Making Electronic Music in 2017 and Beyond - WHY?

[usagi]

but why

[Goiter Sanchez]

but why

because we r are why

[usagi]

why, but.

[purlieu]

wipe butt.

[Real Human Bean]

To answer OP srsly I make a living from commissions, royalties from tv+radio, dj sets and live performances.
I make virtually nothing from selling music directly.

I wouldn't have chosen music if I'd wanted a simpler career path/life with guaranteed good pay but I really, really love music so that's how I choose to spend my time.

We could really do with a movement away from tech company owned subscription services which make vast profits for them at the expense of the artist and the quality of the product.

[Hugh Mughnus]

^ very thankful you've chosen this path. Love the tunes I have from you.

[Guest Ralph Nolte]

We could really do with a movement away from tech company owned subscription services which make vast profits for them at the expense of the artist and the quality of the product.

Unfortunately, dominance of music sales by a monopoly of tech companies and streaming sites is exactly where this is all heading... For people starting out in music now I think it's actually both realistic and liberating to assume that you will not make a living out of this - and you can then concentrate on the creative aspects for their own sake. Of course, that assumes you have a proper source of income from something else and still have enough free time & spare cash to make your music production hobby feasible.

 

Trying to actually "make it" just doesn't seem worthwhile: I've seen some videos of a guy in Germany called Jon Sine who's done 200+ daily YouTube vlogs of his day-to-day life as a music producer and it all looks pretty crazy to me: long solitary hours in his studio or in front of his laptop answering e-mails, editing his videos until early hours of the morning, eating junk food, getting little sleep, dealing with a crazy work schedule - all for the sake of "promoting" himself... He's now built up a subscriber base of several thousand, yet he talks a lot about songs he's working on getting cancelled or e.g. an ad production deal falling through. He never smiles and it doesn't look like he's having a lot of fun "making music" (composing his stuff according to strict formulas, I might add)... He isn't even 30 yet, but he's a candidate for a heart attack one day soon - if you ask me.

[Rotwang]

We could really do with a movement away from tech company owned subscription services which make vast profits for them at the expense of the artist and the quality of the product.

If only some high-profile musicians would get together and buy a streaming service. They could promote it with a promise of greater artistic control and better audio quality, or something.

[Silent Member]

flol

[fxbip]

Money is not the point.

 

Art is a visceral need.

 

If you don't make a living out of it you either:

Live fucking poor and deal with it.

or

Find time to make music.

 

If you cant do either of these it means you dont have the need and love of music strong enough yet.

 

When you love it for real you find the time.

You find the time or you are miserable.

 

Even if Autechre would make 0 cash with music and work full time they would find a way to make music.

Even 1 hour each day means 7 hours a week.

Thats enough to make one track a week.

If you double that its 14 hours a week.

Enough time for 2 tracks a week.

 

It's about priorities and how much you are passionate more than anything.

[Lada Laika]

Money is not the point.

 

Art is a visceral need.

 

If you don't make a living out of it you either:

Live fucking poor and deal with it.

or

Find time to make music.

 

If you cant do either of these it means you dont have the need and love of music strong enough yet.

 

When you love it for real you find the time.

You find the time or you are miserable.

 

Even if Autechre would make 0 cash with music and work full time they would find a way to make music.

Even 1 hour each day means 7 hours a week.

Thats enough to make one track a week.

If you double that its 14 hours a week.

Enough time for 2 tracks a week.

 

It's about priorities and how much you are passionate more than anything.

[sheatheman]

posting in threads like this in 2017 and beyond: why?

[chronical]

The payoff is the music itself. I don't know why there's so many people bitching about the money aspect. I'm 21 years old right now and if I can start working on a weird music setup now I'll probably have some sort of Mammon Machine by the time I'm 40. That's what I'm excited for really. 

[thawkins]

Money is not the point.

 

Art is a visceral need.

 

If you don't make a living out of it you either:

Live fucking poor and deal with it.

or

Find time to make music.

 

If you cant do either of these it means you dont have the need and love of music strong enough yet.

 

When you love it for real you find the time.

You find the time or you are miserable.

 

Even if Autechre would make 0 cash with music and work full time they would find a way to make music.

Even 1 hour each day means 7 hours a week.

Thats enough to make one track a week.

If you double that its 14 hours a week.

Enough time for 2 tracks a week.

 

It's about priorities and how much you are passionate more than anything.

I too think this post is pretty much my attitude. I can take breaks from making music that last weeks at a time, but that's just a temporary show to lie to myself that "I can quit any time".

[peace 7]

Money is not the point.

 

Art is a visceral need.

 

If you don't make a living out of it you either:

Live fucking poor and deal with it.

or

Find time to make music.

 

If you cant do either of these it means you dont have the need and love of music strong enough yet.

 

When you love it for real you find the time.

You find the time or you are miserable.

 

Even if Autechre would make 0 cash with music and work full time they would find a way to make music.

Even 1 hour each day means 7 hours a week.

Thats enough to make one track a week.

If you double that its 14 hours a week.

Enough time for 2 tracks a week.

 

It's about priorities and how much you are passionate more than anything.

 

WORD

[Auditor]

 

Money is not the point.

 

Art is a visceral need.

 

If you don't make a living out of it you either:

Live fucking poor and deal with it.

or

Find time to make music.

 

If you cant do either of these it means you dont have the need and love of music strong enough yet.

 

When you love it for real you find the time.

You find the time or you are miserable.

 

Even if Autechre would make 0 cash with music and work full time they would find a way to make music.

Even 1 hour each day means 7 hours a week.

Thats enough to make one track a week.

If you double that its 14 hours a week.

Enough time for 2 tracks a week.

 

It's about priorities and how much you are passionate more than anything.

I too think this post is pretty much my attitude. I can take breaks from making music that last weeks at a time, but that's just a temporary show to lie to myself that "I can quit any time".

 

I have been making music of various genres since I was 12. When I was younger I really believed that I would "make it", or at least make a living doing it, and throughout the years this caused me countless bouts of depression.

 

I talked myself into quitting makign music and sold most or all of my gear at least half a dozen times, yet I always ended up feeling like a part of my soul, or something, had been killed in the process. 

 

Making music is in my dna and, for better or worse, I can't stop. I've been broke and on the verge of homeless numerous times - at one point I was literally stealing Publix subs every single day in order to eat, and only had a bed to sleep on because I had a girlfriend that ended up dumping me two days before I finally found a job. 

 

Tl;dr - Music is a damn disease, at least for me. But it's a relatively safe one unless you have a severe case of GAS and no job. 

[TubularCorporation]

I moved to a new city a few years ago and never managed to find a drummer I liked playing with here, and eventually I go sick of commuting to the next state (without a car, no less) every weekend to practice and play shows and decided fuck it, back to home-recording solo electronic music for me.

[Auditor]

I will also say that it is one of the most pleasurable activities I know of. On par with drugs and sex. There is nothing else that can make 5 hours pass in what seems like 30 minutes. Sittin in the studio alone is my calling. 

[YO303]

what a ridiculous op, you make music because you love it, lol if your motivations are to make money go open an arby's 

[Auditor]

what a ridiculous op, you make music because you love it, lol if your motivations are to make money go open an arby's 

[Entorwellian]

The guy who made the Devil Fish mods was talking about the psychoacoustics of analog signals, particularly with regards to how capacitors do not discharge their energy completely when receiving different response curves (like repeating high frequencies and resonance), mimic that of a distressed animal cry and that there is a primal attraction to that sound. You could probably write a whole set of books on the topic.

[xox]

The guy who made the Devil Fish mods was talking about the psychoacoustics of analog signals, particularly with regards to how capacitors do not discharge their energy completely when receiving different response curves (like repeating high frequencies and resonance), mimic that of a distressed animal cry and that there is a primal attraction to that sound. You could probably write a whole set of books on the topic.

So if my music sucks atleast i can be sure that ppl would like to feed it?

...or to give me money to feed it myself?

[Entorwellian]

Either of those or you're just attracting predators to your location.

[Silent Member]

I was thinking about quitting but it is hard to give up the wall to wall pussy.

[Braintree]

The guy who made the Devil Fish mods was talking about the psychoacoustics of analog signals, particularly with regards to how capacitors do not discharge their energy completely when receiving different response curves (like repeating high frequencies and resonance), mimic that of a distressed animal cry and that there is a primal attraction to that sound. You could probably write a whole set of books on the topic.

 

 

A couple days ago, I actually had the idea of changing my ringtone to a very small sample of a baby crying to see how affective it would be at getting my attention.

[edit] Instead of a pleasing 'plunk' sine wave sound.