should we stop

[ZenPunkHippy]

The risk of stopping making music is you might take that extra time and money you have and do something like golf.

Which would make you a cvnt.

[Tricky-Loops]

Quote from Reinhold Messner as response to the question if money is the most important:

Nein, es ist die Fähigkeit zur Begeisterung. Begeisterung ist Lebenslust. Wer sich begeistert, stärkt seine Lebensqualität.

Translation:
"No, it is the ability to enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is love of life. Anyone who is enthusiastic about something strengthens the quality of his/her life."

[xalama qo]

The risk of stopping making music is you might take that extra time and money you have and do something like golf.

:shudder!:

Yeah, especially in a mommy-skin suit! I'm watching you, whoever you are...

Back OT... nope, I could never give it up. I relate to the short bursts and forgetting to eat or sleep until it's just right scenario mentioned above, and when producing IS your job, albeit unchosen, that's a horrifically nasty cycle to try to get out of.

When music becomes your career you have to find a new hobby to relax. When your career is video editing and soundtrack production then watching TV or going to the movies doesn't quite do it anymore.

You have to get really disciplined about the rest of your life. Up at a decent time, exercise first, play guitar for fun for 30mins, ok, 9am, check emails, ok 11am emails done, what's the project today? Britney Spears sound-a-like, ok, beats and bass done, 1:30pm, lunch, what's the lunch menu for monday? Tuna on toast? ok, done. Back to Brit. Shucks, 6pm already? where did the time go? Home, supper menu for Monday? Chicken stir fry and veg, done. No tv, too tired to read. Walk around the block...nah, stroll around the block. Shower, in bed by 9:30, can't sleep cos of all the things I haven't done and don't get time to do. Wakeup, repeat.

One reasonably well known producer in London once said to me, "you probably get more time to play with this stuff than I do". At the time I had a regular day job, and he was right. He doesn't play. He works at writing songs, developing new artists, mixing for better known artists... I never did ask him what he did to unwind.

Anyway, in between all of that there must be a happy medium. And some producers are just legendary for their energy levels (natural or enhanced?).

Dunno. Music as a job is a no-go for me now, but there's no way I'm just gonna chuck it all in! I love it too much!

[Arglebargle]

If you don't enjoy making music then should definitely quit. If all you're worried about is being a commercial success you should quit as well.

[audientronic]

Having a whole orchestra at my finger tips is its own reward.

GAS is the only thing that spoils it for me. But it's a double-edged sword.

[cryophonik]

If you don't enjoy making music then should definitely quit.

That pretty much sums it up.

[Numanoid]

If you don't enjoy making music then should definitely quit. If all you're worried about is being a commercial success you should quit as well.

+1

But I guess that means that 80% of those employed in the music industry at the mo', really should go looking for a new job

[Frantz]

Many of us have been making electronic music for over 10 years.
Obviously we (me to) aren't really successful at it.

Define success. Are you referring to commercial success or artistic success?

[justin3am]

If you can stop, you may want to, from time to time. Whether you should, is a decision only one person can make.
Many cannot stop, so there is no decision. It will come out despite efforts to stop.

I think it's often a good idea to change directions rather than "stop". Music can be exhausting, emotionally and physically. Some times a change in direction can be exhilarating, revealing or reinvigorating (depending on the path you choose).

[robogone]

The risk of stopping making music is you might take that extra time and money you have and do something like golf.

Which would make you a cvnt.

I always think of Robin Williams when I think of people playing golf - "The manly sport of golf where you can dress like a pimp and no one will care"

[V0RT3X]

If you can stop, you may want to, from time to time. Whether you should, is a decision only one person can make.
Many cannot stop, so there is no decision. It will come out despite efforts to stop.

I think it's often a good idea to change directions rather than "stop". Music can be exhausting, emotionally and physically. Some times a change in direction can be exhilarating, revealing or reinvigorating (depending on the path you choose).

+5

[tehlord]

Many of us have been making electronic music for over 10 years.
Obviously we (me to) aren't really successful at it.

Define success. Are you referring to commercial success or artistic success?

Money, power, poontang.


Not necessarily in that order.

[jancivil]

Many of us have been making electronic music for over 10 years.
Obviously we (me to) aren't really successful at it.
We wouldn't be wasting our time here if we were (Moby excluded - we don't know why you keep visiting KVR)

What's the use?

I can't know anymore what someone means by 'electronic music' unless I have noticed them defining it previously.
Does 'successful' mean getting paid often and a lot? Like an Avicii or one of these other musical infants? The paths to that involve, first of all a really low common denominator and a conformist behavior, if not pandering to that behavior, and second of all will take quite some positioning, socially, to achieve.

Or do you mean Skrillex? That haircut's taken. There is a certain novelty factor going on there, but what I said about social positioning is true, and I guess that one has a live show he tours, which gets the product in the people's faces and probably brings in more money than the recording. The person making money in music is out among people, selling, selling concessions, the CD is available on a chrome dinette table or somewhere. The notion of getting paid from your bedroom studio because you're just so bitchen as an artist is clueless.

And f**k Moby. I come here for entertainment, it's essentially a skewed Facebook experience for me, without the face or the like option. The people that really go for my music are not what typifies KVR for me. It's a certain form of time-wasting for me, I don't expect it to help my standing in the music world FFS.

I only ever wanted to be a musician. That has naught to do with any other person or fashion or a means to any other end. If this is not true for someone, there are other ways to be I suppose.

[V0RT3X]

I think if you want to be commercially successful in anything you need to think like a business person.

Look at how Marilyn Manson went from a complete nobody to somebody. He had something he wanted and just focused on it relentlessly until he got it. Of course he might be a extreme example, but there are others. The one thing about Manson is that he also started out with NO musical training at all, and basically taught himself on the go.

He also kind of turned into a media frenzy, but he knew that it was getting him attention by the way he was acting and it worked. This is just one extreme example at getting commercial recognition.

If you want more go get it man! It also helps to have industry contacts.


I mean you could spend the rest of your life learning jazz and what not and still be very very broke. Sometimes making those first few sellout albums is what helps jump start your career.

[jancivil]

If you want to stop, do it! There is no 'we' here, you won't bring me into it.