#HipHop101 How much will my music career cost?

I’m so sick of folks out here acting absolutely crazy. I want to explain a very simple principle to you. First ask yourself this,

If you played little league…. Are you now a professional baseball player?

If you drew pictures in Art class….. Are you now a professional artist?

Should everyone that can carve a turkey be a surgeon?

Fam… just because the world has made it easy for you to make music, doesn’t make it your profession. It’s actually VERY disrespectful to those in the game that have suffered and clawed their way through being broke and all kinds of other things you have NO IDEA that await you in the music industry. Making music is a beautiful thing. I think everyone should experience its joy. It is OKAY for it to be a hobby. Too many people aren’t honest with themselves. Honestly Fam, let’s keep it real. There is music links circulated all over the net of some music that’s terrible. It’s not even recorded properly.

I don’t know who has been lying to you, but I’m going to tell you the TRUTH about what kind of money goes into funding your own music career. Incase you didn’t know, you will spend THOUSANDS of dollars on it and possibly NEVER make any back. You will give away music for the first few projects. Those projects will cost you money. Promoting those projects properly (which means you hire someone to promote you) cost money. The more you want it exposed, the more money it costs. If you don’t promote your project, you will not build a fan base. If you don’t have a fan base, who’s going to buy your music? If you buy downloads and followers… what happens when you put a song on iTunes? If you have 100k fake followers and can’t sell 2 Singles for $1… why on earth are you wasting time & money? There are THOUSANDS of other emcees JUST AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER then you. I’m not trying to be mean, this is REALITY. You should know exactly how big the mountain is.

SOME OF THE WORST THINGS PEOPLE DO EVERYDAY:

Tweet strangers (people you don’t even follow) your links directly. They don’t click on it. You’re wasting time.

Tweet your music to famous people hoping they click it and love it. Let me know who get signed that way when you find out.

You are the only person promoting yourself. If you don’t invest in you, why would a label?

If you are still doing illegal things and your MXTP cover is your product, who is going to sign a law suit waiting to happen?

DISRESPECT THE DJ If you don’t know how important the DJ is? You are banned from making anymore music. It shows you researched NOTHING.

Get on social media and DISRESPECT the people that created the music of the game you’re trying to get into. NOBODY invests an artist who is disrespectful, immature, & unprofessional. You know why? THERE’S A MILLION MORE OUT THERE.

Not have management. If you are serious, you need a person to help you & guide you. Teach you how to spend your money. Someone that has the contacts you need or knows how to get them. Management cost money.

Get mad when people don’t like your music. If this is you? You are banned from hip-hop. NOBODY likes everything. How dare you ask people to listen and when they tell you the truth, you get mad? You need to pay attention. Why? Because this is your BASELINE OF FEEDBACK. If 100 people listen to your song and anything over 60 say they didn’t like it? You need to seriously re-consider doing music or the kind of music you’re doing. If you would like help? I will GLADY for FREE post your song with a poll box and people can crunk it or junk it.

Waste your money.

Not know what kind of rapper you are.

Hobby Rapper

Freestyle Rapper

Battle Rapper

MXTP KING

Feature Rapper

Indie Artist

Label Artist

Fam, this information would normally be contained in a development or management session. I am spilling FOR FREE what I use to eat & pay my bills with because in all honesty, I don’t want you stupid. If I know the way, it’s my job to share it. I don’t depend on any of you to buy services here, hit my blog, or buy our music. I depend on God. What most people don’t understand is that giving things away can get you credit at a bank you’ll never owe it back to. #ProphetTweet LOL Okay, back to business. Watch the math:

You want to drop your 1^st MXTP

Studio Time:               $30-$250 p/h depending upon where you go

15 Song MXTP:          You should record a minimum of 25-30 songs to choose from. You should never just throw something together.

25 songs x $30 per hr for each song to record

25 songs x $30 per hr for each song mixed (bare minimum it’s more when it’s done 100% professionally)

$750 + $750 = $1500

Production:               On a MXTP if you are using other people’s beats (aka “industry beats” beat from a song on the radio) this won’t cost you anything. If you have a friend or team member that makes them you’re still fine, but if want original music and don’t have anyone around that makes beats? You can tack on anywhere from $100 (for something decent)- 5k per beat depending on what kind you want & the caliber of the producer. So multiply 15 songs x $100 per beat and that’s another $1,500 on the bill.

Artwork:                     Decent underground artwork $50 -$100

Duplication:                If you want hard CD’s, you’re looking at $200 off the rip (CD & Case) depending on how many you want and they are expensive. Sometimes 50 CD’s are $200.

Promotion:                  Typically, folks who make hard CD’s skip this step and just pass out CD’s which of course only reaches where YOU DO. Artists that are hip to social media should hire people to promote there. Battlegrownd Entertainment has resources we will GLADLY share with you. We can point you in the direction of indie folks WE use that give us great prices. We could start decent social media promotion to meet a $100 budget & up.

TOTAL LOWEST BALL PARK: $1850 (and don’t forget the extra $1,500-infinite if you’re buying beats) 

If your MXTP is hosted by a DJ, add $100-$5, 000 depending on the status of the DJ

If you do an indie video, add $300-$500

Also add what you afforded for the song’s promotion again because the video also needs promotion.

Add in promotion costs for however long you plan to promote this project.

You will do all this for FREE music. This music you are GIVING away. You have to build a fan base. Nobody is going to buy your music unless they know you or they just rock with you like that. Honestly, if you put out a song on iTunes today, how many people do you know for a fact would buy your single for $1? Count them times .70 (iTunes sells your track for $1 but you only make .70 off each single). That’s how much you’d make with no fans. It costs $10 to load it to iTunes so subtract that from that number. It costs roughly $100 to copywrite & publish the track so subtract another $100. Whatever you’re left with is what you’d make right now selling a piece of music with no fan base. Is your number positive or negative? You will more then likely do this kind of project at LEAST 3-4 times before you should even try to sell anything. Fam, if you are not willing to commit to that? You won’t make it. Some of us have lostEVERYTHING over our music. My team? In the words of @kinggeorge427 “We starved together, we’re going to eat together.” Anyone of the greats in hip-hop, went through most if not all of everything I mentioned. If you’re not prepared for battle, don’t try to be a soldier. We’re only hiring warriors in hip-hop for the next 5-10 years. But if you’re ready? Welcome to #OPERATIONREVOLUTION anything we can reasonably do to help, holla at us.

This has been a @queentheprophet public service announcement.

#HIPHOP101

#watchthethrone

#SALUTE @ihannibalaka730 for the above 2 graphics #TEAMPROPHET #TeamFollowOrDie

Services @Battlegrowndent:

Now, before anyone ever purchases a service from Battlegrownd Entertainment in regards to music management, I always ask if they are ready to be broke. We are one of the only places I know of that charge hourly for Management & Development and a flat rate for International Electronic Distribution. Why? #OPERATIONREVOLUTION isn’t just about us. It’s helping EVERYONE eat. We ONLY hire independent entrepreneurs for services, promotion, & consulting.

Some of our #OPERATIONREVOLUTION Artist Managers, Developers:

@queentheprophet (sorry, I’m not managing any new artists directly)

@thequeendyme

@qjohnsongroup

We cosign @kingmagma www.beasthoodincorporated.com

We issue no contracts, we want no percentage. We will help you help yourself. We will teach you everything you need to know & you will only pay for what you need. If you only need 2-hours a month? That’s all you pay for. We want you to be successful. We want you to be successful so bad that if your music is not good, we will not take your money. We will ask you what else you do well and if you want help, we will point you in the right direction and if you have no skills? We will help you set up your own small business via Twitter and TEACH YOU FOR FREE how to do proper social media promotion and how to make a few bucks.

Service inquiries should be made to battlegrowndent@gmail.com

PLEASE put the nature of your service inquiry in the subject line (i.e. Management, Promotion, Development, Distribution