Here are my favorite programs, websites, and apps which I personally use and recommend as an independent producer, DJ, and musician.  I’ll update this regularly, so check back.  I’m going to write a studio hardware post separately.

Production tools:

• Ableton Live 11 – my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). I picked Ableton because of it’s features and flexibility as both a production tool and a performance tool.  If you’re a student or teacher they do offer a 40% student discount.
• Groove Monkee – I love MIDI files for their flexibility.  Groove Monkee is particularly nice because their clips are not quantized; they have a “human feel.”  It’s easy to quantize them more if you want to, but it’s harder to humanize something after the fact.  I purchased their Mega Pack some years ago. It features over 34,000 royalty free drum loops and fills across a dozen different genres.  Here’s my general workflow: I have a 128 drum rack that is filled with royalty free percussive samples I can quickly cycle through using knobs on my MIDI controller. I experiment with different Groove Monkee MIDI patterns and adjust notes to taste. Finally, if I want something glitchy I’ll bounce it to audio and mess around with the final clip.  Cost: $20-$250, they run sales periodically.
• Captain Plugins – these plugins are amazing for getting a quick sketch down with matching chords, bass, and melody.  Many of my songs start here, and the workflow is very close to what I teach in my workshops. Cost: $80.
• Splice – key to my workflow.  I use splice find samples, backup my sets, and enter remix competitions.  You can search for samples by key, genre, and tempo.  It’s about $8/month but well worth it.  I now recommend Loopcloud over splice for most people. Here’s why. 
• Izotope Ozone & Neutron 2 – I generally like to stick to stock Ableton tools but there are several features in Ozone and Neutron you can’t duplicate in Ableton 10 for mixing and mastering.  See my review before you buy. They also have 50% student discount for many of their plugins, unlike UAD.

Education:

• Ableton Learning Music – start here. No other software required, and entirely free!
• Producer Dojo – I joined the Dojo about a year ago and it provides tremendous value.  ill.Gates is a wizard with Ableton and has many gigs of templates and samples to download along with days of tutorials.  Most important for me is the free track feedback which is worth the monthly membership by itself.  Add to this a supportive community of artists all interested in promoting each other… and this is a winner.  Cost is $50-$100/month depending on the level you buy into.  If you don’t want to spend the money at first they also have a free Facebook community as well as a free weekly webinar called The Weekly Download.
• Hook Theory – this site has some terrific tools on it as well as a set of digital books that break down music theory in a simple way for producers. Highly recommended.
• Lynda.com – has a ton of courses on just about any topic you may need to learn as an independent musician: marketing, website design, SEO, graphic design, video editing, etc.  Oh, and they have courses on music production too.  If you’re a student or educator, check with your library: your school may already pay for a license, otherwise its still a bargain at $20/month.
• Audible – there are never enough hours in the day, even for a 400-year-old ninja.  I love audible because it enables me to learn new things while driving, working out, or just tidying up.   This is my affiliate link which gives you a 30-day free trial and access to thousands of titles at no extra cost to you.

Performance tools:

• Ableton Live 11 – see above! I use Ableton to both produce music and perform – that way I only really have to master one piece of software.
• Resolume Arena – expensive, but amazing capabilities for visuals.  Also offers a 50% student discount.  With Ableton Link it is extremely easy to keep your light show perfectly in sync with your DJ set.
• Mixed in Key – I like to mix harmonically and they have the best key-detecting algorithm on the market. About $60, but look out for bundles that might include the Captain Plugins above.
• Restream.io – I stream each week to a half dozen sites using Restream.io.  Absolutely invaluable, and free for their introductory tier. This is my affiliate link, so using it helps support this website and all the stuff I do at no cost to you.

Marketing tools:

• Elementor – One of the most powerful and widely used WordPress website plugins that gives drag-and-drop functionality to your website design. I’ve used it on this site for the last few years.  There’s a free version too.  Check out this episode if you want to know more about how I built this website.  Note: affiliate link too! 
• Google Fonts – great place to find free font families for your website, album art, or flyers.
• CD Baby – I chose to distribute my music via CD Baby after reading this comparison on Ari’s Take, an outstanding DIY Musician blog. There are a lot of services out there but I liked CD Baby’s up-front pricing model without any ongoing annual fees.  I also appreciate the fact that they’ve been around for over 20 years, so I feel confident in their business model.  Finally, I enjoy some of their other services such as the DIY Musician Podcast and the annual DIY Musician Conference (you don’t have to use CD Baby to go to the conference! Read my DIY Musician Conference notes if you’re curious what it’s all about).  My one gripe: mysteriously, they don’t distribute to Beatport, a major platform for DJs and electronic music.
• Fiverr.com – huge community of freelance artists, musicians, designers, and marketers. Anything I don’t know how to do (or don’t want to do) I can generally find someone here.  I’ve used them for vocals, writing top-lines, creating marketing graphics, creating cover art, providing voice-overs, and more. Note: also an affiliate link. Thanks for supporting me!
• Snapseed – powerful free photo editing.  Usually my first stop for editing pictures. Free android app.
• Zoetropic – lets you make nifty moving photos on your phone. Very easy to use. Their Instagram page is awesome because it has great examples and if you swipe right it also shows you how those graphics were created. Free android app.
• Prisma – exotic filters for photo editing. I used Prisma  to create the digitized image of me for one of my cover albums as well as the featured image on this post. Free if you only want SD export.
• Logopit Plus – great for putting together multiple layers on a photo or adding text for social media posts. Free android app.
• Follow Meter – it’s hard to find an app that allows you to see people who aren’t following you on Instagram and isn’t totally sketchy in the permissions.  FollowMeter has worked well for me, and also supports two-factor authentication which is important for security.  Works best if you only have a few thousand followers, otherwise it becomes cumbersome. Free android app.
• Hitfilm Express – I have used HitFilm for much my video editing, see my YouTube channel for examples.  Hitiflm Express is free and if you purchase the $10 audio-visualizer pack you can create some very professional looking visualizer videos for your tracks.  This is much cheaper than Adobe products or hiring someone else to do it, and there are many tutorials on YouTube. Free +$10 for the audio-visualizer pack. Update:  In May 2020 I started using Adobe Creative Cloud Products including After Effects, but for many things (including quick screencaps and clips of my weekly live stream) I find myself going back to Hitfilm. It’s just faster and easier.
• HandBreak – a terrific, fast, free, flexible video converter. Frequently handles problematic files that even Adobe Media Converter won’t touch. Also very useful if you’re encoding files for pre-scheduled live streams.
• Storyblocks – stock images. I use Storyblocks for most of my album art.  I used to use Pixabay and Unsplash, but after discussing this with a CD Baby attorney I changed my mind.  He pointed out that sites like these don’t have any guarantees that whoever uploaded the image actually owns the rights, and if you get in trouble for copyright infringement pointing your finger at them isn’t going to help. Case in point: this picture of Optimus Prime on Pixabay which is listed as “free for commercial use.”  I’m pretty sure Universal Studios would disagree.  So I pay for my album art.  For under $10/month, Storyblocks is one of the cheapest stock image sites out there, and they also have one of the most liberal licencing policies.  Update: In May 2020 I started using Envato Elements because they seem to offer greater variety and they also offer a variety of templates that work with Adobe products.

Producer Life Podcast:

This is my weekly podcast, so I’m a little biased… but I think it’s pretty awesome.  Here were the major themes from 2020 and links to episodes that might be helpful to you.  You can find all the episodes here.

1. Treat your art like a business (PLP 011 and 012 Wade Sutton, 018 and 019 Mike Allison, 026 Facebook vs. Google Ads)
2. Marketing is key (PLP 033 Reels, 040 Bandsintown, 019 Linkedin, 049 Spotify Growth, 052 Spotify Canvas)
3. Perform live when you can (PLP 051 importance of performing live, 043 Ableton vs. CDJs, 015 DJ file formats, 016 preparing tracks in Ableton)
4. … but livestreaming is a pretty OK substitute (PLP 019 Mike Allison, 020 my setup, 021 and 027 livestreaming ethics, 032 livestreaming update
5. Network for the long term (PLP 003 and 004 Loren Hardy on networking, 050 Julian Gray on multi-year process to Mau5trap release)
6. Diversity your income streams (PLP 010 affiliate marketing, 019 Mike Allison merch, plugins, and Ableton racks, 025 Richard Wang Patreon and teaching, 043 and 044 Cryptochronica on teaching, 047 Zeb Lego Fiverr gigging)
7. DIY doesn’t mean you have to do-it-all (PLP 005 finding acapellas, 007 vocals and Studiopros, 019 hire an attorney first, 052 cover art)
8. How to make better music (PLP 002 building better drops, 007 Spiderhound quantity leads to quality, 017 “multipurpose production” mindset, 028 Splice vs. Loopcloud, 035 Trap Jesus on mixing)
9. Make your music unique (PLP 007 vocal processing, 041 preset thrashing technique, 051 try your own vocals)
10. Use plugins to extend your DAW’s capabilities (022 mixing a track with iZotope, 035 Trap Jesus’ favorite plugins, 038 using RX8 to isolate vocals, 042 Richard Wang’s magic plugins )

I’d love to hear from you. What are your essential programs, websites, or apps? 

Affiliate link note: It’s safe to assume that some of the links that lead to products or services are affiliate links and I’ll get paid a small amount if you decide to buy something (no extra cost to you!)  That said, there are tons of products and services on the web and I only feature those that I actually use and love.