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EDM ghost production, one of the oldest “taboo’s” in the industry. What I find is that most younger producers seem to despise ghost production. I understand where their frustration comes from. Even I remember saying to myself and my friends, “why would you ghost produce if you can already write a hit track?” 

But really, why not release the track on a huge label yourself? Wanna know why? Because royalties will fuck you.

Interested in learning more about ghost production? Check out this podcast episode I did with the owner of https://edm-ghost-production.com

Electronic Dance Money Episode 023 – How Ghost Production Can Help Build a Strong Career

 

Releasing With Record Labels

Most producers who want to be successful, usually want to release with their favorite record labels. A lot of the time, these are the biggest record labels. However, there’s a big issue with releasing tracks under these labels; they give you nothing in royalties. 

I’ve heard horror stories of producers who are given 10% in royalties, but they worked with a vocalist who wants 50% which pushes their percentage down to  5%. Maybe they hired a mixing or mastering engineer that would like 10% and next thing you know, that producer is getting pennies. 

Even with 1,000,000 streams, they’d be lucky to see $50.

That means that there’s not a lot of money to be made with these huge record labels, at least not until you’ve earned your keep.

Independently Releasing

More and more producers are wanting to independently release tracks. I think it’s great. If you have all of the faith in your music, then you should collect every penny.

However, if you want to release independently, then you need to ask yourself a serious question; how hard are you willing to work? If you answer this question honestly and say, very hard, then you better mean it. You need to be HUNGRY.

If you aren’t hungry, you won’t be successful.

As an independently releasing artist, you’re the producer, the songwriter, you’re the promoter, the video editor, graphic designer, you’re everything. Unless, you have built a team or you can afford to outsource everything.

You become the record label yourself. If you want to make 100% royalties, you better start working like it. Most producers don’t want to do that, some think they do, they try, and realize how much work is involved. Then they decide they would rather leave that stuff to the label. AND THAT’S OK.

Making Money With EDM Ghost Production

So that leaves us with one last simple question, “How do we make money producing?” If you know 1 + 1 = 2, then you should already know the answer to this question. Ghost production.

The honest truth about ghost producers is that they just want to make a living doing what they love, producing music.

The fastest way to get there is to sell your tracks.

If you manage to produce 3 tracks per week, that’s 9 tracks a month. If you even sell half of those at $400/track, that’s $1,800/m, $21,600/y.

That’s not the best living, but it’s a decent one for most musicians. Find a part time job where you work maybe 15/hours a week, and you’ll be able to figure out how to make the additional money you need to start covering all your bills.

Or simply put, get enough returning clients, find record labels to work with, production companies, talent agencies, studios etc. etc. you’re on the fast track to a full time production career.

Why waste tracks that are sitting around, why not make some money off of your hard work?

Conclusion

If you’re a producer that wants to be full time, you’re more than likely going to run into the opportunity to ghost produce. When you start hitting the level of production that the pros are at, being able to make good money off of a track you won’t release can be hard to pass up.

Not everyone needs to be a ghost producer, and not everyone wants to be. However, it’s important to keep your options open because nothing is better than getting paid to do what you love