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As musicians there is an accepted level of insanity due to our passion for music 🙂
So I’m curious to know how you keep your sanity when doing all of this work (composing, editing, networking, social media, metadata, recording, researching trends/genres, learning mixing/mastering, practicing, studying plugins, researching libraries, etc) knowing that you may never receive a penny for a full day’s work, etc.
I’m in it for the long haul and love learning all the conventions for cue writing (and when to break them) but I’m starting to think I need to limit Tunesat and PRO website viewing to once a month instead of refreshing the web page incessantly lol
Any other tips or specifically things you stopped doing that were making you mental when you get overwhelmed by all the roadblocks to seeing a return on your placements?
Thanks!
Sabal
Basically I do admin work in the morning, music in the afternoon (I quit at 6:00 PM) and avoid writing on weekends. YMMV but you need to pace yourself.
Great concisely written advice from Art…
Realize you can’t do everything at the same time. As the saying goes, jack of all trades master of none… Some skills/tools will take you longer to adapt than others so don’t sweat secondary stuff like mixing/mastering/the latest greatest software…
Hone your writing chops and time management skills first. Develop a workflow and adapt the secondary stuff when you’re ready to cross that bridge… (Mixing for example improves with repetition…) But definitely don’t think of metadata as part of the highwire act, it’s just book keeping…
It seems like a lot of balls in the air at first. Just learn how to break your work up into areas of focus, and give yourself ‘you’ time or you will wear yourself down. (I’ve been there, as I’m sure others have…)
As far as sanity? What works for me is Meditation. For others it might be exercise, shooting hoops, or yoga… Just find something to you pay yourself with in the form of ‘you’ time…
I’ll offer my take here as I am a part timer at this.
I have a full time somewhat stressful job and would love to do this full time but I see the risk as too great at my age. So for me the insanity part comes when I’m working my day job and I just want to give my 2 week notice so I can walk into my studio every morning and create my own path to success… That is why I look forward to the time in the studio.Over the 5 years of doing this I have learned to create some nice tracks and work with a few libraries that now reach out to me for music and I’d like to think it is because there is a level of quality to what I do. That thought calms me down and helps me focus when I hit the studio at night or on the weekend… In a sense, this venture is my path to sanity… That and Vodka…
knowing that you may never receive a penny for a full day’s work, etc.
..when you get overwhelmed by all the roadblocks to seeing a return on your placements
I think the key is not to focus on the things you have little control over – tracks being placed/sold, the checks, tunesat etc. Sure, stay aware and look at what’s working and which activities are making you money.
But I have found that by focusing on the things I have complete control over – writing and pitching music – that I have more energy and excitement for writing more music. I just do my best. And like everyone here says, it’s a numbers game. Writing more music, constantly improving leads to more placements which leads to growing income.
I definitely stay away from looking at Tunesat and PRO website on a regular basis. It moves you away from where you should be focusing your energy on which is writing and submitting.
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