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Post by pt3r on Jul 24, 2024 13:27:30 GMT
I wish this title was click bait, but it isn’t. I feel like I’m heading nowhere with my music and I have no clue about the algorithms and how to play them to get my music out to potential listeners. Sure, music is not a meritocracy and this is just a hobby but it sure as hell sucks to pour your energy in crafting tracks, sculpting your sounds and tryIng to build compelling pieces of music and getting hardly any listeners and/or interaction. So yes I hope I’m just in a temporary rut or otherwise keep your eyes peeled for the for sale section of the forum.
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Post by saltatempo on Jul 24, 2024 13:55:20 GMT
Hi, I wish you this is just a temporary rut.
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Post by robertlanger on Jul 24, 2024 15:41:10 GMT
Great you have the courage to share your feelings! Totally feel you, and I think this is something that happens to almost everybody who is doing something creative. I hope, the musicians here can give some helpful support!
In the meantime: Just take a break; things are usually changing, and a state of "stuckness" never remains forever. All the best! <3
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ketap
New Member
Posts: 17
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Post by ketap on Jul 24, 2024 17:06:17 GMT
Hi, fuck, but for me your stuff is directly linked to my still new approach to modularity, so don't give up, your stuff is important to people, even if it doesn't always seem that way.
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Post by leethargo on Jul 24, 2024 17:28:14 GMT
I don't mean to give advice, but last week I had my first experience in participating in a jam session, and this was really refreshing.
At first, I was nervous, and felt that I couldn't keep up with the others (7-8 in total, all feeding into one mixer and sharing a MIDI clock).
But then, it helped me focus on just one "thing" that I could add to the mix, so just a drone, or bassline, or some percussion, and stick with that for 10 minutes.
If I were sitting in my office all by myself, I'd have probably rushed to add more things quickly, then let it loop for a while and become bored with it.
So, my point is, maybe a collaboration would be more engaging, both in not having to bear the full responsibility by yourself, but also in managing expecations and deciding to move on etc.
I wonder to what extent random signals (eg RBSS, S&H, Sloth) can take over that role...
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Post by admin on Jul 24, 2024 23:50:42 GMT
I've burned out years ago and have greatly reduced my output while always trying to keep a pilot flame burning. In the end, music and synths are a hobby for me and any pressure I may feel to "perform" or to be "successful" is totally self inflicted and I'm slowly learning to claw my way back to the pure enjoyment I felt in the "early days" of my Synthing.
I think it's OK to recognise the burn out, step back and be kind to oneself. There's already so much pressure on people from their jobs, families, politics, climate change, war, etc. It's important to cultivate those little pockets of peace ... and if they don't provide this peace and enjoyment anymore ... move on and find something else to enjoy ... and maybe later on come back to it.
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Post by maydonpoliris on Jul 25, 2024 2:05:45 GMT
This is such a honest/tough/legit feeling and not one of ego or trying to be famous. Even if it's a hobby it's nice to get some element of feedback/recognition on your creativity otherwise you get to the point you are at On a personal level my opinion is that whenever I think of Ae I think of pt3r and deofol and you have been an inspiration since the start of my journey. As far as your music goes I believe your music just keeps getting better. Me screaming as I listen to Dead Pan over the nursery speakers "For the love of the Ae gods give this man some love and encouragement" I feel you mate 🖤 Keep your head up, try to keep focus on enjoying the process and journey for you rather than the 99% of listens are 30sec or less algorithm which will suck your heart out, step on it while branding a 'not wanted' sign on your forehead. Anyway mate love your work |
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Post by pt3r on Jul 25, 2024 7:43:01 GMT
This is such a honest/tough/legit feeling and not one of ego or trying to be famous. Even if it's a hobby it's nice to get some element of feedback/recognition on your creativity otherwise you get to the point you are at On a personal level my opinion is that whenever I think of Ae I think of pt3r and deofol and you have been an inspiration since the start of my journey. As far as your music goes I believe your music just keeps getting better. Me screaming as I listen to Dead Pan over the nursery speakers "For the love of the Ae gods give this man some love and encouragement" I feel you mate 🖤 Keep your head up, try to keep focus on enjoying the process and journey for you rather than the 99% of listens are 30sec or less algorithm which will suck your heart out, step on it while branding a 'not wanted' sign on your forehead. Anyway mate love your work Thanks for the love and support mate, it’s definitely the journey that makes it worthwhile. I know very well that this music will not get us famous or whatever but the feeling of some unseen force deciding whether people will listen to your music is just so depressing. It feels like music no longer belongs to the artist and the audience but rather a bunch of algorithm makers and other clever ‘promoters/reviewers’ who are making money of something to which they contribute f*** all, apart from deciding who will listen to what. Eventually one starts to doubt their own creative decisions and all of a sudden you think ‘what would the algorithm like?’, and that is such a scary realisation because you feel like you are betraying yourself since you no longer create something that you believe in. I really hope to get through this because it sure as hell sucks and I would not wish it to any creator. A good thing is that I know that new gear will not solve this issue. GAS is not the answer. |
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Post by saltatempo on Jul 25, 2024 10:24:17 GMT
Oh yes, I think that GAS Is part of this problem
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Post by feijai on Jul 25, 2024 11:05:02 GMT
So I spent the better part of my sabbatical this year constructing a sequencer. Not just any sequencer, but a radically new sequencer unlike nearly any sequencer in history. My goal was to use it as a base for new research approaches to computational co-creativity. We'll see.
I'm about to release it as open source. But I have no delusions about how many people will ever use it: probably zero will. It is too unusual, to different from sequencer tradition, and too incompatible with the DAW ecosystem. This is a bit depressing: it was a lot of work (about 30,000 lines of code) and a lot of ideas and time, producing a single conference paper so far and a piece of software nobody will use. But I did it because it was in *my* head and I had to get it out. I didn't do it for anyone else but me. If other people get use out of it, more power to them.
I'm a musician but I'm not one trying to make it on spotify, so I can't put myself in your shoes. But you must always ask yourself: fundamentally who are you making this music for? If the answer is anything other than "myself", then it's just work.
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Post by pt3r on Jul 25, 2024 13:21:51 GMT
So I spent the better part of my sabbatical this year constructing a sequencer. Not just any sequencer, but a radically new sequencer unlike nearly any sequencer in history. My goal was to use it as a base for new research approaches to computational co-creativity. We'll see.
I'm about to release it as open source. But I have no delusions about how many people will ever use it: probably zero will. It is too unusual, to different from sequencer tradition, and too incompatible with the DAW ecosystem. This is a bit depressing: it was a lot of work (about 30,000 lines of code) and a lot of ideas and time, producing a single conference paper so far and a piece of software nobody will use. But I did it because it was in *my* head and I had to get it out. I didn't do it for anyone else but me. If other people get use out of it, more power to them.
I'm a musician but I'm not one trying to make it on spotify, so I can't put myself in your shoes. But you must always ask yourself: fundamentally who are you making this music for? If the answer is anything other than "myself", then it's just work.
I hear you on putting work into code noone but yourself wants to use, been there myself, but at least in the end you still have the code that you can use. I’m not trying to ‘make it’ on the spotifies or other soundclouds, not really sure how I would even define the ‘making it’ part. It’s more an overall frustration with the algorithms that seem to dictate visibility of your music. Soundcloud is at least transparent about it, pay us money and people will hear you. Do I want people to hear my music yes, do I want to pay another party to allow that to happen? Not so much especially since that party had nothing to do with all the time and effort I put in my music, yet they would be the ones making money of it which is basically the same perversion that spotify business model is all about. |
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pol
Wiki Editors
Posts: 1,308
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Post by pol on Jul 25, 2024 16:31:53 GMT
I wish this title was click bait, but it isn’t. I feel like I’m heading nowhere with my music and I have no clue about the algorithms and how to play them to get my music out to potential listeners. Sure, music is not a meritocracy and this is just a hobby but it sure as hell sucks to pour your energy in crafting tracks, sculpting your sounds and tryIng to build compelling pieces of music and getting hardly any listeners and/or interaction. So yes I hope I’m just in a temporary rut or otherwise keep your eyes peeled for the for sale section of the forum. I wouldn't sell anything, you may well regret it later.... I have had this feeling on and off for years as I originally wanted to be a "pro" musician but my actual career was too enjoyable and time passes. The biggest thing I've learnt (too late?) is twofold; the depressing one (if you let it) is that no ones' music really matters - it may matter to you but if you look at the best selling single or album of the year/ all time etc. it is still only a small percentage of the population actually bought it... This I feel is sad as music can do so much for us, making or listening. The experience - composing, jamming, playing live or whatever has to be fulfilling for you, anything else is a bonus....
The more relevant thing is how do people find your music; I actually did have quite good sales (by my standards!) in the early 2000s which, not by coincidence I feel, is also when I put the most time into promoting it. In modern times with the deluge on social media it is almost impossible unless you are already known, possibly by building a following playing live ironically. The other part of this is networking, I am very poor at this myself but building contacts in relevant industries, (radio, TV, local venues, Podcasts etc etc); being pushy, but not too pushy, is what seems to get people places. With your style of music there are various "record labels" that may promote, Groove Records in the Netherlands may be interested for instance, and there are playlist mixers around if you rummage on whatever social media you are happy to use. I got some interest just from posting a new release link on Twitter for a few years. The thing I am trying currently is making videos for Youtube, some new songs and some old, and this appears to be building slowly. You may be, like me, thinking Bandcamp was brill as it's essentially free unless you sell something but the down side is how do people find you even if they are using Bandcamp - pay for Bandcamp radio? can you be the featured artist on the homepage etc?
Anyway, I feel your pain as been there myself so many times, and brings me back to my mantra:-
The experience - composing, jamming, playing live or whatever has to be fulfilling for you, anything else is a bonus....
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frndo
Full Member
Posts: 108
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Post by frndo on Jul 25, 2024 20:57:10 GMT
I´m feeling too burned lately..and I decide some little things to change; and these changes maked some better diffusion of my music. Maybe you will try, to do something like this: change your style of music; make better audiovisual material (better recordings, plus some visuals or landscapes); send your music to your local netlabels, participate in small venues, etc. Good luck!
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Post by tIB on Aug 7, 2024 20:58:57 GMT
My overly simple contribution is do it for yourself, and when that's not rewarding don't do it.
Music/art isn't created for an audience, it's created for the artist; don't get hung up on who is or isn't listening, just try to make something that you can be proud of.
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Post by tIB on Aug 7, 2024 21:13:19 GMT
I'll also go a step further and ask you to define what success is for you - for me it's creating something that I am truly proud of, not how many sales/listens it gets.
And that happens rarely - the bits I'm not proud enough of drive me to improve. Sometimes, like now, I'm not inspired at all. That's ok - take a break.
I've been doing this over 20 years now - I haven't counted, but there's maybe 15 minutes worth of music in that time I'm truly proud of. Maybe an hour if I'm being generous... and that's ok!
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Post by Gaëtan on Aug 8, 2024 18:19:52 GMT
Connect with local people. Do gigs. Associate with local artists for common projects and events. Your music is always going to matter more to flesh and blood people in your own city than trying to blindly reach strangers worldwide on the internet. Of course this is harder is you live in a sparsely populated area.
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