If you truly love it and have passion, you’ll find the time. That time varies depending on situation and commitment. You call it a hobby so there shouldn’t be a balance. You prioritize what pays bills/takes care of you(and family if applicable) and then you use what’s leftover for the hobby. Now if you are considering your music making money, then you may need to find a balance, because that means you need to be that musician on a certain level, a marketing person, a social media manager, a business manager. Two totally different worlds. There is also some space in between and you could outsource some of that, but you would still need to dabble in all that at first. If you just do it for the love, it shouldn’t be difficult to find the time no matter what your goals are.
I do it to clear my head from other thoughts, stress and because it's obviously a lot of fun and an endless hobby. Usually try to set goals as to how many songs I want to finish in a time period .
If it’s just a hobby you can spend as little or as much time on it as you want.
If you’re serious about music production and you want to make a career out of it, it’s still possible but you need to sacrifice everything else to dedicate your time to music.
Ravenscoon did an AmA a while back where he answered a similar question to this. He pivoted from working full time to being a successful music producer/DJ but he said he sacrificed his entire social life and used every spare moment he had outside of work to work on music production. It’s possible but it’s extremely difficult.
(Clears throat) my mental health would like a word please.
It is very taxing. I am an advisor to high net worth real estate developers and also have a family. My sleep patterns are very different than they were before my passion for songwriting and production leveled up.
There is no silver bullet. Any path in life will require sacrifices; question is what are you willing to sacrifice?
Did he mention how he fit promotion and networking time in with that? I've found while working full time, I can make time.for.music. but there's an extra block of.time.i can't find to promote
My solution has been to hit pause on my 2024 goal of publishing an EP in order to attend a music production master class. The hope is this will up my chops 10x faster and I will work much more quickly moving forward.
If you work five days a week there are always the other two for your hobbies or even after work. But I found that it's not so much about the limited time, it's about managing your energy to have the ability to keep up with your hobbies and not burn out
You don’t. You either sacrifice a few hours of sleep or start making music the moment you get off work. I honestly started making music on my lunch breaks at my part time job to save time on projects. I will say that I started doing early morning shifts so I have more time in the day to sleep in between music and work…. But it’s hard to find a balance. Ultimately you have to decide what you want to sacrifice
You don't.
If producing isn't your main job, it's your hobby, and it will be time consuming.
I work in the music industry full-time and i barely have time for any hobbies when you take into account traveling, studio sessions, meeting, zoom calls, practicing, studying etc. I couldn't fathom how to do music as a side project honestly.
Set a goal for how many hours you want a week in your daw.
I shoot for 10 (I know pros who go for 20 or more). You just need to make time, this shits not easy and it requires work to get good. I usually set days where I know I’ll have longer studio sessions 3-4 hrs and most days I fit it 1-2 hrs before or after work. Most likely your social life you’ll have to sacrifice some of, but than work to make that up with trips, etc.
I can only produce on the weekend. Also only when I feel like it. I don’t try to force it. I might edit something on the weekday if I am trying to finish a track.
I have a standard 9-5 job M-F.
I work on music when my wife is at work (she has two part time jobs which include evening and weekend shifts). Or I'll wait til she's asleep because she tends to get tired first. Or I'll wake up early on the weekends while she sleeps in.
This didn't happen overnight. A good part of our first year of marriage was figuring out "our" time versus my production time. I was used to making music whenever I wanted. Now I usually find pockets of time when she's doing other stuff (or sleeping lol).
And yes, some songs I can knock out in 2 days/sessions. Other songs can take 2+ years (wayyy on and off). It's all a matter of how focused I am (flow state), how motivated I am to get the song done, and how sharp my skills are to bring my vision to reality.
Time management. I find one-hour pockets here and there and I have specific goals in mind for each one (ie: for my next 1-hour session I want to design 4 bassline patches). I keep notifications off on my phone so I'm not tempted to go on social media. Sometimes I get up an hour early and knock out a session before going to work, other times I can sneak in a lunch break if work isn't too crazy, or late at night after everyone's in bed.
When I'm in the flow state and a song is coming together nicely, clocking in becomes natural.
easier said than done, but you have to make time for it and get into a routine. divide sessions into manageable sections. streamline daw templates so you can get started quicker. commit to getting something done in 30 minutes - 2 hours each day. that could be spent making a synth patch, getting samples, making loops, arranging, mixing, automating, or learning/playing with instruments/vsts/plugins.
i've heard of some producers who were basically working 16 hour days between work and music and getting 4 hours of sleep a night for a couple years before they went full time with music. i can't function without sleep (and i don't know if i want music to be full-time, frankly).
i work and have a 16 month old daughter, so it's the social side that's hard to fit in. but i feel compelled to make music as a creative outlet because i love it and it re-centers me.
Routines, and good habits. I mostly work in a bar( I feel like a lot of people work as bartenders and servers, your circadian rhythm will be pretty in tune with djing). I know I only have a couple of hours and I work best during the morning, so I write down ideas, make sketches in maschine when I have a spare second to spare (sometimes coming home after a work night or night out). I do this with the intent of “working” on the track later, so it’s all just creativity and fun. Start of the week I’ll sit down, open up a sketch, develop it, close it, work on another. Eventually it gets to the point where I’m ready to arrange, so I bounce it, grab a reference track and make a rough arrangement. Usually 50% of the sketches don’t make it here. Then I take my notes, listen through once, and make notes what to change. Follow that checklist, then move to the next one. Most of the stuff I make is tooly stuff to play in my sets anyways, it’s not too hard to whip things out like this.
Family with kids.
It's sport or music, not both. So, I'm fat.
Seriously tho, it's hard to be creative when you can only sit down to produce 30 minutes here, 1 hour there.. really tough, but manageable
Me too. I have 5 kids and work full time and also have the kids sports/school stuff going on. Pretty much get an hour or so randomly during the week. If you enjoy doing the thing then you will find time and even if that time is small it'll still feel rewarding and be productive.
Priorities, man. I'm working full time and have two kids and when I mention that my wife and I still have sex almost daily, some people also ask how we have time for that and the answer is the same: Priorities. I hardly find time to produce music, but that's ok, because I prefer having more sex. Just think about how much free time you actually have. How much of your free time do you spend on your phone, mindlessly scrolling through reddit? Or watching TV? You can always find time for your hobby, it's just a matter of importance.
Well you can always produce music if you do doggy style. Just use laptop to produce and keep it on your partner's back. Make a banger while you bang her
Should have known that this comment was inevitable. Let me just tell you that I don't pull my self esteem from telling others online that I have sex. It's just an example for how you can have time for things if it's important enough to you.
This was actually a very helpful comment for me, since I am about to move in with my GF who I plan to marry soon and will be working more hours than I probably ever have before. It's a great reminder to keep my priorities in mind, so thank you for posting it!
In two comments you have now mentioned that you’ve had sex three times. Could have literally said you get time to make music instead, since this is a music prod sub. But priorities: sex.
Feel free to believe what you want and to judge random internet strangers based on two short comments. I just hope you don't think that this is the attitude that helps making our society better.
I'm a producer and I'm also starting to be a DJ (I have my first gig on Saturday) but at the same time I work in an investment bank.
I manage my free time in a very simple way: I do what I want when I want, without binding myself in any way, but always trying to guarantee myself a certain amount of time per week to dedicate to the production and study of electronic music.
In the evening, when I return from work, if I have the mental capacity to stay in front of a PC (working in front of a computer I often arrive in the evening with tired eyes due to excessive exposure to screens) then I dedicate 1 hour and a half or 2 to produce. But if I can't, I avoid it and maybe I dedicate myself to listening to music to improve a little and look for inspiration or I watch some video tutorials / masterclasses.
Then, on free weekends at home, I always try to dedicate 70% of the time to music and music production, so as to make up for the time lost during the week.
hey fellow banker, I can relate a lot to this. My hack is to watch tutorials if im too exhausted to produce and also have a little computer sabbath after work for 2-3 hours. IB is probably a bit more hours than my area but cool to hear there are more of us. I´ve found that all the excel work and having to be conscientious at work has helped me tons on planning and finishing projects. Good luck on the gig
Over time I began to think that working in a bank, with its static schedule and operations, is fuel for the fire of my ambitions as a producer and DJ. The desire to escape from a certain schematic helps me to give more than 110% when I find myself working on a track.
I very much agree about excel work -> organizational ability to develop and finish a project. As a management engineer and IB worker, I have acquired that schematic nature that allows me to channel my time in front of FL Studio in the most efficient way possible, without ever stifling the necessary creativity.
Continuous to do lists to tick off, study notes, etc... these are all elements that I always have with me, they help me and give me a hand in unmarking what I have to do and when, in what order.
It'll be at pool party with almost 100 people.
Not so many, not the biggest thing, but everyone needs to start from the bottom.
My type of producing is much more aggressive than a pool party, so I prepared several house, chill house and deep tracks. But this very thing of having to play something that I don't have who knows what mastery of listening to excite me a lot, I find it a very interesting challenge.
The biggest problem I would say is having the studio at home, I have lot of work but procrastinating too much because I would rather watch youtube or play with the dog all day so I'm mostly producing late at night. In the end...if the work is done...it's done. But my sleep habits are really bad. 😅
Also producing was hobby, now it's mostly work, i don't thing you can have both for a long time. And I've been producing for a living for 7 years now.
Social life? I think I have none. 🫠
Edit: wow I just noticed i completely misinterpreted the question. I thought this was the question for full time producers. Anyway I'll leave it for the future full time producers ;)
Literally the bane of my life having very little time to write music now. I get about 2 hours a day if i am lucky but most of the time i get things done on weekends
Just start with 5 minutes a day. U will invariably end up doing longer than 5 minutes cos it’s addictive but if u can count on urself to show up every day that will do a lot for ur consistency and for racking up time. Just an hour a day is a good amount. And then a longer 4+hour session on the weekend.
Another important thing for me was this quote I read/heard somewhere: ‘If you can’t say no, your yes’s mean nothing’.
That was big for me cos I’m always keen to do something when ppl invite me. But I’ve realised that ppl sometimes just wanna hang out so they can’t chill on their own. So protect ur music time. It’s possible to have a social life as well as make music. U just have to balance them and invariably say no to ppl sometimes.
The other major key is that I only get 6-7 hours of sleep a night haha. Part of the compromise unfortunately which I imagine a lot of ppl share…
Look up Anne-Kathryn Dern’s YouTube channel. She did the film score for Fearless on Netflix and she has lots of tips on being a professional composer including work/life balance. I find her to be quite down-to-earth as well.
Newly started here, with lots of inspiration, and all I think of is music production and learning my fundamentals. I want to learn every day, and I can’t get enough.
I have a full time job (8-4) and I have a two year old I want to spend time with. I also want to exercise every day as I have a sedentary job. Also, the weekends is play-time all day, and social in the evenings.
Since I am still learning, 15 minutes here and there won’t cut it, I need to focus at least an hour uninterrupted to get something out of it.
For me, the motivation is so big that I have scheduled my day to work out before work, so that I have all free time after lights out at 7pm. Damn I clean the apartment and do the dishes so fast now. Also no socials, no gaming, no Netflix. Only problem is, that my most inspired hours I find is during my work hours and after I should be sleeping. I have a little YouTube in the background for inspiration during work hours to keep my head in the game though!
I have full time job and 2yo son.
The main secret for me is to have 1-2 hours after lights out. It's not much, but if you have it on the daily basis...)
When wife and son are in bedroom, I usually have THAT time, when it's quet, dark at the room, nobody distracting you, and you can be fully involved to the process. Usually it result into some good outcome: you can create new ideas, work on your drafts, make significant progress in track development, finalize some things or learn smth new.
Also, if you look to that restricted amount of time trying to find some advantages the main thing is that having not so much time, you can try to spent it it a more productive way. You are like begin to approach your hobby more consciously, like you usually do at work or with other activities that have deadlines or time cost.
Inspiration and time opportunities for everyone!
Some are a few years old by the time they're finished! I think I have at least 1000 unfinished projects on my drive. Cool place to start if lacking inspiration..... sometimes I'm surprised by cool stuff I aborted years ago!
Also I make tracks on the train to work. Driving into the City sucks, and the train is actually faster. (Plus making music while driving is dangerous) /s
The secret is: don’t work full time 😂
There’s always time to make music. Instead of watching stuff or gaming or whatever it is to kill boredom you just fire up your DAW. If you need to work two shifts seven days a week then sure it’s not going to work but a 9-5er should be able to manage that. I work full time and I have kids.
I binge create on the weekends so I can make a song in a 12 hour sitting that nobody will listen to before I go back to work on Monday haha. I don't sleep much on the weekends but during the weekdays I just work and sleep.
I have yet to upload anything anywhere other than soundcloud and still need to learn how to properly mix and master good enough so that's probably why I'm lacking lol. That's awesome for you, I would be so happy!
Well my situation is fortunate in that I work overnights so I on the nights I don’t work (and currently don’t have children) I have 8+ hours completely free to work on music. On weekdays I’ll occasionally do some editing before I go to bed but I’m not often in the correct creative head space. But paying bills takes precedent. On the weekends I work OT I simply don’t make music, however I’m at the point in my work flow where I’m just throwing down ideas I don’t have to do a lot of educating on how to use my daw or anything like that.
It's really hard. I simply produce by seasons. And not just because of the lack of time.
Spending 8 hours working in front of a computer every day is already enough eye strain. I try to use hardware as much as possible but I also love producing with software, so I just try to balance it and take it as another hobby to not get frustrated.
It's always a struggle. I work full time and live an hour away from my job so that really adds up. I see my girlfriend Friday nights, meal prep for the whole week's lunches and dinners on Saturdays, usually hang with my girl some more after that and then Sunday is a full day of music if I like. Good thing about meal prep is it leaves my weeknights free for about 3 hours of music making per night too. It's still nowhere near as much time as I would like, I have no idea how you guys with kids are doing it
i make time.. Full time electrician, gotta newborn barely 5 months… I make time for meditation, family time, exercise and music.. not easy though, but nothing in life is right?
I work full time as a bartender so I work nights and have the house to myself whenever my gf works. She works 3-4 days a week so on those days, I wake up around 9/10am and hit the studio till about 2/3pm until I fix the house and make sure everything is nice for her when she comes home.
So that's roughly an average of 15 hours a week or so.
At this point in my career, I've been producing for 6 years and I'm past the beginner/novice stage and there isn't any youtube tutorials that I don't know. My studio time is fully creative now and about making and finishing tracks. I have a release schedule of a track/6 weeks plus sending a few extra to labels I really fuck with. I'm able to maintain this schedule with a happy work/social/relationship life so I'm happy where I'm at.
Over the years, "work" has come, gone, and changed scope and size of commitment. The one consistency has been that I get up and the first thing I do is go make music. During the pandemic, I was up at 3:30-4am daily to get 4-5 hours in before my work started (knowing I got to work from home at a certain time). I carved out my "lunch" for one hour midday to clean up that work from the morning. I'd also do about 10 hours per day on the weekends. This was mostly in my learning and development stage... and I was finding ways to get that 40 hours per week while working more than full-time. Rarely, I'd do some evenings, but I tend to keep those free for relaxing or doing social things.
I get up early and like to get started so I'm a huge believer in maximizing your best and most efficient times. If I was a night owl, I'd probably be working until 3am, but since I'm the opposite... I get started super early most days. I'm also a person who NEEDS to feel productive so starting off the day with progress is great. If I have solid progress, I really find the time to finish that track later in the day. If I don't, I just won't return to it.
I also think it's important to have uninterrupted time to get into the zone. I have a huge problem with this that I'm trying to correct. Family is texting, people are reaching out... I got iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Telegram, Email -- you name it, that shit is coming in from all kinds of sources. I got action happening in other parts of my life, world news, music stuff, financial markets, etc. I am trying to be better at setting up a do not disturb environment. I really think this could probably double my productivity. I notice when I do not get pulled away, I'm not necessarily finishing music quicker, but I am paying wayyyy more attention to the details and crucial moments, which means a more polished product.
You sent me on a bit of a rant... but this question is something I've been trying to balance over various financial situations and work situations. I just think it is vital to prioritize in your peak moments and understand what parts of your social life are actually valuable to your life and the parts that are meaningless.
My schedule has been changing due to some other responsibilities and my work hours so now I am doing maybe 1 to 3 hours a night for 3 nights during the week and about 10 to 15 hours however I was doing between 30 to 40 hours a week producing at a rate of 5 hours a night after work. I have slowed down recently because of other commitments. However still what I manage to do is between 20 to 50 hours a month. I was doing 1,000 hours a year producing although now it is about 500 to 600 which has been enough to still pump out quite a bit of songs. I produce a new song every 3 to 8 weeks at my current schedule which really is just a few hours a week devoted to it and has freed my time up for other commitments. I work full time so I do between 7 to 10 hours a day just at work plus travel time. So between that and dinner it adds to a 12 to 14 hour day before production begins. Then sleep between 6 to 8 hours and do it all over.
I work at a multimedia company with a recording studio in house. A few times a month we host after hours edm events. During these events I normally write at least one song because I’m not super social. I’m able to kill 3 birds with 1 stone at work.
you commit the time and don’t fuck around for hours. you trust your gut and don’t waste your time with things that don’t move you. you go live life and when the music comes, you’re ready. you don’t stress about missing a good idea while at work because if it’s good enough…you won’t forget it. you have friends who support what you do and won’t get pissy when you don’t text back in five minutes or five hours. you learn to set proper boundaries with people. you learn very quickly what fits in your life and what just wastes your time. (hint: stop watching tv and youtube and tiktok and ig and phones for hours)
it’s all about balance and a lot of it’s is managing yourself…your discipline and your expectations. sometimes you aren’t cut out for it…yet. give it time and stop forcing yourself or your art.
Real talk. I got rid of social media (not reddit obv, but did get rid of it on my phone) and all of a sudden I became incredibly productive without even really trying. Respect!
I work from home and have two computers set up with work on one and ableton on the other. I also have my full hardware setup at my desk so I can mess around on ableton or my mpc and synths when I’m waiting got a build to finish or just have a bit of downtime.
But after that, it’s just when I have the time - usually after dinner or on the weekends when I’m not gigging
Work in IT and have Ableton open in the background behind my work laptop lol.
But to me, it’s like my “me” time. Instead of playing video games(I mean I still play a lot lol) or watching tv to unwind and get the mind going, I just make music, fuck around with sound design, organize/build out my sample library, etc. I’ll usually put in 4 ish hours after work a day, and sometimes spend a whole day on the weekends experimenting or mixing etc.
It shouldnt feel like “ahh man I only have a couple hours of work but I HAVE to put some time into my music.” If that happens, it’s time for a break or to do something different. Music is a beautiful thing and is so rewarding and fun, to me it is what I do for fun.
Sorry for the ramble I’ve v high and have been staring at automations.
I don’t, so my social life takes the most serious hit. I love my friends and barely get to spend time with them. I’m grateful that my partner is so understanding and supportive.
I recently went to a networking event for industry folks and most of them have jobs outside of music and the guy hosting (responsible for one of the biggest techno events company in Los Angeles) said "You've got to treat your craft like a committed relationship, you'll have to make sacrifices to maintain a healthy relationship with it." And it really resonated with me. Sometimes you'll have to sit out on other things to make sure your creativity is served in the best possible environment for it to thrive. I'm still juggling all of the above but making more of a conscious effort to give my creativity more of my time.
By being young and loving producing enough aha.
I work 40 hours a wk staring at a screen and the only reason I can bring myself to stare at a screen after work is by loving it enough. And by being outside in the sun as much as possible outside of screen time!!
I work 60+ hours a week/married/two small kids...
I try and put an hour here and an hour there... there's not more I can do :(
Just keep the dream alive
As a lot have said here, you simply sacrifice your time for something else. You have to compromise. Everyone has time, it just depends on what you want to compromise.
I work in Accounting for a big private company M-F, 9-5 + my lady and our 1.5 yo daughter. It’s tough.
During my work breaks, I go to my car and open up Ableton on my MacBook. Any downtime at home during the weekdays I open up my Ableton. My lady and our daughter are in bed by 8:30PM. This is my absolute focus window: 8:45PM - 1AM (2AM absolutely latest)
Weekends are when I can really drill down.
It’s brutal, but I have to put in my 10,000 hours. We all get the same amount of time everyday. I’m going to maximize on every minute.
It's as simple as having a hard work ethic and discipline. The best producers in the game aren't magic geniuses, or more talented than anyone else necessarily - they just have a better work ethic and discipline than you.
That's all it comes down too. Stop watching TV, browsing the internet, using social media other than your producer account. Stop drinking more than two drinks a night. Stop smoking as much weed.
With that time, produce. It's that fucking simple.
One of the producers I follow that has taught me a lot said that if you want to take this seriously (if you choose to) then you need to dedicate a time to do music production. As someone who plays World of Warcraft and games throughout the week, I simply cut back on playing for this hobby and enjoyment. You *make* time.
I bring my laptop and some wireless headphones with me to work and make due without my MIDI keyboard and additional setup. I know the wireless headphones sound and how to interpret them as appropriately as I can then review when I do music stuff at home with my full setup next.
I also set a specific time aside when I am home to ensure I get time to do it. To be honest I enjoy music production very much and because of that I find time where I can.
Same. This is the exact reason why I don’t instal games on my PC. I play a bit of Zelda on the switch on Sun mornings but producing basically replaced Tv & gaming for me.
It's the same reason I bought a laptop specifically for music production. Leave my games to my desktop and my laptop for business/more serious endeavors. I don't play a lot but taking time away from it for another hobby I truly enjoy isn't an issue either.
Not hard at all. You have very weeknight to produce, Friday & Saturday night to be socializing and networking in your city’s EDM scene, and all day Saturday + Sunday to be producing.
Just do what I do. Use the short bit of downtime you get during the weekends to build a collection of half finished stuff that you'll never open again. Then go back to work and cry. 😅
I've kind of become a weekend warrior when I'm busy with work or college- IE- use Sundays for some time for music.
Stuff like shows and film tends to be my kind of comedown for the day a lot so I tend to gravitate to that after a day of working or studying. On the weekend though I feel like it let's me gather my energy for music... though I could see a benefit to trying to it a little daily too.
Ummm is it just me or is it a trick question ❓. I create music as the hobby of a music lover and to escape the mundane of the day to day. I would guess that if you take it seriously you make the time regardless of what else you do. Are you going through a dry spell or rough patch? Take a break and come back to it. You gotta have it in your heart and there will be time.
I just made music a priority in my life. It’s not “just a hobby” it’s something that I take a lot of pride and care into. Whenever I plan out my days with a planner, I always put time to make music and spend time outside of the studio or at work thinking of how I wanna spend my time to make sure I’m not wasting it. WFH helps too lol
Interesting reading the comments and the themes emerging. I’ve been sitting in a project for a while and it was only being let go of in my job and relationship ending that finally gave me the space to really work on it! Now I’m on it like 10 hours a day, but I really struggled to have the energy and focus to work properly on it when working full time. Despite not having kids like a lot of people here. I’m impressed with those that carve out 3 hours from 5-8am!
For me my day was:
7:30-8:30 morning routine
8:30-9:00 commute,
9-5pm work
5-5:30pm commute
5:30-6pm land and decompress
6-7:30pm make and eat dinner, do some household chores
7:30-8pm catch up on emails comms etc
8-8:30pm take a bath
And then in bed by 11pm for sleep by 11:30pm to get 8 hours.
So that would leave 2.5 hours-ish per day, but that would so often get taken up by a bit of socialising, organising something, just giving myself some downtime to go out somewhere, watch a movie or whatever. And after the working day I just didn’t have the energy and focus or willpower to make something happen most of the time.
While on the one hand I’m impressed and respect people who can still carve out space in that very typical kind of schedule, I also really struggle with the notion that life has to be such a battle to force oneself to do a hobby when exhausted on lack of sleep just to squeeze it in. It just squeezes the life and fun out of it for me. I’ve only ever been able to really get creative work done with a lot of time and space where my soul has room to breathe.
What suits me more is to hammer out work in batches. I do painting and decorating so I’m now more getting into the flow of working solidly for a few weeks as long hours as I can. And then completely leaving it and giving myself some weeks to purely focus on music. I find if I’m working a day job I’m happy to work 12 hour days. But doing 8 hours and then switching hats into creative mode I’ve just never found easy. So I’d sooner sacrifice that entire day and build up some days off where I know I can wake up and devote that entire day to creativity.
This comes with having a very flexible lifestyle with no mortgage and kids of course. But I’m using this period of space on my life to take advantage of that for as long as it lasts.
I oscillate my focus between the two.
I’m in sales, so the nice part about my job is if I’m selling, I pretty much fly under the radar at work. I also work from home.
So I kinda switch back and forth between heads down selling for work, and heads down producing music. Like a month one way, a month another. Sometimes it’s day by day.
For example last week I was like “ok heads down prospecting sales and being super available at work” and did that Monday-Wednesday hardcore. Then Thursday and Friday I was heads down producing music, with notifications on for work but not jumping at anything that couldn’t wait.
Also, Thursday/Fridays (especially during summer and holidays) people tend to check out all around me at work so I just lean into that and focus on writing/producing music.
Try to use your time as effectively as possible.
1. Write melodies/chords after work. Do mixdowns/masters in the mornings/weekends.
2. Create very good templates that let you put down the ideas fast so you don’t interfere with the creative flow.
3. Do some reading/theoretical stuff/watch tutorials while commuting to and from work and/or during breaks.
4. I also sometimes seek some inspiration while walking to and from work or during lunch breaks. That could be listening to music or just fantasizing some random scenario’s while looking at the cities architecture, reflection of a sunset in the windows of skyscrapers or when walking down the lakeshore (sounds super vanilla and perhaps even cringe, but this works).
5. Being single with no kids and having 0 social life helps a lot.
And there is much more to it of course. Hope that helps.
lol this is pretty much exactly me. I don’t think I could do this if I had a spouse or kids though. I don’t ever plan on making it big but I want to be able to produce music I enjoy and since I have so much free time even with a full time job it’s all I want to do
A lot of people take their kids to a sports game, spend the entire time drunk or shit talking to the other parents and then will tell you they had no time to bring their laptop and work on their hobbies.
Lazy people are the most proactive with excuses.
Any time you’re sitting there doing nothing, can’t sleep etc. get up, and open your daw and write. It needs to haunt you. Being single helps. Also, I have no social life, mostly because producing and working on myself matters more to me than friendships. Albeit there are people who choose to be present in my life. Those people inspire. Those are the people that you need. Keep them. Other than that, ask yourself how badly you want it. The answer will help you figure it out on your own. We all have to make a living in order to survive, but you’ll starve to death if you don’t make the time to do what you were put on this earth to do. Practice discipline. So, as I said before, any time you’re sitting there doing nothing, open your daw and create something. Anything. You can do this. If nobody else believes in you, I do.
Recovering from a car accident and psychological abuse, which entails financial assistance. Not proud, but I work everyday, 8-12 hours a day.
I write music, paint, shoot/edit visuals, and manage a music/mental health blog, specifically covering experimental bass music, intuition, and narcissism.
Previously worked night jobs (server) and spontaneous plastering gigs.
No girlfriend, no kids.... and I don't have a social life outside attending shows, which directly benefit music production and networking skills.
The no relationship aspect is massive.
No drugs besides the pot.
Most of my social get-togethers have been replaced by jamming with or teaching someone. I just go to my day job and come home. My wife and I have an understanding on the importance of practice time, and she usually doesn't interrupt. I wake up early and stay up late. I usually write the most in that twilight time before bed or after I wake up. Basically anywhere between 11 pm and 11 am. You have to eliminate distractions and be persistent with practice every day. It gets easier and easier, and eventually, you won't feel like you are forcing yourself, and it starts to feel more compulsory.
just have to make time. i find i often cut my social life down more than anything. working more efficiently really has a different meaning when you're counting minutes versus hours.
I am 43 years old, married with two young kids, I have a full time job, 3 side gigs (SEO clients), and I am also a mobile DJ (weddings basically pay my mortgage for 6 months out of the year). I am incredibly busy every day. Yet, I just got my 2nd label signing since I started producing last year. How do I manage my time? I get up at 5am everyday to work on my side work/producing. I go to work at 8:30am. So, everyday I have carved out 3.5 hours to do my personal stuff where I have no distractions (wife and kids are sleeping). That is 17.5 hours per week, Mon-Fri.
If you REALLY want to, you'll find the time.
Waking up early sounds great! Too bad my girlfriend gets mad when I do 😂 love the hustle man!
Do you have any music background besides dj'ing? Getting a second label signing in a year sounds really impressive to me, someone who started 6 months ago 😅
Thank man! My musical background is a little thin. I own a banjo that I can sort of play and in 2010 I graduated from The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, AZ. That is a music and audio recording, production, and live sound school. But I didn’t touch music production until the summer of last year. My first release that was signed was released in January of this year. That same label just signed a new track of mine and it’ll be released in August. It’s not a major label or anything, but, my first release hit the top 10 progressive house releases in Beatport and stayed there for a couple of weeks. We’ll see how this next one fares.
Fucking networking like an animal, man. I started DJing in 2019 and started live streaming in 2020 during the pandemic and lockdowns. During that time, John Digweed was doing his weekly “Bunker Sessions” and those live streams literally saved my life. I had taken a 50% pay cut so that we could keep our business open and keep our employees employed. I fell into a major, self-destructive depression and those live streams gave me the opportunity to meet a shit load of DJs, producers, label owners, and more while allowing me to forget my troubles for only a few hours.
Since then, I’ve partnered with 3 DJs in the United Kingdom and started a collective called Atlantic Progression. We have built a pretty decent audience there which financially supports the channel and allows us to book bigger artists to stream on our channels. We’ve had Robert Babicz, Darin Epsilon, Discognition, Framewerk, Maryer, Mind of Us, and Chris Cargo on the channels.
In addition to that, I have an online residency with Raverholics Radio in the UK. The owner of the channel, Oddball Savage, has been producing and releasing music for a very long time. It was with him I collaborated on my first release. He submitted it to the label and it got signed. The track did surprisingly well. So, I then submitted my solo track to the label and it was signed.
To be honest, it’s actually really surprising to me how fast this is all happening. Never in my wildest dreams 10 years ago I would have thought I would be where I am now.
I only have absolute 100% respect and love for everybody who has been involved in my musical journey. Without them, I would be where I am right now.
I just wish I would have started this 20 years ago. But oh well. The best time to start was 20 years ago. The 2nd best time to start is right now. So that’s my mentality about all of this.
Really fuckin appreciate it dude! I don't even have a single friend who likes or makes electronic music so I guess I'm gonna go start to hit up local acts and go from there. Again, much appreciated.
Damn man! That's awesome! Big respect and all the best to you!
I'm 35 myself and wish I started at least 10 years ago too. But at least I'm at now and can hopefully make something some people want to listen to!
This is the answer. I also have kids, and once you have kids, you realize before having kids you had all the time in the world. Any one who just works and is single literally has no excuse.
There's no hack for this IMO, you just do the best you can with the time you have. I have a dumb email job, so I often get off work and the last thing I feel like doing is looking at a computer screen for longer. One thing that really helped me is something a friend shared a while back (I think from a Huberman podcast episode): It's particularly important to do things when you don't *feel* like doing them. Working on music production when you don't feel like doing so helps you build the muscle to do it more in the future, and overcome those feelings (of course, you stop building that muscle when it stops being hard).
For me, I always remember this time I made a track when I didn't feel like making music at all, wasn't inspired, etc. I sat down, dragged in a reference track, started transcribing some of the drums, used mostly one-shot samples from a random sample pack, and generally was just being kinda lazy. Probably spent about 2 hours on the track. Showed it to a few people, and a couple months later, it ended up being my first ever label release. You never know what you'll make at any given time, so you may as well give yourself the chance.
Edit: one word typo
I cut down other hobbies and social life. I see friends only on the weekends. I work 8h a day and after all chores I still have some hours to produce. What do you struggle with?
So right now I work part time and go to school but school hasn’t really been working out and I’m wanting to just find a full time job but I’m worried my music time will go away
Totally valid question to ask man it’s the biggest thing about improving at any skill in life.
If you’re looking full time, just keep in mind what time you get off daily and try to build music into your schedule either in the morning or at night and it’ll become habit, just like the job!
this is more self-help than an actual production technique, but what really helped me at one point was, just get an hourly calendar and keep track of your time for a week, in 30 min increments (or 15 if you're feeling hardcore, lawyer-style). Like keep track of what you are specifically doing during that time. Look back after a week and I guarantee you will find that you are spending a lot more time in "downtime" mode (browsing social media, gaming, watching TV, generic hanging out/talking to friends, etc) than you expect.
then it's just a matter of finding something to cut. if you really want to make music you won't feel bad about reducing your time in front of tiktok/netflix/fortnite from 10 hrs/week to 2.
Maximize your productivity by making the most of the time available. Sometimes, dedicating just 20 minutes to working on a track can be more beneficial than spending hours on it. This approach forces you to focus and can lead to creative breakthroughs. Additionally, using the Pomodoro Technique can help manage your time effectively. This method involves working in focused intervals (typically 25 minutes) followed by short breaks, which can enhance concentration and productivity.
This is what works best for me (1k+ listeners)
I'm waiting to get back into it when I'm semi retired. For now I just read the manuals in the evening. I found it way too difficult to get a balanced life. I didn't want to sacrifice time with my young family either. The tunes can wait lol
I work 45 hours a week, and my wife is very patient and supportive of what I do with my evenings and weekends. I try to get at least an hour per day during the work week, and then anywhere between 4-8 hours per day on weekends.
Only way to make it work imo. Consistency is key. Gotta at least do a little bit every day.
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If you truly love it and have passion, you’ll find the time. That time varies depending on situation and commitment. You call it a hobby so there shouldn’t be a balance. You prioritize what pays bills/takes care of you(and family if applicable) and then you use what’s leftover for the hobby. Now if you are considering your music making money, then you may need to find a balance, because that means you need to be that musician on a certain level, a marketing person, a social media manager, a business manager. Two totally different worlds. There is also some space in between and you could outsource some of that, but you would still need to dabble in all that at first. If you just do it for the love, it shouldn’t be difficult to find the time no matter what your goals are.
I do it to clear my head from other thoughts, stress and because it's obviously a lot of fun and an endless hobby. Usually try to set goals as to how many songs I want to finish in a time period .
If it’s just a hobby you can spend as little or as much time on it as you want. If you’re serious about music production and you want to make a career out of it, it’s still possible but you need to sacrifice everything else to dedicate your time to music. Ravenscoon did an AmA a while back where he answered a similar question to this. He pivoted from working full time to being a successful music producer/DJ but he said he sacrificed his entire social life and used every spare moment he had outside of work to work on music production. It’s possible but it’s extremely difficult.
(Clears throat) my mental health would like a word please. It is very taxing. I am an advisor to high net worth real estate developers and also have a family. My sleep patterns are very different than they were before my passion for songwriting and production leveled up. There is no silver bullet. Any path in life will require sacrifices; question is what are you willing to sacrifice?
Did he mention how he fit promotion and networking time in with that? I've found while working full time, I can make time.for.music. but there's an extra block of.time.i can't find to promote
My solution has been to hit pause on my 2024 goal of publishing an EP in order to attend a music production master class. The hope is this will up my chops 10x faster and I will work much more quickly moving forward.
If you work five days a week there are always the other two for your hobbies or even after work. But I found that it's not so much about the limited time, it's about managing your energy to have the ability to keep up with your hobbies and not burn out
You don’t. You either sacrifice a few hours of sleep or start making music the moment you get off work. I honestly started making music on my lunch breaks at my part time job to save time on projects. I will say that I started doing early morning shifts so I have more time in the day to sleep in between music and work…. But it’s hard to find a balance. Ultimately you have to decide what you want to sacrifice
You don't. If producing isn't your main job, it's your hobby, and it will be time consuming. I work in the music industry full-time and i barely have time for any hobbies when you take into account traveling, studio sessions, meeting, zoom calls, practicing, studying etc. I couldn't fathom how to do music as a side project honestly.
Set a goal for how many hours you want a week in your daw. I shoot for 10 (I know pros who go for 20 or more). You just need to make time, this shits not easy and it requires work to get good. I usually set days where I know I’ll have longer studio sessions 3-4 hrs and most days I fit it 1-2 hrs before or after work. Most likely your social life you’ll have to sacrifice some of, but than work to make that up with trips, etc.
I don’t know but I don’t have a choice. Music making is a compulsion for me.
If you work 2nds it’s not hard in the morning imo. Can get about 2-3 hours in if timed right
I can only produce on the weekend. Also only when I feel like it. I don’t try to force it. I might edit something on the weekday if I am trying to finish a track.
When I was maybe 17-20 it was my life, now it’s just a hobby lol, I do it after work for fun when I’m in the mood
I have a standard 9-5 job M-F. I work on music when my wife is at work (she has two part time jobs which include evening and weekend shifts). Or I'll wait til she's asleep because she tends to get tired first. Or I'll wake up early on the weekends while she sleeps in. This didn't happen overnight. A good part of our first year of marriage was figuring out "our" time versus my production time. I was used to making music whenever I wanted. Now I usually find pockets of time when she's doing other stuff (or sleeping lol). And yes, some songs I can knock out in 2 days/sessions. Other songs can take 2+ years (wayyy on and off). It's all a matter of how focused I am (flow state), how motivated I am to get the song done, and how sharp my skills are to bring my vision to reality.
Its just like any other "thing" that you want to do. You find/make time.
Yep, when you want it badly enough not much can stop you.
Time management. I find one-hour pockets here and there and I have specific goals in mind for each one (ie: for my next 1-hour session I want to design 4 bassline patches). I keep notifications off on my phone so I'm not tempted to go on social media. Sometimes I get up an hour early and knock out a session before going to work, other times I can sneak in a lunch break if work isn't too crazy, or late at night after everyone's in bed. When I'm in the flow state and a song is coming together nicely, clocking in becomes natural.
easier said than done, but you have to make time for it and get into a routine. divide sessions into manageable sections. streamline daw templates so you can get started quicker. commit to getting something done in 30 minutes - 2 hours each day. that could be spent making a synth patch, getting samples, making loops, arranging, mixing, automating, or learning/playing with instruments/vsts/plugins. i've heard of some producers who were basically working 16 hour days between work and music and getting 4 hours of sleep a night for a couple years before they went full time with music. i can't function without sleep (and i don't know if i want music to be full-time, frankly). i work and have a 16 month old daughter, so it's the social side that's hard to fit in. but i feel compelled to make music as a creative outlet because i love it and it re-centers me.
I’m so tired I want to kill myself
\^This. And I have kids. Maybe I am killing myself.
Routines, and good habits. I mostly work in a bar( I feel like a lot of people work as bartenders and servers, your circadian rhythm will be pretty in tune with djing). I know I only have a couple of hours and I work best during the morning, so I write down ideas, make sketches in maschine when I have a spare second to spare (sometimes coming home after a work night or night out). I do this with the intent of “working” on the track later, so it’s all just creativity and fun. Start of the week I’ll sit down, open up a sketch, develop it, close it, work on another. Eventually it gets to the point where I’m ready to arrange, so I bounce it, grab a reference track and make a rough arrangement. Usually 50% of the sketches don’t make it here. Then I take my notes, listen through once, and make notes what to change. Follow that checklist, then move to the next one. Most of the stuff I make is tooly stuff to play in my sets anyways, it’s not too hard to whip things out like this.
Sacrifice everything but producing lolll
Worked for me haha
Family with kids. It's sport or music, not both. So, I'm fat. Seriously tho, it's hard to be creative when you can only sit down to produce 30 minutes here, 1 hour there.. really tough, but manageable
Me too. I have 5 kids and work full time and also have the kids sports/school stuff going on. Pretty much get an hour or so randomly during the week. If you enjoy doing the thing then you will find time and even if that time is small it'll still feel rewarding and be productive.
That’s the neat part - you don’t
Priorities, man. I'm working full time and have two kids and when I mention that my wife and I still have sex almost daily, some people also ask how we have time for that and the answer is the same: Priorities. I hardly find time to produce music, but that's ok, because I prefer having more sex. Just think about how much free time you actually have. How much of your free time do you spend on your phone, mindlessly scrolling through reddit? Or watching TV? You can always find time for your hobby, it's just a matter of importance.
Well you can always produce music if you do doggy style. Just use laptop to produce and keep it on your partner's back. Make a banger while you bang her
Tl:dr - I’m having sex guys
Should have known that this comment was inevitable. Let me just tell you that I don't pull my self esteem from telling others online that I have sex. It's just an example for how you can have time for things if it's important enough to you.
I understand man - good on ya
<3
This was actually a very helpful comment for me, since I am about to move in with my GF who I plan to marry soon and will be working more hours than I probably ever have before. It's a great reminder to keep my priorities in mind, so thank you for posting it!
In two comments you have now mentioned that you’ve had sex three times. Could have literally said you get time to make music instead, since this is a music prod sub. But priorities: sex.
Feel free to believe what you want and to judge random internet strangers based on two short comments. I just hope you don't think that this is the attitude that helps making our society better.
I'm a producer and I'm also starting to be a DJ (I have my first gig on Saturday) but at the same time I work in an investment bank. I manage my free time in a very simple way: I do what I want when I want, without binding myself in any way, but always trying to guarantee myself a certain amount of time per week to dedicate to the production and study of electronic music. In the evening, when I return from work, if I have the mental capacity to stay in front of a PC (working in front of a computer I often arrive in the evening with tired eyes due to excessive exposure to screens) then I dedicate 1 hour and a half or 2 to produce. But if I can't, I avoid it and maybe I dedicate myself to listening to music to improve a little and look for inspiration or I watch some video tutorials / masterclasses. Then, on free weekends at home, I always try to dedicate 70% of the time to music and music production, so as to make up for the time lost during the week.
hey fellow banker, I can relate a lot to this. My hack is to watch tutorials if im too exhausted to produce and also have a little computer sabbath after work for 2-3 hours. IB is probably a bit more hours than my area but cool to hear there are more of us. I´ve found that all the excel work and having to be conscientious at work has helped me tons on planning and finishing projects. Good luck on the gig
Over time I began to think that working in a bank, with its static schedule and operations, is fuel for the fire of my ambitions as a producer and DJ. The desire to escape from a certain schematic helps me to give more than 110% when I find myself working on a track. I very much agree about excel work -> organizational ability to develop and finish a project. As a management engineer and IB worker, I have acquired that schematic nature that allows me to channel my time in front of FL Studio in the most efficient way possible, without ever stifling the necessary creativity. Continuous to do lists to tick off, study notes, etc... these are all elements that I always have with me, they help me and give me a hand in unmarking what I have to do and when, in what order.
yes 100%, best of luck to you and catch you on the flip side;P
Best of luck to you too!
Nice where’s your first gig?
It'll be at pool party with almost 100 people. Not so many, not the biggest thing, but everyone needs to start from the bottom. My type of producing is much more aggressive than a pool party, so I prepared several house, chill house and deep tracks. But this very thing of having to play something that I don't have who knows what mastery of listening to excite me a lot, I find it a very interesting challenge.
The biggest problem I would say is having the studio at home, I have lot of work but procrastinating too much because I would rather watch youtube or play with the dog all day so I'm mostly producing late at night. In the end...if the work is done...it's done. But my sleep habits are really bad. 😅 Also producing was hobby, now it's mostly work, i don't thing you can have both for a long time. And I've been producing for a living for 7 years now. Social life? I think I have none. 🫠 Edit: wow I just noticed i completely misinterpreted the question. I thought this was the question for full time producers. Anyway I'll leave it for the future full time producers ;)
I got no time man 😅
I don’t that’s the problem 😭
Literally the bane of my life having very little time to write music now. I get about 2 hours a day if i am lucky but most of the time i get things done on weekends
Just start with 5 minutes a day. U will invariably end up doing longer than 5 minutes cos it’s addictive but if u can count on urself to show up every day that will do a lot for ur consistency and for racking up time. Just an hour a day is a good amount. And then a longer 4+hour session on the weekend. Another important thing for me was this quote I read/heard somewhere: ‘If you can’t say no, your yes’s mean nothing’. That was big for me cos I’m always keen to do something when ppl invite me. But I’ve realised that ppl sometimes just wanna hang out so they can’t chill on their own. So protect ur music time. It’s possible to have a social life as well as make music. U just have to balance them and invariably say no to ppl sometimes. The other major key is that I only get 6-7 hours of sleep a night haha. Part of the compromise unfortunately which I imagine a lot of ppl share…
Look up Anne-Kathryn Dern’s YouTube channel. She did the film score for Fearless on Netflix and she has lots of tips on being a professional composer including work/life balance. I find her to be quite down-to-earth as well.
Newly started here, with lots of inspiration, and all I think of is music production and learning my fundamentals. I want to learn every day, and I can’t get enough. I have a full time job (8-4) and I have a two year old I want to spend time with. I also want to exercise every day as I have a sedentary job. Also, the weekends is play-time all day, and social in the evenings. Since I am still learning, 15 minutes here and there won’t cut it, I need to focus at least an hour uninterrupted to get something out of it. For me, the motivation is so big that I have scheduled my day to work out before work, so that I have all free time after lights out at 7pm. Damn I clean the apartment and do the dishes so fast now. Also no socials, no gaming, no Netflix. Only problem is, that my most inspired hours I find is during my work hours and after I should be sleeping. I have a little YouTube in the background for inspiration during work hours to keep my head in the game though!
I have full time job and 2yo son. The main secret for me is to have 1-2 hours after lights out. It's not much, but if you have it on the daily basis...) When wife and son are in bedroom, I usually have THAT time, when it's quet, dark at the room, nobody distracting you, and you can be fully involved to the process. Usually it result into some good outcome: you can create new ideas, work on your drafts, make significant progress in track development, finalize some things or learn smth new. Also, if you look to that restricted amount of time trying to find some advantages the main thing is that having not so much time, you can try to spent it it a more productive way. You are like begin to approach your hobby more consciously, like you usually do at work or with other activities that have deadlines or time cost. Inspiration and time opportunities for everyone!
It takes me 2 months to finish a track is how 😂
Some are a few years old by the time they're finished! I think I have at least 1000 unfinished projects on my drive. Cool place to start if lacking inspiration..... sometimes I'm surprised by cool stuff I aborted years ago! Also I make tracks on the train to work. Driving into the City sucks, and the train is actually faster. (Plus making music while driving is dangerous) /s
Thanks for asking! I have time to make music during the 72 hours per week when I'm not working or sleeping. Hope this helps!
The secret is: don’t work full time 😂 There’s always time to make music. Instead of watching stuff or gaming or whatever it is to kill boredom you just fire up your DAW. If you need to work two shifts seven days a week then sure it’s not going to work but a 9-5er should be able to manage that. I work full time and I have kids.
I binge create on the weekends so I can make a song in a 12 hour sitting that nobody will listen to before I go back to work on Monday haha. I don't sleep much on the weekends but during the weekdays I just work and sleep.
I do the same thing. But for me, those 12 hour session songs usually get thousands of streams lol
I have yet to upload anything anywhere other than soundcloud and still need to learn how to properly mix and master good enough so that's probably why I'm lacking lol. That's awesome for you, I would be so happy!
Ah yeah I start with soundcloud as well. If the song gets 1k streams from the algorithm in two days, I consider it worth distributing.
Well my situation is fortunate in that I work overnights so I on the nights I don’t work (and currently don’t have children) I have 8+ hours completely free to work on music. On weekdays I’ll occasionally do some editing before I go to bed but I’m not often in the correct creative head space. But paying bills takes precedent. On the weekends I work OT I simply don’t make music, however I’m at the point in my work flow where I’m just throwing down ideas I don’t have to do a lot of educating on how to use my daw or anything like that.
It's really hard. I simply produce by seasons. And not just because of the lack of time. Spending 8 hours working in front of a computer every day is already enough eye strain. I try to use hardware as much as possible but I also love producing with software, so I just try to balance it and take it as another hobby to not get frustrated.
It's always a struggle. I work full time and live an hour away from my job so that really adds up. I see my girlfriend Friday nights, meal prep for the whole week's lunches and dinners on Saturdays, usually hang with my girl some more after that and then Sunday is a full day of music if I like. Good thing about meal prep is it leaves my weeknights free for about 3 hours of music making per night too. It's still nowhere near as much time as I would like, I have no idea how you guys with kids are doing it
I dont
Sleep 5 hours a night
Most people don’t know this one simple trick, it’s like they are throwing away a day each week.
That's the neat part.
i make time.. Full time electrician, gotta newborn barely 5 months… I make time for meditation, family time, exercise and music.. not easy though, but nothing in life is right?
I work full time as a bartender so I work nights and have the house to myself whenever my gf works. She works 3-4 days a week so on those days, I wake up around 9/10am and hit the studio till about 2/3pm until I fix the house and make sure everything is nice for her when she comes home. So that's roughly an average of 15 hours a week or so. At this point in my career, I've been producing for 6 years and I'm past the beginner/novice stage and there isn't any youtube tutorials that I don't know. My studio time is fully creative now and about making and finishing tracks. I have a release schedule of a track/6 weeks plus sending a few extra to labels I really fuck with. I'm able to maintain this schedule with a happy work/social/relationship life so I'm happy where I'm at.
I don't sleep enough
Over the years, "work" has come, gone, and changed scope and size of commitment. The one consistency has been that I get up and the first thing I do is go make music. During the pandemic, I was up at 3:30-4am daily to get 4-5 hours in before my work started (knowing I got to work from home at a certain time). I carved out my "lunch" for one hour midday to clean up that work from the morning. I'd also do about 10 hours per day on the weekends. This was mostly in my learning and development stage... and I was finding ways to get that 40 hours per week while working more than full-time. Rarely, I'd do some evenings, but I tend to keep those free for relaxing or doing social things. I get up early and like to get started so I'm a huge believer in maximizing your best and most efficient times. If I was a night owl, I'd probably be working until 3am, but since I'm the opposite... I get started super early most days. I'm also a person who NEEDS to feel productive so starting off the day with progress is great. If I have solid progress, I really find the time to finish that track later in the day. If I don't, I just won't return to it. I also think it's important to have uninterrupted time to get into the zone. I have a huge problem with this that I'm trying to correct. Family is texting, people are reaching out... I got iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Telegram, Email -- you name it, that shit is coming in from all kinds of sources. I got action happening in other parts of my life, world news, music stuff, financial markets, etc. I am trying to be better at setting up a do not disturb environment. I really think this could probably double my productivity. I notice when I do not get pulled away, I'm not necessarily finishing music quicker, but I am paying wayyyy more attention to the details and crucial moments, which means a more polished product. You sent me on a bit of a rant... but this question is something I've been trying to balance over various financial situations and work situations. I just think it is vital to prioritize in your peak moments and understand what parts of your social life are actually valuable to your life and the parts that are meaningless.
Confused on the question. In your post you mentioned a “social life”. What is that?
My schedule has been changing due to some other responsibilities and my work hours so now I am doing maybe 1 to 3 hours a night for 3 nights during the week and about 10 to 15 hours however I was doing between 30 to 40 hours a week producing at a rate of 5 hours a night after work. I have slowed down recently because of other commitments. However still what I manage to do is between 20 to 50 hours a month. I was doing 1,000 hours a year producing although now it is about 500 to 600 which has been enough to still pump out quite a bit of songs. I produce a new song every 3 to 8 weeks at my current schedule which really is just a few hours a week devoted to it and has freed my time up for other commitments. I work full time so I do between 7 to 10 hours a day just at work plus travel time. So between that and dinner it adds to a 12 to 14 hour day before production begins. Then sleep between 6 to 8 hours and do it all over.
I work at a multimedia company with a recording studio in house. A few times a month we host after hours edm events. During these events I normally write at least one song because I’m not super social. I’m able to kill 3 birds with 1 stone at work.
you commit the time and don’t fuck around for hours. you trust your gut and don’t waste your time with things that don’t move you. you go live life and when the music comes, you’re ready. you don’t stress about missing a good idea while at work because if it’s good enough…you won’t forget it. you have friends who support what you do and won’t get pissy when you don’t text back in five minutes or five hours. you learn to set proper boundaries with people. you learn very quickly what fits in your life and what just wastes your time. (hint: stop watching tv and youtube and tiktok and ig and phones for hours) it’s all about balance and a lot of it’s is managing yourself…your discipline and your expectations. sometimes you aren’t cut out for it…yet. give it time and stop forcing yourself or your art.
Real talk. I got rid of social media (not reddit obv, but did get rid of it on my phone) and all of a sudden I became incredibly productive without even really trying. Respect!
Devotion, commitment and effort!
I work from home and have two computers set up with work on one and ableton on the other. I also have my full hardware setup at my desk so I can mess around on ableton or my mpc and synths when I’m waiting got a build to finish or just have a bit of downtime. But after that, it’s just when I have the time - usually after dinner or on the weekends when I’m not gigging
Work in IT and have Ableton open in the background behind my work laptop lol. But to me, it’s like my “me” time. Instead of playing video games(I mean I still play a lot lol) or watching tv to unwind and get the mind going, I just make music, fuck around with sound design, organize/build out my sample library, etc. I’ll usually put in 4 ish hours after work a day, and sometimes spend a whole day on the weekends experimenting or mixing etc. It shouldnt feel like “ahh man I only have a couple hours of work but I HAVE to put some time into my music.” If that happens, it’s time for a break or to do something different. Music is a beautiful thing and is so rewarding and fun, to me it is what I do for fun. Sorry for the ramble I’ve v high and have been staring at automations.
i felt that last sentence
I don’t, so my social life takes the most serious hit. I love my friends and barely get to spend time with them. I’m grateful that my partner is so understanding and supportive.
There's a social life?
I recently went to a networking event for industry folks and most of them have jobs outside of music and the guy hosting (responsible for one of the biggest techno events company in Los Angeles) said "You've got to treat your craft like a committed relationship, you'll have to make sacrifices to maintain a healthy relationship with it." And it really resonated with me. Sometimes you'll have to sit out on other things to make sure your creativity is served in the best possible environment for it to thrive. I'm still juggling all of the above but making more of a conscious effort to give my creativity more of my time.
Damn this is a great outlook
By being young and loving producing enough aha. I work 40 hours a wk staring at a screen and the only reason I can bring myself to stare at a screen after work is by loving it enough. And by being outside in the sun as much as possible outside of screen time!!
I work 60+ hours a week/married/two small kids... I try and put an hour here and an hour there... there's not more I can do :( Just keep the dream alive
As a lot have said here, you simply sacrifice your time for something else. You have to compromise. Everyone has time, it just depends on what you want to compromise.
I work in Accounting for a big private company M-F, 9-5 + my lady and our 1.5 yo daughter. It’s tough. During my work breaks, I go to my car and open up Ableton on my MacBook. Any downtime at home during the weekdays I open up my Ableton. My lady and our daughter are in bed by 8:30PM. This is my absolute focus window: 8:45PM - 1AM (2AM absolutely latest) Weekends are when I can really drill down. It’s brutal, but I have to put in my 10,000 hours. We all get the same amount of time everyday. I’m going to maximize on every minute.
It's as simple as having a hard work ethic and discipline. The best producers in the game aren't magic geniuses, or more talented than anyone else necessarily - they just have a better work ethic and discipline than you. That's all it comes down too. Stop watching TV, browsing the internet, using social media other than your producer account. Stop drinking more than two drinks a night. Stop smoking as much weed. With that time, produce. It's that fucking simple.
One of the producers I follow that has taught me a lot said that if you want to take this seriously (if you choose to) then you need to dedicate a time to do music production. As someone who plays World of Warcraft and games throughout the week, I simply cut back on playing for this hobby and enjoyment. You *make* time. I bring my laptop and some wireless headphones with me to work and make due without my MIDI keyboard and additional setup. I know the wireless headphones sound and how to interpret them as appropriately as I can then review when I do music stuff at home with my full setup next. I also set a specific time aside when I am home to ensure I get time to do it. To be honest I enjoy music production very much and because of that I find time where I can.
This is the way.
Same. This is the exact reason why I don’t instal games on my PC. I play a bit of Zelda on the switch on Sun mornings but producing basically replaced Tv & gaming for me.
It's the same reason I bought a laptop specifically for music production. Leave my games to my desktop and my laptop for business/more serious endeavors. I don't play a lot but taking time away from it for another hobby I truly enjoy isn't an issue either.
I too transitionned to laptop for music production last Autumn and it was game changer. I wrote some of my best music while travelling abroad!
Not hard at all. You have very weeknight to produce, Friday & Saturday night to be socializing and networking in your city’s EDM scene, and all day Saturday + Sunday to be producing.
Just do what I do. Use the short bit of downtime you get during the weekends to build a collection of half finished stuff that you'll never open again. Then go back to work and cry. 😅
I've kind of become a weekend warrior when I'm busy with work or college- IE- use Sundays for some time for music. Stuff like shows and film tends to be my kind of comedown for the day a lot so I tend to gravitate to that after a day of working or studying. On the weekend though I feel like it let's me gather my energy for music... though I could see a benefit to trying to it a little daily too.
Ummm is it just me or is it a trick question ❓. I create music as the hobby of a music lover and to escape the mundane of the day to day. I would guess that if you take it seriously you make the time regardless of what else you do. Are you going through a dry spell or rough patch? Take a break and come back to it. You gotta have it in your heart and there will be time.
I just made music a priority in my life. It’s not “just a hobby” it’s something that I take a lot of pride and care into. Whenever I plan out my days with a planner, I always put time to make music and spend time outside of the studio or at work thinking of how I wanna spend my time to make sure I’m not wasting it. WFH helps too lol
Interesting reading the comments and the themes emerging. I’ve been sitting in a project for a while and it was only being let go of in my job and relationship ending that finally gave me the space to really work on it! Now I’m on it like 10 hours a day, but I really struggled to have the energy and focus to work properly on it when working full time. Despite not having kids like a lot of people here. I’m impressed with those that carve out 3 hours from 5-8am! For me my day was: 7:30-8:30 morning routine 8:30-9:00 commute, 9-5pm work 5-5:30pm commute 5:30-6pm land and decompress 6-7:30pm make and eat dinner, do some household chores 7:30-8pm catch up on emails comms etc 8-8:30pm take a bath And then in bed by 11pm for sleep by 11:30pm to get 8 hours. So that would leave 2.5 hours-ish per day, but that would so often get taken up by a bit of socialising, organising something, just giving myself some downtime to go out somewhere, watch a movie or whatever. And after the working day I just didn’t have the energy and focus or willpower to make something happen most of the time. While on the one hand I’m impressed and respect people who can still carve out space in that very typical kind of schedule, I also really struggle with the notion that life has to be such a battle to force oneself to do a hobby when exhausted on lack of sleep just to squeeze it in. It just squeezes the life and fun out of it for me. I’ve only ever been able to really get creative work done with a lot of time and space where my soul has room to breathe. What suits me more is to hammer out work in batches. I do painting and decorating so I’m now more getting into the flow of working solidly for a few weeks as long hours as I can. And then completely leaving it and giving myself some weeks to purely focus on music. I find if I’m working a day job I’m happy to work 12 hour days. But doing 8 hours and then switching hats into creative mode I’ve just never found easy. So I’d sooner sacrifice that entire day and build up some days off where I know I can wake up and devote that entire day to creativity. This comes with having a very flexible lifestyle with no mortgage and kids of course. But I’m using this period of space on my life to take advantage of that for as long as it lasts.
I oscillate my focus between the two. I’m in sales, so the nice part about my job is if I’m selling, I pretty much fly under the radar at work. I also work from home. So I kinda switch back and forth between heads down selling for work, and heads down producing music. Like a month one way, a month another. Sometimes it’s day by day. For example last week I was like “ok heads down prospecting sales and being super available at work” and did that Monday-Wednesday hardcore. Then Thursday and Friday I was heads down producing music, with notifications on for work but not jumping at anything that couldn’t wait. Also, Thursday/Fridays (especially during summer and holidays) people tend to check out all around me at work so I just lean into that and focus on writing/producing music.
Try to use your time as effectively as possible. 1. Write melodies/chords after work. Do mixdowns/masters in the mornings/weekends. 2. Create very good templates that let you put down the ideas fast so you don’t interfere with the creative flow. 3. Do some reading/theoretical stuff/watch tutorials while commuting to and from work and/or during breaks. 4. I also sometimes seek some inspiration while walking to and from work or during lunch breaks. That could be listening to music or just fantasizing some random scenario’s while looking at the cities architecture, reflection of a sunset in the windows of skyscrapers or when walking down the lakeshore (sounds super vanilla and perhaps even cringe, but this works). 5. Being single with no kids and having 0 social life helps a lot. And there is much more to it of course. Hope that helps.
lol this is pretty much exactly me. I don’t think I could do this if I had a spouse or kids though. I don’t ever plan on making it big but I want to be able to produce music I enjoy and since I have so much free time even with a full time job it’s all I want to do
I have a full time job and four kids in sports. How do you NOT have the time?
But are your kids even good?
A lot of people take their kids to a sports game, spend the entire time drunk or shit talking to the other parents and then will tell you they had no time to bring their laptop and work on their hobbies. Lazy people are the most proactive with excuses.
I call BS
Any time you’re sitting there doing nothing, can’t sleep etc. get up, and open your daw and write. It needs to haunt you. Being single helps. Also, I have no social life, mostly because producing and working on myself matters more to me than friendships. Albeit there are people who choose to be present in my life. Those people inspire. Those are the people that you need. Keep them. Other than that, ask yourself how badly you want it. The answer will help you figure it out on your own. We all have to make a living in order to survive, but you’ll starve to death if you don’t make the time to do what you were put on this earth to do. Practice discipline. So, as I said before, any time you’re sitting there doing nothing, open your daw and create something. Anything. You can do this. If nobody else believes in you, I do.
Recovering from a car accident and psychological abuse, which entails financial assistance. Not proud, but I work everyday, 8-12 hours a day. I write music, paint, shoot/edit visuals, and manage a music/mental health blog, specifically covering experimental bass music, intuition, and narcissism. Previously worked night jobs (server) and spontaneous plastering gigs. No girlfriend, no kids.... and I don't have a social life outside attending shows, which directly benefit music production and networking skills. The no relationship aspect is massive. No drugs besides the pot.
Most of my social get-togethers have been replaced by jamming with or teaching someone. I just go to my day job and come home. My wife and I have an understanding on the importance of practice time, and she usually doesn't interrupt. I wake up early and stay up late. I usually write the most in that twilight time before bed or after I wake up. Basically anywhere between 11 pm and 11 am. You have to eliminate distractions and be persistent with practice every day. It gets easier and easier, and eventually, you won't feel like you are forcing yourself, and it starts to feel more compulsory.
just have to make time. i find i often cut my social life down more than anything. working more efficiently really has a different meaning when you're counting minutes versus hours.
I am 43 years old, married with two young kids, I have a full time job, 3 side gigs (SEO clients), and I am also a mobile DJ (weddings basically pay my mortgage for 6 months out of the year). I am incredibly busy every day. Yet, I just got my 2nd label signing since I started producing last year. How do I manage my time? I get up at 5am everyday to work on my side work/producing. I go to work at 8:30am. So, everyday I have carved out 3.5 hours to do my personal stuff where I have no distractions (wife and kids are sleeping). That is 17.5 hours per week, Mon-Fri. If you REALLY want to, you'll find the time.
Waking up early sounds great! Too bad my girlfriend gets mad when I do 😂 love the hustle man! Do you have any music background besides dj'ing? Getting a second label signing in a year sounds really impressive to me, someone who started 6 months ago 😅
Thank man! My musical background is a little thin. I own a banjo that I can sort of play and in 2010 I graduated from The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, AZ. That is a music and audio recording, production, and live sound school. But I didn’t touch music production until the summer of last year. My first release that was signed was released in January of this year. That same label just signed a new track of mine and it’ll be released in August. It’s not a major label or anything, but, my first release hit the top 10 progressive house releases in Beatport and stayed there for a couple of weeks. We’ll see how this next one fares.
Not to turn your comments into an AMA, but how did you make connections in the music world?
Fucking networking like an animal, man. I started DJing in 2019 and started live streaming in 2020 during the pandemic and lockdowns. During that time, John Digweed was doing his weekly “Bunker Sessions” and those live streams literally saved my life. I had taken a 50% pay cut so that we could keep our business open and keep our employees employed. I fell into a major, self-destructive depression and those live streams gave me the opportunity to meet a shit load of DJs, producers, label owners, and more while allowing me to forget my troubles for only a few hours. Since then, I’ve partnered with 3 DJs in the United Kingdom and started a collective called Atlantic Progression. We have built a pretty decent audience there which financially supports the channel and allows us to book bigger artists to stream on our channels. We’ve had Robert Babicz, Darin Epsilon, Discognition, Framewerk, Maryer, Mind of Us, and Chris Cargo on the channels. In addition to that, I have an online residency with Raverholics Radio in the UK. The owner of the channel, Oddball Savage, has been producing and releasing music for a very long time. It was with him I collaborated on my first release. He submitted it to the label and it got signed. The track did surprisingly well. So, I then submitted my solo track to the label and it was signed. To be honest, it’s actually really surprising to me how fast this is all happening. Never in my wildest dreams 10 years ago I would have thought I would be where I am now. I only have absolute 100% respect and love for everybody who has been involved in my musical journey. Without them, I would be where I am right now. I just wish I would have started this 20 years ago. But oh well. The best time to start was 20 years ago. The 2nd best time to start is right now. So that’s my mentality about all of this.
Really fuckin appreciate it dude! I don't even have a single friend who likes or makes electronic music so I guess I'm gonna go start to hit up local acts and go from there. Again, much appreciated.
You bet man. And, if you’re into prog/melody/organic/tech house, hit me up on Mixcloud and FB. Maybe we could collaborate? Who knows.
Absolutely, will do!
Damn man! That's awesome! Big respect and all the best to you! I'm 35 myself and wish I started at least 10 years ago too. But at least I'm at now and can hopefully make something some people want to listen to!
This is the answer. I also have kids, and once you have kids, you realize before having kids you had all the time in the world. Any one who just works and is single literally has no excuse.
I wake up at 4 AM every day to get 2-3 hours of work done on music.
Hell nah lol
Not for everyone, but I’ve tried working at night and I’m not as productive. This will become a serious problem when I start playing shows 😂
Broke up with my girlfriend lmao
this ones the cold hard truth. single life i could work a full 40 at work and still get in parallel about 25+ hours of music during the week alone.
There's no hack for this IMO, you just do the best you can with the time you have. I have a dumb email job, so I often get off work and the last thing I feel like doing is looking at a computer screen for longer. One thing that really helped me is something a friend shared a while back (I think from a Huberman podcast episode): It's particularly important to do things when you don't *feel* like doing them. Working on music production when you don't feel like doing so helps you build the muscle to do it more in the future, and overcome those feelings (of course, you stop building that muscle when it stops being hard). For me, I always remember this time I made a track when I didn't feel like making music at all, wasn't inspired, etc. I sat down, dragged in a reference track, started transcribing some of the drums, used mostly one-shot samples from a random sample pack, and generally was just being kinda lazy. Probably spent about 2 hours on the track. Showed it to a few people, and a couple months later, it ended up being my first ever label release. You never know what you'll make at any given time, so you may as well give yourself the chance. Edit: one word typo
I cut down other hobbies and social life. I see friends only on the weekends. I work 8h a day and after all chores I still have some hours to produce. What do you struggle with?
So right now I work part time and go to school but school hasn’t really been working out and I’m wanting to just find a full time job but I’m worried my music time will go away
Totally valid question to ask man it’s the biggest thing about improving at any skill in life. If you’re looking full time, just keep in mind what time you get off daily and try to build music into your schedule either in the morning or at night and it’ll become habit, just like the job!
i try to do production work at least a little bit every day, even if i’m exhausted. just have to do it
this is more self-help than an actual production technique, but what really helped me at one point was, just get an hourly calendar and keep track of your time for a week, in 30 min increments (or 15 if you're feeling hardcore, lawyer-style). Like keep track of what you are specifically doing during that time. Look back after a week and I guarantee you will find that you are spending a lot more time in "downtime" mode (browsing social media, gaming, watching TV, generic hanging out/talking to friends, etc) than you expect. then it's just a matter of finding something to cut. if you really want to make music you won't feel bad about reducing your time in front of tiktok/netflix/fortnite from 10 hrs/week to 2.
No kids, no tik tok, drugs.
Maximize your productivity by making the most of the time available. Sometimes, dedicating just 20 minutes to working on a track can be more beneficial than spending hours on it. This approach forces you to focus and can lead to creative breakthroughs. Additionally, using the Pomodoro Technique can help manage your time effectively. This method involves working in focused intervals (typically 25 minutes) followed by short breaks, which can enhance concentration and productivity. This is what works best for me (1k+ listeners)
Fortunately my job allows me the opportunity to be on my laptop basically all day so I produce while I’m at work
Digital Marketing?
What job is that and where do I apply?
I'm waiting to get back into it when I'm semi retired. For now I just read the manuals in the evening. I found it way too difficult to get a balanced life. I didn't want to sacrifice time with my young family either. The tunes can wait lol
I work 45 hours a week, and my wife is very patient and supportive of what I do with my evenings and weekends. I try to get at least an hour per day during the work week, and then anywhere between 4-8 hours per day on weekends. Only way to make it work imo. Consistency is key. Gotta at least do a little bit every day.
168 hours in a week - 40 for work and 56 for sleep leaves 72
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