How A Music Production label procured more releases by identifying key team engineering points throughout arrangement, mixing and mastering.
This label had a couple of engineers on hand, these were mixing, vocal & instrumental arrangement, mastering, and beat production. More songs were requested by a larger well-known music distribution company, and the team had to go through more sessions in a short period of time.
They experienced demotivation due to the increased hours of work with ‘mediocre’ outputs. They noticed they either spent too much time on a song to produce the best quality, or they pushed quickly through a song and sacrificed quality.
Here’s how FS-Direct helped:
1. Identified Bottlenecks and Time Sinks
By meticulously tracking the time spent on each stage (arrangement – vocal/instrumental, mixing, mastering, beat production) for each song, we identified where the most time was being consumed. For example, we discovered that vocal arrangement consistently took twice as long as instrumental arrangement, and that a particular engineer spent significantly longer on mastering compared to others.
Pinpointed Issues:
Time tracking revealed why certain stages were taking longer. One mixing engineer had a less efficient workflow, and one or two initial beat productions lacked elements that caused significant rework during arrangement.
2. Optimized Workflows and Task Allocation:
Data-Driven Adjustments
Once bottlenecks were identified, the team made data-driven decisions about workflow adjustments. If vocal arrangement was slow, they explored new techniques, provided targeted training, or even considered reallocating tasks based on individual strengths and speed. If a certain set of initial mixing adjustments were consistently performed, the team was able to develop templates and presets to speed up the process.
Specialization and Focus
Time tracking highlighted individuals who were particularly efficient at certain tasks. This led to a more specialized workflow, where engineers focused on their areas of expertise, increasing overall throughput.
After we left, the team was able to:
3. Set Realistic Timelines and Expectations:
Accurate Estimates
With historical time tracking data, the team developed more accurate estimates for the time required for each stage of production. This allowed them to set realistic deadlines for the distribution company and manage their internal workload more effectively.
Improved Project Management
Knowing how long each step actually took enabled better project planning and scheduling, reducing the pressure of rushed deadlines and the resulting demotivation. By analyzing the workflows of their most efficient engineers they were able to document and implement the best practices across the team.
Time tracking provided the music production label with valuable data to move from reactive problem-solving (feeling overworked and producing mediocre results) to a proactive, data-driven approach to improving efficiency, quality, and team morale. They transformed their understanding of their production process from anecdotal observations to quantifiable insights, leading to smarter decisions and better outcomes.
