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Making Electronic Music in 2017 and Beyond - WHY?

Guest Ralph Nolte

By Guest Ralph Nolte
in EKT General Discussion

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ceiling Rising Star

ceiling

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Hey everyone, greetings from Southern Africa and Happy 2017!
But enough with the pleasantries, let me get to the point...
 
Serious musicians, studio owners, established artists, bedroom producers, hobbyists, enthusiasts, freelancers, pro, amateur - whatever you call yourself, how do you see ANY kind of future creating electronic music for anything else than "for the love of it" going forward?
 
CDs are dead, digital (paid) downloads are dying, streaming is paying less than peanuts, vinyl is just a fad and "going on tour / playing live" is not a practical option for everyone. Maybe if you've been working in a field like TV, film or advertising you might make some money - but for everyone else, especially those starting out from scratch? What's the point - except to be able to say "I've made some tracks and they're available on the interwebs"...?
 
Let's assume you're fine with not actually earning anything from your work - what would be the rewards, the payoff for you? And how do you go about just establishing an appreciative audience for your music? I know this has been discussed previously here at WATMM and on other forums, but what still worked a couple of years ago might no longer be feasible right now. I know the mantras of putting your stuff on SoundCloud, Bandcamp, YouTube, etc. and working social media to grow your supposed fanbase - but in the end it seems only luck really determines if any significant number of people find (let alone "support") your music... I know, I know, there have always been struggling musicians who couldn't make a living with their art and still toiled in obscurity - but is this where we are basically still stuck in this day and age? Are the only people making money in music today those who run the music schools, produce DAW tutorials/courses, program plugins or presets, compile "sound packs", write/produce for mainstream mass-media, work for / are shareholders in one of the big labels or who specialize in copyright lawsuits - with actual creatives existing on the fringes of all this.
 
It's obviously the best of times to be a consumer of music - as you can get basically everything for free with just a bit of googling or youtubing. But even so, how is the current situation sustainable? People still enjoy the experience of music, but mostly won't pay for it. And many (possibly crazy) people still love creating music - maybe getting an upvote or nice comment here & there - but have no realistic hope of ever making a cent out of it all...
 
Thoughts?

 

 

You will go far 

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delet... Grand Master

delet...

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I make it because I become increasingly intolerable. if I don't.

At this point I don't care about making money off it, as long as I get to show it to a couple of friends and play it loud in a bar every now and then.

Yep, because I can, I don't really think any further than that.

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YangYing Grand Master

YangYing

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aye guys get ready because this thread is not about ducks, but could potentially be!

 

you make music for yourself, that's what richard said innit? wasn't that the premise behind rephlex in the first place? and look at the wonderful music they gave us. have any of the people who where signed there made a living off of it? not many, but most of them still make it innit.

 

cylol

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zkom Grand Master

zkom

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I've already got one hobby that became a job. Turns out doing things for fun is more fun than doing them for money. (Insert a sex joke)

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dingformung Grand Master

dingformung

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I usually have many things to do but I hate doing things I have to do. So I need a strong power of procrastination. I only make music so that I don't have to do anythig else at that moment. Actually my whole life is like that: it's the procrastination of a live I could possibly have lived but will never be able to live anymore by now. Oh god I fail so much

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sheatheman Grand Master

sheatheman

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I usually have many things to do but I hate doing things I have to do. So I need a strong power of procrastination. I only make music so that I don't have to do anythig else at that moment. Actually my whole life is like that: it's the procrastination of a live I could possibly have lived but will never be able to live anymore by now. Oh god I fail so much

 

man thats true. it's a myth that "i just wish i could quit my job and pursue music full time!! then i would make it!"

 

it was way easier for me to make music when the act of making music was being irresponsible, putting something else off

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Guest Ralph Nolte

Guest Ralph Nolte

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I'll admit that CDs aren't quite dead yet - was using hyperbole to make my overall point, which is that total sales of music (all formats combined) are drastically declining. Outselling digital doesn't say much when very few people pay for downloads. I've also read that total album sales surpassed 1 billion worldwide in 1981, compared to which today's figures are tiny.

 

The "hype" is backed up by countless graphs which show unit sales and revenue going down. CD sales reached a peak around 2000 and have been dropping ever since. And probably the only albums selling in significant numbers now are by established artists who are cashing in while they still can... You'll also find that older people make up most of those still buying music, while younger consumers are used to getting stuff for free - so who is going to prop up tomorrow's music market as older (paying) consumers literally die out?

 



 

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purlieu Grand Master

purlieu

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Oh I'm totally with you on the overall point of music sales going down, I suppose I'm just sick of seeing people saying CDs are dead - to the extent that I've come across several labels and artists who won't put stuff out on CD because they, in some cases, actually think that vinyl is outselling CD these days. In some markets - Germany and Japan, for instance - the format is holding up incredibly well. There are plenty of CD and CD-only labels around in the underground, and pretty much every major release, from Little Mix to Aphex to a lot of albums that never even chart, gets a CD release as well, so it still crosses styles, ages and fanbases. I would agree that age plays some part in it, certainly, but it doesn't seem as black and white as the media wants to make out a lot of the time.

 

Just a bit of a pet hate of mine, given that CD is still my format of choice.

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