Kpop producer’s guide on How to become a Kpop producer

Today I’ll be sharing my personal experience on becoming a K-Pop producer. There are no set rules or guidelines that can be applied to everyone, but this guideline might enhance or expedite your process on becoming a professional K-Pop producer.

Let me first start off by saying that I’m not some super famous K-Pop producer that has a bunch of major cuts in the industry. However, I have an abundance of experiences working with renowned K-Pop producers, topliners, and I personally have experience getting a major cut on recent fromis_9’s 4th mini album. I have an accurate understanding of how the industry works, and I know what kinds of skillsets are required to become a K-Pop producer.

1. What is K-Pop?

K-Pop music is basically a combination of many different genres. Dance, Pop, EDM, Hip Hop, Trap, Future Bass, R&B and many more. Essentially, you need to have a good understanding of various types of genres. You should understand how different instruments are played in a certain style – how certain drum sounds differ from one another, for example.

 

In order to produce K-Pop music, you must listen to a lot of different styles of music and have a comprehensive understanding of each style.

2. Jazz

All modern music is derived from this genre called ‘Jazz’,  (many professional musicians will definitely agree on this) and K-Pop is not an exception. In order to become a strong composer, I suggest you deeply study jazz piano chords and voicings. The K-Pop genre is full of rich chord works.

3. Sound Design

After getting your musical skills polished, now it is time to delve into 'Sound Design'. Sound plays a significant role in K-Pop as well. By digging into some sound design heavy genres such as EDM, Trap, and Future, you'll be exposed to what kind of sound design capabilities you must have in order to produce a solid-sounding tune. Study synthesizing, sampling, and any other sound design technique that might come in handy. I recommend you look up Serum tutorials on Youtube. Remember, Youtube is the best teacher :)

4. Produce, Produce and... Produce

Once you get some solid musical skills, and decent sound designing techniques, it's time to start producing. You must now set a goal to have at least 3~5 awesome instrumental demos that you can submit to K-Pop music publishers. This process will take at least 2~3 years. Some of the routes you can take to enhance your music production skill is to copy existing tunes, remix on top of some K-Pop acapella, etc.

5. Get a Publishing Deal

Once you have solid instrumental demos, it's time to start submitting them. There are many K-Pop publishers out there. Research their releases’ styles and submit to one you think that suits your style the most. There are basically two different routes you can take from here:

1. Get signed with K-Pop publisher

2. Get signed under an Entertainment Company

 

If you take route number 1, you will be able to submit demos to many different Entertainment Companies. For route number 2, you will have a higher chance of selling songs to artists since you are directly signed under the Entertainment Company, but one of the cons is that you have to produce exclusively for those artists within the Entertainment Company. But honestly, it is very hard to get an Entertainment Company exclusive producer deal, so I recommend you start off with a publisher. Ekko Music, Joombas Music Group, OPEN Music, and etc. Research what kinds of publishers are out there!

6. Collaborate

Once you get contracted with a publisher, you will get some opportunity to collaborate with other writers. Work hard, and never miss any opportunities. Even though it can be challenging, don't hide from it. You will always walk out with something new from every session or project.

7. Get Rejected

Once you complete a project, your publisher will send it out to the entertainment companies looking for songs. Don't get too excited because your demo won't be selected. Get used to rejection.

8. Repeat Steps 6 & 7, Repeat Again, Again, and Again, and Again.

Remember, becoming a producer is a marathon. Control your pace, don't get burned out. Consistency is key. You will probably spend 1~2 years without getting any good news. You will be tempted to give up, or get sad. The first couple of months are pure hard work without absolutely no reward. But it's okay, at the end of the day, you will eventually make a debut. But brace yourself for painful times.

 

Hope this post can be helpful to anybody trying to become a kpop producer! If you have any questions or comments, let me know :)