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dimeeasy · 3 years

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10 Legit Ways to Build Passive Income Online

Whether you are a student looking to make some extra cash, a working professional wanting to build a side hustle, or a corporate escapee and whosoever who is starting to build an online business need to have some cash inflow for the further smooth flow of your business.

There are many sites out there saying make money like $100 a day with surveys, with google sites, etc. Of course, they may make you money for a certain period of time but are not long-term and passive.

You always need to look out for ways to make money that are passive. You need to earn money every month and double it. Here are my top creative ideas to make money online. These real methods have worked in past and will work now and then too.

Freelancing

You would have heard a lot of this from others. But yes, this is the first best way to earn some cash before starting out your business. It will help to get some extra money into your pocket as well as fund a little for your software if you are starting out. You can start freelancing with no investment upfront. It's FREE. You can make money online freelancing.

Don’t worry if you think you don’t have any skills. You can learn small skills by taking a free trial in skillshare. There are tons of gigs people are looking for to get their work done and with the right process, you can make money as a freelancer.

By the year 2027, freelancers are projected to make up the majority of the workforce in the United States, with 50.9% of the working population. In fact, at the current growth rate, it’s estimated that 67.6 million Americans will be freelancing by the end of 2021. That’s 42% of the American workforce! (Website planet).

What are you waiting for? Search in-demand gigs on google keywords and search trends. And yes, patience is the key. You need to wait a few weeks while you get your first gig. Start promoting your services on social media and find your spot.

Starting a Blog

As of 2021, there are more than 570 million blogs on the internet, based on activities reported by WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, and Medium (and this number is constantly growing) (firstsiteguide).

Now do not get overwhelmed, the one thing is though blogs are growing rapidly, and so are people reading blogs. Of course, blogs are saturated, but when you niche down and find your audience then you can achieve your space in this sea of bloggers.

Starting a blog, yesterday, today, tomorrow, is possible as long as you are using proper rules, like optimizing your SEO, giving unique content to your readers, and more. But, the best day to start blogging for your profit is today and now.

Let us look at some stats on why you should start your blog today

61% of online shoppers in the US say they made a purchase after getting a recommendation from a blog post

Companies that blog actively have 126% better lead growth

80% of bloggers say that they see positive business results from their blogging efforts

Blogs affect customers’ buying decisions as 47% of them go through 3 to 5 blog posts before the buying process (Firstsiteguide)

Give me a better reason why you should not start a blog after these mind-blowing facts.

You can start a niche blog, review blog, cooking blog, gaming blog, parenting blog, and more. Just write what you know or keep an eye on your competitors and outperform them. And blogging is the best for your long-term passive income.

Starting a YouTube channel

Now as we’ve known how YouTube has evolved to be like a video search engine, the platform has grown considerably and is been growing millions of YouTubers.

Again, let’s talk about some statistics about YouTube. YouTube has 2.3 billion users worldwide.

79 percent of Internet users have their own YouTube account.

YouTube viewers watch over a billion hours of video on the platform every day and generate billions of views. (YouTube, 2021)

YouTube is localized in more than 100 countries and is available in 80 languages. (YouTube, 2021)

Every day people watch one billion hours of video on YouTube (source-Oberlo)

Now, the real question is how to make money out of YouTube? Well, there is enough space for you to sink in. Are you a coach, fitness enthusiastic, a person with good communication, or even just an individual with no skills at all? You can make videos, monetize your YouTube account, and earn from AdSense and affiliate marketing.

Umm! Some people may say that YouTube is not for me. I don’t know how to make and produce videos. I don’t have any skills. Well, I have a solution for that. You can make money from YouTube absolutely by not showing your face at all.

Here are some of the niches you can make videos y not showing your face.

If u do not want to record videos, you can head up to free stock videos or images and give a voice-over and start making content.

If you feel shy to start, you will never get ahead. So, the one thing I want to tell to everyone who is shy to make videos and for my younger self, stop doubting yourself. Just do it, don’t care about criticism, success will follow you

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when a person earns a commission for referring a product to others. For eg: You register yourself as an affiliate to promote certain products, when the person you promote the product click on your unique affiliate link and purchases through your link you earn a commission. A commission can range for each and every product.

And the affiliate marketing model is the best, safe model for beginners. You can drive traffic for free and for paid as well. You can be an affiliate marketer if you need a passive income, you don’t need to have any other customer support, you can work from home at your own comfort.

Now, how to register as an affiliate. First, think of what do you like the most. What products do you love using? Type the name in google and see whether there is an affiliate program or just see other affiliate programs in your niche. Choose the one you love so that you don’t feel tired and exhausted in the long run.

There are many other sites where you can choose your products from. You can take products from Click bank, Digistore24, Share a Sale, Jvzoo, and similar other platforms.

Here are the best affiliate platforms for you to choose from

How do you want to promote is the next question?

Well, you can create landing pages in click funnels, kartra, or builderall and promote them through ads. If you are on your budget, you could start a blog and promote it. You can write blogs for free on medium.com. It is a cost-effective way to sell your products. You can create a YouTube channel, talk about how you love using those products, and promote them, you could even use Pinterest to promote your blogs and landing pages.

We all know that Pinterest is a visual search engine and no doubt you can get quite a good sale from affiliate marketing in Pinterest

Once you get your first sale and testimonials you can start your Instagram page and build trust with others to promote the products and scale your business.

Instagram Influencer

Do you love making TikTok videos, always want to be active on social media? Then here is your chance to start earning being an Instagram influencer.

You can start by creating content about the topic you want to talk about the most. If creating a YouTube channel feels a bit challenging, grow your audience and monetize them through Instagram. Feel free to talk about what you feel.

Collect your follower's email IDs. Once you become consistent with the audience and platform, the content you are generating makes a digital course or something you think to monetize your people. Giveaway a lot of freebies, checklists, and many other things to lead your audience to the product you are offering. Build trust with them and try to use all of Instagram's available channels. Use carousals, reels, IGTV, go live to show behind the scenes of your work, and more!.

Staying consistent is the key to grow your audience on Instagram.

Starting a T-Shirt Business

Whether you’re an artist, writer, designer, or entrepreneur, physical products can be the perfect canvas for monetizing your creativity. Yes, you heard that right. You can start your own merch for free. Starting an online T-shirt business is booming in this era an why don’t you be one of them. You do not need to hold any inventory, just design your t-shirt online and publish it.

Let me make it clear. So what is print on demand? How to start your free t-shirt business

Print on demand is a process where you work with a supplier to customize white-label products (like baseball hats or tote bags) with your own designs to sell them on a per-order basis under your own brand.

That means you don’t pay for the product until after you’ve actually sold it, so there’s no need to buy in bulk or hold any inventory yourself.

Plus, with print-on-demand services, everything after the sale, from printing to shipping, is handled by your supplier. Once you’ve set everything up, it takes only a few clicks to fulfill an order once you’ve made a sale.

You can use print-on-demand services to:

Test a business idea or new product line for an existing business without the risks that come with buying inventory.

Monetize an audience you’ve built. Printing on demand is a great option if you’re a YouTuber, cartoonist, or social media influencer who wants to spend your time creating content instead of fulfilling orders.

Create original products for a niche of customers. For example, apparel for people who are passionate about gaming.

Easily print one-off items—t-shirts, books, shoes, bags, wall art, phone cases, clocks, laptop skins, mugs, and so much more. You can send these as gifts or keep them for yourself and your team (source-Shopify)

You can get started with print on demand for almost free with teespring, redbubble, printful . Or you can start your online store on Shopify and sell them as a custom branding.

Do not worry if you are not a pro in graphic designing. You can design your t-shirt on canva and paste the design on your t-shirt too. This is a legitimate and easy business for beginners online. You can promote your merch by using SEO, keywords, and various social platforms.

Let's take a look at the print on demand statistics:

This statistic depicts the market value of the custom t-shirt printing market worldwide from 2016 to 2025. In 2016, the global custom t-shirt printing market was valued at 1.16 billion U.S. dollars, and was forecast to reach a value of 3.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

This is insane amount the industry is making from print-on-demand only.

COVID-19 impact Fabric face mask accounted for 11.14% of all goods sold through Printify in September 2020. (Printify)

A 2020 survey revealed that about 96% of millennials and Gen Z have concerns about how the ongoing pandemic will impact the economy. (BigCommerce)

With more people staying at home and focusing on home improvement projects, the Home & Living category is on the rise, with the first 6 months of 2020 seeing a 243.77% growth. Both canvas gallery wraps (2.19%) and premium vertical posters (1.35%) are in TOP15 products sold by Printify merchants. (Printify)

According to Merkle’s report in 2020, roughly 79% of consumers plan to be more conservative with how much they will spend shopping online during the pandemic. (Merkle)

In the first 6 months of 2020, Printify monthly active users have grown by 69%, with registrations up 39%. (Printify)

62% of sellers in the United Kingdom changed their marketing plan because of the pandemic. Moreover, only 14 percent of businesses have decided to stick with their original marketing strategy for 2020. (Statista) ( All sources- Printify) Read more at: https://printify.com/ecommerce-statistics/ And these are just stats alone. Don’t wait now. Start your print-on-demand business right away.

Online Tutoring

Again, online tutoring is gaining massive demand in this digital age. During the pandemic the online tutoring business was a boom and it will be more in the coming years. Just teach people what you know. There are many people in this world who want to learn and are ready to pay for it.

Whether you know to speak English, or drawing, graphic designing, marketing, business, or anything that matters, turn your own skill into a business

You can tutor in paid platforms like cambly, Oakary, iTutor, or just start teaching in YouTube and create tour own course and sell it. You can create courses and teach in udemy too. People all over the world are searching to learn skills and may be you can teach them what you know and monetize your skills.

Amazon KDP [ Selling E-books and low content books ]

As I told you print on demand is a big thing and so does amazon KDP is too. What is KDP? Amazon KDP is nothing but kindle direct publishing. KDP allows you to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free. Amazon gives you direct access to your book on Amazon and allows you to create a product detail page for your book. It also gives you the option to expand your book’s availability on a global scale, making it more accessible for readers around the world. Publishing with KDP gives you full rights to your book, which is not something a traditional publishing house typically allows.

What types of content can I publish through KDP?

KDP allows you to publish eBooks (Kindle) and paperback books. However, KDP does not allow the creation of magazines, periodicals, or spiral-bound books.

Content types typically published using KDP include but are not limited to the following:

Novels

Book Series

Children’s Books

Comics

Cookbooks

Journals

Poetry

Textbooks (source: amazon.com)

Selling Photography

Are you a photographer? Are you making enough money? If no then this will help you , if yes you are gonna make an extra dime.

You can sell your beautiful photos on Getty Images, Pexels, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock and many more sites and earn money whenever your image is downloaded. If it is a subscription-based site then your earnings will be more. You can post your beautiful images on Instagram and become famous. Ultimately you can collaborate with various brands for their product photography.

If your camera is lying there near you, take it and start clicking pictures and sell your photos online.

Selling on Etsy

Etsy is an online market place that works as an intermediary between customers and artists, crafters of handmade items or collectors of vintage products. The company engages in customer to customer (C2C) or peer to peer (P2P) e-commerce in which both the seller and the buyer are private individuals or micro-businesses. This is in contrast to other forms of internet commerce such as B2C or B2B (source: Statista).

Let's head to our facts about how profitable it is to sell on Etsy

Etsy had over 2.5 million sellers at the end of 2019, and we can only expect that this number has increased.

Etsy sellers live all over the world, in 234 countries

62% of Etsy sellers are based in the US.

California is home to the most Etsy sellers with 14% of US-based Etsy shops. (credits: veeqo)

Etsy is a huge commerce platform, with an especially strong US presence. Plus, the fact that most sellers are multi-channel retailers—and also selling their products on marketplaces like Amazon and Shopify sites—suggests that the platform isn’t just for amateur makers. It’s for eCommerce businesses.

So if you’re already selling handmade or vintage products on another platform, it’s worth it to expand and start selling on Etsy.

If you’re starting a business, it’s important to run the numbers before setting up shop—or at least quitting your day job. Etsy does have associated costs, though it’s worth noting that the listing and transaction fees are lower than other platforms, like Amazon and eBay. (cre: veeqo)

So, if you can start your print on demand you can sell it on Etsy too. If you are good at handicrafts Etsy is the best place to promote.

Conclusion

So here are the top 10 ways where in you can make legitimate money online. You can try all these methods one by one. Well, everyone will look for quick methods to make money online, but those won’t suffice for long run.

If you should build a strong business online you need to stay consistent no matter what. Staying consistent will help audience grow along with you on your journey to make money online. For beginners starting out these methods will help you in starting out to make a dime or two.

One thing I need to make particular is you will not see results instantly. You need to try and try, keep on trying. Whether it is 2 weeks, 1 month or 3 months, you should not stop. Keep up that grind and let’s start the digital lifestyle. Start by making money online fore free with these methods and start investing in ads and make the business run for you in long run.

#passive income #makemoney #make money online #remote jobs #jobsearch #building a business #freelance #social media #education #money tips #earnmoneyonline #make money blogging #make money on instagram #make money now

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frankendeers · 5 years

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Kylux and the Queer Literary Tradition

So, I have seen a lot of people talk about Kylux in terms of queer fetishisation or even labelling it a “crack ship”.

The discourse has somehow made Kylux out to be this straight-girl fantasy where two men are simply shipped because they are white and handsome. Such an unfavourable interpretation completely takes away from many Kyluxers being queer and/or poc themselves as well as shaming straight people for seeing queer potential where it’s not canonically stated to be. Since the comic came out, there has been much elation because it finally “confirms” some of the things that appeal to Kyluxers, therefore justifying the ship. I don’t think, however, that Kylux has ever been anything but rather conventional in its queer subtext. Kylux falls in line with a long tradition of homoerotic aggression between two men. I will try to put this into words as eloquently as I can.

First, let’s talk about how Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Armitage Hux are queer coded on their own before moving on to their relationship.

Armitage Hux is almost comically queer coded. The act of feminising a villain to subtly convey to the audience that he is gay and therefore “morally reprehensible” has been a practice since the Hays code era (in some respects even before that -as the Victorian Age marks the beginning of our modern understanding of gender and subsequently, its subversion). He is seen to be physically weak, petty, moving and snarling and “bitching” in a way society would stereotypically ascribe to women.

His British Accent, at least from an American point of view, already marks his sexuality as ambiguous. This is not helped by the fact that he speaks in an abnormally posh way, alienating himself from the common people.Hereby, the movies draw a well-established line between decadence/queer and pragmatic/heteronormative.

In the “Aftermath” trilogy Brendol Hux states his son to be “weak willed” and “thin as a slip of paper and just as useless”, robbing him of his masculinity – no matter how ridiculous of an endeavour this is when talking about a four-year old boy. Hux is very early on criticised for not fitting into a socially expected form of manhood. This is especially evident when one compares him to his resistance rival, Poe Dameron. Now, Dameron has his own set of queer coding, but he is shown to be what is commonly viewed as “acceptably queer”. He is masculine, trained and proactive. When he ridicules Hux at the beginning of The Last Jedi, there is this juxtaposition of the helpless, feminine villain and the dashing, superior male hero. Hux is supposed to be judged as vain and arrogant while Poe takes risks and although reckless, is somehow to be admired. Further, Hux is constantly abused. He is thrown into walls letting out high pitched screams, runs away in the face of danger (as seen in the recent comic) and is pushed around by his own subordinates. His strength lies in being cunning and calculated, not stereotypically masculine virtues.

Hux’s destructive powers, his monstrosity so to speak, also follow a long-standing tradition of queer villainization. Harry Benshoff’s The Monster and The Homosexual articulates this as follows:

“[...] repressed by society, these socio-political and psychosexual Others are displaced (as in a nightmare) onto monstrous signifiers, in which form they return to wreak havoc […]” (Benshoff 65).

And what other, than a socio-political Other, is Armitage Hux - the Starkiller?

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, too, is touched by the mark of queerness. It is no coincidence that despite his raw power and muscular physique, Kylo Ren has not been adopted by hegemonic masculinity in the same way Han Solo has, for example. When the logical is traditionally seen as masculine, the realms of pure and unfiltered emotionality is feminine. And Kylo Ren is unrestrained in his vulnerability, his tears, his pain – People make fun of the dramatic ways he gives words to his feelings precisely because it is regarded as weak, as whiny, as “womanly”. His long curly hair, full lips and dress-like costume only strengthens this impression. Kylo Ren is an amalgam of masculine aggression and feminine expressiveness. Some of his outbursts even remind of the pseudo-illness of hysteria. The gendered lines are blurred and unclear in Kylo Ren, diffusing any efforts to appease the binary. Benshoff describes this as a form of queer existence which does not only constitute itself in opposition to what is considered normal but “ultimately opposed the binary definitions and prescriptions of a patriarchal heterosexism” (Benshoff 63).

Both are not easily categorised. They are patched up by multiple, gendered signifyers. Kylo Ren’s masculine body in contrast to his femininized fashion. Hux’s slender body with his stiff and masculinised military get-up. Hux’s toxic tendency to avoid showing his emotions while also being shown as weak, womanly, cowardly. Kylo Ren is an excellent warrior, yet simultaneously being prone to emotional outbursts. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s famous work Monster Theory (Seven Theses) elaborates upon this further, while acknowledging that queer figures are most commonly depicted as the monstrous Other:

“The refusal to participate in the classificatory “order of things” is true of monsters generally: they are disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration.” (Cohen 6).

Nonetheless, many queer people feel empowered by these figures. Lee Edelman theorises in his polemic No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive about the nature of queerness as a force of cultural resistance. According to Edelman, the queer must always refuse societal expectations of a perpetual future and embrace the death drive instead. In this sense, queerness stands in direct opposition to futurity as it negates any meaning in sexual reproduction and marriage (cp. Edelman 13). When Hux destroys planets, when Kylo Ren proposes to burn it all down “The Empire, your Parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi”, they are not merely killing the past. They are also negating the worth of categories that make up future and present alike. They are resisting the heteronormative values of production.

Now that we have the puzzle pieces that illustrate how Hux and Kylo are queer figures in on themselves, it might be interesting to examine how they work together.

In her text “Epistemology of the Closet”, Eve Sedgwick talks about a common gothic trope where two men are caught in a feud full of mutual hatred. In this case, both men are mirror images of one another, making them especially vulnerable to the other’s advances: "[…] a male hero is in a close, usually murderous relation to another male figure, in some respects his 'double', to whom he seems to be mentally transparent."

Kylo and Hux are very clearly mirrors of one another. Aside from the gendered oppositions I have already illustrated, they are each other’s double in every sense of the word. Born on opposite ends of an age-old war. Both caught in complicated relationship with their fathers whom both have killed out of opposite motivations (loving them too much vs. hating them with a passion). They represent the opposite ends in the binaries for logic vs. spirituality, restraint vs. wildness, control vs. sensuality, technology vs. nature etc.

This shot from The Last Jedi shows both of them mirroring each other visually, henceforth strengthening this impression.

They are "mentally transparent" to each other, because they are different sides of the same coin which Snoke tossed around to his whims. Even their aggression takes on erotic forms. It is hard to deny the homoerotic implications in choking another men to make him submit, forcing him onto his knees. The breaching of personal spaces and looming over each other, the obsessive need to prove one’s own worth to the male other with which one is engaged in a homosocial bond:

“The projective mutual accusation of two mirror-image men, drawn together in a bond that renders desire indistinguishable from prédation, is the typifying gesture of paranoid knowledge.” (Sedgwick 100).

And through all of this, I have not even talked about the collaborative potential between the two of them. Their instinct to protect one another despite insiting the opposite. How both of them could overcome their trauma by engaging with the other, who suffered so similarly under family obligation and Snoke’s abuse.

Works Cited:

Benshoff, Harry: “The Monster and the Homosexual.” In: Harry Benshoff (ed. and introd.)/Sean Griffin (ed. and introd.): Queer Cinema, the Film Reader. New York: Routledge 2004. Pp. 63-74.

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)." Jeffrey Jerome (ed. and preface) Cohen: Monster Theory: Reading Culture (1996): 3-25.

Edelman, Lee. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. ,2004. Print.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick. Epistemology Of the Closet. Berkeley, Calif. :University of California Press, 2008.

#Kylux #Armitage Hux #Kylo Ren #Ben Solo #General Hux #Hux #Benarmie #Kylux meta #sw #sw meta #sw analysis #tfa #tlj #long post #long text #hux comic #huxlo

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swordarkeereon · 3 years

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No More Outside Publishers. Period.

I made a solid decision at the beginning of the year to no longer work with any outside publishers. There are two exceptions. The first being my friend Bernadette’s publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, where Saving Sarah May (my first, and perhaps only, sweet romance) was published. The second, being my friend Andre Gonzalez publishing house, M4L Publishing, which publishes me and Andre’s co-authored Amelia Doss series.

What was the final straw, you ask? It wasn’t a straw really. It was more like I had a realization of what my work is actually worth, and that people were coming to me with TERRIBLE publishing deals and offering to pay me what professional writers were making back in 1990. YES – 30 years ago professional rates. I’ve been writing for almost 30 years, and I’m really not doing anything for other writers in the industry, or myself, by accepting anything less than .20 cents a word for an article (plus more if newsletters and videos are required).

Modern day, professional advances on non-fiction books are running $5,000 – $20,000 ($2,500 is noob, rock bottom), and I’ve had publishers contact me and offer me $500 -$700 and tell me that’s a professional rate. Uh, no. Sorry. Not for a professional writer who’s been at this game for over 30 years, and who is one of the foremost world experts on her subject matter. Advances on non-fiction haven’t been that low since the 90’s, and if you’re working for that — you’re fucking yourself.

What is even worse is when you know what these publishers are selling the books for, and that they’re only paying their authors $4-$5 per copy sold toward the advance of $700, and you know the publisher is making $36 a copy (after you deduct the $10 print cost). Yet — it was the AUTHOR who did all the work. Especially in occult publishing, I’ve learned, no one is hiring editors, and layout is often done by the publisher him/herself. I know this because I’ve later found mistakes in my own work published by certain publishers that any editor would have caught.

Frankly, coming to a professional author who isn’t just starting out, and offering them 1990’s rates for professional content, is FUCKING INSULTING. And between last year and this year, I’ve been insulted enough to realize – hey – I’m worth getting paid professional rates!

Especially when I can publish my own work, do a fantastic job, AND make 100% of the profit without having to include a middle man, and not only make my professional rate, but also the publisher’s cut (minus printing, editorial, and formatting fees). But still, the difference is huge. Let me just spell it out for you.

ARTICLES: A 7,000 word article at .20 cents a word (which is the rock bottom professional NF rate in 2021) is $1,400.00. If you’re writing NF articles for someone and they’re paying you less than that…. WTF are you doing? The last one I did has barely netted me .10 cents a word, which is what I was being paid to write articles for a trade magazine back in 1996. Not kidding.

BOOKS: Let’s specifically talk the economics of limited edition hardcovers (LEH). Let’s say a publisher prints 250 LEH. They offer the author a $700 advance with an 8% royalty toward that advance (that means you have to sell at least 175 books before you earn out that advance and start actually making money, of which there is approximately only $300 more to make.) This means you’re being paid, AT MOST, $1000 to write a content rich book at a minimum of about 30,000 to 40,000 words. SERIOUSLY. Now, take into account that the publisher is likely only paying about $2,500 in printing (including shipping, taxes, etc) and the book, with all copies sold, the book stands to bring the publisher $12,500. Even if the publisher hires an editor for about $400, that means it’s only $4000 out of his pocket. The author gets $1000. The printer and editor get $3000 between them. The publisher walks away with over $8,000. Seems a bit predatory to me since without the author, you don’t have the book. Period.

Now I’m not saying the publisher shouldn’t make money. After all, they have to hire the editor, format it, get it printed and do the distribution, marketing, etc… But honestly — that’s the easy part nowadays. I know because I’ve been indie publishing since 2006. The hardest part is learning how to format or finding a formatter, where to find editors, where to find a printer, and how you’re going to distribute it. Once you have those things set up – you sit back and delegate. You line up orders, you package them and ship them out. Hell, you don’t even have to leave your home office to do that. You can print your own mailing labels directly from most point of sale systems, or via USPS online. USPS will deliver your mailing material, and they’ll pick that shit up for you if you arrange it. After the initial rush of sales on a book, your time spent packaging orders is minimal (unless you do that as your primary business).

There are some publishers that are doing better splits with authors, but the sad fact remains that many of them are just putting out the up front money to have the books printed, hoping the author ran it by a few friends who edited it, they quickly format it via word (which literally takes maybe an hour depending on length), and distribute it. For that, they’re taking half, or more. They don’t edit. They don’t market. (They’ll tell you they do, but they don’t. One post on their social media page doesn’t count.)

I published one book with a publisher who honestly didn’t know how to sell my books. We did have a 50/50 split, but this guy was HORRIBLE at selling the books. I got the first few royalty payments okay, but then, like a lot of small publishers do when they start to go under because they don’t know what they’re doing, he started spending the money as it came in and when it was all said and done, he owed me a little under $1000 and basically whined that it was my fault the book wasn’t selling. That I wasn’t well-known enough and the books were worthless to him. (All this so he could get out of paying me my $950 or whatever.) So I told him that instead of cash, he could send me the books he couldn’t sell. He did. I made well over that $950 he owed me on those books. A lot over, actually. I had no problem selling them. He couldn’t figure it out. ::shrug:: To this day, I don’t know what was so difficult about selling them and my only guess is HE wasn’t putting forth any effort to market them, and was expecting me to do it. And so I did and I ended up doing well on that book.

So — there’s that. Not all publishers know what they’re doing beyond distribution, and if they want to pay an author peanuts for a book and expect the author to do all the marketing — well seriously, fuck that. Let’s not even get into the hourly rate you’re making. If you make $1000, divide by the minimum wage in your state (it’s almost 12.50 in Colorado) — that means you have to be able to write a full book in 80 hours (two weeks) just to make minimum wage. That means all outlining and research, all the writing, and all the revision. 80 hours. Considering most NF books can take authors six months to a year to write — how much you think authors are actually making per hour at $1,000.00 for a book? Even for a 30,000 word book at .20 cents a word – the author should be making a minimum of $6,000.00. That at least pays the author for 480 hours, which covers twelve 40 hour work weeks at minimum wage (12.50 an hour), or three months of their time. (I could write a solid 30K book in 3 months).

Then the question is — if you’re going to do the bulk of the work anyhow, why not just add managing the project and distribution to the mix and do it yourself? You can have readers fund the printing costs through paid pre-orders. You only need 50 people to pre-order to pay for a 250 print run. 56 if you want to hire an editor. At least then you’re the one making the eight to ten-thousand dollars. Yes, you’ll have earned every cent with writing, hiring editors, formatting, dealing with printers, and doing your own marketing and distribution, but you won’t feel used – like a cheap whore.

If you are a professional writer, you charge professional rates because you’re WORTH PRO RATES. End of story.

Is there an instance where I would consider a traditional contract? Absolutely. The contract would require the following:

Contract limit of 3-5 years, at which time 100% of all rights revert back to me.

It better be a million dollar book deal.

I get full creative license.

HAHA — contracts like that don’t exist. But if I can do what a publisher can do, and I could do it better and actually make what I’m worth, then why wouldn’t I? That said, I don’t often deal in LEH anymore. I prefer my books to be affordable for readers which means ebook, paperback, and hardcovers that won’t break the bank. Which means I do make a lot less than the above example, but at least I’m not handing most of my wages to a middle man who is basically my pimp while I do the bulk of the work. If I’m doing the bulk of the work anyway — I’m doing IT ALL. Eventually each book will earn out the work I put into it. Some books it happens faster – others it happens slower.

Okay, I’ll quit bitching. I am simply fed up with being offered insulting contracts.

#bitch and moan #daemonic bitch-slap

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

Text

How Dropps Is Remaking Cleaning For Good By ‘Eliminating The Stupid’ - And Saving The Planet From Plastic

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/how-dropps-is-remaking-cleaning-for-good-by-eliminating-the-stupid-and-saving-the-planet-from-plastic/

How Dropps Is Remaking Cleaning For Good By ‘Eliminating The Stupid’ - And Saving The Planet From Plastic

Dropps

Dropp’s is a quirky and idiosyncratic brand I’ve long been fascinated by, for its pioneering work around sustainability and packaging. I caught up with their Founder and CEO, Jonathan Propper to learn more about their journey, and their most recent innovation, eliminating the labels from their packaging.

Afdhel Aziz: Jonathan, welcome! Please tell us a little about Dropps and your journey so far?

Jonathan Propper: I trace my environmentalist roots back 50 years, when I celebrated the world’s first Earth Day at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. I knew even then that it was the beginning of something big.

Cleaning – and laundry specifically – is quite literally in my DNA. My mother and I founded a cotton mill outside Philadelphia, and made chunky knit cotton sweaters. She soon realized that traditional harsh detergents were damaging the sweaters, making them yellowed and stretched out. So we took matters into our own hands. She then went on a path to create a biodegradable, low-sudsing, concentrated detergent that would clean the natural fibers properly, and keep fabrics looking better, and for longer. Consumer Reports named it #1 in overall cleaning quality among hand-laundry detergents.

Always striving to improve I felt we could make the product even better – from both a convenience and a sustainability perspective. In 2005, I discovered unit-dose technology being used in another industry and applied it to our popular laundry detergent formula. The unit-dose technology meant that we could take out almost all of the water from our detergent. Liquid laundry detergent is the most expensive of bottled water. It is shipped all over the country only to put in a machine that dispenses water. 32 washloads of Dropps weighs ten ounces vs. a typical equivalent detergent bottle which weighs 50 ounces.

This method drastically reduced time for the consumer, as it eliminated the need for bulky liquid laundry detergents that need to be measured and stored. Not to mention, it drastically reduced our environmental footprint as traditional liquid laundry detergents are packaged in hard to recycle, high-density plastic.

We believe that sustainability is a journey, and not an end state. We’re constantly developing new formulas and expanding into other categories across the home, to make life as simple and sustainable as possible. Curating for the consumer if you will.

Jonathan Propper, Founder and CEO of Dropps

Aziz: Thank you for sharing that Jonathan. So how do you articulate the purpose and mission of Dropps?

Propper: Dropps is remaking cleaning for good. Our purpose is to eliminate the stupid, and make life simple — for both people and planet. Shipping jugs of detergent is an example of a stupid. We are driven to make it easier for individuals and families to do the right thing by providing everyday products that are both eco-responsible and economical which, if multiplied across a multitude of individuals and families, can have a measurable impact on the planet. Prevention is the cure to the world’s single use plastic-pollution crisis.

Dropps was selected by Oceana, the world’s largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation, as the exclusive partner of choice in the home cleaning & care category. Together, we hope inform consumers on the impact of their actions and choices, and encourage them to care about the massive global single use plastic pollution crisis.

As Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana has said: “Plastic is everywhere in our ocean – floating on the surface, mixing in the saltwater, and sitting on the ocean bottom, miles and miles deep. And it’s no secret that the household consumer goods category contributes to the problem. Dropps is showing that companies can address this issue now and reduce throwaway plastic by giving people real plastic-free choices. We face a tsunami of plastic in our future, unless more companies also take meaningful action.”

Dropps products

Aziz: How has ‘Big Laundry’ tried to condition the consumer into ending up using more than is necessary?

Propper: ‘Big Laundry’ is in the pocket of ‘Big Retail’ and vice-versa as Yogi Berra has said. Over the decades they have developed this pseudo-cooperation to where they both maximize profits at the expense of consumer-behavior. As mentioned, traditional liquid laundry detergents are packaged in hard to recycle, high-density plastic (HDPE). This is to help prevent leaking while in transit and in stock on retail shelves. That’s because traditional liquid laundry detergents are extremely watered-down to maximize profit.

In addition, big laundry has added so many unnecessary bells and whistles in the form of pocket chambers in the pods, and dyes and bright colors that the consumer has been conditioned to think that this aids in the efficacy of the product. The fact is, color doesn’t clean.

At Dropps, we’ve eliminated another stupid – in addition to the excess water in the detergent, we’ve also eliminated the unnecessary ingredients that do not do anything to ensure the integrity, and longevity, shape and softness of clothing and fabrics.

Dropps laundry products

Aziz: Tell us more about your design philosophy “Eliminate the stupid, elevate the core,” and how that led to your recent decision of removing the labels?

Propper: Eliminate the stupid, elevate the core. This is the Dropps mantra. When speaking about the core in the business we often are referring to our products. But when I think of the core, I also think of our people. How can we elevate the core? If we realize, believe, and trust that we are all part of something larger than ourselves, and that each of us, individually and collectively, have a responsibility for shaping the behavior of our organization and valued customers, that will ultimately define our guiding principles and purpose for being.

To truly elevate the core from a product point of view, we knew we had to eliminate the stupid, and in this case, it was the labels in our packaging. While our previous boxes were recyclable and compostable, we wanted to craft an elevated experience with this new version of our now iconic box. By removing product-specific labels, and printing all brand and product details, including full ingredient transparency, directly on the box, we now provide our customers with an even more low-waste cleaning option.

Aziz: That’s a really cool innovation. What do you think about the future of sustainability in packaging? How do you see the next big wave?

Propper: We feel that consumers are going to begin shifting the conversation away from households and individuals being the main culprit to the pollution crisis, and begin to look at the big corporations and polluting industries as the real problem. With this, consumers are going to begin demanding low-waste products and packaging. The next big wave can look like brands eliminating shipping a box in a box. Meaning, we may see other companies taking a page from the Dropps playbook and have the box that holds their product, double as the shipping container. This reduces waste and emissions in shipping, which is crucial as e-commerce will only continue to rise in this new era of retail.

Both cleaning AND sustainability has become top of mind for many households as of late because of the pandemic and noticeable climate change events. These two factors coupled together can cause panic for any caregiver and individual. Over the years, we’ve noticed that customers and those seeking to live more eco-consciously have become overwhelmed with the mixed-messages about what cleans and what doesn’t, and how to effectively enact changes that can lead to impactful environmental preservation.

Dropps kitchen products

Aziz: Finally, what advice do you have for other entrepreneurs who want to take their brands on a similar journey?

Propper: My biggest advice to give to other entrepreneurs is to embrace diversity, and always be open to learning what you don’t know. I’m a strong believer that you are only as good as the people you surround yourself, which is why it’s important to have a team that comes from varied backgrounds and experiences that you can learn from.

Also, give your team the autonomy to try new ways of doing things and learn from the things that don’t necessarily work. Dropps has long embraced a remote-work culture, way before the pandemic, I always considered commuting everyday a stupid if you are working at a desk. In hindsight, this autonomous work environment has emboldened our staff to make informed decisions that they feel confident would eliminate the stupid for themselves, our team at large and our customers.

From CMO Network in Perfectirishgifts

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cloudvelundr · 7 years

Text

Reciprocate

Cloud receives a package.

... due to the increased risk we would recommend phasing out the E04 models in favour of reverting to series C, or testing any F- and G-series as with the rate of attacks the E series is quickly falling to an irreparable state. We would tentatively recommend the F2-2 [link: specs] F3.4-2 [link: specs] or the G5-B [link: specs] provided that the units do not emit any byproduct noise in the range of the danger frequencies – testing may be required as this is not noted on any available reports. Likewise, the towers in the Thurmir and Jarfast townships are also affected but the already in service F2-0 will be sufficient as they are in a milder climate zo

“Oh la laa! Someone’s been holding out on us!”

Cloud blinked away from his report to where Sebastian was cackling over one of the oversized reusable crates Shinra sent out most of it’s shipments in. He’d heard him in the hall chatting with the delivery team between the steady sound of boxes thumping down but it’d been easy to ignore: he was on a roll and over the summer shipments came every couple days for as long as they could. The delivery guys had cut through the common area to the kitchen – technically the mess but it really didn’t qualify – a little while ago leaving Sebastian to rummage and start whittling the pile away. The current box had a post office stamp.

“Someone sent a dildo,” he wheezed.

The couriers heads popped back in.

A “what?” filtered faintly though the ceiling followed by a thundering across the room into the kitchen and then Paige was pushing in looking delighted. Andy followed more sedately.

“Did I hear mail order sex toys?”

Snerk. “No- well, maybe. I dunno – just saw it.”

“Well let’s see! Who’s it for?”

“Gimme a sec, gimme a sec! It’s under some shit.”

He dove back in under the amused watch of the gathered. Cardboard slithered and he cursed, and started removing packages: “Henry... Mairi... oh, hey, sir got something heavy... ‘nother for Henry.. Tomeo... hmmm... aaaand here we are!”

He popped up triumphantly, whoever’s prize in hand.

At about a foot long it looked like two boxes taped together, one smallish but wide and another narrow and long like a post on a pedestal, it did look like it could be a dick in a box. Sebastian flipped it around to find the label and read it with raised eyebrows.

“Hey blondie, something you wanna tell us?”

Cloud squinted at the package as Sebastian brought it over, their entirely too happy squadmates looking on. He accepted it bemusedly and checked the sender.

Zack. Of course it was Zack. Except it shouldn’t be.

“... This is too soon for vengeance.”

“Come again now.”

Cloud ignored him in favour of diving for his PHS, blinking almost invisibly in the light of the room. What were the odds, he wondered around the growing bubble in his chest. The top message was in fact from Zack.

It said: why are you like this

Underneath was a picture of Cloud’s birthday gift to him, in heavy shipping paper, wrapped in loving detail with remarkable resemblance to a dildo.

Cloud snorted into his hand. Started to giggle. Slid to the floor laughing.

“You okay down there?”

He waved off the concern and offered his phone to someone’s hand while he pulled himself upright, amusement still bubbling.

Somewhere behind him Paige started snickering.

“I was gonna ask who does that, but apparently you do.”

A quick flick of keys revealed something somewhat lumpy, brightly wrapped in confetti printed birthday paper, sharing the same shape as it’s box so he pulled it out and lay them side by side.

“Alright give me my phone.”

He took a picture and sent it.

you’re one to talk

and that’s not your coffee table

i sent it to your apprtmt why are you opening it on base

The reply was almost immediate.

i may have forwarded my mail

i’m in icicle for two more weeks but mom was sending cookies

And then the phone rang.

“Zack I swear if there’s chocobo underwear in this thing it doesn’t matter where you are I will find a way to hurt you.”

“Dammit I knew I forgot something.”

There was an echoing quality to his voice. Other voices were chuckling a little too loudly in answer.

“... You’re on speaker phone aren’t you?”

“No point pretending the peanut gallery can’t hear us.”

“Point,” he agreed and switched his as well in favour of poking his gift. There was something hard and brickish wrapped in the not-underpants. “Anyone I know?”

“Don’t think so? Guys this is Cloud, sender of suspiciously wrapped objects. His birthday’s the week after mine.”

“You mean his name isn’t Spike? You lied to me Fair. I’m hurt.”

“Ivo?”

“Real deep. Right here.”

“Piss off.”

“Seriously though, is it a dildo?”

“No. No it is not.”

“Because it’s really convincing.”

“... In my defence I was bored.”

“You’re sure?”

“Zack, I’m a craftsman. Fake fake dick isn’t hard to do.” Someone laughed again. “Besides, Aer might kill me.”

“’Cause this wrap job’s a work of art.”

“Just open the damn thing.”

“Hear hear!”

“You too, Spike.”

“Please,” Andy leaned on the couch, a smirk colouring her words, “show us what wonders the sad penis holds.”

“Fine, fine – happy birthday, dork.”

“You too, nerd.” Paper ripped. “... of course you wrapped it in puppies and cupcakes. Why did I think you wouldn’t.”

“I have a giant roll of that stuff,” It was a rather lovely pastel blue too. Cloud hefted his gift and considered where to start, “I’ll using it for years.”

Cloud heard Zack sigh before another heavy rip and rustle came over the speaker, and decided to open the shaft before the heavy thing could escape on it’s own – already he could see holes where the corners were trying to work their way free. When he ripped in it tried to anyway, nearly slipping free in an explosion of obnoxious sport socks.

The audience pouted.

“Aw, no dildo.”

“Nice whetstone though.”

“Did you have to pick the most eye peeling socks you could find?”

“Duh. Did you have to use duct tape?”

“Well how else was I supposed to attach the banana to the egg thing?”

“He’s got you there, Fair.”

“Why would anyone even need a two egg travel case.”

“Lunch? Hard boiled is a thing.”

“You could put the cream egg things you like in them.”

“Point.”

Click.

“Score! Banana has candy!” A patter of little thumps.

“Of course you immediately dump them.”

“Mmm. Where did you get the fruit things?” Zack asked, clacking one against his teeth, “I can never find them.”

“Places.”

“That’s helpful.”

“I aim to serve,” he replied, plucking at the remaining wrapping.

“Pff. Liar.”

The paper gave way to another pair of socks – the thickest, fluffiest he’d ever seen, and probably the first he’d wear out come winter – which were bundled around a small, flat plastic case. The clasp was stiff but snapped open to reveal game data cards.

“Awesome,” Cloud grinned. The new Tales of Zelig was first up. “I know what I’ll be doing all winter. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome! Two of them were already yours though – I grabbed them when I put the cases with your stuff.”

“Thanks, I didn’t realize I’d forgotten them.”

“No prob.”

“Now finish yours.”

“Yeah, crack open your balls, Fair.”

“That sounds wrong,” Paige muttered. Cloud thought he might’ve flinched.

Sebastian sniggered. “Psssh. It’s hilarious and your know it.”

There was a popping noise and a pause.

“Dude.”

“Cloud, are these what I think?”

“Are they spawns of the materia you keep threatening to steal? Yeah. Yeah they are.”

“You meme loving fuck, I am going to lord this over Genesis forever.”

“Does the commander not have them?”

“No, they’re super rare. Like how you even have them I don’t know.”

Cloud sat back, pensive. “Really? ‘Cause I literally just... found them.”

“Because your luck is stupid. Man, I have only ever even heard of like three Knights, and yours is one. There was a Turk sharpshooter who had one but it went missing when he did.”

“And the last one?” asked one of the couriers.

“There’s supposed to be a green mage on one of the Goblin Islands. Don’t know who it is but even Genesis won’t touch them. But you just found it on a scree. And the water-healing thing- you said you woke up on the way to Midgar and saw it in the bushes but it doesn’t even have a name.”

“Huh.”

“So yeah, it’ll piss Gen off so much. It’s gonna be great.”

“You’re nuts.”

“He’s not like the rumours – the Firaga Incident didn’t actually happen.”

Paige and the delivery guys looked dubious.

“Yeah, I haven’t met him but his men are stupid loyal. You don’t get that by being the crazy who lights your people on fire.”

“These materia probably wouldn’t cooperate with him though. He’s more dark red and these are definitely white and light. He’ll still be jealous as Hel.”

“Now you just have to keep Treasure Princess away.”

There was a pause.

“Treasure Princess, Fair?”

“... Shit. She will won’t she.”

Cloud started laughing quietly into his hand.

“You had ulterior motives, didn’t you?”

“No- I forgot about her until just now. She only really bothers you. But you’ve got to admit it’s funny.”

“I guess.”

“Oh stop pouting.”

“I am not p-”

“He totally is.”

“Traitor.”

“Well,” Andy stood and stretched, “thank you boys for the entertainment, but some of us need to get back to preparing for patrol.”

There was a sudden cursing from the phone: “Shit, us too.”

“Come on Paige. Happy birthday Fair.”

“And Cloud, gift wrapping champion. You guys deserve each other.” The other voices echoed.

“Thanks peanut gallery.” Cloud replied to fading sounds of their movements and switched the PHS back to his ear as his squad wandered back to wherever they had been. The couriers had vanished. He could hear the sound of candy wrappers shuffling as Zack gathered the treats from wherever he’d dumped them. “You too?”

“Yeah. They’re my team – there’s marlboro breeding grounds sprung up nearby.”

“Ew.”

“No kidding.”

“Still, good birthday?”

“It was alright. Quiet. One of the guys bought a cake – it was actually fantastic. But... I’d rather been home.”

“Hmm,” Cloud agreed, arranging his own things on his computer to move. The report could wait a bit. “Same. I think Adam is threatening to bake something, but.”

“Yeah.”

“Still, not a bad place to spend it.”

“And not bad company either.”

“No – the looks I got for that package though.”

Snerk. “It’s the baby-face,” Zack said. “They forgot you’re twenty and a little shit.”

“No, they know that,” Cloud replied, sliding past Sebastian and into the hall.

Sebastian looked up and grinned, “Yeah, it’s ‘oh god our next captain is the kind of guy who sends dildo shaped presents.’”

“Yeah. That.”

“But he also warks back at chocobos, calls anything vaguely canine a puppy, was probably responsible for the glitter ATVs, and is generally a massive nerd, so I don’t know why we’re surprised.”

Zack was laughing again.

Cloud groaned and kept going. “You both suck.”

“Heh. Anyway, I really gotta go now. I’ll try to call you again soon.”

“Alright, say hi to Aerith for me?”

“Will do! And I’ll find you those chocobo boxers!”

“Zackary Fair, Don’t You Fucking Da-” Cloud cut off at the dial tone: “And he’s gone. Jerk,” he murmured fondly and with a shake of his head made his way to his room.

Stuffing the socks in a drawer and the stone with his maintenance supplies, Cloud settled into his desk and flipped his computer back open. And paused. And closed it again.

He reached for the little case, and flicked through it’s contents. It was mid August, still summer most places but there cooling soon and much work blowing in on the wind. It could well be winter before he got another truly quiet hour.

“Try’n’a spoil me,” he murmured, and slotted one into his console instead.

The report could wait.

#velundr writes #cloud strife #zack fair #ffvii #implied zerith #cloud's birthday week 2k17 #zack doesn't have a birthday so i'm lending him one of cloud's #this actually ties into something else i've written #and will probably redo because i still love the idea #but the parts i finished make me cringe now

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hetmusic · 8 years

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What it means to be a producer right now | HumanHuman

A little while ago, I was chatting to Luke Hester and Lucy Hill of Dahlia Sleeps for our interview with the ambient-pop pair. We came onto the topic of production, since Hester produces most of their music, and discussed how this previously hidden world is now more open than ever thanks to advances in technology and increased accessibility. Hill stated that “It’s totally the age of the producer at the moment,” because they’ve emerged from the background and the small print credits. This optimistic discussion led me to wonder, is all change in this area positive? What this article aims to do is to trace over the aspects of what it means to be a producer right now.

Let’s start off with a standardized definition that comes from the performing rights organisation BMI: “A producer is to a recording as a director is to a film. When it comes to making a film, the buck essentially stops with the director. [..] In short, a producer provides the experience and necessary perspective to guide a recording from start to finish.” With this in mind, we’re going to explore the ways that this role of a ship-captain/director is changing, bending or indeed being affirmed by the various forms that the modern producer takes.

One of the recurrent ways that this subject comes into conversation here at HumanHuman, is when an artist handles their own production. There’s something quite impressive about this, although some suggest that self-production is now becoming the rule and not the exception. You only need to browse our collection of discoveries in order to come up with a handful of acts with self-producing abilities. Some of the more notable ones are Palmistry, Ben Khan, A.K. Paul (whose credits in single “LANDCRUISIN’” mean there’s no mistaking who produced it), Mura Masa, TÁLÁ, Astronomyy, Morly, William Arcane and the much-praised Holly Herndon.

Why are more artists than ever self-producing? Well, there’s a few ways we can answer that. For starters, it means that musicians can have a greater creative role in the whole process behind making a song, EP or album. This is something that polymathic artist FKA twigs has demonstrated throughout her work so far. Having taken the lead on everything from composition to production to direction of her music videos, Tahliah Barnett explained to Rookie Mag that “I really want to be in charge of everything creatively,” but there also comes a deep seated frustration with not being recognised for one’s own vision.

“It [production and directorial work] hasn’t been covered enough and I think that’s unfortunately partly down to me being a female artist; everyone’s constantly trying to turn you into a pop star. Pop stars don’t write their own music, they don’t produce their own music and they don’t direct their own videos.”— FKA twigs via Clash

Correctly placed recognition is also something Bjork struggled with following the release of her Vulnicura LP, in which it was misreported that Arca produced the full album, but in fact it was a piece of co-production (something which we explored in our International Women’s Day article.) Equally, Grimes who also featured in our ‘Women In Music’ piece, is fatigued by the expectation that musicians need producers otherwise they’ll “flounder” as she calls it. As Stereogum reports, Claire Boucher is “tired of the weird insistence that i need a band or i need to work with outside producers.” In the place of these eternal contributors, Grimes relies on her home studio and a plethora of digital tools, which neatly brings us on our second point for why artists are so keen to self-produce - and that would be the technology.

In an interview with Future Music Magazine (MusicRadar online), Grimes details the digital audio workstations (DAWs) that she used for creating and producing her music, like Logic and Pro Tools, although it was the easy-to-navigate Ableton that took over for her Art Angels LP. The Canadian artist also has favourite plug-ins, like iZoptope Ozone for mastering demos and Waves’ Manny Marroquin Reverb tool, which perhaps are essential for that distinctive Grimes sound.

“You can “hear” the use of Akai, Pro Tools, Logic, and other digital recording and sample-based composition in most pop music written in the last twenty years.”— David Byrne, How Music Works

Morly

One HumanHuman artist who is consistently credited for her sophisticated production is Morly, aka Katy Morley, an electronic artist hailing from Minneapolis. We were first drawn in a year ago thanks to her mysterious images, dreamy soundscapes in tracks like “Seraphese” and “Maelstrom”, and the unabiding attraction of a self-producing artist. The fact is that Morly has been working on this project for six years, but as explained in an interview with Dummy Magazine, she was no child prodigy or a front woman who spent years cutting her teeth in dingy gig venues, but her first act as a musician was to purchase Ableton and Maschine. She also goes some way to answering what is means to be a producer right now: “It’s almost a euphemism for “electronic artist” or even a composer.”

It’s interesting that in a section of the music industry that is male-dominated, with female producers only making up 5% of the profession in 2014, our focus keeps coming back to the women bucking the trend. What Pitchfork suggests is that the access to DAWs has a feminist implication, as Dum Dum Girls front woman Dee Dee states “Garageband [the pre-installed Apple workstation] definitely encouraged a lot of my female friends to explore something that has previously seemed out of reach.” We can even refer to successful bands like Haim, who used a horn sound from Garageband that was set a bassy two octaves down to underpin the epic rhythm of “My Song 5”. Although, they did use a traditional studio process to complete the single.

“So while audiophiles and classic rock enthusiasts might sneer at the software's humorously simple design, digital natives simply see it as making something impenetrable now liberatingly accessible.”— Pitchfork

Astronomyy

However, it’s not only female bands and artists that are transforming what the role of a producer is. As anyone who understands feminism, they will know that it’s a movement of equality and anti-elitism encompassing all genders. Bringing back one of our earlier examples, the British beatmaker Mura Masa, whose own production work is well documented across the Internet. What’s so special about Alex Crossan is that he openly offers tips to budding producers, as seen in his Q&A on Reddit in 2014. On top of that, the Guernsey-born artist has also started collecting and nurturing production protégés like Bonzai and Jadu Heart under his Anchor Point record label. Another notable musician who has used self-production as a platform from which to circumvent the traditional industry routes is Astronomyy, who has used his self-taught technical expertise in order to set up his own Lunar Surf Studios, in which newest single “The Secret” was written and recorded.

Aside from the need for creative control and access to technology, another reason for a many artists, especially the emerging class, choosing to handle their own production is down to financial reasons. Although some commentators argue that we’re in something of an economic upturn within the creative industries; for example, British music contributed a sizeable £4.1 billion to the overall economy in 2015. However, as The Guardian pinpointed revenues from recorded music fell by £3m and 21% of musicians worked for free in that same year of supposed growth. Perhaps in a bid to correct what UK Music Chairman Andy Heath refers to as the “unacceptable balance of negotiating power” between musicians and consumers, these artists have been forced to become self-sustaining.

Where does all this artistic independence leave the traditional music producer? First of all, I should clarify what I mean by a “traditional” producer, and for that I’m turning to The European Sound Director’s Association's definition as “a freelance or independent Music Producer [whose role is] to direct and supervise recording sessions”, which tends to take place in a professional studio. Securing a working relationship with these production experts comes at a cost, that’s a pretty obvious point, but it’s the variation in that financial figure that is less clear-cut. One publication, The DIY Musician, draws upon two wildly different examples to demonstrate this point by comparing the $600 that it cost to record Nirvana’s debut album Bleach and the $13 million spent on Guns N’ Roses latest LP Chinese Democracy. Yet, more numbers are thrown around by singer-songwriter (and here journalist) Michael Corcoran, who implies that “Most industry types would say between $150K and $1Million for an album.” Contrast this to a potential bottom line of nil (excluding the instruments or equipment already in the musician’s possession) for a self-produced piece of music put together on a laptop rather than in an expensive studio, and it’s easy to understand the appeal of the do-it-yourself approach.

“A Music Producer has technical skills and administrative responsibilities, but as with any other artist, it is the creative ends to which those skills are employed that distinguishes a great Music Producer from the rest.”— The European Sound Director’s Association

Despite the growth in DAWs, plug-ins, knowledge exchange and a trend for cutting corners, the music production sector has proved to be resilient in recent years. One place we can see evidence of this is in UK Music’s various reports on the music industry’s contribution to the British economy. Not only does the report highlight a 5% overall growth, but they also show that Music Producers, Recording Studios and Staff went from having a GVA (gross value added) contribution of £80 million in 2012 to £116 million in 2015, outstripping the Music Representatives sector who had previously been more lucrative. Equally, IFPI’s Global Music Report 2016 is positive about the direction that the music industry is going in. One thing that this international statistics hub refers to is the “dynamic album”, illustrated by their case study on Hakuna Matoma, a Norwegian producer whose living digital album is being edited, written and finalised online in order to involved listeners in the process. You’ll also notice that IFPI calls this songwriter/musician a “producer”, and thus further blurring the lines of exactly where this role begins and ends. In reflection of this, I’d like to introduce another term - the “dynamic producer”. This can be applied to anyone from an songwriter who dabbles in production to a producer who picks up an instrument. We explored this idea earlier with self-producing artists, but another area yet to probed is that of the superstar producer.

Felix Snow

Many of these recent examples first came onto our radar here at HumanHuman, such as BOOTS, who was credited with 80% of production behind Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled LP, which arguably propelled Jordan Asher into the limelight. However, our community has also been fascinated with BOOTS’ personal music, like his debut song collection WinterSpringSummerFall featuring the likes of Beyoncé, Son Lux and Kelela. Another producer with star appeal is Felix Snow, a name that has been recurrent among our new music discoveries due to his immediately audible influence over Kiiara’s hit first single “Gold” and more recently on Belgrave’s “Lift Me Up”. Staccato trap, glitchy robotic vocal samples and that rain-drop effect are all hallmarks of Felix Snow’s production work, which he has now brought to the table for collaborative project Terror Jr. Our final example is Diplo, who has been instrumental in helping artists like Justin Bieber, M.I.A. and MØ reach number one. The Floridian DJ also teamed up with superstar producer Skrillex to present us with all the colours of dance-pop under the label Jack Ü. In a return to our earlier point about the impact of technology on the modern producer, Diplo told Spin Magazine that the affordable and user-friendly DAWs are great for the future of production globally. However, he also holds some reservations:

“There are too many gatekeepers holding the keys and they all want to be compensated for being part of the process. The current big-name producers are lucky to be where they are simply because it’s harder for everyone underneath them to reach the same level and it’s going to keep being harder to break through to that top tier.”— Diplo via Spin Magazine

Throughout this discussion we’ve weighed up the factors that go into being a modern producer - creative control, technology, finances, expertise and even reputation - and all come with an equal mix of liberation and limitation. So, what does it mean to be a producer right now? For some this means being the triple threat of songwriter, musician and producer, and this is a breed of artist we’re becoming much more familiar with. We’ve only really scratched the surface with Holly Herndon, FKA twigs, A. K. Paul, Mura Masa, Morly, Astronomyy, TÁLÁ, Felix Snow, BOOTS etc. As technology and accessibility continues to advance, self-production has a good chance of becoming a given rather than an anomaly, and I doubt that even an improved economy will slow that progress down. However, these dynamic producers are a threat to the status quo and they challenge the expectations of a working relationship between artist and producer, which is perhaps why Diplo forewarns us of the “gatekeepers” to the upper echelons of the music industry. For now the term producer does still apply to those directorial experts in their professional studios, but as the universe is expanding, so is the role of a music producer.

https://humanhuman.com/articles/what-it-means-to-be-a-producer-right-now

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