While social media can be one of the most powerful tools available to independent musicians, it’s also extremely easy for artists to get lost among the shuffle of everything else on the social networks demanding attention of everyone all the time.
But what happens when an indie artist bucks the trend? What happens when a musician returns to trends of the old days when musicians were more likely to be enigmas rather your “friend” on Facebook? Well, if that artist is The Weeknd, that enigmatic approach lands you at number two on the Billboard 200 albums chart. That equates to about 95,000 copies sold of the group’s debut major label album, Kiss Land , trailing Keith Urban for the top spot by only 3,000 or so copies during its debut week. It’s interesting to point out that all of this was achieved with little mainstream radio play, one major television appearance and one magazine interview.
Of course, those that have been following the Weeknd’s music for the past few years are likely little surprised about the lack of self-promotion – or the high number of sales.
When The Weeknd issued its first album, House of Balloons , for free on its website about two-and-a-half years ago, the R&B artist took pains to not only avoid social media and the press, but didn’t even reveal his real name (Abel Tesfaye) for quite some time. For someone working purely in the digital realm, he was going against everything we’re told to do when it comes to social media PR and promotion.
But it worked.
Kiss Land was released in partnership with Republic Records and Tesfaye’s own XO Records, and his co-managers spoke to Billboard about the rise of the obscure act.
“The music industry seems to run a lot on hype,” the managers said in an email to the music trade publication. “Abel wanted to see where things would go with his songs living on their own merits.”
And letting things succeed (or fail) on their own merits is what Tesfaye has always seemed to do. Though he is now signed to Republic, he eschewed major label offers immediately after the success of his debut and instead offered two more free records online.
But even now that he’s signed to a major label, the approach to promotion is based on the idea of less-is-more. Case in point: though he’s only made one major television appearance (performing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”), he’s already released five videos from Kiss Land online.
Though certainly Tesfaye’s approach won’t work for everyone, it is interesting to see a star make a name for himself online without taking the approach that the best thing to do is flood the digital sphere with not only your music but also your public “face” on social media. Instead, Tesfaye went the (relatively) silent route and let his music speak for itself.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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