We constantly see music producers posting in music forums, wondering if they should quit music. Here are a couple of things to consider before giving up.
I don’t know where you are in your music-making journey, or your motives behind making music.
So I will try to cover different aspects of pursuing music.
Should You Quit Music?
Here are 4 common reasons I see music creators wanting to quit music:
I will address each point below.
1. Not Making Money From Music
To make a living off of music involves so much more than just making music.
It involves networking, marketing, creating multiple sources of income, creating new music to go with the current trends, and so much more.
Selling beats is very competitive, and if you aren’t working hard to compete with your competition, it will be harder for you to succeed.
So if you think you are just going to make beats, and money is going to come to you, you are wrong.
Here is a great comment left on this article by Greg.
It’s not hard to make money with music.
The problem is most people don’t know how to do it.
While most people sit and wait/hope/pray for making $20,000 a track, there are people with much smaller ego’s that don’t mind making $500 a track.
Some musicians and producers actually make good money sound designing for companies. You have to be able to look outside of the box. There is money out there you just have to know how to get it.
Jingles/Theme music aka Background music is a great venue most beat makers and musicians don’t even think about tapping into.
To turn music into a full-time career, your plan for success must grow and evolve.
Your goal may be to only sell beats, but in reality, you will have to work at creating multiple sources of income, and not just depend on one.
Plan to Make Money:
- Build a work ethic to outwork your competitors.
- Brainstorm daily on how to make more money and take action.
- Continue to try new ideas until you find one that works.
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2. No One is Buying Your Beats
There are many important aspects to selling beats successfully:
- Your beats need to sound professional.
- Music artists need to be able to listen to and buy beats easily.
- You need to market your beats to the correct audience, which is music artists looking to buy beats.
- Find music artists, don’t expect them to just find you.
But I have done all this… No, You Haven’t.
If you have tried the 3 suggestions above and still can’t sell beats, try harder:
- Make better beats.
- Get more people to listen to your beats.
- Make it easier for people to buy your beats. Test beat prices.
- Create a better brand and do better marketing.
- Learn how to market and sell online and test out different ideas.
Selling beats is very competitive. Your competition is doing better than you, so you must outwork them.
A successful beat-selling business does NOT happen overnight. Study successful businesses and apply these ideas to your business.
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3. Can’t Get Album Placements
There is a popular saying… It’s not about what you know, but who you know.
To get album placements you should be building relationships with everyone: music artists, managers, A&Rs, people who work at recording studios, everyone!
You need to build a reputation as a music producer with high-quality beats and build a connection with these different people so that when someone is in need of beats, they think of you.
You may also want to consider hiring a manager. If you get a manager with a music background, they should have connections with people in the music industry to help get your beats heard.
Helpful Videos
- How to Use LinkedIn to Get Placements ( Must Watch Video )
- Biggest Mistakes Producers Make & How to Get Placements
- Sending Beats To Rappers Signed to Major Labels
- How I Got Music Production Placements In My Grandma’s House
4. You’re Too Old
I want to say good music is good music. And if you make good music, and follow the suggestions above, you still have a chance at success.
Warren Buffett… one of the wealthiest men in the world, earned 99% of his wealth after his 50th birthday.
There are a lot of entrepreneurs who failed at multiple businesses and did not finally succeed until reaching the age of 40 or higher.
Yes, we all want to reach success in our prime, but things don’t always go as fast as we want. It’s life.
So until you have exhausted all possible options for reaching your goals, I think you should still try.
You only truly fail when you give up. But once again, plans can evolve into something different, which is ok.
The idea of YouTube started as a dating website, which later changed, and now it’s one of the biggest websites in the world.
Closing Thoughts…
Succeeding in music is going to be hard. It’s very competitive. It’s not a typical 9 to 5 job. But this applies to all creative jobs.
If you start making music, I will assume it is because it brings you some type of happiness or joy.
And we should all continue to strive to do things that make us happy.
The Majority Will Fail
Unfortunately, many of you will never make money from music, sell beats, or get album placements.
This is not because it’s not possible, but because many people won’t work hard enough.
Learning information without taking action, is what stops most people from reaching their goals.
And I can’t say how many people will just dismiss ideas before they even try them out.
So please decide you will be one of the people who take action!
Embrace the idea of failing your way to success. You will not have success without failure.
Thanks for reading.
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nice one keep it up
thank you for this article this is very interesting