Last time we looked at ways in which you can get remix parts (most often vocal stems or a capellas) in order to start building your own showreel. This would then enable you to approach labels with concrete work to demonstrate what you are capable of. There is also another, less obvious, benefit.
The Benefits Of Free Market(ing)
Nowadays there is just as much focus on internet marketing for single releases as there is on traditional print and television advertising. Sites like YouTube are now recognised as the first places people go to look for new music (along with Spotify and Last.fm), so it makes sense to upload your unofficial remix to YouTube. Given the number of unofficial remixes that I have seen on there, it is clear that labels see some benefit to this proliferation of mixes.
If you are careful and thoughtful about your tagging, there is a good chance that your video will get a lot of views (especially if the song you've remixed is by a current and popular artist). This will help to raise awareness of what you do, and that increases your chances of success. Raising awareness of yourself and your music is one of the hardest things to do when you are starting out (or even when you are established!), so anything that can help with that is essential.
Balancing Act
Now let's jump forward a bit in time: Your brand is out there a bit, maybe some paid remixes are coming in, and you find yourself in a difficult situation. Two offers of work come in at the same time, and both need to be completed by a very strict deadline. You only have time to do one or the other. The first, which carries a hefty fee, involves an unknown artist, while the other involves a very high profile artist and a very small fee.
For some, the phrase “take the money and run" will apply here. But if you're interested in achieving mainstream success, there is a very good argument for taking the lower fee.
One of the hardest things to do in music is change your status so that you're seen as one of the remixing glitterati, in the same upper echelons as the Tiestos or the Laidback Lukes or the Digweeds. Most of that comes down to talent, but part of it also comes from subtle changes in outside perception. Getting your name on the remix package for a major artist goes a good way towards achieving that. Also, once you have some household names on your remixing CV, you can start using that to secure bigger and better gigs.
In this case, the smaller fee now could be considered a down payment on a brighter career in the future. There are no guarantees when you do this, but if I wanted to build a brand and the opportunity came along to work on a big record for a big artist for little to no money, then I would probably take that risk and see what happened. In fact, I did just that recently for a new(ish) project that I have been working called “Nu Addiction."
We had regularly been getting fees of £1000 or more for remixes and had remixed some quite big names—Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Macey Gray, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Charice and many others— but the chance came up to remix a couple of records which looked like they were going to be huge hits in the UK. There was “no budget" for either of them, so I ended up doing two remixes for free. The tracks in question were Cheryl Cole's “Promise This“ and the new Freemasons single, “Believer." Time will tell if it was a good decision, but one of my remixes seems to currently be one of the most popular on iTunes and Amazon. Hopefully, this will be noticed by the label, which will lead to more (paying) work coming my way soon, as well as other labels taking notice and getting in touch with me.
The Chosen One
This leads me to my final point. Unlike most other kinds of pop music, there are instances where a remix becomes more popular than the original song. In most cases, the remix's producer doesn't earn any extra money for this, but the exposure and popularity, including club and radio plays, which comes from your version of the track, is invaluable. Doing a remix that becomes the “lead mix" for a big record can catapult you from “Who are you again?" to “When are you free to do a remix?" in the space of a few months. I can't offer you any guarantees, but I can say with certainty that it does happen sometimes.
