@OGBama @2GooD Productions I have a feeling that either I wrote something wrong or you misunderstood my intentions. So let me clarify and let me refer to your posts so that you have a better perspective of what I mean.
The only people you should be trying to get discovered by is fans. "Waiting to be discovered" translates to me as "waiting to be exploited by one of the most fucked up dirty industries".
If you want to be "discovered", given a massive loan that is expected to pay for EVERYTHING, that you will most likely never earn back or ever receive a royalty check for, then carry on. It will likely not end well.
"The only people you should be trying to get discovered by is fans. "-> Well... This is what I've been trying to do for the last 7 years. And maybe not only this. I wanted was to get clients, people who would buy beats from me or with whom I could form business relationship to secure a steady income. And I'm not talking about income that would allow me to buy a mansion on Bahamas. Let's be real here. Of course I used to have dreams of being famous etc but my main goal was to support my living from making music and being within the industry. That means making enough money to buy food, pay the rent, buy myself some new clothes from time to time etc. Just to cover living costs. Later on after I was failing to find those clients etc they transformed into "getting a bonus from time to time". What I mean by this is I'd have a normal job and from time to time I'd have a collaboration with someone or someone would ask me to buy some of my beats and I'd get some extra cash.
opportunities aren't going to fall from the sky and land in your lap, you need to put yourself in front of those people, you need to hustle, make connections, people that know people and grow your circle and grow your opportunities, in music or any other industry.
In life and many businesses its not always what you know, but who you know too.
Don't even get me started on this one... I'm tired of all this talk about "hustling" and "chasing opportunities" and stuff like that. Man, I've been uploading my beats since the 3rd July 2016. Since that time I uploaded 132 beats to my YouTube channel and for this moment I have 88 400 views (half of those views was generated by one remix that was magically promoted by the algorithm). I was making beats when I had 50 subscribers and I was uploading 2/3 beats every week then. Since the very beginning I tried to make connections with a local rap scene. I had some collaborations like the one with you when we made a beat tape. I even went to Poland's Got Talent (although I was singing there not making beats). I participate in some remix contests like recently I took part in Rockstar Energy Drink remix contest where the task was to remix an original song by one of the best Polish remix artists and producers - Tribbs. The goal was to remix instrumental from this song:
But I knew I would blow it because first of all I received an info about this contest about a week before the deadline where I needed to send a remix and it was in the middle of the exam session on my studies. I barely found 3 hours to make it. So I knew it wouldn't be anything special. Especially when I heard other submissions that were distinguished (because on the website with this contest they were posting the best submissions that they got).
I tried to get into this business also in the other way: last year I took part in a contest organised by Newonce Radio - it's a radio in Poland and they were looking for a radio host. The task was to record yourself talking about the recent event in pop culture (I chose Eurovision because it was right before the final concert on the Eurovision contest) and prepare an exemplary playlist consisting of 10 songs. So I did it and I never heard back from them.
So concluding,
please don't throw all these blank phrases about "putting yourself out there", "you gotta hustle" blah blah blah. Everyone hustles here in some sense (I mean on Illmuzik). Everyone's trying to make it somehow. These are the words that I've heard millions of times from some motivational gurus etc. So
please spare me this. I'm too old for this kind of bs. Really, the reality doesn't look like this. You can burn yourself out "hustling" (I f*cking hate this word for real), you can work your ass off and get nowhere.
The one thing that I do agree with you though is that it's more important whom you know. But somehow for me it's much more difficult to make connections within this artistic world than it is in a business one. This is why I came to conclusion that music will probably be just my hobby. But who knows maybe I will meet someone from the industry who will open some doors for me. I don't know it. The thing that I do know though is the fact that
I'm not actively looking to meet someone like this. The problem is also with my personality - I wouldn't want to get somewhere just because I know someone and someone referred me somewhere. Even in my professional career I had some moments when someone referred me somewhere and believe me it didn't make me feel good about myself.
The satisfaction from achieving something on your own versus getting it handed on a silver platter can't be compared.
Another thing is the fact that for example in my professional career I see constant progress. I earn more and more money every year although I make small steps. I know that I earn good money (I mean good for me), but I know that I can earn more in 2 years, 5 years etc. But every point on my resume symbolises better salary. So I do feel happy with my current workplace. Probably for the first time in my life. I'm finally happy with my regular job because it's very enjoyable and the conditions I have are great to me.
When it comes to music recently I got more subscribers but that's it. It's
still just my hobby and I know for a fact that
brand Memento Beats is finished and dead. Basically, uploading new things to Memento Beats Official is pointless because I ruined the algorithm for this channel over the years. I would have to create a new brand and the good thing about it is that now I know how to create a brand. I know that all elements have to be coherent with each other. The colors of your graphics/ thumbnails, fonts and especially the sound of music. You have to be consistent. It has to give a sense of familiarity to people. I also know how to make things more entertaining to viewer/listener. But although I know all this stuff and I know that I would be able to create a new channel that could be more successful than Memento Beats I don't know if I want it.
You mentioned that I'm still young but I don't feel like that. As I mentioned the older I get the more pragmatic I become. And now if I have to choose between spending time on learning something that in a few years will give me better job opportunities (for example learning a new language, learning some technology, tool etc) and spending time on making music I will probably choose the first one. And if it's not the first one then I prefer to just chill, go to the gym, play basketball, go running, watch a movie, play a video game. Because at the back of my head I have those hundreds of hours spent on making music that literally got me nowhere.
So that's it. I hope this clarified my point of view a little bit.
