Ableton Forum

Good advice cubehog

I'm 32 and have had the same feelings recently: 15 years in the Bat Cave damn I need some life light ! Also obsession is good up to a point but can backfire if you start hating it, negative energy can be creative but will stifle productivity if used exclusively, balance is much better.I've invested so many years of my life and sacrificed many experiences for music that I feel theres nothing else but to forge on, treating my music venture as a metaphore for the journey of life, if you accept this and enjoy it for what it is and not any fame/commercial reasons you will have many years of creativity ahead. Most importantly comparisons don't matter forcing yourself to be someone else is never gonna be sustainable and will leave you feeling empty as its not a true connection between you and your music, and remember you have atleast one thing over the young wippersnappers experience!
You could waste 2 years learning to program C and M4L as I have done (treated it as a music production holiday) now I'm chomping at the bit to bang out some new material.

Generic Fomulaic fashion music is boring only usefull for commercial success I'd rather have 100 interested customers than 10,000 fashion zombies.

Do it for the love of it!

Something is sus. If you really think your music is that good, and that people really are missing out, then why didn't you post up links to your tracks in 72 point font in your original post?

LeifonMars wrote:

Sibanger wrote: I'm 46 and I'm fucking far from good looking!!

Freak!

Thank you very much !

Good posts above. OP don't buy into the age = loss of creativity myth. You never hear that said about jazz, blues, etc... or just about any other artform do you? It's a myth that evolved around the idea of the 'star' as somebody who encapsulated the hopes and dreams of the younger listener which is part of the packaging of the record industry system which is currently in decline.

Yes, go and get a real job.

I mean sorry to say this, and i have no idea until you post and id love to be proven wrong, but i have a feeling, but my feeling is that either your music sucks something fierce( somewhat unlikely) or you just keep fucking everything up and going to the wrong venues(likely). bad/ok music + wrong venue = total failure.

but heres the most important thing to learn from your current situation: whatever you are doing, you need to stop. its not working, and shit man, after 7 years youd think you could get a little more than one gig. i let random people(dozens) ive never even met play once with me.

ok so lets think, your music, please post it! but for some reason im betting its like ambient(again no idea, just going off trends of live forum) or something else really boring. you are there to either sell tickets(a little) and sell alcohol(ALOT!). i never charge a door, because ill make twice as much money off an alcohol deal. so door is meaningless, dont use it unless absolutely needed. i personally feel like im stealing from my friends.

secondly, jesus dude, how can you meet all these people and not make gigs happen? i think there is something seriously wrong with you, in the nicest way possible. like do you talk about yourself alot? are you whiney, are you a drug dealer or drug dealer lookin dude? are a faggy hipster trying to play dirty south rap? its very important to find the right place.

if theres not a built in crowd, you have to bring one, and it sounds like you dont have one at all. if you dont bring one/cant handle one(with one gig i wouldnt trust you with my crowd) then you surely wont be asked to come back, unless you threw the party and paid for everything and made all the money(something lots of people do, for fun and money and they suck sometimes)

i have a friend like you, hes a great dude, pretty normal, maybe a little nerdy and weird compared to most people but nothing crazy, and he made decent enough music, mixed well etc, but the thing was he had no social skills or knowledge of the scene. he never went to shows or anything, i honestly dont know how he got into electronic music. but anyhow he would ask everyone to be on his street team, hand out shitty ass cds all the time, basically thought his music was awesome and didnt understand why noone really liked him or came to his shows.

he couldnt relate to the audience(hes since started DJing and really upped his game) so therefore he couldnt give them what they want. i mean what else is there to do except give them what they want? if you cant do that, noone wants your shit.

i suggest taking a break, not on music just spread out, play blues guitar, jazz drumming, whatever, gaining perspective and coming back with new vigor and viewpoints. I really dont understand why youve only had one gig, i know people that are terrible and play all the time, and one gig in seven years is downright strange especially if youre good.

i really hope for the best for anyone thats following their dream, especially music, but like i said, you need to start a journal or something and write shit down pertaining to music and think "this is what im doing, did it work or not? reaction of individual?" and keep a log of what works for you and what doesnt. get bar owners/managers names and call them once in a while and ask if they need an act coming up, its really that easy.

tell people you found a new song on youtube and let them listen, instead of telling them its your song, it gets you more honest opinions.

sorry for the shitty wall of text, and sorry if i come across as assholish its truly not my intentions, think of this as man talk after weve been drinking(i have been)

tl;dr: stop doing whatever it is that you are doing, and try something different. whatever you are doing is not working, and likely will not work anytime soon, as its been 7 years already.

and BTW i played the shittiest shows ever with low or really inconsistant turnouts, cost me money to play, very discouraging and made me want to quit. i djed a dudes bday party, met the bossman at the bar. that was almost 3 years ago and i setup homebass (pun) and he really helped me out for helping him out and i have more gigs than time and its fucking awesome and worth every moment of sucking in the beginning. it took me a while to figure out how to give people what they want, the way i want to get it to them.

and also, help anyone out you can and never turn down a show for any reason. and dont piss anyone off in the scene, they may have more sway than you think. these three things stick with you for a long time, and i think bad ones stick worse than the good ones...

sorry wall of text im rambling, i just like to tell everything ive learned to try to make it easier for someone else.

Koala111 wrote:I've been producing and mixing for about 7 years. I've only had 1 gig, and despite some friendly comments, none of my tracks or mixes have really garnered much attention. I relocated and took 6 months off from music due to being frustrated. I'm once again inspired to make music and mix. The problem is, I'm 27 years old, competing for gigs with much younger talent, and a lot of the producers you see getting signed these days are also much younger. The gigs that I try to secure are usually given to much younger talent. It really takes down my confidence and makes me think my time has passed. It's kind of a scary thought. I've spent literally every penny I have on equipment, ruined relationships for this music, and have put so much time into it. I love producing but I'm starting to think I'm too old to compete with the younger generation. I'm also realizing that creatively, I'm "losing it". I'm not pushing the barrier as I did when I was younger. My tracks are becoming very generic and it's just frustrating. I feel like I've wasted a lot of my life making music. While my friends are getting married and having kids, I'm still sitting around the midi controllers, trying to make tracks. I've got nothing to show for all the years of producing.

I always believed that if you really want something, try and try again. Fail, fail, fail, and try again. I've wanted this more than anything in my life. LITERALLY. But I just couldn't breakthrough. I'm out in the middle of a snowstorm every weekend handing out my promos. I think I've given out about 5000 cds (They all include info for booking) without a SINGLE email or phone call. My music IS of good quality, and my mixes are very nice. I don't know if this matters but I'm a good looking guy as well but obviously that has no advantage. I just don't get it.

Why didn't you post a link to your music?

lasersounds wrote:I mean sorry to say this, and i have no idea until you post and id love to be proven wrong, but i have a feeling, but my feeling is that either your music sucks something fierce( somewhat unlikely) or you just keep fucking everything up and going to the wrong venues(likely). bad/ok music + wrong venue = total failure.

but heres the most important thing to learn from your current situation: whatever you are doing, you need to stop. its not working, and shit man, after 7 years youd think you could get a little more than one gig. i let random people(dozens) ive never even met play once with me.

ok so lets think, your music, please post it! but for some reason im betting its like ambient(again no idea, just going off trends of live forum) or something else really boring. you are there to either sell tickets(a little) and sell alcohol(ALOT!). i never charge a door, because ill make twice as much money off an alcohol deal. so door is meaningless, dont use it unless absolutely needed. i personally feel like im stealing from my friends.

secondly, jesus dude, how can you meet all these people and not make gigs happen? i think there is something seriously wrong with you, in the nicest way possible. like do you talk about yourself alot? are you whiney, are you a drug dealer or drug dealer lookin dude? are a faggy hipster trying to play dirty south rap? its very important to find the right place.

if theres not a built in crowd, you have to bring one, and it sounds like you dont have one at all. if you dont bring one/cant handle one(with one gig i wouldnt trust you with my crowd) then you surely wont be asked to come back, unless you threw the party and paid for everything and made all the money(something lots of people do, for fun and money and they suck sometimes)

i have a friend like you, hes a great dude, pretty normal, maybe a little nerdy and weird compared to most people but nothing crazy, and he made decent enough music, mixed well etc, but the thing was he had no social skills or knowledge of the scene. he never went to shows or anything, i honestly dont know how he got into electronic music. but anyhow he would ask everyone to be on his street team, hand out shitty ass cds all the time, basically thought his music was awesome and didnt understand why noone really liked him or came to his shows.

he couldnt relate to the audience(hes since started DJing and really upped his game) so therefore he couldnt give them what they want. i mean what else is there to do except give them what they want? if you cant do that, noone wants your shit.

i suggest taking a break, not on music just spread out, play blues guitar, jazz drumming, whatever, gaining perspective and coming back with new vigor and viewpoints. I really dont understand why youve only had one gig, i know people that are terrible and play all the time, and one gig in seven years is downright strange especially if youre good.

i really hope for the best for anyone thats following their dream, especially music, but like i said, you need to start a journal or something and write shit down pertaining to music and think "this is what im doing, did it work or not? reaction of individual?" and keep a log of what works for you and what doesnt. get bar owners/managers names and call them once in a while and ask if they need an act coming up, its really that easy.

tell people you found a new song on youtube and let them listen, instead of telling them its your song, it gets you more honest opinions.

sorry for the shitty wall of text, and sorry if i come across as assholish its truly not my intentions, think of this as man talk after weve been drinking(i have been)

tl;dr: stop doing whatever it is that you are doing, and try something different. whatever you are doing is not working, and likely will not work anytime soon, as its been 7 years already.

and BTW i played the shittiest shows ever with low or really inconsistant turnouts, cost me money to play, very discouraging and made me want to quit. i djed a dudes bday party, met the bossman at the bar. that was almost 3 years ago and i setup homebass (pun) and he really helped me out for helping him out and i have more gigs than time and its fucking awesome and worth every moment of sucking in the beginning. it took me a while to figure out how to give people what they want, the way i want to get it to them.

and also, help anyone out you can and never turn down a show for any reason. and dont piss anyone off in the scene, they may have more sway than you think. these three things stick with you for a long time, and i think bad ones stick worse than the good ones...

sorry wall of text im rambling, i just like to tell everything ive learned to try to make it easier for someone else.

some tough love right there

Merged these two similar threads.

Also, FWIW, I'll throw my vote in with "age ain't nothing but a number."

A true artist will always be creative no matter how old they become.
Age does not matter. Especially now with the internet and all the bloggers that will talk up you music. Nobody needs to know age and what you look like, just as long as your music sounds amazing, right?

Yep. 27 is pretty young to be thinking yr past it. You have years ahead of you... thats just fatigue and sadness talking.
On the other hand, not getting anywhere with mailouts and looking for gigs over 7 years is evidence of a flawed approach. If I can get gigs anyone can. Maybe move somewhere with a more lively/appropriate music scene and get networking with some different people.

are you too old?
fuck no.

are you too naive to think that you will make it in the big business?
fuck yes.

sorry to say this but the few people who actually make alot of money on their music either sold their soul to the devil (warner bmg group then heh), or they are very very lucky.
get a job, do music on the side. perhaps sell a record or two and do some gigs.
don't expect to live on it though because chances are pretty damn high it won't happen.

i can say this; you are too old to still be having the rockstar dream.

Make your own gigs.

Kids today...It's all about fame, fortune and and instant gratification...They all think it's their birthright to be superstars.

Spent more effort telling us how he looks and how old he is than he did about his music.

That shit only matters if he wants to be Justin Bieber.

Talent, hard work and a commitment to the music are merely impediments to their goal of being on Entertainment Tonight.

Like the song says, you gotta have a gimmick if you want to get ahead...

If you music you're producing is indistinguishable from the stuff that
everyone else is churning out in that genre, how is yours going to stand out?