The obsession with content creation and a marketing-first emphasis as an artist creates pressure and an incentive structure that leads artists away from themselves.Birocratic reminds us of the truth: There is no better marketing plan than making good music. Nothing will endear you to potential fans more than that.It’s so simple and easy to forget this in the noisy world of content. If art is the artist’s product, then the rule of marketing is no different than for any other business. If the product isn’t of quality, no amount of marketing will develop a real relationship. Best case scenario, you sell one product, get one listen. That person’s trust is lost forever because of a hollow promise.Music is not content. Content is a container for your music. If you want to be an artist, yes you have to share your music, but you do not have to become a content creator. In the same way your art develops over time, so will the way that you deliver it.If you want to make music privately, you are not any less of an artist.If you want to be a content creator who makes music, go right ahead.If you want to build an audience, how will anyone discover your music if it isn’t consistently shared?If you want to be an artist, put your message in a bottle and send it out to sea. Over and over again. With practice, you will learn to adapt to the ever changing movement of the water.Subscribe for free and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

A company can be a source of opportunity, maybe even a partner, but if you want something to rely on, look to community.No matter what your goals or existing sources of income, a consistent component of a musician’s career is connection to a fan base. Today, this is represented through an email list. And in that sense, it is not different than any other business.Artists ignore this basic idea. They try to build a creative business without a fan base or believe that someone else will do that for them. An email list lacks the allure of a social media following and monthly listener count — the appearance of success. Social media and streaming platforms don’t ask you to build anything. They actually prefer that you don’t.Greg David didn’t take a day off in five years and he produced 200 songs in 5 years that generated millions of streams. This extreme focus is also, as he put it, tunnel vision. His life and career were out of balance. He developed a single source of revenue that was controlled by a label. When it came time to move on from that label, he realized that millions of streams meant nothing without an email list to back them up.Uploading your catalog to Spotify without an audience is like putting up flyers in your city. Millions of people pass by it, some will see it, few will read it, and none will remember it. The appearance of access is not a substitute for connection. That is found through the quiet and patient work of cultivating a community.The allure of reaching the entire world is a shiny distraction from the humble and meaningful possibility that you can serve your community of fans in the same way as a neighborhood butcher. If you feed people, they will take care of you.If you want to look successful, put your faith in a corporation. If you want to sustain a career, serve a community. Offer free meals and begin a conversation.Subscribe for free and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 (a sample pack), Invisible Instruments, and access to The Pocket (in-studio production videos from guests). Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

You don't need more time. You need to decide when you're spending time and when you're investing time. That is about intention and organization.This is where Frequency comes in — a simple system to direct your time intentionally.If you've ever felt you don't have enough time to do what you want, this one's for you.Full post is up at producerhead.substack.com.Subscribe to ProducerHead on Substack at producerhead.substack.com and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, Invisible Instruments, a collection of writing on the creative and psychological side of making music, and The Pocket, a video library of guests sharing behind the scenes of their sessions. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Gnarly is a British Sri Lankan producer, finger drummer, and performer based in London. In this clip from episode 025, she makes the case for building a small, engaged audience over chasing viral numbers — and explains why she's never once tried to go viral.This is a short one. But it might reframe how you think about the whole game.Listen to the full conversation: Episode 025 — Gnarly Part 1: Working Quickly, Not Frantically.Subscribe to ProducerHead on Substack at producerhead.substack.com and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, a curated sample pack, Invisible Instruments, a collection of writing on the creative and psychological side of making music, and The Pocket, a video library of guests sharing behind the scenes of their sessions. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Alsogood is an Italian producer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. In this conversation we get into Dilla, instinct over technique, why he intentionally puts himself in rooms where he's the worst musician, and what it actually means to be confident as an artist.Subscribe free at producerhead.substack.com and immediately receive Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1, Invisible Instruments, and access to The Practice — a behind-the-scenes look at how ProducerHead guests work in the studio.Connect on IG:AlsogoodProducerHeadToru Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Risk is the point – that’s the whole reason you make music in the first place.Yes, it is scary to make something and share it with people. Yes, it is extra work to tell people about it. But wanting people to hear your music isn’t selfish. It represents why you make music in the first place: to connect with others.If you don’t risk vulnerability, you will avoid the pain of rejection, but you also completely seal yourself off from the possibility of connection. We are fixated on how many people or views something gets and we forget there are people on the other side. This fixation distracts from the who, the unquantifiable nature of a new fan willing to buy your next record, your next collaborator, or someone who wants to remix your song.There’s a lot of space between being a content creator and telling people about your music. Becoming someone you’re not is not required nor recommended. But, if you were vulnerable enough to distill your life in song, go one step further and tell someone. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

The real tragedy would not be failing to achieve mastery, but that in the process you lost sight of what’s most important: realizing your own voice. A relentless pursuit of mastery can distract from the purpose of art: a unique and personal perspective, expressed freely. Art is the artifact, the expression of the voice, not the voice itself.We commonly parrot: “learn the rules, so you can break them.” In this conversation, Matt Wyatt says “Honestly, I think that’s overrated. I was certainly taught that, but some of the artists I most revere seemingly didn’t do that.”That isn’t to say competency doesn’t matter. It is not in your best interest to ignore rules, patterns, or convention altogether. Ignorance will likely lead to conventional results. The problem is that mastery is often talked about as a destination. A level to be reached before the art begins, when it is actually an ongoing commitment to develop your voice.You know enough words to write a book. Expanding your vocabulary will not write it. The technical blocks you encounter exist on the path to making it. As you write your book, you check the thesaurus for alternative words. In music, you may learn that what you need is not a new chord, but an inversion.Do not set out to master music. It is a clever way to avoid the real work: to understand you and your craft well enough to present it as a vulnerable artifact for the rest of us.ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Practice — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

Buried in the process, your habits take over. Your automatic selection of instruments and sounds leads to predictable patterns.If you begin with your fingers you are immediately filtering your imagination through your chops. Instead, ask yourself: What do I hear? As you hum a melody or beatbox a groove you hear in your head, you are not thinking about whether or not you can play it. This is an honest map of your idea. Record it, not because it will necessarily become part of the song, but because it provides you with direction. The way that you sang this melody will imply more than the notes themselves. You will hear tone, timbre, and texture. That can guide which instrument you use, instead of forcing a part through the instrument you already loaded.When you begin from your imagination and what you hear, you provide a path for fingers to follow, instead of the other way around.Full Episode: 049. Ideas Over Everything | feat. Moo LatteSubscribers get access to The Practice — a growing archive of in-studio sessions from guests on the show. Watch how they work. Free to subscribe. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

The thing about art is that it’s never finished. It’s a fact that presents a fundamental challenge: you have to decide to let go. To accept imperfection. To move on or to live inside the maze of one project your entire life.Fog Chaser’s song a month project addresses this challenge directly. His commitment to deadlines and accountability to himself resulted in four, 12-song volumes completed in succession over the past four years.Now, with thousands of subscribers waiting for Volume 5 he faces another form of the same question. Does he repeat the cycle expected by his audience or change directions?We make music wanting it to be heard, but what do we do once we’re heard? Fog Chaser acknowledges the privilege and gratitude for the audience and the pressure that accompanies attention. He reminds us that the attention arrived because he began by creating something deeply personal and meaningful to him.The point is to create and to gift and then repeat. Because the work is never done.ProducerHead is a publication for independent music producers. Subscribe free and get access to Sonic Stimulus Vol. 1 — a free sample pack, The Invisible Instruments — a series of creative frameworks for producers, and The Practice — behind the scenes production sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe

ELPHNT is an Ableton authority. His extensive experience as a producer, performer, and educator has allowed him to see a common trope play out over and over again.It’s accepted as the norm, but as he explains here, it doesn’t have to be.On the one hand, scrolling endlessly for the perfect kick drum is funny.On the other, it is creative self-sabotage by disorganization.Here, ELPHNT provides a clear and direct path forward.Hear the full conversation in Episode 035 — Soul-Crushing Success feat. ELPHNT.What are ProducerHead Loops?Gems from past conversations worth running back. Perfect for when you need a quick hit of inspiration.ProducerHead is free to subscribe. Subscribers get access to The Practice — an ongoing video archive of in-studio sessions from guests on the show. Get full access to ProducerHead at producerhead.substack.com/subscribe