Common Mistakes in the Collab Process
Have you ever reached out to someone to collaborate but don’t hear back? Or have you met up with an artist, worked on a song together, only to not work with them or follow-up with them again?
The truth is, finding the right producers, songwriters or even instrumentalists to work with isn't easy. There are a lot of moving parts and it’s easy to make mistakes, especially when you are a new artist and don’t have a huge network yet, and don’t have a budget to pay the people you work with.
In this post, we’re sharing 3 of the biggest mistakes people make in collaborating with another artist. My hope is that these will help you avoid being ghosted, either before getting the chance to be in the room with them, or after having a session.
Mistake 1: Generic Outreach
This is an easy mistake to make, you jump on Instagram or Facebook, and just message a list of musicians that work in your area.
When we first started Signpost Audio, we did the exact same thing. We would reach out and offer to mix records for people regardless of the genre of music they created, and even attempted to engage with people for post-production work in advertising.
The problem with this approach is there is no clear plan or focus, and often the messaging becomes quite generic.
You can fix this by targeting specific people for certain needs. For e.g., if you are a producer who is great at writing instruments, look for artists that are great at writing top line melodies and can sing to take your songs to the next level.
The main aim is to think hard about what your goal is, then reach out to someone who can fill in whatever gaps you might have to achieve it. This may be a simple solution, but it’s one that new artists, studios and music businesses often overlook.
Mistake 2: Proper Messaging
Once you understand who you are looking to work with and what you want to achieve, it is important to describe it in detail.
Hitting someone up on Instagram and saying “Yo, let’s link on this music” might sound casual and cool, but it’s extremely vague and doesn’t really paint a clear picture of why you want to work with them and what the project looks like.
Instead, try discussing what you drew you to message them specifically, and how they can help you. A simple structure goes as follows:
Essentially, say hello (or “what’s up”, if need be) and mentioned who you are and what you do, discuss your vision for the song, mention how they fit into the picture and then politely ask them to meet up, even going as far as to ask where they’re comfortable meeting, especially if your meeting at someone’s home, whether yours or theirs.
This is an example of this approach in action:
“Hey, hope your weekend was awesome. My name is Andy and I work as a Music Producer in Melbourne, I mainly work on Hip Hop music. I’m working on a project putting together Neo-Soul inspired records and I came across your lyrics and thought they would perfectly complement the beats I’m working on. I loved your lyrics on the “Stay” track you have linked in your bio. Would you be interested in linking up to work together? Let me know what you need, and I’ll send anything through to make this happen.”
As you can see in this example, there’s a clear intent, a compliment to the potential collaborator with a specific example, a request to work on a defined project and a question on what is needed to move forward.
Try this method next time, it won’t always work on every potential artist, but I assure you the strike rate will be much higher.
Mistake 3: EGO!
The collaboration process is just that, a collaboration. Behaving like a dictator when working with another person, particularly when you are a new artist and especially if you were the one that requested to meet with them, is rarely a good idea.
This can lead to a collaborator’s ideas and expertise being shut out, meaning the project doesn’t get the best results, artists not feeling comfortable working with you and a reputation that you are difficult to work with.
It’s understandable that not every idea will make the cut, but at least recording or trying something that has been suggested before giving feedback, is always a good approach.
So, create with intrigue, and provide feedback with the other artists’ thoughts or feelings in mind.
Get Collaborating!
In summary, enhance your music career by avoiding common pitfalls in collaboration. Target specific needs, communicate clearly, and embrace collaboration as a mutual exchange for better results and partnerships.
