Ableton Forum

beats me wrote:But has your workflow and knowledge of your tools improved to the point that it’s become less time consuming and you can see over the top of the hill to where it’s going to be less, well, work?

Not really. It's not a question of tool knowledge or efficiency, I think I have those down. It just takes times to build a really large and solid client base doing what I do. I'm doing better than I expected I would be at this time, but it's not like I'm raking in dough and can kick up my feet waiting for the "super jobs". 3 years in and I'm confident I can make a living doing this, but I have a long way to go still before it's easy street.

I made almost twice what i do now working in bio-tech, AND I had more time for my own music (without being burned out from working on other people's music all day).

Not complaining, just being realistic about what this kind of work entails.

Angstrom wrote:I work for myself, which involves getting up at 11am, drinking endless coffees until 2pm at which point I lumber into my "office" and get down to some serious forum posting and checking facebook/ reddit.

After a couple of hours it's time for lunch, which is at least another 2 hours of pissing about until I'm ready to get back to "work".

(6pm-8pm ) I do two solid hours of actual work and then it's time for another meal, another two hours of faffing about. Then at 8pm I go back and attempt to finish off what I started earlier but somehow wind up making music and surfing aimlessly. I figure I'm tired, and stop work for the day.

I take a week day off usually to go shopping or socialise.

So, that's um, about 8 hours a week.
Hard grafting. It's hell I tell ya!

I know that routine well. This is why I'm going back to uni next year.

Tarekith wrote:

beats me wrote:But has your workflow and knowledge of your tools improved to the point that it’s become less time consuming and you can see over the top of the hill to where it’s going to be less, well, work?

Not really. It's not a question of tool knowledge or efficiency, I think I have those down. It just takes times to build a really large and solid client base doing what I do. I'm doing better than I expected I would be at this time, but it's not like I'm raking in dough and can kick up my feet waiting for the "super jobs". 3 years in and I'm confident I can make a living doing this, but I have a long way to go still before it's easy street.

I made almost twice what i do now working in bio-tech, AND I had more time for my own music (without being burned out from working on other people's music all day).

Not complaining, just being realistic about what this kind of work entails.

Self discipline is the key. I think I have worked out by now that I don't have any.

I used to work 50 hour weeks as a matter of course. Past year or so I've whittled it down to 45. I've noticed some of my team mates have too.

We have "core hours" when you're expected to be on site (to facilitate meeting scheduling), but so long as you get your projects done on schedule you can set your own shift around those core hours. But we have crunch periods 2-3 times a year when we're all doing 60-80 hours a week- but again, it's all down to whether you can get your stuff done on time.

40 hours (germany) nothing more or less because the most important thing for me is a good work life balance. i love my job but i work to live and not live to work. i know another times and this isn´t worth. im working more when it´s necessary like a migration (informatics) or something like that.

University excluded? 3-6 hours. Sometimes a bit more. Sometimes a bit less. Laziness.

Contractor self employed. I work 250 hours one month then nothing at all the next. Does crazy things to your gear lust for sure.

35

I teach. My contract says 40 hours but most weeks I'll run well over that doing admin or grading. We have in theory long holidays but quite a lot of them is spent planning or grading. It probably works out 40 hours per week averaged over the year and we do work pretty hard in those 40 hours (exception today as it's the end of term and we're all winding down.....)

About 60% of the time I love my job which I reckon is a definite win even though I'm not paid as highly as many of the people I know outside my work.

probably 20-30, idk...self employed these last 15 years

gotten lots of snowboarding in this last week, everyday...next week i need to work some more

i live very simply, i like it like that

On average I work 50 hours a week. But many weeks I'm up around 60 and above -- particularly right now. The good side is I'm the coffee roaster (and buyer and wholesale sales manager and equipment tech etc) for a small (but growing!) coffee roastery, so I always have as much caffeine as I could possibly need, and usually way more than I actually want. The down side is that by the time I get home I'm either too wiped out or too spun to work on music much. To say nothing of making dinner/dishes/working on homework with the kiddo.

Music production, much to my dismay, usually gets relegated to the weekend. I'm lucky if I get one full day in, and then maybe a couple of hours on the other weekend day.

But I am happy to have this job in a field I love and work for a small growing company.

Chris

40-45 hours a week.

I've worked jobs where Ive done 60-70 hour weeks but the toll it took on my health and sanity just wasn't worth it. It would have to be a really special job for me to ever do that again.

Forge. wrote:Self discipline is the key. I think I have worked out by now that I don't have any.

Maybe the problem is the hustle? If it were setup like a regular job with regular hours that somebody just handed you projects to do during your work day it would be a lot more manageable?

LOL, of course it would be easier, that's the hard part of it all.

Tarekith wrote:LOL, of course it would be easier, that's the hard part of it all.

So I assume there are production houses that do what I’m talking about but they are few and far between and the money earning potential isn’t as much?