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As part of this unit, I am to research and create a 12 month plan with relevant and achievable goals for my project and other avenues of musical work to complete within the allotted time frame.
For me, this includes my original band work, teaching as well as gig bookings and promotions and production work.

Original Band - My band "Blue Harvest" has planned to release two singles and a debut E.P. in the second half of 2021 with rough dates outlined. For the band project I need to get all necessary material together such as music recording, photo shoots and content creating, as well as playing live music!

Teaching/Mentoring - I currently work at Ovation Music Charity as a band mentor for young bands. This work on its own won't progress other than increasing the amount of bands I run however this is unlikely as student numbers are down due to COVID-19 so it will take a while for Ovation to get back to full capacity. However, I do have plans on running a recording/ production based sessions either educational or as a service we can provide to students.

Gig Promotions and Bookings - I work as part of Acute Sounds booking artists for small gigs in local venues. So far I have booked monthly and weekly events at local pubs in my area for both small acoustic artists and full bands. This year, Acute Sounds is potentially seeing more and more venues showing support for live music and are coming to us for artists.

For my 12 month plan, my main goal is to make as close to the same amount of money I would make from working my part time job (around £4800 a year). This is a milestone I want to make to prove that I can earn a living from music.

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I plan to start advertising myself as a producer when my original band "Blue Harvest" starts playing gigs. My bands music is in the same genre that I want to work on as a producer so by playing gigs I will be meeting artists that I would want to work with.

Like my planning behind sending voice nots rather than a typed up email or message, when I'm at gigs I can speak to the bands members and build that friendly relationship. I then have the opportunity to hear how they sound life are get a feel for the songs they're playing. They then know that I have in fact listened to their music, as I was at the show with them, which gives me that solid foundation to start working with them from.

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I am utilising my Instagram to be the Shop front for my business as Robbie Smith Producer. This is the place where I will keep my followers up to date with what I'm working on and advertising my services. The customer journey would go from people finding my profile on Instagram, to then either privately messaging me through the social media or follow the link to my website and booking a consultation with me.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Like my Instagram, my Facebook page is a landing page for people to find me and my work. This is where I will both post to advertise my work but advertise people towards rather than my site. I want people to find my social profiles and follow so then they can get daily/ weekly reminders that I am here making music as no one checks your website every week for updates.

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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Currently I am employed as a band mentor for young musicians at Ovation Music which I have done so for nearly a year. From working at Ovation I have developed communication skills when describing song arranging and parts with the musicians. It has made me come up with different methods to explains songs structures and instrumentation to guitarists, drummers and vocalists.

This is all within the rehearsal sessions we run which I could also call "pre-production" for the gigs they have throughout the year. However I want to be able to develop my communication skills within music production further, as well as practise recording different artists.

I am Planning on proposing both an education based production/recoding session as well as a recording service under Ovation Music. The education side would be teaching the kids how to record themselfs at home and to improve upon what they know already like drum programming, better recording and mix skills. The other is a recording service we ca provide to the bands and artists at Ovation to record one of the tracks they have been working on.

Both methods are great ways for me to practise my communication skills while recording or producing work and make money for the charity as well.

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For setting-up my business, I didn't set an exact amount of money aside to get started, I would just invest money where and when I needed to. This is known as "bootstrapping" where you startup a business with nothing but your own personal savings.

Attached is a small google sheets with all my startup costs so far.

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As a producer, I wouldn't be sending  CVs to bands or artists to get potential work from them. After discussion with my mentor George Donoghue I will contact artists via my social medias like facebook or Instagram and send them a voice note. Voice notes will make initial contact more personal and can get my friendly, enthusiastic energy across better than a typed up email.

When I send a voice note to an artist, I want it to contain the following:

-what I have listened from them and what I liked about it.
- How I found them
-who I am and why I want to work with them.

Here is an example of a voice note I  would send to an artists to work with them. The example I have used is a band called "Holding Poison".

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I haven't had any work experience outside of educational studies when it comes to being a producer. Whilst studying at level 3 and taking part in my Degree studies I have been in a studio setting many times recording tracks for units.
Other than my time spent in education as part of my
"608| Advanced professional Practise" model I have spent time with my musician friend of mine, Joe Bradwell and recorded a cover of a Harry Styles track, as well as working on some original material.

All these experiences have helped improve my skills in producing artists and getting certain takes from them in the recording process.

The oneexperiance I have had that I could class as work experience was during August 2020 where I sat in on a recording session with George Donoghue producing the band 'Trident Waters' new album. In the session they were tracking some guitar and vocal parts for two of the songs and I sat and watched while making notes from the session.

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This is the main hub where people can access all my content from social medias, example work and a potential YouTube Channel in the future.

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Mix Mondays is a free mixing service I started after seeing an Instagram advert from a producer with his "pay what you want" mixes. The premises for his work was he would mix your track and you pay what you what you can for his mix.

I thought it was a great idea and decided to make my own verison of this, which was the beginings of Mix Mondays. Every Monday I have a slot open to work on a one free mix for an artist.

This not only gets my name out as a producer/ audio engineer, I get to work with potential future clients as they can find out first hand what my mixes are like and I get to gain experience and develop my skills as an audio engineer.

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Fiverr is site where anyone from any profession and advertise their services. As a producer, I can monetise on any of my roles from editing drums and vocals, tracking guitars, programming drums and mixing their record.

You can advertise a service on its own or with three tiered options where you can bundle multiple tracks, revisions or delivery date as part of that bundle. I could run three different drum programming tiers which can start with sending only midi information to running them through my drum library and adding different versions to choose from.

The way I'm using Fiverr is to improve upon what my potential niché is going to be. I am running a drum programming service as well as a mixing service on my profile.

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CM606| Employment in The Music Industry: Project Proposal   Robbie Smith Producer

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I think as of now, I need to gain more experience in the word of editing, recording and mixing music to become desirable to producers or recording studios to want to hire myself. I feel that right now I would be less helpful in a session with a producer which is not what they want me there to do. However, I'm not that far from the role and believe with my work over the next three months I could find myself with an internship or assistant role with a producer.

I have my website which will have my demo tracks and listed work on it as well as my "Soundbetter" account which is a professional platform for musicians. All i need to do is work on my skills as a producer, editor and audio engineer to then get a role sorted.

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Make Video so its different to APP

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Setup 1: Classic Demo Session
This tier session is the classic demo day template, where a band has the studio for a set time and can record whatever they want within the time allotted.
The setup would be fully live recorded tracks; drums, bass, guitars and vocals recorded all at the same time.
Afterwards they would decide on a take on each song they recorded to then be worked on by myself. This would be a mix and master only, no extra tweaking like vocal alining or drum editing.

Setup 2: One by one, in the box
This tier takes each instrument under the spot light when recording, where they are played and recorded separately, starting with drums and finishing with vocals. Then, before mixing, we can edit sounds such as changing the drums on the same drum take, changing amps on the guitar part ect. This would save on the space and money on equipment needed as we can handle all this with a small interface like a Focusrite Scarlett Solo and a headphone amp to allow vocal recording. As well as utilising "in the box" plugins like drum packs, amp simulations and outboard plugins.

Charging:
With most bands at Ovation being made up of 4-5 members, having a price of £100, asking £20-£25 per band member. This would be a price we could have across the board so it is fair for every band

Another option is having a price for each band member like £20-£25 as the more band members the more parts we would need to track.

I can then take an hourly rate at least the same i get for being a mentor (£15 an hour) and Ovation Music Collects the rest.

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Dedicated Workspace Research and Planner

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Dedicated Workspace Research and Planner

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As part of my journey to become a producer, one of the main hurdles I will come across is having a dedicated space for me to work from. Currently, I share a space at home with one of my room mates which means I can't work with anyone else in the room or using my monitors during the day time mid week. Thus, I need to find an alternative space that will suit my needs for not only current work but future growth within my business.

My two choices are renting a unit space near by that I can be able to record artists and produce tracks within, or build a space in the garden of where I'm currently living.
My initial thoughts are :
- renting I could get a bigger space than I could I'f I were to build a space myself.
-In the long run building a space would be cheaper than renting monthly
- I could tailor make the space if i built one rather than spending hours looking for a rented space that briefly fits my needs.

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Google Voice is advertised as a "smarter" phone number which allows you to run business calls directly to your personal mobile by not giving out your personal number. Its a great way to organise your call log from personal to business while using one phone.

You can set business hours that will allow calls to come through to you at times you have listed and will go straight to voice mail if they call outside of those times into your mail box.

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A smarter phone number

A Voice number works on smartphones and the web so you can place and receive calls from anywhere

Save time, stay connected

From simple navigation to voicemail transcription, Voice makes it easier than ever to save time while staying connected

Take control of your calls

Forward calls to any device and have spam calls silently blocked. With Voice, you decide who can reach you and when.

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A Voice number works on smartphones and the web so you can place and receive calls from anywhere From simple navigation to voicemail transcription, Voice makes it easier than ever to save time while staying connected Forward calls to any device and have spam calls silently blocked.

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This app allows me to store all my expenses receipts and invoices in one place to help keep sorting out my tax as simple as possible. All you need to do is take a photo of the receipt or invoice and it will store it in a folder of your choosing. For example I can store my teaching invoices in a separate folder to my producing invoices.

The app will give me updates on monthly savings and whats claimable under my business to help save me money. Whats great about the app is that everything is saved to your account so if i were to damage or loose my phone, all my stored data is saved.

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How it Works

Millions of pounds go unclaimed every year from self employed people like you. Never miss another tax deduction and let us manage all your expenses

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See how it works and leave the boring bookkeeping of expenses to 1tap

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You are currently viewing 1tap receipts International website, which has information for International version of the product. Are you interested in viewing other versions? You are currently viewing 1tap receipts UK website, which has information for UK version of the product. Are you interested in viewing other versions?

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SoundBetter is a site that "connects producers with musicians". If you're a musician needing someone to mix and master your track, or a producer needing someone to edit drums for a record, you can find them on SoundBetter.

A great thing for producers, is that they can work with people in other timezones that can do the work you need them to do while you're sleeping. I, myself could partner up with an editor over in America who I can send the drums i recorded on that day for him to work on and get them back the next morning ready to track guitars and vocals.
https://soundbetter.com/profiles/378242-robbie-smith-producer

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My Timesheets app allows me to track my weekly hours and earnings from my different streams of income. I set different weekly folders for each job role and fill in the hours with hourly pay and the app will calculate my total earnings for me. This will help me know how much I need to invoice for my work at the end of each month as I'm keeping record of my worked hours.

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3rd year students Henry Horner and Jordan Houghton brought to the rest of our year a proposal on an Unofficial Discord sever for WaterBear Students to be added too from all years. On the discord would be different call rooms or message channels based on a variety of discussion points to keep it organised and easy for anyone joining. The photo attached is the list of text and voice channels available on the sever.

So far people have posted about listening to their latest release or musicians needed for a recording session.

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Drooble is a site for musicians to connect , promote and share their services and work to help monetise their skills. I found out about the site from fellow student Zoe-Beth who recommended all of our year getting an account.

I can search for people within my area for potential work from looking for a producer to shadow/assist in the studio, or an artist reaching out to me for help on one of their tracks.

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Story

Hey guys, My names Robbie and I'm a Producer, Songwriter and Mix Engineer from the South Coast of the UK. I like working on heavy music and anything from pop-rock, pop-punk, modern rock and metal. I'm recently opened up shop and have so much energy and excitement I can bring to working on a record with you. Message me on here or get in contact with me through my links below and we can talk music! Excerpt from Website: "With a keen ear for song structure and arrangement, Robbies infectious enthusiasm pushes musicians to achieve their highest potential." WEBSITE: https://www.robbiesmithproducer.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/robbiesmithproducer/

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Hey guys, My names Robbie and I'm a Producer, Songwriter and Mix Engineer from the South Coast of the UK. I like working on heavy music and anything from pop-rock, pop-punk, modern rock and metal. I'm recently opened up shop and have so much energy and excitement I can bring to working on a record with you.

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Sonic Workshops is an website all around community within music. They run 1-1 mentoring sessions with industry professionals as well as hosting online courses to better your skills within your chosen work. I am already apart of the Sonic Workshops mailing list and follow their instagram to get notified when they upload a new blog post of free content.
I am looking to follow up my subscription with Sonic Workshops up to the £1 where I can join their community to grow my network and meet others that work within music production. Or for £20 I also get a mentoring session with someone from their team. I would primary mentor with George Donoghue as he has help me throughout my studies at WaterBear and knows what my goals are and can help me get to where I want to be.

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For my Financial Forecast, I have listed total income, expenses and profit in monthly quarters following my 12 month plan. On there as well is a total round up of each quarter included the total of the year.

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This task was a new and challenging experience for me as well as daunting due to the realisation that my career in music is becoming real. However, from doing so, I could see the bigger picture of my work and see exactly how much I am making month after month. When I added everything together and the numbers were more than "£30 here, £70 there" I realised just how much I could be making from my work in the industry.

In total my predicted earnings from May 2021 - My 2022 £7120 from work within music, including teaching, gig running and promotions. I then have planned to reinvested £4042 of that into my studio to get upgrade equipment and have more tools to use on tracks. This then left me with an estimated  £3078 each month that I could spend on myself, save towards my own space or continue to reinvest it in equipment or advertising for my work.

Overall I am happy with my initial 12 month plan for my work in music and am now more eager to get going with the plan. If the next 12 months closely follow my prediction, I hope to review my pricing as a producer and possibly change the services I offer so I can start niching down on what it is I want to be doing.

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The Youtube channel "URM Academy" hosts "Nail The Mix" YouTube videos where they get industry professional producer and audio engineers in to walk through their process when mixing their work. These videos are great as they are incredibly digestible being anywhere between 8-20 minutes long and cover certain topics such as "Mixing Pop-punk Vocals", "Mixing a Snare with Distortion" and "Quad tracked guitars". I have been watching these videos when I can and taking notes from them. I also save them to a folder on my YouTube account so I can go back to them whenever I need to look at the content again.

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For my studio space, I am going to go with the Skinners Shed workshop build for is low cost and ease of work for my part. Not only will the shed come with the professional waterproofing and insulation, but it comes with a free delivery and assembly. As stated on the document above, I would only have to get an electrician in to wire the studio up to power all the equipment I need to work and to then decorate it. I am Planning to get the shed being built within my first quarter between May-July this year.

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Group Recording:
Method One I came up with is offering recording lessons to those who wish to learn about audio production. They would be structure lessons where I will bring them tasks to do within the time such as, "Setting up an interface to a DAW" to "Using Buses in your Mix".

Learn in The Process:
My preferred idea to teaching recording is by getting the people wanting to learn recording themself's. We will go through recording the band from tracking drums with guide guitar and vocals, to then layering guitar and vocal parts. While we're doing this i will explain to them the process and why we do certain things in certain ways. An example would be adding reverb to the singers headphones so then they don't feel uncomfortable hearing their dry vocals, thus making them relax more and concentrate on getting a better vocal take.

With it being a workshop, we can charge a flat rate for the students who want to be in on the sessions. As I would be classes as a tutor while working these sessions I can continue to get the same rate I get as a band mentor, being £15 per hour and Ovation would get the rest.

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I think the second option for workshopping the recording and production process would be the best for all parties. The artist gets to record one of their tracks and share it with friends and family, parents of the children will have a finished product that they can hear by the end of the session (or shortly after depending on mixing and mastering). I will get the opportunity to practise my recording and communication techniques while recording musicians that aren't myself or my friends and Ovation gets to raise more funds to help towards other projects.

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With my Slate Digital Plugin Subscription, I get access to master classes and mix breakdowns from leading industry professionals. They have masterclasses on genre specific mixing techniques to master classes on certain tools within the plugin to help any mix.

a huge help I have had was the "Chris Lord-Alge Rock Mixing" breakdown with using auxiliary buses to help organise, and simplify your mixes without clogging up your computer with 7 different reverbs making your track sound muddy.

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My SoundCloud is a place holder for example tracks of mine as a producer until I have work that is on Spotify and make a playlist out of them. There is a link to my Soundcloud from all of my social medias and website so people can listen to them.

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RobbieSmith Music

South Coast

Songwriter/ Producer - I'll turn your demos to the stadium anthem's you hear in your head. Check out some of my work here!

Robbie | Songwriter/Producer's tracks

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Songwriter/ Producer - I'll turn your demos to the stadium anthem's you hear in your head. Check out some of my work here!

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You can hear examples of my work on my SoundCloud listed in the "Online Presence" header.