One of the most important things to building a musical career is to have a quality product, and according to WordPlay T. Jay, a lot more can go into creating that product than one might thing.

T. Jay has created an e-book, “4 P's to Starting Your Independent Music Career,” and the first “P” of the four is the “Product.”

“You have to think of yourself and what you want to put out into the world,” T. Jay said. “When making music, the quality is one of the most important things. You have to being it to the market and sell it, so it has to be at or above industry standard.”

Part of that conversation of market standard is determining subjective criticism from objective criticism. The subjective conversation would center around people’s tastes and opinions, such as whether or not they like a vocalizing style or instrumental. The objective conversation is a factual account of if a product is good enough to be commercially viable, regardless of if the person likes it personally or not.

To meet the objectivity hurdle, the quality of the recording and music must be considered. Those qualities are:

• Strength of the vocal performance, including things like tone, pitch and clarity

• Strength of the instrumental, including things like harmony, rhythm and pitch

• Strength of the mix, including things like balance, clarity and emotion

• Strength of the master, including things like competitiveness and consistency

There are three ways to produce music, all of which require some investment.

If doing everything yourself, costs are up front and will include things like a mic, speakers, production software and the skills to use all of the equipment.

The second possibility is hiring professionals, costs for which arrive on the back end.

Professionals may allow you to use a studio and produce the master for you, saving you time, but not necessarily money, as you’ll have to keep going back to them.

Finally, there is a hybrid option, where costs are blended and flexible, allowing you to save where you can do the work. In this case, you might produce or perform, then outsource more time-consuming tasks, like mastering.

“At the end of the day, it’s your job to make sure you have a quality product,” T. Jay said. “That product has to pass the quality control tests, which is where you think about all parts of your work and decide if it can stand on its own commercially. If it can’t, you have to go back to the drawing board.”

T. Jay’s advice is, once you are able to put out a quality product, put out as much of it as you can.

“That gets your sound and brand out there, and that’s what helps you build a fanbase,” he said.

For more about this topic, check out the video below!