How long have you been producing until first release?

[tone-def]

my first netlabel track was after 3 years. my first beatport track was about 18 months later.

i wish i hadn't released any of it.

[datalus]

At what point do you think one is at their musical peak? If there is such a thing..

there is no such thing.

if you change music styles you can have a peak in each one. i've probably changed styles completely about ten times now, i started as a drummer in an acid rock band when i was 11 and probably hit my peak when i was 21 when i released my first records in that style, then i was a bassist in a punk band in 1977 and probably hit my peak after 2 years...... and so on and so on.
i probably made my most commercially successful music to date as a guitarist in a psychedelic grunge band when i was 38. at the same time i started making warehouse techno in 1991 and was most successful at that around 1996, age 41, then moved onto minimal around 1999.

i'd say ive got many more years before i hit my peak in modular techno as i'm still learning, but after nearly two years i'm ready to release my first album in my new style age 56.

i'd say its bullshit that your brain only develops till age 40, it depends what you mean by develop. you are still making and breaking neural pathways long into your old age, my dad is 86 and he runs a successful business on ebay making and selling rare engine parts, he's totally computer / internet literate and he didnt know what a computer was 10 years ago.

oh that article didnt mean that your brain doesnt work anymore after 40. it reaches its fully functionality or is grown up at the age of 30 till 40. let´s say the genetic program is then completed.

the other thing is what you call a peak in your carreer is just a small bump for other artists who dont change their styles all the time. getting back to that approach would be paul simon now a succesful minimal producer if he started that after his "peak" in pop music? i doubt that.

personally i keep it more like stephen king once said that talent is like a knife. some have small ones and some bigger ones but it matters how good you sharpen it.

Unfortunately, modern day science knows very little about how the brain actually works. They can't even agree on the true nature of reality.

So if anything, I think society is obsessed with youth and that's why it's been impressed in people's minds that all of our important work and by extension our worth is in our younger years. If you look around you, everything in the world today is about the short term (economic woes anyone?). I used to incorrectly assume just because we're further into the future and we do have some amazing technology, we're always making progress, but in recent times I've begin to reject that idea. Life is much more complicated than some linear progression.

Anyhow, you know Leonardo da Vinci didn't start to paint the Mona Lisa until he was 51. So, I think the best way to think about this is not to bother yourself with it and just get on. You'll just waste more brain cells and time worrying about it.

Edit: I learned piano at a young age, but I didn't really start producing music on a computer until about 4-5 years ago at the end of university. And I have no releases, currently.

[eggnchips]

Why do some of you regret your earlier releases? You make music to be listened to right? Did it tarn your image?

[Opuswerk]

Why do some of you regret your earlier releases? You make music to be listened to right? Did it tarn your image?

To me it's more than i'd rather release music that sounds as much as possible like me, rather than release stuff that sounds like "any other artist name here".
I suppose it's about finding your voice and getting stuff out you feel says something in your own way. And i clearly didn't have my own on my first releases, and am not too sure i got it now (although i reckon buying gear and playing with it has helped that quite a lot).

[Phase Ghost]

Probably about 7 or 8 years. However there was a 4 or 5 year semi hiatus in the early to mid 00's where I wasn't making much music at all (working all day and teaching myself software programming at night). Even when I got that first release. I didn't really want to put it out. The guy with the label kept on me about it so I did.

I having been making music in one way or another since 97 or 98, It's only been about 3 years or so that I've really got serious about it all. Prior to that it was just something fun to do and loose yourself in for a few hours (still very much is). I never gave a sh!t about mixing down a tune right or a muddy bottom end. I had crappy pc speakers and an old subwoofer. I was more than happy playing my tunes for a few friends.

Although, my skills have got a lot better and my tracks sound better than most of the sh!t I sift through on junodownload, I'm still hesitant to release anything. I've got probably 70 tracks sitting around that I could put out no problem. I'm not about to do that though because I have a certain standard I hold myself to. That might sound a little arrogant or whatever, but that's the way it should be in my opinion. People need some restraint with their music. If I'm not 100% satisfied, I don't want to release it under any circumstances. Most of the time I'll record the stems and let it sit around for a few months and then come back to it. Even if someone "really likes it", it doesn't matter. Gotta be totally behind your work. Some producers I like a lot get a little recognition going and just start to put out and remix any damn thing. I just think to myself "Dude, why? That's sh!t compared to your other work".

That said. Who gives a fck when you get something out? Is that why you make music? It's certainly not why I do. I suspect that's not the reason most of your favorite artists do either. Just have fun and let the rest fall into place. I could honestly care less if I ever put anything out again. I just like making music. If I make something I feel worthy of releasing, that's just a bonus.

[Hades]

I never quite understood that pressure for "releasing" anything.
In fact, I hate the word "producer".
To me it puts way too much stress on "production", like in some capitalistic economical sense.
Whatever happened to being a good old "musician" ?

Do you need to have others like what you do ?
I don't.
Sure, it's a nice plus if they do, but that wouldn't change why I do this.
I just try to make something beautiful that I like and can be happy with. Preferably something that touches my soul in a way, but a good groove is already fine too.
If others like it, fine ! if not, who cares ?

And that whole age thing.
I used to worry about that too. Untill I looked at a lot of the artists who's work I really admire, and I discovered that maybe 80% of them if not more were already making music for maybe a decade before releasing anything properly, and have all released their best work when they were 35 or older.
I'm convinced some of the "pioneers" were only lucky to have been at the right place at the right time.
Of course some were just talented, but others might not have been so succesfull if they had started to make music nowadays instead of back then.
Someone like Surgeon is a massively talented guy, and you can put old tracks of his to new tracks being produced today, and they will still not sound outdated.
But to me most of Derrick May's tracks sound horribly outdated, and why the hell did the guy not produce almost anything in the last 2 decades or so ? Sure he's a great DJ, but I'm convinced he wouldn't have such cult status if he would have started making music now.

anyways, just my highly personal 2 cts.
I'm not trying to compare Surgeon to Derrick May or whatever, just naming 2 examples that pop up in my head at the end of a long nightshift

[steevio]

I never quite understood that pressure for "releasing" anything.
In fact, I hate the word "producer".
To me it puts way too much stress on "production", like in some capitalistic economical sense.
Whatever happened to being a good old "musician" ?

+1

[::BLM::]

I never quite understood that pressure for "releasing" anything.
In fact, I hate the word "producer".
To me it puts way too much stress on "production", like in some capitalistic economical sense.
Whatever happened to being a good old "musician" ?

+1

What exactly is a good old musician?

People think releases = gigs, so that's why there is so much pressure to release.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to release music.