Music Forums

We are ALL here because, one way or another, we want to collaborate in the writing, recording, and producing of some awesome music. Some are here for fun, some are here as professional artists. Some want to write, some want to produce. You get the idea..

Each month, we'll be posting a new tip or two on the subject of how to be more effective in your collaborations and projects on ProCollabs. Members are encouraged to jump in, discuss, and share their own ideas. It's an open forum. Go for it!

Tip #1 Be a proactive project manager

Do you have an idea for a song? Then you probably already started a project on ProCollabs. But what happened next? Did you sit back and patiently wait for one of our many talented members to upload an audition, or did you take the initiative and start contacting members and inviting them to participate? We’ve seen a lot of projects started, but many get quickly forgotten as they drop lower and lower in the active project listings.

Here are some suggestions that might help, next time you have an idea for a song:

1. Take charge of your project.

You are the leader, and it’s your responsibility to take it to finish line. Set out a clear vision for what it is that you want to achieve, and set a realistic timeline. Projects that are left open ended rarely get completed.

Do you intend to post the completed song on CD Baby? Is it for a licensing opportunity? Or is it just a kick-around for fun? In your project brief, be clear about your vision and expectations. We’re much more likely to jump onboard if we have the same motivations and can see the potential.

2. When creating the project, take the time to set it up properly.

The description should explain your vision or give a background on how the idea came to be so that we can buy-in emotionally.

The project brief should explain what you are looking for from your collaborators and provide some direction.

Add cover art - even if it's temporary – as your project goes immediately to the bottom of the list of active projects without it! Cover art also makes your project visually unique and separates it from all the others.

And make sure that you upload and feature at least one track!

Without taking the time to put in all these details, you may be inadvertently telling potential collaborators that you, as the project’s leader, can’t be bothered or don't have the time.

3. And once your project is setup, you’ll need to SEEK OUT potential collaborators.

DON’T sit and wait for something to happen. Take the initiative. And don’t be afraid of asking. We all joined up for one simple reason – that we wanted to collaborate in the writing, recording, and production of some awesome music! This way, you get to choose the members that you think will be the best fit for your project. They can say “yes”, or they can say ”no”. If they say “no”, don't take it as a rejection, it's just another step closer to your goal, so thank them and move on to the next candidate.

As the project manager, you are responsible for putting the best team together to ensure that you can have the best outcome for your project. Success and failure are in your hands only.

Here on ProCollabs, we are very fortunate to have the cream of internet talent when it comes to online music collaboration. So we're not the same as other sites you may be familiar with, where you might have 100 people uploading.. erm.. 'something'.. to your project each time you post. ProCollabs has gathered this incredible pool of talent all in to one place, but you'll need to be proactive if you want to attract the talent that you want for your project.

Hope these ideas will help some. Would love to hear your own thoughts!

Hi Lee, great post and it raises some interesting points, and I think sitting at the heart of it is "What is the motivation for joining a Collaboration site".

For some, it is about having other talented musicians contribute their ideas to your concept to see how they can improve/develop the original idea.

For others, it is as simple as just joining in on other members concepts and adding to them.

Or, pretty much doing the whole track and only wanting specialist input etc etc, it seems to me there are a myriad of reasons and they are all perfectly valid.

One thing I do know, is that in the year or so that I have been a member here I've defintely noticed that the more you get involved the more you get back.

You are so right when you say, go out and invite people, don't just sit back and wait and, on top of that, the more you start to get involved with other members and auditioning (whether you are successful or not) the more likely others will start to get invovled with you. You start to develop really great relationships and ultimately produce amazing music.

There are a lot of fantastic musicians here, and importantly some really fantastic people, get to know as many as possible, get involved, comment, audition, chat, write gread music together :)

That would be "great music" haha

A bit sad that so many project, seems to stuck in the process, and never be finished.
I think it is a good idea, to finish and close a project, if you have more artist involved in it.

So my tip of the month is, Finish what you started :-)

Only my 2cent
love this place! and hope for many more great songs!
Tove

One important thing in projects is to make tracks available or a mix that can enable say a drummer or whatever you are looking for. If you are asking for drums but there is no drum less mix then a drummer can't usually do the job. Another thing is not to make the mix too compressed nor too loud. If you want the song to be its best a strong foundation is required, no matter how creative you may be this is always relevant. For the foundations of a song to work at their best you need the core elements of the rhythm to be strongest in the mix for the drums.. The pretty stuff on top sounds nice but is often distracting and leads you off from the pulse at times or can mask the groove. The simpler the mix at this stage the stronger the foundations will be and the better your song will be for it.

Whilst I'm on the foundations, another important factor in beginning a song is to keep your rhythm simple and tight in the early stages. Most musicians want to add the florally bits as early as possible but the downside of this is that the core of the song will be weakened. Best to build on a simple and strong structure, then you can colour in with the pretty stuff as you go. If it doesn't work then you at least still have a strong core but if you don't then you are stuck and it just keeps compounding the errors as you go.

Thanks GoodVibes. As a Drummer who browses this site, I often move away from tracks that don't post a drum less version. Please post drum less tracks if you label your song as needing drums. One step further, I recommend to the site builders that you put a track count associated with each project in search results. It would save time as seeing only one track tells me there is no drum less version. Thanks!

Tip #2 Take a risk - Collaborate!

You can't be an expert in all things when it comes to creating awesome music. Before anyone tells me otherwise, there are of course a few here that certainly can! But for the rest of us, we probably have a particular skill set where we excel (yep, that's how yer got in, right?), and we're pretty much mediocre at a lot of everything else.

Think about everything that's involved in producing a great song. Beginning to end: Writing and arranging the music, and the lyrics -> recording the vocals, harmonies, and all the instruments -> mixing the track -> mastering the track. C'mon, that's a fair shopping list if you really think about it.

If you want your songs to be better, and to sound better, it can be a pretty good idea to take a step back and let others get involved in that process. I.e. you focus on what you do well while others focus on what they do well. Yanno what I mean.. collaborate!

Let's say you're the best vocalist in the world. You probably think you can play bass too, right? Or programme a drum machine like no other, right? What if, instead, you invite an actual bass player to your project and an actual drummer too. If that's their natural habitat then you're surely gonna get some awesome results.

There's a lot to be said about throwing some salt on the control freak sitting on our shoulder every once in a while, and instead, working with others who share our vision and passion for producing the best song that we can. It can be pretty hard to let go sometimes, but it can be well worth the effort and a lot of fun.

For sure there can be mental barriers that prevent us from giving it a real chance. Like ego, for starters - "I think I'm pretty darn good at it all!" Then there is trust and reliability - "People ignore their messages or just don't work fast enough". Some of us just want to do everything ourselves because we enjoy a challenge or because it's just fun to try. And there's probably a hundred other reasons too.

So for this month's tip, we're saying - take a risk. Put yourself out there. Check out other member's profiles and their music (including our listeners who are just waiting for the right projects to come along). See who's got the talent you need for your project. And go ahead and invite them! G'wwwoon - make better music!

Very wise words!

The songs I got involved in are soo much better now, because I concentrate on what I do well.. Which is singing and occasional guitar. Play to your strengths is a very good advice!