So, I’m putting together some new things that will help me to earn some more money doing the things I like to do. While sitting here pondering some of my next ventures, a random thought came to my brain that I felt would be beneficial for me to share…
I live in Los Angeles now, where I make my bread and butter off music, video editing, producing and background extra work. And yet, what I’ve noticed is that all of the stuff I make money from are things I used to either do or give away for free.
Take, for example, my music. When I lived in Atlanta back in 2008 my goal was to give away a song a week for a whole year, for free. By the 6 month mark, though, I had people not only willing to pay me for my music, but also hiring me on for projects to create music for them.
And then, there’s my video editing. I was making videos for myself simply because I thought it would be a good platform with which to display my creativity and get my music out there. When I got to Los Angeles, people saw some of these videos and asked me to edit a few things for them here and there – for free. So I did; and, over time, I started getting paid for this skill, to the point where now it’s how I make most of my money.
And then, producing. As I upgraded my equipment I was able to learn how to make music and videos on quality equipment. A lot of up-and-coming entertainers I’d run into didn’t have the stuff I had to make a good-sounding album or video, but were willing to pay me to use my stuff. So I started charging people for it – and, lo and behold, people were actually willing to pay me the price I asked for!
And lastly, acting. Although I do mostly music stuff now, I went to school for a Fine and Performing Arts degree. That meant years and years of doing theater stage shows and NOT getting paid. And yet, all the skills I acquired during that time are ones that now help me when I’m creating content out here for myself and others. It’s also what’s allowed me to discover background acting here in L.A., where I can be on set and still enjoy acting as a “hobby” while getting paid something for it.
The point of all this is that if you want to be successful, you have to constantly be doing what you love, even when you’re not getting paid for it. You never know who’s watching you do what you do, and you never know who’s going to come to you one day and say: “Hey, I like what you’re doing and would love to give you some money for it.”
Now, most people want to get paid upfront for anything they do; however, unless you’ve been in an industry doing something for years and have a proven track record of excellence, you’re not going to start off getting paid that much. However, the irony of doing something you love regularly for free is, when people are able to see the high quality work you’re putting out when you’re NOT being paid anything, they will think to themselves: “Geez, I can only imagine how much better their stuff would be if they DID get paid…” and throw money at you.
Anyway… just thought I’d share that thought with you all. Best of luck in your journey towards success!
Featuring “The Betty White Song (I’m Makin’ Moves),” “No Memories”
and the soon-to-be #1 summer anthem, “NO U AINT!”
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I’m a guy who likes to dream big dreams.
When I moved to Atlanta almost 3 years ago, I had a dream of getting my song played on radio. 1.5 years later, my “Obama Milli Remix” song got real popular, and played on radio stations worldwide.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to get my song to iTunes at the time, so it didn’t quite register on the charts.
Now that I DO know how to do all that, I have one mission for the summer: to get one of my songs to the top of the Billboard and iTunes charts.
Right now, my song “No U Aint” is getting the most favorable reaction – everyone I’ve played it for/every person who’s seen me perform it loves the song. The beat (produced by ATL’s own K.K.O.F.) is infectious, the lyrics are sing-songy, and it’s a sentiment everyone can relate to.
I WANT THIS SONG TO GET TO #1, PEOPLE!
As I have found, when you speak things into the universe, they tend to happen. Therefore, I’m saying it right now: “NO U AINT” WILL be a #1 song on the charts this year.
I don’t know how I’m going to get it done, but it’s going to happen. I’m going to push the heck out of the song and send it to every radio station I can, and perform it at every venue I perform at until DJs start spinning it regularly and it starts to catch on. But mark my words, it WILL be a hit.
So, how can you help? Easy:
Listen to the song or watch the video.
If you like the song, download it from iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, or a plethora of other stores (yes, it’s already been sent)
REQUEST THE SONG AT RADIO AND IN THE CLUBS. Yes, call your local station and pester them until they play it; go to the club and hand the DJ a copy of the song.
This is going to happen. It has to – it’s been typed out for the whole world to see. Let’s do it, people!
Drake’s upcoming album, “Thank Me Later,” leaked. I’ve heard the album, and decided to review it. So, what did I think? Watch the video and find out!
You can also order your very own “No U Ain’t” t-shirts for $20 (available in all sizes, in 5 different colors including Gold & Purple for all you LAKERS fans!!) – write me at Aaron@APTsongs.com and I’ll send you the order link! Get it today, and help spread the “No U Ain’t” movement!
Oh yeah – Take a listen to A.P.T.’s NEWEST hit song, “No U Ain’t,” from the upcoming album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!” (Out June 8, 2010) To get your copy for .99 cents, click HERE (iTunes Link) or HERE (Amazon.com Link)! (Works on ALL MP3 players including iPods)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
-A.P.T.
BTW: My album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back,” comes out June 8!
JOIN ME ON USTREAM TUESDAY, MAY 18TH 2010 AT 4:30 PM PACIFIC (7:30 PM EASTERN), FOR A LIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT MY NEW ALBUM,
“THE OBAMA MILLI REMIX GUY STRIKES BACK!” Follow me at http://www.ustream.tv/aptsongs
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I performed on Saturday! It was great!
Yep, after 4 long months, I finally emerged from my cocoon to perform at the Zabumba Bar and Restaurant in Culver City. I invited some of my friend to come see me a few days before…
…and then it dawned on me that I needed to actually practice before going on stage!
So, I spent two days practicing with T. Whistle (a.k.a. my performing partner-in-crime) to make sure we had the songs and stage movements down. By the time Saturday evening came, my voice was starting to go a bit, so I drank a LOT of tea and saved my voice for the performance.
But I digress! It was great! About 13 of my friends showed up – most of whom had gone to Hampton with me, so it was like a mini-reunion – and I was the opening act. I got up on stage and RIPPED through a couple of songs from my already released album, “Attack of the Obama Milli Remix Guy!” – “What Had Happen Was” and “Obama Milli Remix” – before getting into two songs off the NEW album, “The Obama Milli Remix Guy Strikes Back!” – “I Knock Your Lights Out” and “No U Ain’t.”
The crowd was energetic, the ladies were pretty hot, and by the end of each song they were all chanting the choruses – a good sign that I’m on the right path in terms of song creation.
Now that I’ve performed, though, I’m actually eager to do it in some more places. It’s definitely good promo for the album – coming out June 8 – and it’s just fun to be able to get on stage and rock out!
That’s all for now – be sure to join me tomorrow on uStream, where I’ll be discussing particulars of the album. I’m OUT!
I haven’t blogged on this site since November of last year. A lot has changed since then, but the one thing that’s been constant is this: I have not stopped making music!
I will be opening up a new site for my music soon – in the meantime, though, I figured it would be a good idea to post up some of the videos I’ve made between… well, between the last video I posted and the most recent one. So, here goes!
Video #1: No Memories
Mini Song/Video Insight:
I found the beat online, and thought up a song about losing past loves. As time goes on, sometimes the memories we have with a person we date fade, and I wanted to express that in song form. I didn’t want to do an intricate video for it, so I just sat on my bed. Actually, most of the videos I made after my big “One-Song-a-Week” video project were made kinda lazily. I would record the songs and want to just post them up right away, so most of them were made with me sitting on my bed and pointing my MAC camera at myself.
Video #2: The Maia Campbell Song (Maia, We Love You!)
Mini Song/Video Insight:
Another video where I simply sat on my bed, mixed in with photos and video footage of Maia Campbell (former star of TV’s “In The House”)going off on some dude while sitting in the passenger seat of a car eating cheetos. This incident occurred back in September, and once I saw the footage of her being all cracked out, I just HAD to make a song about her. Hopefully it helped her get the help she needed!
Video #3: Kate Gosselin is a Bitch
Mini Song/Video Insight:
Kate Gosselin, former star of TLC show “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” divorced from her husband in June of last year. At the time, Jon was being perceived as the “bad boy” in the relationship, i.e. the one at fault. Yet, when I saw the show, I clearly remembered Kate Gosselin being the one who was belittling and demasculating her husband. So, I wrote a song in defense of him about how much of a you-know-what Kate really is.
Amazingly, this video got a LOT of views when I first posted it up, yet many people thought I was crazy for suggesting that Kate was in the wrong. Then, a funny thing happen: she became a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars,” and, during the second show, they showed footage of her being argumentative with her dance instructor. So, I decided to re-make the video with added scenes from the ABC footage. And now, it’s getting more views again – thanks, Kate!
Video #4: Imma Let You Finish (feat. Kanye West)
Mini Song/Video Insight:
At the MTV Video Music awards in September 2009, Taylor Swift won a trophy for best female artist. As she was making her acceptance speech, though, a drunk Kanye West got on stage and said his now infamous speech – “Yo, Taylor – I, I’m real happy for you, and Imma let you finish… but Beyonce had one of the greatest videos of all time. Of ALL TIME!!”
As soon as I saw the clip online, I KNEW I had to make a song using some part of the rant. The cleanest audio from the rant was the part where he said “Imma let you finish,” so that’s what I went with. I decided to make a song where a hater is trying to get at me, but before he can finish I’m explaining to him why I’m already so great.
As for the video, I’m not even in it! Within 24 hours of the incident, people were posting up pics of Kanye in other situations interrupting proceedings with funny sayings. I found a bunch of these pics online, strung them together, and pasted the song under them. 38,000+ views later, it’s still a pretty popular video 🙂
Video #5: In The Corner (I Got Your Girl) (feat. Michael Jackson)
Mini Song/Video Insight:
After Michael Jackson died last year, I was planning on putting together a mixtape featuring samples from some of his less-sampled songs. One of them was this one, “In The Corner (I Got Your Girl),” which re-loops the beat from his “Superfly Sister” song off the “Blood on the Dancefloor” album. I kept having the chorus to the song ring over and over again, and thought this would be the perfect beat to use for it.
As for the video: I was walking home from one of my friend’s parties at their clothing store, and came upon a group of guys dancing on the sidewalk. I had my camera on me, so I took it out and taped them dancing for 10 minutes. When I got home, I decided to use the footage as the video for this song.
Video #6: U Can’t Get Her Back (feat. Non Juan)
Mini Song/Video Insight:
In addition to making my own songs, I also have a website, http://www.NonJuan.com, where I make songs and videos for my character, Non Juan. This is one of the songs/videos I made for that project, “U Can’t Get Her Back.” The song is used as a note for guys about trying to get back with an ex-girlfriend – namely, that it shouldn’t be done.
All of the parts involving Non Juan were shot using a green-screen, with backgrounds added in later. As for my parts of the video, I shot it around my new apartment, mostly in my bathroom and my bedroom (which are conveniently located next to each other). The video also features my good friend Tamika, who acted as my ex-girlfriend in the video. It’s funny, hilarious, and downright enjoyable to watch!
So, that’s it in terms of my recent videos. Right now I’m working on some new songs for a new album; in the meantime, I have an album on iTunes right now – “Attack of the Obama Milli Remix Guy!” – which you can purchase on iTunes either as a whole album or by individual tracks, at the following address: http://www.tinyurl.com/obamamilliremix
As you all may know by now, Jay-Z’s highly anticipated album, “Blueprint 3,” leaked on August 31. I got a copy of it, and decided to do a video review for it (the first one ANYWHERE in the world).
So, what did I think of the album? Is it an album worth picking up at the store, or is Jay-Z starting to get too old to do this anymore? Find out by watching the video below!
Yes, I’ve been gone for a while, and with good reason: I wasn’t making any videos! After I finished my 52-week project in May, I ended up making two more videos – one for a contest I entered for Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” show, and one for a song where I dissed Tyga – and then took a much-needed break. It’s not easy making 56 videos in a row for release each week, so I figured it would be a while before I even THOUGHT about making another video.
Meanwhile, one of my fans, King Kut, had started his own “One-Song-a-Week” project earlier this year. His goal was to make 50 videos by September. I became aware of this back in March, and was impressed enough with his beats and one song in particular – “Rock and Roll” – that I asked him if I could jump on the remix for it AND make some video clips for a remix video. He agreed, the song was made, the video was made, and it ended up being my video #50 and his video #28.
Since then, I’ve been keeping up with his weekly videos. There were a few times where he’s release a song without a fancy video – songs that were not officially part of his project – and one of them was a song called “I Got Some Haters.” I heard the song, and as soon as I heard the chorus and the beat, I started doing what Jay-Z calls the “rain man”: I started mumbling off words that could go with the song.
Not knowing if I’d actually have a full 16 bars to spit on the track, I logged into my hotmail account and begin typing. The words came to me effortlessly, and in no time at all I had a full 16-bars written. After I sent them to myself, I wrote King Kut and told him that I liked the song, and that I wanted to do a remix to it. He sent me a copy of the track with a blank space in the third verse area for me to “do my thing,” and the rest is history!
As for the song itself, the chorus is simplistic but catchy – the perfect formula for a memorable chorus. The song is basically an attack on people out there that might be hating on what it is me and King Kut are trying to do. Hopefully the song will catch on!
Some Interesting Song Insights:
1. When I asked King Kut to send me a copy of the song, he decided to remix his verses. While the remixed words were okay, they deviated from the original concept of the song. Therefore, I ended up using his original verses, then cutting and pasting the blank verse part he had sent onto the end of the original version.
2. I hate hearing songs when everyone on the track is rapping at the same pace/tone/etc. The purpose of having a guest artist on a track is to bring a different element to the song that’s not already on there. Since King Kut is rapping at a slow pace in his verses, I felt it necessary to be faster and/or more high energy, especially since I was the 3rd part of the song.
3. At the part of the song where King Kut is introducing me, I added in the effect of the crowd cheering. Gotta love the MAC sound FX department!
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
Like I said before, I’ve been watching King Kut’s videos each week and keeping up with his progress. His videos are pretty enjoyable, and I was looking forward to seeing him get to his 50th video.
Then, bad luck struck: his PC, much like my laptop had after video 39, started acting up and quitting on him when he tried to edit his videos. He placed a notice up on his site one day that said he would no longer be able to make videos due to technical issues (along with some other things).
I’ve always been a big believer in finishing something you start. So, I sent him an email encouraging him to try and do so, along with a few suggestions about how he could overcome some of the computer problems by doing simpler videos. He thanked me for the advice, but still didn’t think his computer would be able to handle it.
Sunday approached, and I was sitting at home thinking about his project. He had stalled out at 44 videos… but to me, everything looks better in fives. Like, even if he couldn’t finish the project, it would be better for him to be able to say “I did 45 videos” instead of just 44 (don’t ask me why, though – it just sounds better).
Then, it dawned on me: I could help him edit together a video for our “I Got Some Haters” collaboration!
I wrote him and asked him if he could possibly send me a single-footage shot of him mouthing the words to his song. Lo and behold: he was originally going to do the original version of the song as a video, and had already shot some footage which he sent to me. Prior to that, though, I had already thought out a simplistic enough idea for the video: intertwine shots of me and him mouthing the song with pictures of people mean-muggin’ (i.e. “hating” on us) and pics of slogans denouncing their hater ways.
Once I had everything together, the last part I had to do was my performance. I thought it would be cool if I had half of my face showing towards the ends of the screen so that I could flip-flop them later – turned out pretty good, actually! (Incidentally, I also shaved my face for this video – you’re welcome, King Kut!) I also did a few takes of me directly in the middle of the screen (I filmed my part using my built-in MAC computer camera).
The last part was doing the post-edits. I had to add in the parts advertising King Kut’s new album, “The Last Man Standing.” I also added some nice effects to some of the shots so they wouldn’t get too boring.
Note: he usually posted up his videos every Monday; however, I forgot how long these things can take to edit, so I didn’t get the video to him until around 2 or 3 A.M. EST. Sorry about that!
Some Interesting Video Shoot Tidbits:
1. I shot my part of the video in my room, sitting on my futon. I had to clear out my background so it just looked like I’m sitting in front of a clear space.
2. This video didn’t take long to edit per se, but I had other stuff I was trying to do in the midst of editing this video. I just found out I have 30 days to move out of the place I’m currently staying in, so I spent a good portion of the day looking up new places to live!
That’s all for now! Once again, you can get this song off King Kut’s newest album, “The Last Man Standing” (FREE Download) over at http://www.kingkutonfire.wordpress.com!
Above: The video ad for the Eminem Freestyle link.
Above: My review of Eminem’s “Relapse” album.
Hi! If you’re here, you’re probably looking to download the Eminen freestyles from the Tim Westwood radio show. Well, you’ve come to the right place!
While you’re here, though, feel free to check out some of MY videos as well! From May 2008 to May 2009 I posted up a NEW music video each week for 52 weeks straight!
One of those songs/videos, “Obama Milli Remix,” actually became an underground hit – underground in the sense that it went ALL over the world, was quoted my major media, and helped Barack Obama win the election!!
Anyway, as promised, here is the link to the zip file containing all four Eminem songs:
Above is a video I made for all the Adam Lambert fans out there… who are still going through the withdrawl pains of not seeing their favorite “American Idol” contestant win the contest. Its already racked up over 3000 views on YouTube in a day and a half, so I figured I’d post it here!
This video is NOT a music video. It’s a video review I did last Thursday for Eminem’s newest LP, “Relapse.” The album leaked 2 weeks early, and I got the brilliant idea of doing a video review for it thinking it would be a fun thing to do. And it was.
What I did NOT expect, though, was that my 8-minute and 14-second video would have over 3800 + views in less than a week’s time!
I don’t quite know WHY this non-music video of mine has been so successful (nor do I know how to capitolize off it), but it’s nice to be having a video that’s moving at an even faster pace than “Obama Milli Remix” was… even though none of my music is involved in it 😦
Oh well – take success anyway you can get it, I guess! In the meantime, enjoy the video, and look out for my FINAL music video airing on Sunday, May 17th!
A.P.T.'s Songs, Albums and Music Videos 