How To Start A Rap Career in 2020
In today’s article all about how to start a rap career in 2020, we’re going to get you prepared for the new year…
In fact new DECADE with an overview of the 5 fastest steps to start a music career in the upcoming year.
This article is for you if you’ve wanted to know how to start a music career but don’t have a lot of money to do so…
But still want to pursue your passion even if you have school or a job currently.
We’ll give you tips to build a team around for just a few dollars, how to save money on your recording costs, and much more.
Of course, it should go without saying that one of the BEST free ways to get more information on this topic is subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking HERE for more weekly info on how to start a music career and How To Rap.
NOTE: Now, before we even begin with the 5 steps, I want give you a quick free gift… I’ve written a free full-length book called “Self-Made Classic: How To Drop A Great Project on a Tight Budget” which is specifically about how to release an EP, mixtape, or album on a tight budget as a musician… and even better, I’ve put it in audiobook and e-book form so you can consume the content in anyway you like. Simply click HERE to pick it up for free right now.
Self-Made Classic: How To Drop A Great Project on A Tight Budget
1. How To Hire A Full Staff For Less Than $50 A Week
This is by far the most important one for you if you want to start thinking more like a business and a professional musician no matter what your skill level.
There are now websites such as upwork.com, fiverr.com, and freelancer.com where you can hire fully qualified staff members for ANY side of your music career that you are either too busy to handle or not very qualified to be working on when it comes to your music.
This could be anything from people to shoot your videos, artists to design your artwork, people to mix your music, or EVEN just a personal secretary to set your schedule or keep you accountable.
The best part of this is that you can go into the website and SET THE BUDGET YOU WANT and then find the team members that fit that budget.
No lie, there are many perfectly qualified people to handle many aspects of your business for as low as $5 an hour.
Just to play this out, let’s say you realize you need someone for 4 hours a week to mix your new records… 4 hours a week to handle your social media… and 2 hours a week to be your secretary and plan your appearances…
Then that’s only $50 a week if you find the right people for $5 an hour.
Now, of course the more you pay the more high quality people you are likely to get but I can say from personal experience that you can find good people for smaller tasks like scheduling for those lower prices.
Additionally, I would suggest getting a book that explains how to write your job posting on a site like Upwork so you know how to post the kind of employee you’re looking for and get the best applications.
The book that I used was called, “Virtual Freedom”, which you can pick up by clicking HERE and it gave me an easy step-by-step guide on how to write a job post that good team members want to sign up for.
2. Write Free Theme Songs For Businesses (Until They Pay You)
This is probably the most underrated hack in the entire online music education field. I don’t see ANY other channels or blogs mentioning this.
Look, if you are a rapper specifically (most people who read us are)… rap and Hip-Hop is literally the DEFINITION OF COOL for businesses.
Every business ever wants to be associated with youth culture and right now rap is king in that way…
…So if they’re able to have something like a dope RAP song that helps promote their brand or at least fits well with their marketing…
Not only are they going to take notice and promote your music for free…
…But they will start to pay you.
I can personally attest – and I am not exaggerating here – that on top of all of the other successes I’ve had in music, I have made WELL OVER SIX FIGURES in just the last 18 months ALONE from making music for businesses.
So, what I would suggest to you is first:
- Contact a few brands that you enjoy or think might have a stylistic fit to your music. Tell them that you either already have made or want to make a song for them and they can use it if they want. If they are receptive, send them something. If they use it, for the first one or two, just tell them all you want to return is the right to say that you’ve worked with them.
- Once you’ve gone through a couple bigger names, start hitting up companies and charging a fee for music. Show them the numbers and successes of the earlier businesses, and just don’t mention if you got paid or not, haha. Just tell them what your fee is.
- Start adding other components to your offer to these businesses… maybe you can perform the song at a conference of theirs, or offer them a three song package for even more money.
I know this might sound out of the box if you’re an artist that just thought the only way to get money in this music game is by signing to a record label or something but it’s NOT true when learning how to start a rap career.
I’m telling you I’ve made $100,000s doing this! Kendrick Lamar has done American Express commercials! Jay-Z had a color made for him by GMC trucks!
It’s called brand endorsements and there’s a LOT of money in it… so get on it!
3. Renting High Quality Gear Instead of Buying It
Another crazy hack is you can actually just RENT high quality recording gear instead of buying it.
It seems pretty obvious that you should be able to do this but I noticed a lot of artists to struggling to figure out how to record their project in a high quality fashion when they can’t afford a $500-$600 mic let alone all the other things you need to make an industry quality record.
The truth of the matter is that at websites like MicRentals.com, you can rent a $600 mic like the SM7B (the Joe Rogan podcast mic) for $57 for three full days. That’s more than enough time to record your EP especially if you’re well and seasoned on the songs you’ve chosen to record.
Larger chain stores such as GuitarCenter also offer rental services as well so click HERE to find out more information about that.
Now if you do want to own a home studio but still have big budget concerns, be sure to pick up the free audiobook I mentioned earlier because it DOES come with an affordable home studio gear list from Amazon I found where you can get a studio on the cheap… click HERE to sign up and find out more about how to start a rap career.
4. Automate Your Social Media and Spend One Day Planning Out Your Week
Another very important part of building a career from your bootstraps and staying relevant in this noisy social media world is having round-the-clock promotion while still being able to focus on what you love most… making music.
The easiest way that I’ve personally found to stay consistent on social media promotion while NOT being stuck on my phone all day is to get an app that posts on all my social media platforms FOR ME while I’m doing other things.
The way it works is I sign up for a social media automation software like Buffer (that’s the one I use… click HERE to find out more)…
I attached the app to all of my accounts (Buffer lets you schedule Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram photos)… I schedule out the times I want the app to post my content…
And then I just spend ONE day a week writing up / organizing whatever content I want posted up.
That way even if I have school, or a job, or whatever to go to… I’m still posting while I’m doing other things to pay the bills.
There are many well-known apps that do this for you, I just personally like Buffer because it’s so user friendly and it’s free for the first 3 apps you use… and only $10 a month for unlimited, so it’s a good deal.
5. Single To Single Promotion
After the recent success of Arizona Zervas and the more well-known example of Russ, I would suggest the easiest way to get popping quick in 2020 is releasing singles ideally WEEKLY (but monthly) until you start getting traction.
Just to stay on the Arizona Zervas example for a second – when his song “Roxeanne” blew up recently, I went to do my research on him and while there isn’t much to find…
Not a lot of interviews, he doesn’t post on social media a lot…
He has YEARS worth of high quality singles up on Spotify for me to listen to. So regardless of his “clout” level, I feel like I’ve discovered an artist with several albums to enjoy… just as if he were ALREADY famous.
By building up a vault and backlog of music, and releasing consistently… It will FEEL to the new audience member like you’ve already been around or already released an album… because you’ve got an ALBUM’S worth of material already posted.
Artists ranging wildly from Cardi B and Bilile Eilish to more recently Pop Smoke and Arizona Zervas have proven that you can become wildly popping without an album out yet and then work on crafting something that could legit when you a Grammy.
Additionally, your new fans will start to look forward to your work as you stay more consistent and release tracks often. This is great when you learn how to start a rap career.
Now there’s a lot more marketing and promotional theory on this topic that I won’t get into in-depth in this article, but as a general point…
…We have enough evidence as of recent that prove you can release singles consistently to get popping quickly in 2020.
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I have over 80 songs out on Spotify and Apple Music, I’ve consistently released music over weeks as singles, also done small EPs, albums… Didn’t really find large success through that. Glad to read that when I reach a bigger audience the older stuff will be respected though
Keep grinding Trip!
BRONX STAND UP
MY FAMILY FROM THE BRONX STAND UP
BRONX THIS IS FOR YOU
I wanted to be a rapper since I was three years old that’s my life
Nice!