Microsoft Word costs $150 for a one-time purchase and $100 a year if you get on the paid plan, Photoshop costs $240/yr, Adobe After Effects – $250/yr, Pro Tools – $199.00/yr, and Loomly costs $312 a year. Well, we’re about to save you the entire sum of $1,100+ PER YEAR. Not half. ZERO costs and you’ll still get most, if not ALL, of the needed features to support your career. Go instead and shoot a music video or employ a serious marketing campaign for your already existing singles.
5. Later (FREE alternative to Loomly and any other expensive social media planner out there)
If you do any searches related to automated social media planners, the most recommended one is Loomly which gives you a 2-week trial then you’re gonna pay at least $312 a year for using the software. Later, however, is the free alternative that allows you to get a lot of value from the Free plan. 10 automated posts a month will be enough for you as that means 1 post every 3 days in a month. And honestly, most artists are NOT that consistent. Later’s Free plan allows 1 Instagram, 1 Facebook, 1 Twitter, 1 Pinterest, 1 TikTok, and 1 LinkedIn profile to be automated. So now you won’t have to log into 5 different apps to post the same photo or announcement. For being a beginner, indie artist, Later’s Free plan is more than you could ask for.
Later Download Link: https://later.com/app/
4. DaVinci Resolve 17 (FREE alternative to Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, and others)
Advertised as “the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production all in one software tool,” DaVinci Resolve is, as a matter of fact, the go-to software for many professionals. And the best part of it is that your social media announcements, music video color grading, improved audio quality of your phone recordings, perfecting demos before hitting the studio, and other relatively primary visual and audio editing necessities, can all be achieved in the Free version. The paid version has the word Studio added to it (DaVinci Resolve Studio) and it’s mostly a deep dive for the uber professionals. For the independent musician, the free version is shockingly satisfying and over-delivers in features.
DaVinci Resolve 17 Download Link: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/
3. GIMP (FREE alternative to Adobe Photoshop)
With enough dedicated time and patience to follow through with instructions and learn, you too can edit your photos in a most professional way with the open-source software, GIMP. The image editor allows for plenty of editing and cool features. While it aesthetically looks like a vintage version of Photoshop, who cares when you can do your own cover artworks for free exactly as you want them? Artists from 10 years ago didn’t have the alternative of GIMP (mainly because no one was speaking of it and was only used by professionals and software engineers) so many creatives shelled out a whole lot of money to buy Adobe’s Photoshop. You’re lucky you now have an alternative to the mainstream pushed software, not to mention the plethora of tutorials available on YouTube these days.
GIMP Download Link: https://www.gimp.org/
2. LibreOffice (FREE alternative to Microsoft Word)
We discovered LibreOffice when we got sick and tired of paying for Microsoft Word. Especially when most of us on the team come from a time when the software used to be automatically integrated with your Windows operating system. So in 2002 when you bought a computer, it already had Word in it and you never worried about future payments. Sources are saying that you actually paid for it in your total computer price but who can actually verify that? Nobody from what we researched. Now LibreOffice is absolutely free of charge now or in the future, it runs compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, it is available in over 100 languages and dialects, it reads ALL Microsoft files which is great news because you won’t lose any of your past documents, as well as HTML, XML, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and PDF. The only task you have is investing a week or two in learning the base commands and utility of the software and you can ditch Word way sooner than you thought and save those $100 a year. In 5 years, that’s $500!
LibreOffice Download Link: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/
1. Audacity (FREE alternative to Pro Tools, Magix Music Maker, Cubase, Adobe Audition, etc.)
You know it’s some good sh*t when the software is favored by the likes of the Berkley Advanced Media Institute. The open-source audio editor is compatible with most operating systems, it is small-sized, it records live audio, you can alter the tempo and pitch of the recording, you can mix and master your tracks, you can also convert different files into different formats. Sure, it’s not as appealing to the eye as Pro Tools is and it has its own bugs, but what software doesn’t? Logic and Pro Tools have ALSO crashed in your experience with the two. A top engineer in the music industry will likely opt for a more extensive and user-friendly software, but the indie artist shouldn’t sh*t money away on something expensive when they’re only gonna use the software for basic needs and minimal adjustments. So the conclusion is: are you an indie artist? Use Audacity. Are you a beginner sound engineer? Use Audacity. When you’ll have surpassed the capabilities of the software, you can start looking into buying a bigger “toy.” Until then, save your coins and do your homework.
Audacity Download Link: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/
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