The Worst Fears Music Producers Have That Kill Their Careers

Fear can be a powerful motivator, but it can also be a powerful killer of your music career. Here are some common fears you’ll face as a producer, and how to overcome them…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Are you wasting time with music?

One common fear is the feeling that you’re wasting time with music. Not that you don’t like it, but all the effort that you’re putting in might feel like it’s not worth it, and most of us have already felt this way. Here’s what I’ve done when I had this feeling:

1. Ask yourself why you make music. Music takes a lot of effort, but, as with any hobby that you want to be really good at, there will be times when it feels like quitting. Listen to the first track that you remember, made you feel like you wanted to produce music. Trying to remember why you produce by recreating that feeling, can get your motivation back on track.
2. Ask a friend if they think you’re wasting time. In 2018, I asked a friend if he felt I was wasting time since I was on the verge of quitting music, and he showed me all the good things music has brought me and that this was just a phase and suggested me to try different genres, which is what I did, and that literally saved me from quitting music.
3. Go to a music event and have some fun. One possible reason why you’re feeling like wasting time is that music isn’t fun anymore. So, having a fun night out that involves music can often reignite that passion.
   • If you DJ, grab your gear and play a set for yourself, or throw a small party and have fun with it;
   • Go to a music event, like a show, and just have fun with it. One idea is to go to a gig that is not in your genre, as this can make it easier to disconnect from the feeling you’re having. Just enjoy the music and don’t overthink it, and this can often reinspire you;
   • You can read this post on how to keep having fun with music;
4. Make enjoying the journey your goal. If you’re not getting results with music, that often can frustrate you and trigger the feeling of wasting time, but you need to refocus. Your goal should be having fun making music, and your ‘result-based’ goals should be secondary because if you don’t have fun, you’ll slowly lose your drive to produce; (5)…

2. You’re just not making enough progress as you want.

Another big trigger for the topic above is that you’re not making as much progress as you want, and that is frustrating you and sometimes even making you think you’re just not meant to be a producer. Sometimes it’s even more frustrating because you might not even know where to begin, right? If that applies to you:

1. Learn how to focus on the right thing. The best path to learning music more efficiently is learning how to spot your mistakes and issues so you can quickly correct them, or they’ll slowly burn your motivation. And, there are multiple ways for you to do that:
   • Ask a producer friend what they feel your songs are lacking, as external opinions like that can open your eyes to issues that you don’t even know existed. You can also ask a non-friend producer for a possibly less biased opinion;
   • Compare your songs to your favorite tracks and spot the main differences between them. You can also play them in a set, as this might be easier to spot issues and, if you find anything, add it to a list;
2. Stop looking at your friends’ progress and focus on yourself. A lot of the self-doubt about your development can come from looking at your friends and thinking they are learning faster than you, and because of that, you might think you are not as good as they are. Stop doing that.
   That’s not only unfair to you, as you don’t know if they are spending more or less time than you, but that doesn’t help you in any way. Instead, ask how they are learning, learn from them, and try what they’re doing differently so you can learn like them.
3. Find someone to mentor you. Find a producer on YouTube whose content you like, and follow their approach closely. If you can, hire them to do coaching with you, as this can speed up your learning process, as mentioned in this post on the fastest ways to learn music production.

3. Are you afraid you’ll never be creative again?

Being creatively blocked, can cause you to fear you’ll never be creative again, and getting frustrated or desperate about your lack of progress. If that’s your case:

1. Change your mindset about writer’s block. The more you think you’re blocked, the more you can reinforce that feeling, making it a negative feedback loop and worsening the situation. Understand that you’re in a bad phase, and make it your mission to beat this dragon that’s haunting you. This is how you can start
   • Write 1 or 2 melodies / chord progressions every week to get back to the flow of writing anything;
   • Remake your favorite song, but add your touch to it to try to spark some creative ideas;
   • Collaborate with someone, as your partner’s idea might trigger your creativity;
   • Listen to your favorite music podcast as new songs might inspire you to write new music;
   • Jam with someone as ‘jamming’ means ‘just having fun in the moment’, and doing it with a friend opens more chances of you two writing something you like together;
   • Check out more exercises over here;
2. Lower your expectations. Writer’s block often happens because you’re feeling that you’re not writing music that is good enough, but the best way to beat that is to keep on writing. Anything, literally. Embrace writing bad ideas for a while and practice these exercises, and you will eventually get out of the rut;
3. Use AI to write something for you. (a) Go to ChatGPT and ask for a “chord progression that feels” hopeful, sad, etc. Now put that to your DAW and start writing; (b) Go to Suno.AI, write a prompt, and then see what it makes. Convert it to MIDI inside your DAW and try making it more of your own, add more elements around it, etc

4. Are you afraid of being rejected?

Sometimes, the fear of getting rejected makes you end up ‘playing it safe’, which can make your music sound generic, and that’s terrible for your music because you’ll never sound unique and stand out like that. So, how can you beat this fear or rejection:

1. Care less about being accepted. Not all songs are supposed to be hits, and not all of them will be accepted, and if they are not, so be it. Just try again. The less pressure you put on succeeding, the less pressure you’ll feel if you get rejected, and that comes from focusing on having fun with your music rather than on the results, as said before. Learn from your rejected songs to avoid making the same mistakes, and just do another song;
2. Reframe rejection. Rejection can be painful, but it’s also a learning opportunity. Don’t let it define who you are since it reflects only a moment, or a song, and you can always develop and do it better another time;
3. Start small. If you’re fearing rejection, then start smaller than what you’re currently aiming for. Instead of sending your song for feedback to someone you don’t know, start by asking someone you know, or even someone who’s not a music producer. The simple act of sharing your music will slowly build a thicker skin on you, preparing you to send your music to where you’re afraid of now;
4. Make thousands of songs. Would you be sad if you had one song and it was rejected? What if you had 30 songs, would you be sad if one song was rejected? When you make multiple songs instead of just focusing on one, you’ll lower your fear of rejection since you’ll have multiple others to try again quickly;
5. If you can’t beat the fear, do it scared anyway. You’ll never get accepted if you’re not willing to be rejected, and that is with anything in life. If you’re scared about it, do it scared anyway and hope for the best. The worst that can happen is you doing another song, which you’ll do anyway if you’re rejected or not. Remember, “you’ll never fly if you’re too scared of heights.”

3 QUICK TIPS FOR YOU

What are other fears that you should be aware of?

1. Fear of not making enough money in the music industry to support yourself:
Then, get a job that will give you the financial stability that will allow you to make music on the side without the stress of needing to make money out of it. This can not only be good for your creativity, but also to calm your mind that your music doesn’t have to yield any short-term results, allowing you to take your time to develop.

2. Fear of what others will think about you.
When some producers sign songs for the top labels in their genre, some can often disappear because the fear of signing with a ‘smaller label’ will make them look like they are ‘stepping down’. But, to fans, that happens when you just stop releasing music. This can also happen if you make a remix of a famous song, but you fear people will think you’re a sellout. You’re the only one to decide if what others say of you is right or wrong, so just don’t give a f*** and keep on doing your thing.

3. Fear of AI is going to replace you.
One recent fear you might have is that AI is going to replace you, but does it really? Does AI replace your will to express yourself creatively? Does AI replace the music is your favorite label is signing? I’ve asked some of the top labels in my industry, for example, and they all said they wouldn’t take a song like this. When you realize how much AI changes, you’ll likely see it doesn’t change much, and I even made a video about it to show you this, and you can watch it over.