Living the Craft or Just Pleasing Yourself? Advice for Aspiring Music Producers
Being a MUSIC PRODUCER has become a real trend in the music scene: young people pass around tracks they've made themselves and start showing off their achievements. But there's one big question for all of them: “Have you ever truly LIVED this craft?”
In this article, Muse Inc shares some hard-won lessons for young people who want to pursue a career as a producer seriously and professionally.
1. Be serious
If you're young, full of energy and overflowing with love for music, that's a great start. When we're young, we give everything to what we call passion and enthusiasm — but this is still a profession, so you have to be serious and professional from day one.
Yes, it's a creative, artistic job, but taking your work seriously — the knowledge you gain and your plan for growing your career — is what will help you keep improving in this field. You should also understand that no one succeeds with a half-hearted attitude, doing it just for fun or to please themselves and waiting for success to come crashing in.
And when success does arrive that suddenly, it tends to evaporate without a trace in the Vietnamese music market.
2. Knowledge
Technology such as the internet and even AI is a very powerful tool, but remember that it's a double-edged sword. You can easily make a beat as good as any professional producer's, but it's built only on what you picked up online or had AI generate — and you don't yet have the ability to filter information based on your own knowledge.
On top of that, there are more and more groups and communities for sharing and self-study, which shows a huge hunger for knowledge. But the people who really know their stuff are few, and when they do share, it's hard for us to understand. Countless tips & tricks get posted in these groups, yet if things stay like this, we'll never get it right.
You can't rocket to the top without properly arming yourself with the knowledge a producer needs. Otherwise you can easily be pushed out of the industry, because it only keeps those who are truly good enough to work at a high professional level.
3. Keep pushing forward
If from the very start you think “If I'm good, people will come to me”, you can easily waste a lot of time waiting for nothing.
Producing, like every other profession, takes a drive to improve if you want to go far. You need to lay solid foundations before you can build a sturdy house — and here, the foundation is striving to grow in everything: knowledge, experience, hands-on practice and relationships.
4. Ability
Hard work makes up for talent, since not everyone is born gifted. But when you're serious and work hard at your craft, your ability will gradually level up.
For example:
- You weren't born with a great voice, but you know how to coach others to sing properly
- You weren't born with perfect pitch, but you understand what the music market wants
- Your tracks aren't great yet, but you have friends who can help you improve them
Muse Inc believes you've seen examples like these in the producing world yourself. More than that, Muse Inc hopes this article helps you see more clearly whether you're truly living the producer's craft you've chosen.
A comprehensive music production course at Muse Inc is the ideal stepping stone on your path to becoming a professional producer. It's never too late to start.
