Should you just QUIT making music?

I’ve been seeing a lot of producers quitting music or just getting less and less excited about it, and even if you’re fully committed to your music now, I’m sure you’ll one day ask yourself… “should I just quit making music?”.

Now, here are a few thoughts on that…

5 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Quit music when it feels more like work than fun.

When your music starts to feel like a chore and stops being fun, I’d seriously consider stopping making music as I have in the past.

There are many reasons why music can stop being fun for you, ranging from frustration to financial struggles, or even your health not being in perfect shape, but, before that, I’d consider a few moves:

1. Call your closest friend or the one who has supported you the most in your musical journey. Sometimes, the lack of support can make you feel pressured and, as a consequence, unhappy, and talking to someone who has seen you evolve through your journey can be reassuring, as it was to me;
2. Go to a club or festival, or just listen to some random music to experience it. Back when I felt like quitting, I remember going to a club to have fun and falling in love with the genre that was playing that night, which ultimately is what kept me producing. Essentially, listen to music to experience it instead of analyzing it, so put on your favorite album and just soak it in. Sometimes, that’s what you need to get back on track;

But, there are a few other things you can do, and we’ll talk about them next…

2. Instead of quitting music, pivot your music completely.

As mentioned above, instead of quitting music, what saved me from quitting was pivoting and creating music in a new genre, completely different than what I was used to (from Progressive Trance, like Above & Beyond, to House Music, like MK, Sonny Fodera and Gorgon City). Why?

Because when you try a new genre, you become a student again, which is the coolest phase within music to be in. You’ll have to discover how to make music in this new genre, which can be really fun because you won’t have to impress anyone, just enjoy making anything. But, how to pivot your career?

1. Find a new genre on Spotify. Just scroll through Spotify and just try to find what could be fun to make. Or, if even that feels like work, just put on a playlist that you like and try to find a pattern that excites you;
2. Focus on what you enjoyed the most when making music. Did you like creating ideas more than developing them? Well, focus on just making ideas in this new genre and screw finishing your songs, as I commonly say you need to. Now, you need to do stuff that excites you before you move back into challenging things;
3. Change the way you produce. Do you normally produce by yourself, at night, alone? Instead, invite a friend, Zoom with them, to jam with you in your studio. Just having someone in your studio can be fun and liberating, which can help you recoup the fun out of music before you quit.

3. Shift your perspective away from success and towards why you make music.

The second most common reason why producers quit is due to frustration with their goals.

“I want to make it in music”, as we commonly say, but what does “making it” in music even mean to you? Again, I’ve already gone through this, and there are a couple of things that you could do as well:

1. Define what success is like to you in music. Do you want to be an artist and tour the world? Do you want to make a livable income off of music production? Or do you just want to be able to release songs? Defining your goal with music can be helpful to clear your mind of what success looks like, and even shift it over time, but they will define “what would make you happy” in music. After you have them set, now you need to define a path toward your goals to keep you on track and prevent you from feeling lost;
2. Take the pressure away from success. The moment I started enjoying my music the most was when I stopped caring about the results, i.e., labels. When you stop putting your happiness conditioned to labels and just produce for the fun of it, normally that’s when you have the most fun with music as it normally brings you back to why you started making music… to just have fun making it;
3. Lastly, celebrate the wins you have in your career, and prepare yourself for the negatives as well. Find a community that supports you, a partner and/or a therapist that helps you keep your mind sharp as that will be needed when negative times come, and will also cheer with you when the good times are there

4. Avoid the music production traps that will make you consider quitting music.

Reason #3 for quitting music is lack of progress, which I’ve commented on in this post and this post. Instead, you must be able to find ways to overcome your issues as, otherwise, having them haunting you will just make you lose your motivation towards your craft.

So, here are a few traps that you should avoid:

1. If you’re stuck in an issue, you need to find a solution for it. Make it your priority to tackle this issue and find ways to solve it, which can be via YouTube videos, Feedback, Courses, or 1on1 lessons, as otherwise, it can make you resent it and just not see a point in music if you think “why should I bother if I can’t solve the issue, anyway?”;
2. Find a mentor. Not necessarily a paid mentor, but someone that you look up to on YouTube, or a teacher who can walk along with you in your journey to help you with your issues. This helps by having someone to run to when you struggle and to develop beyond what you can do by yourself;
3. Focus on one issue at a time. If you know you have 4 things to fix in your songs, focus on fixing one at a time… possibly, one per song, as otherwise it can be daunting and unmotivating. Instead, as long as you fix one issue per song you make, soon you’ll move past your issues and will be making some music you’re proud of!

5. Find a solution for your financial struggles.

Reason #4 for quitting music is the lack of financial support that this profession has, which again I’ve gone through and it was hard to deal with. I spent 6 months just producing and without a job, which was my dream life, and I almost went crazy doing that.

Honestly, I don’t recommend this to almost anyone because you need a LOT of mental strength to support the unpredictability, and lack of results that you may go through, and money not coming in as you wished. Instead, I suggest other things to producers nowadays:

1. Don’t quit your job to make music unless your music is making more than your job. As Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby, once emailed me: “Learn how to do it on the side until you’re making enough to support your music. Then, go for it” (he even wrote a post about this, that you can read here);
2. Find a job that supports your goals in music. I decided, when I was younger, to find a job that would pay me less than what I thought I could, but that allowed me time (important as well) and enough money to produce. The freedom of not having to worry about money when making music was liberating, and this also helps you find funds to invest in your music, marketing, and developing your skills;
3. Find something within music that could support you: Do you like sound design? So make sample and preset packs for companies and get a little extra from your music. Or, do mix and masters for other producers. These would allow you to stay working with music while still making some money (read more about this in this post or in this post)

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

But, look on the plus side… Why is it worth it to keep going instead of quitting?

1. Use music as your creative outlet.
Your music can be a way to express yourself creatively, and that’s a good way to get out of stress, or avoid getting you stressed in the first place.

2. See the benefits of music in your day job.
As a producer, you’ll get used to starting and finishing projects from scratch. Not only this, but you’ll need to develop your focus, which also is highly valued in the job market.

3. Develop your mental toughness.

As a producer, you’ll get used to rejections and how to make the best out of bad feedback, which will help you develop a thicker skin for criticism and how to turn bad situations into learning lessons, both really important life lessons that you don’t want to miss out on.