My dilemma with music

I have a dilemma with music. I love creating it. I love the craft. I love expressing my emotions through words and rhythm. And I love marrying this with amazing instrumentation. BUT I do not see a huge career in it for me. At least not the national charting, world touring type of career.

I recently read a post by Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby. It is titled “Valuable to others, or only you?”. It talks about making your music more valuable to others or taking the stance that your music is something special to only you and being okay with that.

The latter is something that I struggle with.

In the post he says, “When I do something that’s really valuable to me, it’s hard for me to imagine that it’s not valuable to others. I think it really is valuable, not that it’s valuable only for me. It feels like a fact, not an opinion.”

My challenge, is that I know others have found value in my music. The real question is, is it valuable enough to provide me with the lifestyle that I want?

My conclusion has been no.

There is an overload of music these days. We live in an impatient generation that wants more and more as soon as possible. Our attention spans are decreasing by the day and we also want to know every single detail possible about the celebrities that we adore.

Personally, I subscribe to the alternate reality, hence why I don’t like posting status updates constantly online and craving attention (likes and follows). I feel like I’m forcing myself rather than it being natural. Plus I don’t find it very productive.

I must say, there is a dopamine rush that we receive from likes and follows, which results in the addiction, but that’s a topic for another day.

In terms of music, I would like to create a body of work that I am proud of and then share it with others.

But, is there any point of creating it if there is no one to listen to it?

Why not?

I’m not creating music for money or fame. I’m creating it out of love. If there is a small amount of dedicated people that really appreciate it, that’s enough for me. I can promote it on a small scale and organise an intimate show like I did in the past with the Graduate EP.

I probably will always have a slight want for more people to hear my creations, but it’s not a necessity and I can’t let that stop me from doing what I love.

I think this is an important thing for people to think about when considering their own passions. Cal Newport in So Good They Can’t Ignore You, talks about the intersection between passion, skill and the market need.

Talent and ambition is not enough, if there is not enough of a need from the market, it won’t be demanded. In addition, there may be a need, but an unwillingness to pay for what is needed. If you want to live a particular lifestyle, you need to take all of these things into consideration when making a career choice.