Hey everyone! I'm a pretty big lurker here. I've been making electronic music since around 2008, learning a lot, etc, and I've learned a lot from this sub! I think we have a great community of helpful, open minded musicians.
Please read this post entirely before making a judgment, because I have a feeling it's going to come off the wrong way at first.
I've been releasing and promoting my music as royalty free, and the response has been fantastic. Obviously I've made no money from it, but that hasn't been my goal. I know the thoughts around valuing your work enough to make other people pay for it, but I make music purely as a form of enjoyment, and have gotten more enjoyment from seeing my songs as backing tracks for small time creators that don't have the resources to pay for music. The thank yous have been enough for me. There may come a point where I try to monetize my work, but that's not what this post is about.
I haven't had a release in a year and a half or so. I've started a ton of songs since then, but haven't been fully grabbed by any of them. I did some reflection and I think I've found my problem. I have an audience now. Even if it's a relatively small audience, I still have a group of people listening to my music, and I know what they're looking for. I've been trying to recreate or make music in a similar vein to what drew them in, and it has killed my creativity.
I don't normally stick to one style. I started out with techno and trance, dabbled in dubstep, I've been working on trap, hip hop beats, etc. I've tried most of it, and have found that House/Electro House is my forte....yet I haven't even started or worked on a song in my strong genres in over a year. Instead I've been trying to recreate things I like from songs I've been listening to, trends, and what I think my audience expects.
This is not what got me started making music. I didn't even share my music at first. It was purely for the enjoyment of making music. I didn't care how good it sounded, or that I was using presets on my synths, or any of that. I was just making music I liked listening to. I strayed from that, and finished a few songs I wasn't very excited about, but knew would be hits (and sure enough, they're some of my most played on SoundCloud). I never planned or intended on making a career of my music, so I don't know why I'm taking myself so seriously.
I'm going to challenge myself. My next 3-5 songs (depending on how much I enjoy this experiment) are going to be songs I want to make. I'm not going to try and shoehorn a successful song, I'm not going to fuss over getting a song exactly how I want it to sound, I'm just going to have fun. I'm gonna screw around, use presets, and just enjoy making music again. It's not that my enjoyment died, it's that my creativity did.
I won't make a big deal of posting progress or anything. This is just for me, to get back into making music regularly again. I don't want it to feel like work or a chore when I open my DAW and start a song.
Thanks for listening to my small rant. I think writing this down and having it public, no matter how small my "audience" is here, will help me stay on track with my goal of just putting out songs I made for my own enjoyment.
You guys rock! Have a good one :)
Submitted October 27, 2017 at 03:12PM by r3djak https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/794z0g/screw_it_im_just_going_to_make_what_i_enjoy/?utm_source=ifttt