Do You Produce Music for Fun or Professionally?

[Harry_HH]

Or even - people, who really DO music (for fun or professionally), are too busy for responding.

[Mister Natural]

I have no choice but to.

right - it's in my blood and has to come out

[Distorted Horizon]

almost all of my outcome ends up commercially.

Link? Wanna hear.

[recursive one]

almost all of my outcome ends up commercially.

Link? Wanna hear.

+1

[justin3am]

He may not have the right... I have signed quite a few contracts which prevented me from distributing my own material after it was in my client's hands. I haven't submitted any of my work for placement in years though, so things may have changed.

[Zexila]

almost all of my outcome ends up commercially.

Link? Wanna hear.

+1

Sure, my good buddy is doing this stuff and I hit him up with some of my WIP or whatever 8 bar loop I got in a DAW at that moment, on a deadline he even find a way for them in his work, like this for example, he just looped part of my rough sketch, sometimes just enough.

[foosnark]

I'm posting here while writing software professionally. (Or more specifically, while waiting for Visual Studio to instrument this enormous pile of code barf so I can profile it...)

To me "fun" barely scratches the surface of how important music making is for me, but I don't do it for a living. Until yesterday, there was a 10 year gap since I last sold music rather than giving it away (and back then it paid for the CD duplication fees and maybe a sandwich). I performed in a semi-professional taiko group for a while, but the money it earned went into instrument and facility expenses, not the performers.

More recently I've gotten the occasional cool bit of gear for beta testing. If I could average about 100 of those per year instead of 2.5, and sold the prototypes that I was allowed to keep, I guess that would work.

I make music for an audience of me. Partly out of enjoyment of the process, but definitely with the intent of making music I want to listen to myself. If other people also enjoy it, or are willing to throw a few dollars at me, that's a nice side effect, but I'm not going to get too bothered about pleasing a target audience or doing any more than minimal promotion.

Gotta admit though, I wouldn't mind a career switch into making horror and SF soundtracks if I happened to stumble into it through dumb luck and was immediately successful

[CrystalWizard]

Neither; it's part of who I am

+1

[herodotus]

I record bands professionally. Often I have quite a bit of input, more than I would like to have in many cases.

I have drummed in cover bands a great deal, and I used to license out a great deal of music through Taxi. But in the end I hated it all.

Now I make the music I want to make, for fun and because I have written way too many songs that have never been heard except in my head. But the idea of subjecting my children to the cruel exigencies of the commercial world is too unpleasant to contemplate.

That's what is good about recording other musicians. I help them realize their dreams, and pocket a decent fee for my work, without ever having to compromise my ideals. Win-win.

[CinningBao]

2 years ago I opted to leave the industry I had earned good money in for the previous 20 years, to focus on doing what I love and getting paid for it, and that is pop songwriting and production.

So I started working for a small talent agency kind of thing 2 years ago, the job entails working with young singers to help them write songs and produce them to the managers satisfaction. The work is great, sometimes I walk out of the studio in awe that I actually get paid for it. But it is hard job building a reputation strong enough that people actively seek me out after hearing my work, or word-of-mouth type thing.

Recently I started working for another agency as a songwriter/producer, and the management there say they love my work, and want to give me more clients, and that's all I want really! Dream day would be I am hired for a 12 hour session with a singer/songwriter/band with the expectation of a 90%+ finished song at the end of the session. I love the pressure of writing under duress, to spec, with someone I've never met.

Of course I still make my own music, or weird sonic experiments, or plugin prototyping, or just trying to better at everything, including producing/mixing/arranging/writing.. and damn I need to do more synthesis exploration.

Still not earning enough to support myself entirely but that will slowly, as I get more clients, change. Hopefully! I've given myself 5-10 years to achieve some kind of success (in the form of money) at which point I'll.. well I don't know!

I feel grateful enough to be in the position I'm in. I don't have to think about anything but music and sound all day long.

Sorry for the life story!

[STi_NJ]

I'm totally with you. I always ask myself why I bother but 20 years later I'm still at it so there is something I enjoy about it. But isn't it so sad when you put all that work into something and hardly anyone listens. Although I wouldn't want someone to bother if they didn't like it anyhow.

Ha - so true. Thinking about it now, I think it stopped being fun once I became obsessed with the EQ, the mix, searching for the 'perfect' sounds - trying to match whatever producer I was listening to at the moment. I've got to just get back to basics and have fun with it again. Whatever happens, happens.

[STi_NJ]

That said, I really had a hard time getting through all the technical details. It's that kind of voyage where one has to stay positive

Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in the technical details to the point where the actual music takes a backseat. I paid for that Deadmau5 production course awhile back. Not a huge fan, but I wanted to see his workflow. One of the first things he says, is to not get caught up in technical details at the beginning of a project.

[fluffy_little_something]

I produce as a hobby more than anything. It used to be a lot of fun, and sort of still is, but I find myself wondering sometimes lately why I put in all the effort to complete and mix tracks that a couple friends might listen to once or twice. I suppose I've got to stop thinking about it like that and just have fun. After all, what got me started years back was fiddling around with knobs on a vintage Minimoog my Uncle had.

Why do you guys do it - if not for money?

Yes, at the end of the day we do things for the acknowledgement of others. Without others I don't even know whether what I do is crap or not.
I suppose that explains why I no longer feel like opening my DAW most of the time, it has become more of a ritual rather than something I like to do. Maybe I am approaching the point where I can admit to myself that making music is a waste of time in my case, and move on and do something that makes more sense, maybe even benefits others.

[STi_NJ]

Yes, at the end of the day we do things for the acknowledgement of others. Without others I don't even know whether what I do is crap or not.
I suppose that explains why I no longer feel like opening my DAW most of the time, it has become more of a ritual rather than something I like to do. Maybe I am approaching the point where I can admit to myself that making music is a waste of time in my case, and move on and do something that makes more sense, maybe even benefits others.

I hear you man. I've approached that same point. Thing is, something keeps bringing me back to it. Whether or not it's a waste of time depends on what you're wanting out of it. Give it some thought before you abandon it. Maybe take a break and just enjoy other people's music for awhile and see if you're inspired.

[Robmobius]

Hobby only... But I still seek perfection.