Aethyereia

Full-Time Music Production – A Taste

By Phil/Kords | Published 23 July 2023 | No Comments

Word Count: 742
Time to read: 00:02:58

Towards the end of June 2023, due to some unfortunate and unavoidable circumstances, there were some massive changes in my office. I would rather call it a shakedown in the department that I was working in. We had a little over three months to decide and choose where we want to be henceforth. I had a taste of Full-Time Music Production.

During this moment, my manager asked us to work from home with no workaround. So, I decided to follow my keen interest in music production – ‘full-time’.

This is what I learnt:

Before I get into that, I have a few impediments that I want to bring up-
I did not have my dream PC, to begin with – I did not earn any revenues yet, music was not yet live, and my home studio was not yet fully set up.

Right now, the work is less. I am not working for others or in any freelancer role to make music for others. I am working for myself. My focus is on learning, implementing and executing.

1) Can’t force creativity – During the day, I could not force myself to work on creating music. One should have the right frame and a fresh mind. Sometimes when I open the DAW and try to finish my tracks. My mind does not want to proceed, and my heart is blank. It is such times when I notice that the track has its own time of completion. Other than laziness and other commitments, I have observed it to be true.

What happens when I truly go full-time? I envision that I should already have an established base of listeners, fans, followers and clients. I also hope to have my team of freelancers ready to promote my work. This will also happen in its own time.

I have this ‘problem’ when it comes to writing as well. For example, when I had this blog idea – Full-time Music Production – A Taste, I had already completed the first two paragraphs last week.

Does gentle forcing does the trick?

It does sometimes. Assurance is not guaranteed but one has to train the mind to do stuff. One should make a timetable to organise oneself and stick to come what may.

I am yet to go by this method by creating a timetable or a schedule where I stick to the plan. For example, Mondays can stick with optimising YouTube channels, Tuesdays can be the days dedicated to learning, and so on. It has been going on in my mind – the implementation is still pending.

Setting up a schedule is a good way of gentle forcing. There are days when it will work and when it may not due to external factors that come into play. These external factors are things we have no control over. That’s why it may be prudent to assign two different days for the same purpose. For example, blogging and scriptwriting could be used on two separate days but done interchangeably.

I can make a song in 2-3 days. That means I can take a week to make 2-3 songs at the most. The numbers aren’t that bad and workable. Let me clarify this – I did not work at a stretch. I gave myself enough breaks in the mornings, afternoons and evenings with no pressure. You cannot force creativity, and you must let it flow like a river.

You have to let your creativity breathe in between. Taking breaks is important, and letting your ears rest is all the more important for health and maintaining a healthy listening ethic. It is particularly true when music producers use studio monitor headsets like I do for making music. So, to break the monotony, I watched some videos on YouTube and checked out some posts on Insta in the interim.

Doing a 9 to 5 job and following my dreams side-by-side is possible. The urge to go full-time may arise if I work on many projects. These projects may need my full attention. Importantly, if I earn enough to cover those expenses that my regular salary could not.

I haven’t given enough thought to do client projects in the initial days if I go full-time. I like to concentrate more on releasing songs after song, launch artists, collab with other artists. Perhaps, with the income I am looking for, I would also like to travel the world collaborating and scouting for artists elsewhere.

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