Caleb J. Murphy is a singer-songwriter and music producer based in Austin, Tx., and the founder of Musician With A Day Job, a blog that helps part-time musicians succeed.
You may be a musician, you may not. Either way, you may be looking for gift ideas for your musician friend or family member. Well, in this post, I’ll cover some of the best gifts for musicians that won’t drain your bank account. Why DIY Musicians Love Gifts Most independent artists aren’t like Chance The...
Yeah, you could just throw out a random number. $100. $250. $25. But you could be seriously underselling or overselling yourself. What should you actually charge to license your music? That’s exactly the question I’m here to answer. First, Some Questions To Ask Yourself Before you do anything else, ask yourself these questions. Your answers...
Headphones are pretty great. You can record with them, mix with them, and do it all without bothering people around you. So in this post, I want to cover the best studio headphones under $200 for all you home producers on a budget. First, I’ll go over the different characteristics to consider in studio headphones....
If you want to record great music from your home studio and need a list of the best budget audio interfaces to get started, look no further. Technology is amazing. We can do today what the best audio engineers couldn’t do 70 years ago. We can record, edit, mix, and master pro-level music all from...
There’s no excuse for you to “not know how to do something” nowadays. Simply search for something like the “best music production podcasts” and you should instantly have enough to keep you entertained for hours. Chances are, that’s exactly how you found this post about music production podcasts. So if you want to be a...
I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, or even write a post about it. But, yes, you should record to a click track. I know the greats like The Beatles and The Beach Boys sometimes didn’t use a metronome, instead opting for the live-band-in-the-studio setup. But nowadays, pro-level music is set to a...
Royalties can be freakin’ confusing sometimes. And I think that’s why a lot of songwriters are not registered with a Publishing Rights Organization (aka a PRO). It’s overwhelming and hard to understand. Well, in this post, I hope to clear things up a bit by asking the question, “What can a PRO do for you?”...
Everyone has their own style of mixing. Some people prefer mono, some stereo. Some engineers like using either analog or digital, some like using both. And I’d like to present two mixing tips that I’ve recently found helpful. This post is not saying, “You have to mix this specific way!” I’m simply sharing a method...
In today’s music industry, you have so many options for how to make a living as a musician or DJ or songwriter. You just have to know where to look and what options fit your career goals. So here are six ways to make money as a musician that may surprise you. Produce And Mix...
Sync licensing is all the rage now. Artists are realizing they can sit in their home studios, make film-friendly music, and earn a nice full-time or supplemental income. But the trick is knowing how to do it effectively. So in this post, I’ll cover how to make the right kind of music, how to submit...