services often come with limitations on the amount of time and attention that can be given to your music, which can lead to a final product that sounds unbalanced, amateurish, or simply not up to par.
This is potentially the WORST thing that can happen. You’ve spent time crafting a song that moves the listener, and you’ve got every piece of the arrangement right where it belongs. When you get your $5 mix and master back you come to find that song now has a lead kick drum and your vocals sound underwater in a bathroom. All of the time, energy, money, blood, sweat, and tears that you poured into writing and recording that song cannot show through now on a mix that sounds like it was mixed on a cell phone.
If you’ve ever tried to mix your own music, you know that it takes time. Between the vocal editing, tuning, pocketing, finding balance, dialing in compression, the next thing you know you’re 6 hours in and still don’t have a finished product. Now ask yourself, if you we’re doing this for someone else professionally…. how much would you charge them? Ok now, ask yourself this, if someone paid you $5, $10, $20 to mix and/or master their music for them…. how much time would you REALLY spend on it?
The people who charge these prices, don’t do this professionally. They are musicians, just like you, looking to make a quick buck on the side. People often ask us why we charge “so much” (and we’re on the low end of pricing), when other people charge so little. Well, we do this for a living, and we take the time needed to make sure a song is ready to go. Time = Money and great engineers may spend countless hours on your track. If your apartment/home flooded due to a busted pipe, who are you calling? Your neighbor the accountant, or the professional plumber?
How It Hurts Your Brand
As an artist, whether you realize it or not, you are also a brand. Each and every song that you release for the public to consume is a building block of your brand. How you carry yourself in public, and on social media, contributes to building your brand but it can be easy to forget that your music itself is just as big of a building block.
Like I’ve addressed already, a cheap mix and master for your song is going to hurt the music in the vast majority of cases. When your music is hurt, your brand gets hurt by extension. The public can be unforgiving when it comes to things that don’t sound exactly like they are the same quality of their favorite superstars. When you release a song that has been hurt by a cheap, subpar, mix and master, your brand takes a huge hit as the public will just see you as amateur and not on the same level of their favorite majorly established artists.
How It Limits Your Opportunities For Growth
Choosing a cheap mixing and mastering service can lead to missed opportunities for growth as an artist or producer. A high-quality and experienced mixing and mastering engineer can provide valuable feedback and guidance on how to improve your music, which can help you to grow and develop your skills.
For instance, they may offer suggestions on how to improve the arrangement, instrumentation, or overall sound of your music. These suggestions can help you to identify areas for improvement and take your music to the next level.
Moreover, working with a reputable mixing and mastering engineer can increase your chances of getting noticed by music industry professionals. Music industry professionals, such as producers, record labels, and music supervisors, often have high standards for the quality of music that they work with. By investing in high-quality mixing and mastering services, you increase the likelihood of having a final product that meets their standards.
If you’re an independent artist, getting noticed by music industry professionals can help you to expand your audience, book more gigs, and potentially secure record deals (they do still exist, it will be up to you if it is for you if you are ever offered one). For producers, having high-quality music in your portfolio can increase your chances of getting hired for future projects.
Choosing high-quality mixing and mastering services can help you to stand out in a crowded market. With the rise of music streaming services and digital distribution platforms, there is more competition than ever before. High-quality music that stands out from the crowd can make all the difference in attracting listeners and building a fanbase.
Invest Your Money Wisely
There are no shortage of freelance engineers, studios of all shapes and sizes, and many others that would have you think they are professionals on sites such as Fiverr. Most all will charge vastly different rates. Be wary especially of services such as Fiverr, as you could fall victim to an “engineer” claiming to mix and master your song professionally. Then, have that same “engineer” run your work through some A.I. mixing plugins and run it through Landr for mastering. Only to return to you claiming that you have received a professional mix and master from them.
These people are snakes, and they make a mockery of the craft that all of us who have spent countless years studying, and perfecting. When you are looking for mixing and mastering service price should not be your motivating factor. It should be: Does this person care about my music? Does this person even care about music in general? Is this person’s portfolio filled with examples that inspire confidence in me to get my song to the next level?
Not everyone is going to be able to afford to have the legends of the industry mix and master a track for them. That doesn’t mean that there are no engineers/studios in the industry that can give you comparable results, at a fraction of the A-List price.
If my thoughts have inspired you to take your music to the next level with real, professional mixing and mastering.
