If you don't seem to be going anywhere, should you just stop making music?

[schnapsglas]

one simple bit of solid advice. unless your 100 percent sure that your even better at something else, DO NOT sell your gear. because you will come back. better to to do something badly yet know how to do it badly, then try to do something completely different that you don't even know how to do either good or bad.

This is a grim yet solid advice. There IS a way to make money by doing something with your gear (apparently, I've been told) if you are creative and can brand yourself.

I would like to answer all serious music makers, even among all this noise, can cut through on their own, but I know that's not true. It is unfortunate.

[AstralExistence]

one simple bit of solid advice. unless your 100 percent sure that your even better at something else, DO NOT sell your gear. because you will come back. better to to do something badly yet know how to do it badly, then try to do something completely different that you don't even know how to do either good or bad.

This is a grim yet solid advice. There IS a way to make money by doing something with your gear (apparently, I've been told) if you are creative and can brand yourself.

I would like to answer all serious music makers, even among all this noise, can cut through on their own, but I know that's not true. It is unfortunate.

very grim, if theres one person in this thread that know EXACTLY what he feels, how he feels, and what the solution to his problem is, its me. i started writing music back in 2003 on ejay, since then, ive owned every major host on pc except cakewalk sonar. since 2004 when i went legit, i have spent so much money, on plugins, and have bought and sold reason over 4 times also maybe, 1800 on refills/samples.

also, in 2008 i got an inheritance of about 1000, what did i spent that on? what didnt i spent it on. i spent all of it, on different hobby experiments, games, tons of art software, from vector to as obscure as fractal, jigsaw puzzle software, pixel art, voxel art, and in that time, from 2004 till now, i go back to music, then do another hobby.

but, i ALWAYS come back to music production because its the thing that i know best. op, do you know what i do in music production? i just make little loops, beats, but never finish anything but, back in the day, i wrote tons of songs, i would love to finish just one song, but like you that light has burned out for me, so i do what i said i do, i accept that. i make the most of my hobby, i ACCEPT that i may never finish another song till i die. and, yet to the day i die i will continue to play around with music. i dont give a flying f**k what people think and if they say im not a real musician/producer.

nobody can tell me that im not, because we all do our own thing and yet, most of us will never find sucess but we keep on trucking because its the thing were best at, and we know HOW to suck at it.

[AstralExistence]

op, im sorry if thats off putting, but anything else would be a lie. believe me, there a lot of people out there in the same boat, who just don't have the balls, to come forward, fearing ridicule. and if my 'to much information' post helps just a single person to reflect and accept. well then i hope ive helped somebody in some way.

[schnapsglas]

op, im sorry if thats off putting, but anything else would be a lie. believe me, there a lot of people out there in the same boat, who just don't have the balls, to come forward, fearing ridicule. and if my 'to much information' post helps just a single person to reflect and accept. well then i hope ive helped somebody in some way.

You are right. I am not too far off.

It takes courage to say "nothing I'm doing is working so far" rather than the standard phrase "I have projects at various stages of development."

But I think I got the fire in me stronger than ever. So, maybe, I can try to make it this time.

[rp314]

Perhaps it is helpful for you, but not a single musician I have ever had any admiration for looked at music that way. Most of them just did their thing and accepted the consequences.

Skandalkonzert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Skandalkonzert of March 31, 1913, was a concert of the Wiener Konzertverein (Vienna Concert Society) conducted by Arnold Schoenberg in the Great Hall of the Musikverein. The audience, shocked by the expressionism and experimentalism of the Second Viennese School, began rioting, and the concert was ended prematurely. The fight between a concert organizer and Oscar Straus led to a trial.

The program listed:
• Anton von Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
• Alexander von Zemlinsky: Four Orchestral Songs on poems by Maeterlinck
• Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
• Alban Berg: Five Orchestral Songs on Postcard Texts of Peter Altenberg, Op. 4. Both the lyrical and musical side of this premiere were seen as provocative.
• The concert was ended before the scheduled performance of Gustav Mahler's "Now the sun wants to rise as brightly" (No. 1 from the Kindertotenlieder)

During Berg's songs the audience called for both poet and composer to be committed, despite it being public knowledge that Altenberg was already committed to an asylum at the time.[1] Though not present at the concert he was granted leave to attend the dress-rehearsal that morning and three days later he wrote a prose sketch depicting Alma Mahler there.[2] At the concert it was during Berg's songs that the fighting began. At the trial, Straus commented that the thud of the punch had been the most harmonious sound at the entire concert.[1]

History and contemporary echo

The first performance of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder was held on February 23, 1913, in the Great Hall of the Musikverein, under the direction of Franz Schreker, and was an overwhelming success. But the composer, offended by the previous conservative attitude of the Viennese public, refused to accept the applause. In return, the audience took revenge a few weeks later in the next concert of contemporary works there.[3] Press reports from the period mention tumultuous riots: the followers of Schoenberg, his students, and opponents yelling at each other, throwing things, disturbing the performance, destroying furniture, etc. Several times, conservatives outraged by the audience cursing, climbed the stage to slap around Schoenberg.

Oh, the good old days when composers were treated with so much love and respect...

[hersoot]

...So it begs the question, do I try and sell what I can to recoup some of my huge investment? What if the muse strikes again later?

It's probably wise to keep some of your equipment; and if the muse strikes again, strike her back.