What do you make music for? 🎹 🎶 🎸

[enroe]

That's ultimately the ultimate question:

----> What do you actually make music for?

The question is only aimed at composers who produce their
own music. Because composers usually sacrifice a lot of time,
passion and money for music.

So the exact question here is: What is the motivation behind it?
Is it personal vanity and the fight for attention: "I'm something
special: I make music, I'm a star!" Or is it more the process of
composing and inventing itself that provides satisfaction?

Important notice: Keep in mind that answer options (3) and (4)
are almost identical - and that here it's actually a matter of
whether you choose (1) or (5). And that you are honest with
yourself.

[foosnark]

I make music only for myself. I certainly wouldn't mind more recognition, but I don't want to be famous as such, either. If I could make music for a living -- on my own terms, without compromising, chasing trends, bending to other peoples' will, or having to market myself -- that'd be wonderful. So would winning the lottery.

So I don't pursue money or fame, I just make music. I earn a very small fraction of what I spend on gear, but what I get out of music is still very much worth it to me.

[donkey tugger]

I find as I've I've got older (though not necessarily wiser) it's definitely more 5. When I was a young whippersnapper in bands we wanted to be famous etc. Now the thought is appalling. Nice quiet life with a secure job etc, do a bit of music purely for the fun of it, and it's nice if a few other people like it. Plus I'm in no way now beholden to anyone else - can write what I want, when I want etc. I do admire the discipline though of those who write stuff for a living, must be bloody hard motivating yourself at times.

[seafire]

5

Just for pleasure/fun/relaxation

[harryupbabble]

for fun
but it would be great to make a living from it
i wouldn't mind my songs becoming famous
but i wouldn't want to be famous myself

[jancivil]

But none of the above particularly apply to me. I make music qua music. Per "just for myself", that smacks of solipsistic a bit, but I'm not making it for anybody that isn't me, ie., for social approbation. I seemed to have been building a career when I got hurt but that was a byproduct of what I was doing, not because I pushed for it. Playing live was a gas! Standing ovation for singing when I'm not any singer was an amusing side reward, it meant I framed the activity right. I can't do live so much anymore, so I do this other behavior, by myself. I've been small town notorious and consequently the subject of gossip, which was basically just disquieting; I sought the bigger pond.

Whether it's recognition from couple dozen or a miillion people isn't going to matter to me after I'm gone; AFAIC seeking celebrity is filling a certain hole in oneself. "Ultimately who gives a f**k anyway", is one of my favorite quotes, of somebody who in the end modeled "[posterity] doesn't matter" for me.

[jancivil]

as regards the for what, I suppose I want to hear something I'm not hearing elsewhere (this besides doing things as an exercise meant to improve technique and understanding, involving a certain degree of emulation). Like the question in here a week or something ago, 'where do I find music that meets these specific criteria,' my answer would be make that happen your own self. But I didn't reckon that's the answer they're looking for, so I checked my impulse to comment.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I make music only for myself. I certainly wouldn't mind more recognition, but I don't want to be famous as such, either. If I could make music for a living -- on my own terms, without compromising, chasing trends, bending to other peoples' will, or having to market myself -- that'd be wonderful. So would winning the lottery.

So I don't pursue money or fame, I just make music. I earn a very small fraction of whaut I spend on gear, but what I get out of music is still very much worth it to me.

Taaa Daaa

Saved me alot of one finger typing.

[VOODOO U]

It's only when music gets taken away when people will realize it's a drug. This is why musicians are taken advantage of and taken for granted.
Coke goes in through the nose, heroin through the veins (predominantly), alcohol and weed through the mouth....and music through the ears. Note it's not just sound, it's music.
With that in mind, I write to get high off my songs. I won't settle for anything less than a good hit.

[seismic1]

I make music solely to hear the incredulity in my "loved" ones voices when they ask me "Why do you make music?"

[kritikon]

Purely for myself. Occasionally the missus gets played stuff I've done but only after she hassles me to hear it, and nobody else gets to hear it. I don't give a fk what other people might think about my music - it's not for them. Fame? Nah, don't want it. Money? It's highly unlikely music would make me anything like what I earn from my job. I'm honest enough to know I'm not that good anyway. Tried doing it for that decades ago when I were a young 'un and the whole process of trying to "make it" completely turned me off. I instantly hated it and it leached all the joy and fun I had making music.

[funky lime]

i make music because it's the only skill i have. so i guess, for validation... i.e. to convince myself that i'm not a total waste of space and time. and also because music feels very central to the human experience, in a primal sort of way. life itself is a rhythm, an oscillation, just like the physical world itself. an act of music is like an act of worship.

[vurt]

5, or i might do something more accessible.

why i do it? i enjoy the process and moulding sound in to a shape that pleases me.

what is it for? dunno, don't care once it's "done".
it's the doing that matters.

[cryophonik]

In the past, I was a working/gigging musician and did it for both fun and income. Since much of my current music is made in collaboration with singers, it’s more appropriate to say that I do it for “us”. I’ve never had a desire for fame or fortune, but some of the singers I’ve worked with had dreams of making it big. Also, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t pretty cool to be seen as a bit of a small-time rockstar on the regional college circuit back in my 20s. But, that gave me just enough taste of it to know that it wasn’t something I ever seriously wanted to pursue.

[jancivil]

I could have articulated why I don't buy into [literally] "Just for myself". It seems impossible to think that way, albeit I do see people occasionally that seem nigh on solipsistic. I expect anybody that likes what I do has similar tastes - very similar tastes frankly - as my own. So there's 'this will get 'em off'; but there's no 'They'll f**king hate me for this!', even as one might be indifferent to this particular thing while another thing is very 'close to their heart'. I have seen bitter disappointment though, which at the time wasn't as funny as it sounds now.