As a financial advisor, this is a question Chuck Schlacter asks the people he interacts with in his practice: “What will you do with your time when you retire?†In 2005 he asked himself the same question, which led him into the world of production music.

As a trained jazz guitarist who was already recording his music at home, Chuck embarked on the journey of learning the tools and techniques necessary to get his music placed in television shows.

Since that time he’s created hundreds of tracks, has had his music featured in a wide range of television shows and has even started his own production music library.

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In this interview Chuck discusses the strategies he’s used to manage his time, create opportunities and build momentum in building his catalog of production music for tv and film.

You’re severely underpaid early on… you have to be able to defer instant gratification.Chuck Schlacter
Listen now and hear Chuck and me talk about:

• 
  
• (06:00) Introduction
  
• (07:20) The “Swiss Cheese†project approach
  
• (13:30) What is a production music library?
  
• (16:30) Deferring instant gratification
  
• (19:00) Composing “predestined†music for libraries
  
• (19:30) Creating music for Duck Dynasty
  
• (32:00) Composing with the music editor in mind
  
• (35:00) The importance of creating variations, stingers and alt mixes
  
• (38:30) The reality show model
  
• (41:00) The importance of controlling what you can control
  
• (42:30) Time table for receiving payments
  
• (47:50) Using collaboration to increase exposure and placements
  
• (50:30) Out of quantity comes quality
  
• (52:00) Using “Easy Math†to break a goal down
  
• (52:45) How deadlines can help the creative process
  
• (54:30) The importance of “street knowledgeâ€
  
• (55:30) The three ways to get into production music libraries (and which is best)
  
• (57:30) Getting library owners to listen to your music with “Good Earsâ€
  
• (1:01:30) The genres and instrumentation of “Dramedy†music
  
• (1:08:00) The “pros†of creating production music vs custom music
  
• (1:10:30) The importance of having goals and objectives clearly stated to family members
  

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Taxi Independent A&R

Cakewalk – Sonar

Spectrasonics – Stylus RMX

More About This Episode

The Making It From the Home Studio series is the podcast for musicians, songwriters, mixers, producers and soundmakers who want to discover how fellow artists are making music and money from their home studios.

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More About Chuck Schlacter

Chuck on SoundCloud

Opening Line Music

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