With any endeavor that you pursue in your life, there always is a reflective point where you have to properly analyze and dig deeper into figuring out whether something is for you or not.
Most new music producers face this challenge of figuring out whether music is truly what they want to do or not. This is something that I’ve gone through, and is something that led me to go ahead and create this website because it was clear to me that this is what I wanted to do.
Through out my journey, I’ve had a lot of experiences which made me want to share and give you an idea of how you can figure out whether music production is actually for you or not.
Use this post as a way to vet yourself to understand and know whether music is for you or not.
Passion
Your passion about music production will always be the number one indication of whether it’s the right career for you.
There are the a lot of other factors that come into play but passion will be front and centre because you have to love what you do.
Passion is everything in the music production business because it isn’t an easy career choice to thrive in. It is highly competitive and there are no economies to scale in this business.
Therefore how passionate you are toward trying to achieve great things as a music producer will speak millions about how well of a career it is for you.
Assess how passionate you are and then figure out if this career is for you.
It fits your desired future
Let’s face it, the older you grow, the more you start becoming more and more intentional about the outcome of your future.
If you have a future in mind that you want for yourself, use that future to determine whether music production actually fits in it. The more music production fits your desired life outcome, the more likely it is that its the right career choice for you.
This point is closely related to your passions because of course your future is basically a sum total of all your passions. Assuming you’re a person that got into music production as a way to excel at it, then it is more than likely part of the future that you want for yourself.
Feedback
The feedback you get from people that listen to your work as a music producer will also speak to whether it is the right industry for you.
If people consider you a good producer, then you could be different and this uniqueness could be your strength.
After having produced for years, you’ll obviously get a lot of feedback and will have a following. Use opinions from people as the necessary feedback needed for your growth.
Your opinion becomes sought after
The more you become an expert in your work as a music producer, the more people will come to you for advice.
In other words, if your opinion carries and provides a lot value for other people then you might want to hold on tight and pursue this thing fully.
Music production fits your lifestyle
Let’s face it, you don’t get into an industry like music production if you’re not atleast aware of the lifestyle that comes with a successful career.
Not everyone can be a music producer this is mainly because most peoples lives cannot comprehend music production as a day job. Therefore, a good indication as to whether music production is for you, will be how well your lifestyle matches to this career.
You’re inspired by those successful in your career
Another key factor you can use to determine whether music production is for you is inspiration.
If you’re genuinely inspired by music producers and their work then music production is the right career for you because inspiration comes from a place of passion.
If you’re passionate about something, the industry experts in that particular field will be your source of motivation and inspiration to grind it out.
KEEP GOING!
Skin in the game
You basically won’t have an idea if the particular industry you choose to go into is the right one for you unless you actually do it. You need skin in the game.
The longer you have been at it as a music producer will speak volumes.
If you have been doing it professionally or as a hobby for years then it is likely to be the right career for you.
You should probably go ahead and ask yourself whether the headaches you get from producing are worth it or if moving to a different career would be the best course of action.
This is a personal question that only you can answer, if you’re a newbie reading this post trying to weigh your options. I’d advise you to start producing music and do so for at-least a year.
After a year, you’ll be in a better position and will have the necessary insider information necessary to determine whether this is the right field for you.
Nassim Taleb perfectly expresses the importance of having skin in the game in his book:
“For studying courage in textbooks doesn’t make you any more courageous than eating cow meat makes you bovine. By some mysterious mental mechanism, people fail to realize that the principal thing you can learn from a professor is how to be a professor—and the chief thing you can learn from, say, a life coach or inspirational speaker is how to become a life coach or inspirational speaker. So remember that the heroes of history were not classicists and library rats, those people who live vicariously in their texts. They were people of deeds and had to be endowed with the spirit of risk taking” – Nassim Taleb
You don’t give up easily
The difference between people that become successful and those that fail, is the level of commitment and their ability to stay in the fight and not give up.
If you’re a person that hasn’t given up on music, or has been fighting to work on their craft for a long time then music is certainly for you because your tenacity reveals how passionate you about this industry.
Passion is at the heart of any music production career.
You continuously strive to get better
Your ability to keep improving and working on your craft is a great indication that you should probably keep producing.
If music production isn’t for you, then you wouldn’t exhibit the passion of trying to excel and get better at what you do.
your sheer will to keep improving is enough validation that you belong in the music production industry.
