Music producer AAKASH shares his thoughts on how the music industry can be a profit-making business

Going by the tagline, @AakashKahanHai, Aakash is an EMMY award-winning Indian Music Producer & Audio Engineer.

He won the award for his field recording and post-production work on the musical “Finding Home: Indiana at 200” and is an active member of the EMMY Awards judicial committee. From Raftaar to Emiway Bantai, King to Dino James, Loka to Naezy, Zaeden and Gully Gang, AAKASH has worked with more than 50 artists in India making a catalog of 100+ songs with a massive number of over 200 Million streams across multiple platforms. Besides hip-hop, AAKASH has worked with the top music labels in the country such as Sony, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music to name a few, along with brands such as Google, One Plus, NBA, Spotify, Maruti Suzuki, Netmeds, and Reliance Group.

When asked about his advice on making music lucrative, he says, “Money management is an essential part of sustaining a successful career in music. I’ve experienced payments to turnaround in 6-8 months in the beginning phases. Try to factor in the time and push for more frequent sales until you have enough leverage to demand upfront advances and better deals. Learn about all the royalty collection procedures including PRO songwriter and publisher registration, mechanical royalties collection, and global publishing administration service, and mention all the negotiable points in your contract. Discuss with the artist early on how they conduct their business; whether they collect royalties or not, and their frequent methods of business. That will put you in a better position when the time comes to negotiate a deal.”

He goes on to explain, “You have to have your back-end in check. That means registering with your local Performing Rights Organization (IPRS in India) as a songwriter AND a publisher and then registering each of your releases to collect your Performance royalties. Sign up with a Publishing Administrator company (Songtrust), that will collect your global Publishing royalties. This ensures that if your song blows up you’ll collect all the royalties it generates. Finally, you can sign up with a competitive distributor that can offer special perks such as being able to re-upload your master audio file and special recommendations for your song to be featured in editorial playlists (Distrokid, Tunecore, Believe)”.

AAKASH believes in empowering musicians and he continues to inspire his followers and young music producers in the country through his exploration of various genres and his active efforts in educating them about music production and the industry. He also conducts workshops and production sessions across India in which he discovers and develops new up-and-coming music producers. You can find him online at @aakashkahanhai

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