I may not be the best to advise, but it all starts with what you like to achieve. I've encountered many musicians and producers who really like to play at some event, or in some club. In general, most I encountered wanted just that. The creation of music is part of that wish. You didn't mention you want to perform, so you may not want that at all. Just using Spotify to 'sell' music, requires millions of streams to get some real revenue. Bandcamp allows you to sell your music giving you more money. But in the end, you need to increase your audience. This could be through advertising in social media channels. Start a TikTok channel (in case music fits the audience at TikTok), or YT channel to promote or grow your audience so you can monetise through in-video ads. Or in case you like to perform somewhere, you can hand out, or sell CDs with your music. The latter requires a plan to get to gigs.
All in all, I think the plan starts not with your limitations, but what you want to achieve in let's say 5 years from now or 10 years. If time and money was not a topic, what would you like to do with your musical talents? The answer to that question should be the goal to set and work backwards to how to get there.
Indeed. I'm not going from a standing start here - been releasing stuff for a couple of years and take part in a couple of (brilliant) music communities.
Whenever I've discussed this before, and we've discussed it a lot, that's exactly where I start - what does success mean to you? Without knowing that, how can you plan to get anywhere? And the answer will be different for most.
So I've been happy to release the odd track or EP as I've been going along, but more recently - mainly as I've been getting good feedback from artists I respect and opportunities to work with folk like that as well - I thought, could I take things further? Whatever that means. ;-)
I think there's loads of folk like me - amateur/hobbyist musicians of a certain age. Not necessarily interested in making it big anymore (again, whatever that means) - but my observation is that many of the tools and services are one size fits all.
I thought it'd be interesting to scribble some notes and thoughts down as I develop my thinking as I go along. It'll not be some earth shattering insights, I'm sure - plenty have gone before me.
We'll see - it's likely to be quite sporadic, as music is squeezed in when I get time. And the main point for me is to make music - so that first, planning next, blogging after that. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out...
Ok ok :) Sounds you are already at a good place. Always nice to get some good feedback from those you respect and this indeed may lead to 'wanting' more. Regarding becoming big: There is a difference between becoming big, or for instance, a wish to perform from time to time. In the electonic music business I came across quite a few DJs/artists who don't think big, but are comfortable when they can play at a friends party. Private, but also public events. Maybe playing in a side room, or being the opening DJ, or closing when this is way into the next day and no big names are required anymore for the last die hards on the dance floor. In any kinda of music you have this. Anyways. Sticking to music creation is also good. You can think of ghost producing for others. More and more artists, use ghost producers for their music. Doing this for the right artists, can make considerable money. At the same time, it'll also become a job with deadlines and all :) Another way of monetising could be to teach those who want to be taught and oay for it. A 'job' that is maybe lesser a job than ghost producing, with more freedom and felxibility therefore easier to fit into your schedule. The whole think with Spotify is, one needs to get the tracks onto popular playlist to get some solid stream counts. Looking forward what you're gonna scribble down about the paths you are exploring.
Interesting...deffo some food for thought there 👍