Yeah, I know what you mean. I also got excited when this 2Pac remix "went viral", although I'm using quotation marks on purpose here because it's not a real viral. But in my case 42 k views can be considered viral. Don't get me wrong, most probably I will be making music from time to time, because when I had this "memento moment" as you put it I planned to quit and I actually quit completely and focused on regular life. But I came to conclusion that this creative side will always be there and I will always need some form of creative release. That doesn't mean it has to be music. However, I need to "express myself" (again hate this phrase...) in some way from time to time.
Question to old school/boom bap producers here
- Thread starter Memento Beats
- Start date
Let me also clarify what I was trying to say.
Forget about trying to be famous, fame brings lots of problems without necessarily the food on the table, concentrate on the business side of things. I watch a lot of beatmakers on youtube who are all saying the same thing, they just arent making the money from selling/leasing beats as they used to be before covid. I also see a lot of people recommending submitting music to libraries for sync licensing use in movies, tv and games.
Just putting music online isn't going to get you discovered, you need to advertise it, you need to target your demographic as precisely as possible for more bang for your advertising buck, you have to create your own opportunities, they aren't going to just fall from the sky and land in your lap.
Maybe try intern at a studio to get your foot in the door, become good at an instrument where you can work as a session musician, find a music shop or something, see if you can get into a radio station as a technician or dj. You can make a decent bit of side cash as a dj to supplement what you make in your "day job".
Network with other musicians in your area, visit open mic nights, or music production/industry networking events, make connections.
"Hip Hop Instrumentals" is a very niche sub market within hip hop, "old school boom bap hip hop instrumentals" is an even smaller niche within that modern sub market.
The "Hustle" is creating the opportunities that arent just going to fall from the sky, that means once that you have put your music online, you need to direct the very tiny tiny niche amount of people that will be buying what it is you are selling, towards your "product". Personally, being as you specialise in instrumental music, I think the sync licensing route would be best for you in the short to long term, with what you already have. Long term, Id work on building relationships with local and global rappers/singers to develop finished songs, network with other musicians and build relationships as well as songs. To generate a residual income from music streams, you need a LOT of music out there being streamed, broadcast, used in tv, games & advertising etc.
As a producer, you need to build and create your own "career", through success and HARD WORK. Nobody is going to just give it to you. It's not always what you know, but who you know. There are thousands and thousands of people that all want the same thing you do, its one of the most competitive and cut throat businesses in the world. The business side of music has a funny way of sucking all the fun out of making music.
You need to ask yourself why you make music?
If its for expression to express yourself, a mood, a vibe or to have fun, then thats all good, thats the point of music. If its to get rich and famous, give up now, get a proper career in finance or something, you will make a LOT more money and waste a lot less time that way.
My bottom line to you, is concentrate on your current career for money and long term, as long as you can stand it, lol.
Keep music as a side hobby, make sure you are enjoying making music, instead of chasing a dollar. The music will be better, you will enjoy it more, and get paid from the day job and progress a proper career. Thats a win win in my book, at least until one of your songs goes triple platinum and you can retire, but hey, in our world thats like winning the lottery.
Last edited:
Did you not enjoy those hundreds of hours making music? Did you not learn skills, did you not grow as an artist? Did it not teach you a little something about the reality of the world as opposed to our grandiose dreams?
This is why I asked why you make music, its the most important question, because if its always been about money then give it up now. You will save a fortune and can spend that time "literally getting nowhere" doing more productive things.
If you enjoy making music, then the goal has been achieved, everything else is secondary
Thos reflection has actually made me regret music.
Not that it wasn't fun or didn't provide something positive to my life. But perhaps it was just a massive distraction and waste of time.
I also had opportunities to make a fucking shit load more of it. But wasn't insightful or confident enough to do so.
Pure regret all round.
Not that it wasn't fun or didn't provide something positive to my life. But perhaps it was just a massive distraction and waste of time.
I also had opportunities to make a fucking shit load more of it. But wasn't insightful or confident enough to do so.
Pure regret all round.
I've made a hell of a lot of stupid decisions in my life, mostly in my younger years. But what's the point of regretting what can't be changed, turn that regret into drive to make a change going forward.
Well ofc I remember it. It's still exciting when people listen to my beats n analyze them or give feedback n shit, let alone getting it from you back then. and yee it'd probably be cool if you brought back the podcasts except in a stream form or something. or hell, maybe you can just make 4 episodes each year only for each battle that round. idk. I get how it could've been boring tho, even tho it did breathe a lot of life into the battles in the brief period it was still up. that and the seasonal league system. Awesome stuff.Nah, I don't remember it because it was more than three years ago (sic!) and I completely forgot about it. I mean I remember making them and I still have backups of them just for the sake of memories but I almost never listened to them after I made them and sent them to Fade. So in that sense I have only a slight recollection of what I said in them. Some things that I do remember though is me answering the question about sausages xD And I remember that someone even left a comment that "damn, this dude knows a lot about sausages)Or there was also one episode where I literally didn't have much to review and I had to come up with some additional topic to make it a bit longer and it was about exercising and keeping an eye on your health as a producer
Next thing and also one of the major ones that contributed to it a lot was the fact that most of the time those podcasts were just boring. I mean there were maybe 8 - 10 really strong guys and most of the time they were winning so almost every week I was talking about them which was a bit pointless and not interesting. Also what can you say about a beat that is just good? How many times can you repeat "drums are on point", "good bass", "I like this, that" blah blah blah.
Anyway, it's nice that you remember about it. If I were to reactivate it I would do it totally differently. Most probably I would do it in a more YouTube way where I'm just talking to the camera and doing it without the script. I would just go with the flow.
You are the perfect example that respect has to be earned. At the beginning I had a pretty negative opinion about you. First of all, you were a young brat and secondly, you were starting so naturally your beats were wack. But I really love seeing you progressing and developing. And in my eyes you really went from being an annoying kid to a guy that's really skillful and aside from this you can give very good advice not always linked to music.
I would really like to see you succeeding in the future at music because you still have a chance to do it. You're young, you have skills etc. So I keep my fingers crossed that maybe some stars will align in the future and someone will discover you.
In my case it's most probably not possible. Music career doesn't seem to be for me.
Honestly, I don't blame you for finding young Arvin annoying. I've came a Long way from then but even now I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has to tolerate me for more than 3 minutes. and I appreciate your hopes for me, but if I ever make it I'll definitely come back n try to find you if I still have a way of contact. you're one of the relatively few producers I know who actually happened to excite me with their music within these battles n beats n stuff. I remember you had this 1 guitar beat that ended up getting you 5th in a Warzone... Such a banger. Still in my head. and yee you're on point about the creative release thing too. there was a time when I'd get worried if my artist friends mentioned quitting their craft. the more time went on though, the more I started to believe that for some people, creative release is just as much of a need as exhaling is.
I still believe myself to be a special person tho ngl. I tried really hard to "humble myself" by watching fight club and such, remindin myself of how everyone thinks they're special nowadays, or by yelling "CAREFUL ICARUS" at myself and so on, but whatever abomination of a creature I've turned out to be, it's definitely not normal, at least not right now. I don't believe that's necessarily a good thing or if it puts me "above others" or anything, All I know is that generally, something about who I am is either temporarily or permanently special. that could mean I'm mad talented at being the champion of awesome or it could also mean I'm straight up retarded. according to the evidence thus far, quite sure it's the latter. that being said, being "special" isn't that special anyway. there's a lot of special people just out here if u ask me.
anyway, Imma go to bed and spend a few hours reminiscing how I embarrassed myself in front of both my brother and some old friends I hadn't seen in a while today by not knowing if I should turn on my family personality or my street personality, freezing, and then speaking like I'm having a seizure for 3 minutes straight.
Last edited:
It's not that simple. I don't know how it looks like in the UK or other countries but there's no way someone will hire you as a session musician without a degree/graduating from music school in Poland and I know why it looks like this most probably not only here. For example if I was a famous artist who has to play tours etc on a regular basis, then I want to be sure that the person I'm hiring is competent. If someone has a paper then it's easier to filter out potential candidates. It works exactly as in any other job. The only chance you get hired as a session musician is if you're famous in some way. For example you don't have a degree or you haven't finished music school but you played in band X, Y and Z and you achieved this, this and that with them. Then maybe you have a slight chance to become a session musician.
Also when it comes to other things that you mentioned I've tried most of them and it's not that simple and furthermore, I'm not that willing to make those connections within artistic world. As I mentioned I kinda struggle to connect with purely artistic types as I always had some goal in mind. Most "artistic" people that I've encountered on my path were either simply weird or irresponsible which made it impossible to create something meaningful with them in both cases. Also most musicians and "artists" in general are highly entitled. They think that if they self-released some EP and played a few concerts that automatically make them some superstars. It's annoying and I really don't want to deal with this kind of people.
You asked me why I make music and I have several answers to this question and most of them can be found in my previous posts:
1. Because I wanted to make a career out of it - meaning earning money and stuff.
2. Later on I wanted to have some side job which would generate some income for me.
3. Because that's what I've been interested in for more than half of my life.
4. Because music used to give me some kind of escape (now I don't really need to escape from anything. Even if something's wrong going on in my life I want to face it and eliminate the issue not escape from it).
5. Because people who listen/listened/have listened to my music most of the time were telling me that I'm good at it so it also kinda fueled my progress. I'm referring to both people from my personal life and people that I met here on Illmuzik.
6. I like creating things and learning new stuff.
7. I like making projects and finalising them. Music allowed me to do it as each beat/song whatever that I made was a separate project that I had to supervise and work on by myself.
8. It's become a habit for me over all these years so I'm kinda used to making music. It just became something natural to me.
9. I used to want to become famous.
Probably, I could come up with other reasons but these are the ones that popped in my head right now when I think about it.
Did you not enjoy those hundreds of hours making music? - Depends. There were times when I enjoyed them, there were times were I didn't. Sometimes I regret it that I sacrificed that much time for music - about 8 years of playing the guitar for (now I'm rusty as for the last few years I was making music mostly with a computer mouse), about 8 years of making beats. Far too many considering what it gave me in return.
Did you not learn skills, ... - I did, but those skills are kinda useless in real world. I can make beats, I can make music and stuff but that isn't going to bring a food on my table. It won't allow me to buy a gas for my car. It's not gonna pay my rent. For sure it's a skill and I feel great when for example I make a good beat or when I'm able to sing some high note in a song that I've been practising for some time. But that's just it. I just make it and it makes me feel good just in the same way as others get similar pleasure from playing video games or working out. It's also good way to spend time in a somewhat productive way. Also it's a good way to show off sometimes and feel a little bit special for brief period of time. But that's just it.
Did you not grow as an artist - I definitely grew as an artist.
Did it not teach you a little something about the reality of the world as opposed to our grandiose dreams? - It definitely did. But at the same time as I saw more and more of this reality the music became a bit blank for me. More mundane, and definitely more corrupted in my eyes.
Overall, I do enjoy making music, singing, playing the guitar and stuff. But it's been and it will probably stay as my hobby.
Last edited:
You tempting beast! You Iranian devil (or shall I say genie?)! Now I will be thinking about it
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
It's 2023, artists who actually are interested in learning the business side relevant to what they really want to do have tons of free game in the form of actual experts on YouTube.
Give some examples and the reason is because society has always stereotyped the artist as "starving" or "tortured" which are harmful to persons on both a personal and public level.
The social construct of fame is the answer to why most are entitled. Add optional formal education to that (good example is how there are Only 50 orchestras in the US are full-time, only 20 of those orchestras pay an annual salary of 50k or more).
Do you want me to give you examples of people whom I've been referring to?
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
Yeah @Memento Beats please do!
@Memento Beats spoke with my daughter the other day and shes getting back into the music. I told her about your drill beats, Id like the two of you to work together. If you are interested?
Well...
1. A local group of rappers for which I "was making" beats for some time. Every time I sent them beats they were like "Holy sh*t! Man! That's amazing!" blah blah blah. Every time I asked them when they planned to record something on my beats the answer was that they would do it but then they recorded something on some beat from YouTube. And it went like that for some time until I cut contact with them.
2. A local rapper who wanted to work with me after I won a local beat battle. Every time we were supposed to meet with each other to work on music he preferred to drink and party. I sent him a couple of beats but nothing happened. He texted me after I released an album with @2GooD Productions asking me whether I was interested in working with them. The answer was obvious.
3. A girl from Germany that lived in Polandfor a long time. She messaged me on Facebook because one of my friends tagged me under her post in some group for local musicians. She asked me to produce some pop beats and she wanted to collaborate with me. I made a quick sample for her, about 1 minute and 30 seconds long beat in style of Ava Max. She asked me to meet with her personally so we met at some cafe. We started talking and during that conversation she revealed that she didn't know what she wanted to make, she wanted me to make some beats for YouTube covers etc. Basically, she wanted to make a cover YouTube channel where I would have been responsible for the musical side (I mean beats and stuff) and she would be singing. But when I asked her to sing something or send me some samples of her voice she refused. So what was the point?
4. Guy with mental health problems (as it later turned out) with whom I worked at the same company. Similar story as in the first point but here it was a little bit different. He wanted to be a Polish version of Machine Gun Kelly and he basically wanted me to plagiarise MGK's beats. Maybe not like 1:1 but recreate them so that they're very similar to the originals. I also sent him some original beats that he liked but he never recorded anything on them. He didn't even write a lyrics for any of beats that I made for him. But he had a lot of problems not only with his head but also in his personal life. Weird guy in general.
I made these beats for him for example (those were those originals I mentioned):5. Another guy from the city near me who bought a beat from me but never recorded anything on it. At least I earned some money off of it.
6. Another guy with whom I was working who was bragging immensely about having one song that reached 9k views. Same story as with the guy in point number 5 but he didn't buy a beat from me. It was a free one. So I sent him a beat and he never recorded anything on it.
So that would be some of them. It's funny though that if you meet the right person it doesn't matter what distance is between you and that person. The best example is my work with @2GooD Productions - full professional, reliable guy, focused on the project and finishing that project. The funniest thing about my relationship with @2GooD Productions is that I never even spoke to him xDDD Like we never talked with each other. We only wrote to each other which makes it even crazier that we had no issue with working with each other.
Last edited:
I'll be honored sir.
Well...
1. A local group of rappers for which I "was making" beats for some time. Every time I sent them beats they were like "Holy sh*t! Man! That's amazing!" blah blah blah. Every time I asked them when they planned to record something on my beats the answer was that they would do it but then they recorded something on some beat from YouTube. And it went like that for some time until I cut contact with them.
2. A local rapper who wanted to work with me after I won a local beat battle. Every time we were supposed to meet with each other to work on music he preferred to drink and party. I sent him a couple of beats but nothing happened. He texted me after I released an album with @2GooD Productions asking me whether I was interested in working with them. The answer was obvious.
3. A girl from Germany that lived in Polandfor a long time. She messaged me on Facebook because one of my friends tagged me under her post in some group for local musicians. She asked me to produce some pop beats and she wanted to collaborate with me. I made a quick sample for her, about 1 minute and 30 seconds long beat in style of Ava Max. She asked me to meet with her personally so we met at some cafe. We started talking and during that conversation she revealed that she didn't know what she wanted to make, she wanted me to make some beats for YouTube covers etc. Basically, she wanted to make a cover YouTube channel where I would have been responsible for the musical side (I mean beats and stuff) and she would be singing. But when I asked her to sing something or send me some samples of her voice she refused. So what was the point?
4. Guy with mental health problems (as it later turned out) with whom I worked at the same company. Similar story as in the first point but here it was a little bit different. He wanted to be a Polish version of Machine Gun Kelly and he basically wanted me to plagiarise MGK's beats. Maybe not like 1:1 but recreate them so that they're very similar to the originals. I also sent him some original beats that he liked but he never recorded anything on them. He didn't even write a lyrics for any of beats that I made for him. But he had a lot of problems not only with his head but also in his personal life. Weird guy in general.
5. Another guy from the city near me who bought a beat from me but never recorded anything on it. At least I earned some money off of it.
6. Another guy with whom I was working who was bragging immensely about having one song that reached 9k views. Same story as with the guy in point number 5 but he didn't buy a beat from me. It was a free one. So I sent him a beat and he never recorded anything on it.
So that would be some of them. It's funny though that if you meet the right person it doesn't matter what distance is between you and that person.
Lol, I feel your pain man. Its par for the course, especially these days. I have had all of the above happen to me, and it can be disheartening. The truth is, success comes after a lot of failure.
I recorded an artist over a beat I made 11 years ago, a couple days ago. Dont lose faith in yourself, everyone else can go fuck themselves.
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
At @Memento Beats least for #3 you know what's up with me, I just made it to the 2 hours of watch time accomplishment re: my channel and didn't know until I last logged in and I'ma keep going. Inbox me.
and I'ma keep going. Inbox me.some golden advice in here btw. great read.
and ik it's cliche, but I think the art scene is always one where smart work beats hard work. then again, the internet on the other hand is a place where quantity beats everything as far as I've seen, so if you're trying to advertise your art through the internet, I guess the point still stands anyway.