Many producers have a big fear of failing in music and that can harm you in many ways depending on how you take it. However, it can also be very useful to you when you understand how to deal with it. Therefore, here are 4 ways in which you can shift your perspective on failure and make it a positive and constructive thing to your career…
3 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. Don’t take failure as a reason to quit music, but to change your approach. Failure will show up in many forms in your musical career, but the most common one is rejection from labels, bad feedback, not being booked to a gig, etc. All this can make you question if ‘all this effort is worth it’ since you likely put A LOT of effort into your music and it can be frustrating to see your hard work being rejected. However, instead of thinking that way, which can eventually leave you frozen and unable to produce due to lack of motivation, take it as ‘a call for change’. For example, if you’ve been trying to sign your song to one specific label, but always get rejected, consider changing parts of your workflow, like trying collabs with artists within that label or even sending your songs to mix and master with audio engineers, as this could bring in a different perspective to your songs that could then possibly get you signed. In other words, if it’s not working the way you envisioned, don’t think of yourself as a failure, but change your approach towards your goals and try again. Resilience is what will make you go through your musical journey and the sooner you adopt a constructive approach towards failure, the easier and faster it will be for you to understand how to work smarter, and not harder, which is what will lead you to grow faster and towards your goals. Remember, you don’t overcome the fear of failure, but you change how you perceive and act on it
2. Use your failures to understand what you have to develop next. All failures that you go through will come with a to-do list of things you need to improve/fix, which is super helpful because this is what will make you develop as a producer. But, sometimes, this to-do list is something that you have to look for as it may not always be explicit. For example, if you get rejected by a label, ask the label for some feedback on your song, and, if they answer, that will likely give you a list of things that you need to improve for your next song. Sometimes, the to-do list can be big, so take the main two/three key points and focus on fixing these issues in your next song since focusing on several fixes at once can be overwhelming or even hard to track. After that, ask a friend if those specific issues still persist to make sure they are gone. However, sometimes labels don’t give you any feedback, so you’ll have to do a full review of your song by yourself, or ask for someone’s feedback to understand what you can improve. In both cases though, you’ll end up with a list of things that you need to develop, which is something that will help as a producer and that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t fail. Therefore, after you shift your mentality towards failure, it’s time to focus on how you can make this failure useful to your development as this is what will make the failure become constructive for you in the long run..
3. Don’t let fear get in your way or it can impact your ability to stand out. When you’re too afraid of failing, you will start playing it safe when making music, and that can lead you to sound generic, and that’s exactly what labels don’t want. For example, I tried many times during my career to ‘sound like a target label’, and I remember sending three songs to that label, which I was signed to already, and they said ‘Your songs are too generic and not bringing anything new’, and, indeed, that was true. On the other hand, when you allow yourself to sound bad and fail, it can be liberating since you don’t have to please anyone but yourself, and that’s when you’ll start to try new sounds and vibes in your songs. In addition, this can make you feel good and make music production REALLY fun, and that is what will eventually lead you to stand out as a producer. Therefore, when producing, don’t let fear get in your way. Make music that you want to make, and don’t be afraid of getting bad feedback as some songs will not work, but never be afraid of trying because of fear of rejection since this is what will halt your ability to stand out, and have fun producing.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
Has a fear of failure ever stopped you from doing something?
1. If you’re afraid of mixing and mastering because you’re not good at it, that’s EXACTLY what you have to focus on during your next song. Possibly, even doing mix and master for some friends to practice
2. If you’re afraid of working with vocals because they cost a lot, consider singing on your own songs and then use an AI tool LaLals.com to convert it into a different singer, which can likely solve your issue
Essentially, if ANYTHING in music is getting you fear of failure, that’s EXACTLY what you have to do next after you finish reading this.
