Three minute reads for artists and producers
who want to make better records

By Thomas Dulin

Hey Reader, I hope you're having a great week so far. Here's this week's Take Three email.

PhaseLock Beta folks: Friendly reminder that your plugin will stop working in about a week, and will not recall after that.

​If you'd like to buy the plugin to keep using it (or use the free trial), you can do that here.​

TAKE ONE: QUICK LINKS

• ​5 Free Tape Saturation Plugins Worth Adding To Your Sessions, via Production Expert
• Sound On Sound has a review of Strymon's new TimeLine MX Pedal​
• ​UAD's new LUNA 3.0 is a super ambitious release and has tons of new features. Worth a look if you're between projects.

TAKE TWO: RECENT REVIEWS

I've been getting really kind emails from folks who have bought PhaseLock over this past week. Here are 2 favorites:

TAKE THREE: MAKING VS. MARKETING

​MonoMate hit its 1000th user this week. And PhaseLock is on track for 100 users in its first week of launch.

But if you had told me when I started making apps and plugins that I was also going to have to learn how to do email marketing, meta ads, social media content, customer support, taxes, VAT handling, web design, print ads, and the 10 other jobs I have now, I don't think I would have started.

I've learned that making something is like 5-10% of the work and 90-95% of the work is marketing.

This is true for artists releasing records these days as well. Songs won't even go to radio for new artists unless they've already blown up on social media.

This is not to discourage you from making things. In fact, I'm writing this in the spirit of "advice I would offer to someone starting out."

Not that I'm an expert on any of this - I'm learning by doing as well - but hopefully something in this list is as helpful for you as its been for me.
​
Whether you're a recording studio owner or a freelance composer, I think this will be relevant.

1. Read some books about stuff. ​
   ​
   You can learn business strategy, positioning, and marketing! The most helpful ones I've read this year: 7 Powers (Hamilton Helmer), Obviously Awesome (April Dunford), Traction (Weinberg and Mares)
   ​
2. Take it one step at a time. ​
   ​
   A helpful way for me to frame this is: what are my goals with this thing over the next 10 days? And literally drop any task that isn't related to that short term goal.
   ​
3. Ask for help. ​
   ​
   Please don't ask ChatGPT to make your show poster. You're genuinely better off using a crayon with your non-dominant hand. If you aren't good at something and don't want to be - that is okay! Find someone who is even 10% further along than you in that one thing and ask for help.
   ​

I hope whatever it is that you're building/writing/creating, that you keep going!

Until next week, happy music making, Reader.

PS - after talking about marketing so much, I'd be remiss not to mention that PhaseLock is $20 off with code LAUNCH for a limited time :) Click here to get it.​

Thomas Dulin Producer / Engineer / Mixer