4 mindset shifts for 2025 that will change your music career

Throughout my career, I learned a few things that changed my production from water to wine. Most of them are shifts in our mindset and the way we produce, but shifts that can make you make, and release, more music in 2025…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. You need and don’t need to finish all the songs you start (it all depends).

We always hear “You need to finish all your tracks”, but depending on your stage within your producer career, it may be important to finish every song you work on, or it may be better for you to focus on something else. For example:

1. When you’re in your early-intermediate stages, finish every song since you’ll acquire lots of skills just by working on songs until the end. To name a few: (a) learning the habit of finishing songs; mixing and mastering; final touches to make the song sparkle; not obsessing about sounding perfect, etc.;
2. When you’re in the intermediate stages, more important than finishing songs is making sure that you’re making progress on the technical skills that you’re lacking, which will be crucial for making amazing songs.
   Make sure that, at this stage, you’re directly tackling something you’re struggling with by studying and fixing it within every project. But, also make sure to finish the tracks you most like to get feedback on them as feedback can expose other possible mistakes you’re not seeing;
3. Lastly, when you’re already making music you and other people like, more important than just finishing songs is finding the best ideas to finish. Why? Because, at this stage, where your skills are not the problem anymore, it’s important to pursue ideas that are worth it instead of wasting time on the ones that aren’t. Instead, spend more time:
   • Making new ideas than working on ideas that you don’t believe in;
   • Practicing how to create better melodies and chord progressions for your song;
   • Finding a sound or a vibe that defines your music.

2. You need to use reference tracks when making your songs, period.

A lot of producers that I teach never use reference tracks, but, to be honest, when I started to use them when creating my tracks, it was the moment that I had the biggest skill leap in my career. And, there are multiple ways in which you can use reference tracks to help you:

1. Use references when arranging your songs. To avoid making your songs too long, or too small, compared to your genres standards, using a reference track can help you create ‘fences’ for your drops and breakdowns. For example, if you find that most songs you love have drops that are no longer than 32 bars, use this as a hint to avoid making your drops longer than 32 bars as well;
2. Use references to understand what to do next. When you get stuck and don’t know what to do next, see what the reference tracks are adding to their songs and do the same. “But, Leo, this is copying”. Well, then pick an idea from one reference, and another idea from another reference, and so on. In any case, these references can give you a roadmap of what to add, and it’s up to you to take advantage of that;
3. Use references as a way to guide you through your mixing. A reference is a track that you really like or that is signed by a label that you like and, if you (and the label) like their overall balance, why not copy that as well? “But, how?” You can see in this video how I use references to help me mix my tracks.
4. Use reference tracks to study how to make better hooks (or basslines, etc). If you struggle with leads, for example, recreate the leads from other tracks to study how they are made. Now, combine the two leads that you’ve studied, or make a new pattern based on the rhythm of the song that you’ve studied, and you’ll have something new and, possibly, fresh.

3. Stop obsessing over (every)thing(s).

When you start to obsess about anything in music, fun things suddenly can become a burden, to the point that music starts feeling like a chore, or like “it’s too hard” and you’re not capable enough to “make it”, which eventually drives your motivation down and takes you away from music. Sounds familiar?

Well, to stop this, here are a few things you need to do:

1. Stop obsessing about releases and labels. When you feel a song was pointless just because it wasn’t signed or released, you’re obsessing about the result instead of the fun you had producing that song. In addition, if you learned something with this song, even with the negative result, wasn’t this or the fun you had making it worth it?
   Therefore, focus on the joy you have producing tunes and the growth that you have with every song more than the result as these come later;
2. Stop obsessing about perfection. Some producers get really specific when working on their songs, putting thousands of little things nobody will ever notice, or even correcting a mix in 0.2-0.5db, which, again, most people won’t even notice.
   Instead, you should put your time into making another track, as it’s often better to have two tracks you’re 90% happy with than one you’re 100% since most people won’t care about this last 10%;
3. Stop obsessing about social media. I see some producers, including me, focusing their efforts more on social media and graphics than their music, but, as a music artist, isn’t your ‘product’ your music? Shouldn’t you focus on music first?
   Social media is important, but having a song blow up on Spotify will likely massively increase your social media following more than any marketing effort you make.

4. Learn from the best.

The best way to improve is to soak yourself in tutorials and learn as much as you can, but with so many people to learn from, who should you actually pay attention to:

1. Learn from the people who make the music you like the most. The best way to see how much someone can teach you is by listening to their tunes and, if you hear something you like, then feel free to learn as much as you can from them. But, would you follow advice from someone who’s music you don’t like? Well, I wouldn’t.;
2. Look for “In the studio with” or a “project breakthrough” from your favorite songs. The best way to discover tricks and tips is to dive deep into tutorials that show the producers you love making a track as this shows techniques that you can apply in your track. But, who can stay for 2 hours watching a tutorial, right?
   Then, listen to them passively, at work, and when you spot something you like, bookmark the time, and come back to that specific time later. This way you can filter what matters to you in these long-form videos, which often will have more knowledge than short-form ones.
3. Write everything you hear from the tutorials. When watching this tutorial at home, write down on paper, or digitally, everything you hear that could be useful to your songs. Put these in a database app like Notion and, for your next song, you’ll have a list of new things to try on. Also, make sure to mark the ones that work out, and favor the content creators that get the most ‘wins’ for you

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What other things can improve your music and your career?

1. Don’t chase two rabbits at the same time!
When you get feedback, it can be overwhelming to fix all the issues that were mentioned. Instead, focus on fixing one at a time, possibly one every new song you make. When you try to do too much, it can quickly get daunting and overwhelming, and often it’s better to just focus on deeply fixing one issue than quickly fixing two.

2. Get feedback on your ideas as well as your finished songs.
As said in point #1, get feedback on your songs, but you should also get feedback on your ideas to avoid spending time on ideas that are not “wowing” other producers. When an idea is powerful, other producers will be able to tell regardless if the song is fully done or not.

3. Find a Mentor, even if you don’t pay for it.
As mentioned in topic 4, when you find someone you like on YouTube, treat them as a mentor and stick to them as much as possible. Even if you can’t pay for 1-on-1 sessions with them, just watching their content as if they’re giving you a lesson can help you tremendously.
These content creators are often approachable, so try to message them and sometimes you can get even more info out of them (including me)