Candid Overview Of The Pros and Cons of Being A Music Producer. Find Out Of Music Production/Engineering Is For You.
Typically, students that think about going into the music production field just want to know how to get started in the music industry.
It’s always best for students to just reach out, dive in, and maybe even sit in on sessions or live productions.
Whether it's about education or career options, the biggest questions and concerns are centered around how to get started. And once we're involved we all inevitably ask ourselves - what are the pros and cons of being a music producer?
We hope this short list of 9 candid evaluations helps build a foundational assessment about producing music.
Contents:
What Are the Drawbacks of Being a Music Producer?
1. Con - Inconsistent Income
2. Con - Odd Studio Hours
3. Con - Uncomfortable Work Environments
What are the Benefits of Being a Music Producer?
4. Pro - It’s A Passion
5. Pro - Creative Collaboration
6. Pro - Role of Influence
Challenges of Being A Music Producer
7. Wearing Multiple Hats
8. The Subjectivity Of Music Production
9. The Pace Of Relevance
Is Becoming A Music Producer Worth It?
The top 3 cons of being a music producer is having an inconsistent income, odd studio hours and uncomfortable working environments.
One drawback when we're just starting out as a music producer is the inconsistent money coming in without instant salary opportunities.
It’s a bit of grind and there may be weeks/months where we're not getting as much work.
Unfortunately, this means we may have to work other jobs to make up for the money we're not making in order to handle financial responsibilities.
This does demand more energy and hustle, but that's normal!
The challenge of receiving a consistent income leads to another potential drawback which is the unpredictable hours that we work as producers.
Most recording sessions are scheduled around an artist’s/musician’s availability and even our own availability as a producer.
Those available hours tend to be after a work shift or after kids are picked up from school on weeknights. The case can also be recording sessions that last throughout the entire weekend.
The schedule can be pretty inconsistent so this can create obvious issues if we don’t properly manage that time with family and other obligations.
Finally, as with any work environment we may find yourself in a situation where we have to work with artists or musicians we don’t vibe with.
More times than we care to admit that can affect our energy.
The main benefits of being a music producer are being able to do something that we enjoy, collaborating with others and influencing people through your music.
You get to do what you love and what you’re passionate about.
Most audio engineers get into producing because of their love and passion for creating songs.
It’s awesome and for most of us it doesn’t even feel like work when it's done as a living (or taking classes).
We get to interact with talented people and create great relationships.
So the potential perk of collaboration is long lasting connections with people through song creation.
We can have amazing influence and impact through the songs we help create.
It's a benefit to others and the culture around you.
There are pros and cons of being a music producer, but there are also some challenging opportunities that one person could count as a pro, while yet another views it as a con.
Ideally most of these can be turned into healthy growth opportunities!
One of the challenges of being a sound engineer is having to wear multiple hats.
When just starting out we tend to become own personal assistants, but this experience can launch us further in personal development.
The challenges lie in doing our own:
Switching between our analytical and creative minds truly stretches our capacity.
Another challenge is being ok with the fact that not everyone is going to like what you do.
Songs are a very subjective experience since it's an art.
Expected: What moves us could have absolutely no impact on someone else.
Be ok with that.
So embrace the challenge as an opportunity to take the good and the bad in stride.
Finally there’s always the challenge of staying relevant.
However, this is a pretty exciting and fulfilling opportunity to learn on our own or to continue in higher education.
Why? Simply because we get to stay up to date on what’s happening in the music production world.
Whether it's the latest musical trends, newest software, or hardware and whatever else it may be, the challenge is to keep our ears to the ground.
There are various pros, cons, and challenges to being a music producer, but it's worth becoming one especially if we're passionate about working and getting valuable experience in the music industry.
Any opportunity to make a living doing something we love is something worth giving a try.
Start by researching programs that offer certifications and bachelor’s degrees in music engineering or production.
Right out of high school is a great time to do so because of the available time, energy, and the creativity.
Go for it!
The Music Engineering Program will prepare you for a career in music/audio production and or engineering. Request more information about Music Engineering at Visible.
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