Hi im new. Here's my music.

[Glitchhog]

"I don't make pony music because I enjoy it, i make it because it's gotten me more of an audience."

A true musician doesn't take advantage of an audience like that. There are plenty of places you can post your stuff that aren't pony-related. It may not get you a million views straight off the line, but using ponies as a gateway to fame without actually enjoying doing so isn't smart, it's just offensive imo. What do you think the publics general reaction to your music will be if they discover you only used pony for 'the views' and not because you enjoy it? Your music is excellent and you have the potential to go far if you get your name out there. Have you:

Signed up for every music forum/radio site/etc. you can find?
Posted your music on Reddit? From my experience, non-pony subreddits get more traffic when it comes to music.
Ultimate-Guitar is a great place to post original stuff.
BandCamp and SoundCloud are also excellent hubs for hosting your content.
Mixcloud couldn't hurt, either. There's always the chance someone will find your stuff there.
Keep active contact with your fans. They'll respect you more for it.

I could go on and on. The internet offers almost endless opportunities to showcase your talent if you know where to look. You WON'T get famous overnight. Hell, I've been at this for 4 months, and I've only recently been receiving attention. And I'm fine with that. It means things are happening and it gives me more drive to push myself harder. You currently have more subscribers than me AND you have a video that's hit the 15,000 view mark. That's a big achievement. I need to be blunt here, because I can't say it any other way, but you're being extremely selfish. My honest advice is to get out there and make your name known. Post on forums, offer advice, ask for criticism on your work, give criticism to others, etc. Use what attention ponies HAVE given you to push yourself further without them (unless you genuinely DO enjoy making pony tunes, which so far, from what you've said, isn't the case). It just seems you "want it now", as Applebloom would say. I'm sorry, but that isn't going to happen. You want a career in music? Expect to have to give it EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. Wallowing in self-pity and playing the victim card never worked.

Sorry for being so blunt, but that's sadly the way it is.

[soup2504]

"I don't make pony music because I enjoy it, i make it because it's gotten me more of an audience."

A true musician doesn't take advantage of an audience like that. There are plenty of places you can post your stuff that aren't pony-related. It may not get you a million views straight off the line, but using ponies as a gateway to fame without actually enjoying doing so isn't smart, it's just offensive imo. What do you think the publics general reaction to your music will be if they discover you only used pony for 'the views' and not because you enjoy it? Your music is excellent and you have the potential to go far if you get your name out there. Have you:

Signed up for every music forum/radio site/etc. you can find?
Posted your music on Reddit? From my experience, non-pony subreddits get more traffic when it comes to music.
Ultimate-Guitar is a great place to post original stuff.
BandCamp and SoundCloud are also excellent hubs for hosting your content.
Mixcloud couldn't hurt, either. There's always the chance someone will find your stuff there.
Keep active contact with your fans. They'll respect you more for it.

I could go on and on. The internet offers almost endless opportunities to showcase your talent if you know where to look. You WON'T get famous overnight. Hell, I've been at this for 4 months, and I've only recently been receiving attention. And I'm fine with that. It means things are happening and it gives me more drive to push myself harder. You currently have more subscribers than me AND you have a video that's hit the 15,000 view mark. That's a big achievement. I need to be blunt here, because I can't say it any other way, but you're being extremely selfish. My honest advice is to get out there and make your name known. Post on forums, offer advice, ask for criticism on your work, give criticism to others, etc. Use what attention ponies HAVE given you to push yourself further without them (unless you genuinely DO enjoy making pony tunes, which so far, from what you've said, isn't the case). It just seems you "want it now", as Applebloom would say. I'm sorry, but that isn't going to happen. You want a career in music? Expect to have to give it EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. Wallowing in self-pity and playing the victim card never worked.

Sorry for being so blunt, but that's sadly the way it is.

This.

[Codeum]

You still aren't getting it. I don't "want" it now, I "need" it now. applebloom not getting her cutie mark isn't putting her in danger of starving to death. The only reason I no longer enjoy making pony music is because I keep getting bullshit reviews that couldn't be farther from the truth. I've been everywhere for the the past 4 years and this is the only thing that's gotten me anywhere. Of course I enjoy it, when I wake up to 50 comments and 20 subs a day for a week after one of my tracks gets featured. It fills me with hope. But then, I see how small I really am and it brings the high crashing straight back down.

[soup2504]

Then you should've clarified that before. And who cares if you get a few bad reviews? It happens, some people might not like your stuff, you should know that your music will not appeal to everyone, every musician should know that when they dive into music.

I think Fallout 3 isn't a great game, at all. Some people share my opinions(well, I actually have reasons, other people just hate it for the dumbest reasons) so I decide "Heu, i'm going to write a review to show people the reasons they praise this game are far from the truth!" and guess what? People might think my reasons for disliking the game are far from the truth. People are allowed to have opinions. Is my review going to make the developers quit what they're doing?

Now you're probably saying "But the reasons they are saying this is honestly not true!" well, some of the reasons people say Fallout 3 was great was honestly not true(Grwat story? No, generic, and full of plot holes. Gunplay? Weapons feel like nothing, there is no weight in the shooting mechanics, enemies don't give much reaction to the weapons until they are dead, etc, etc.) bit guess what, people still praise it for these reasons, regardless of how untrue it is.

And before you go "But that's the opposite of my issue! People are bashing my music for dumb reasons, in your case, people are praising fallout 3 for dumb reasons! It's the complete opposite!"

just because it's the opposite does not mean it can't have a similar meaning, and everyone should know that(as alot of people tend to pretend that opposite is completely opposite regardless).

Ok, end rant. For now...

[TheSunAndTheRainfall]

How is it not the way to go? you want me to just go "oh yeah lalala this is so much fun. I haven't eaten in days, but this is just so much fun. I love making music that only a handful of people will hear!

Yes.

Music as a business is a heartbreaking affair. It's a road riddled not with bumps, but with huge gaping holes and mountains. Let's propose two hypothetic scenarios. For the first one, I'm going to venture a guess and say that you want to "make it" in music, and by "make it", you mean being able to depend economically only on income coming from your music work. There's only three ways this can happen: good connections (and money), super good luck, or really hard work.

The super good luck thing I think is kind of what happened with most of the famous brony musicians. Their work happened to surface at a right time and in a right place to grant them the spot they now hold in the community. It was all a combination of exposure to the right people, right timing, right content, and yes, why not, talent. Sadly, this kind of thing happens spontaneously, and nobody will ever be able to force that. I don't think many brony (or non brony) musicians will find themselves in this situation any time soon, and if they do, rest assured that it will be a happy accident.

The really hard work part is the most common of them all. It usually starts with a guy, some ideas in his head, and something he truly loves, and it's the measure of his love what will determine how far he gets. It's really freaking hard to convince people to invest even a little of their time on you, and more often than not people won't even care, but it's only through perseverance that you can build a circle of people who are interested in your ideas, and who will stay tuned to them.

If you have good connections and good money, you don't even need talent to make it. You're surrounded by people who can provide it for you, who can put your face and your work out there, and you're only a little nudge away from instant fame, and recognition, and serious cash. But then again, everyone in this situation is probably already dirty rich, so there might not be as much of a drive for money as for fame. But that's a thing for later.

I have a friend who is stuck between the last two scenarios I've mentioned. His family has some decent money, and he's already made some pretty good connections both because of his money, and because of his trying to get as involved as he can in the commercial music scene over here. He has tons of equipment, he know people who can help him polish his sound, he's a super talented musician, and he's got an incredible heart for it. Yet he still has trouble landing gigs. He hardly ever gets published anywhere. He's farther along than pretty much everyone I know, yet he still isn't close to making it, yet he will never give up, no matter how discouraged he becomes, because in the end he's still doing what he loves. He has many musician friends with worse luck than him, who are already in their late twenties, still playing local bars on Thursday nights, barely scraping to at least have something to eat, often working really lame jobs because they wouldn't have a roof over their heads if they didn't. But they haven't given up.


Now, let's go to the second scenario. I'll venture another guess and assume you're doing this because you want attention, which seems more likely, from what I've read. Let me ask you a question first; how are you going to know how much attention is enough? Would having the same amount of subscribers as Omni make you happy? If so, why? What happens after that, anyway?

Doing things without any motivation other than attention is a surefire way to get disappointed and frustrated fast. You may already be aware of this. On this front, I can't really offer any help, I can only advise you to rethink your motives, and what you expect out of this, and more importantly, why you want this, and what will happen after you get it, if you ever do.


I'm going to go on a little tangent here, and say that this reminds me a bit of something I was told a while back, about why there's so much corruption in regards to administration of money, at least here in this country. Ever since we're little, we're told from every front that we need to make money the thing we base our lives around. We won't get anywhere in life if we don't have a lot of money, we will never be anyone if we don't have a lot of money, our lives will be worth nothing if we didn't make as much money as we could. And some of us do buy into this idea. But the thing is, money is hard to get. So when money isn't handed to these people on a silver plate, they start looking for easier ways to get it, and it eventually descends into an "oh, so nobody will give me my money? Well, I'm going to take it anyway, no matter who I screw over in the process, because it's the thing I want the most in life" affair, and everything just goes to hell then.

Now, I'm not comparing you to these people, but you do seem desperate for attention. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) for you, it's not something you can just go and seize.


To wrap this up. Your music is greatly enjoyed by a lot of people. You have a decent amount of attention, yet you don't seem to be happy with it. Furthermore, you seem to be doing music around MLP just to get an audience, but doing it doesn't make you happy, and it leaves you feeling even more unfulfilled when you don't get the response you expected. So when one approach isn't working, the most logical thing to do would be trying a different one, right? Yet it seems to me that in your case, a change of appreach in the music you make would not make a big difference (and that is what I tried to illustrate with this entire post), so it has to be something else that needs to be fixed.


I wish you the best of luck in finding a solution to this.



EDIT: looking back on this post, I realize that it may not have much to do with anything after all. Codeum, I apologize if I completely missed the mark. Oh well, if anyone can still take anything from this anyway, then it's all good.

[RaynStrom]

How is it not the way to go? you want me to just go "oh yeah lalala this is so much fun. I haven't eaten in days, but this is just so much fun. I love making music that only a handful of people will hear!

Yes.

Music as a business is a heartbreaking affair. It's a road riddled not with bumps, but with huge gaping holes and mountains. Let's propose two hypothetic scenarios. For the first one, I'm going to venture a guess and say that you want to "make it" in music, and by "make it", you mean being able to depend economically only on income coming from your music work. There's only three ways this can happen: good connections (and money), super good luck, or really hard work.

The super good luck thing I think is kind of what happened with most of the famous brony musicians. Their work happened to surface at a right time and in a right place to grant them the spot they now hold in the community. It was all a combination of exposure to the right people, right timing, right content, and yes, why not, talent. Sadly, this kind of thing happens spontaneously, and nobody will ever be able to force that. I don't think many brony (or non brony) musicians will find themselves in this situation any time soon, and if they do, rest assured that it will be a happy accident.

The really hard work part is the most common of them all. It usually starts with a guy, some ideas in his head, and something he truly loves, and it's the measure of his love what will determine how far he gets. It's really freaking hard to convince people to invest even a little of their time on you, and more often than not people won't even care, but it's only through perseverance that you can build a circle of people who are interested in your ideas, and who will stay tuned to them.

If you have good connections and good money, you don't even need talent to make it. You're surrounded by people who can provide it for you, who can put your face and your work out there, and you're only a little nudge away from instant fame, and recognition, and serious cash. But then again, everyone in this situation is probably already dirty rich, so there might not be as much of a drive for money as for fame. But that's a thing for later.

I have a friend who is stuck between the last two scenarios I've mentioned. His family has some decent money, and he's already made some pretty good connections both because of his money, and because of his trying to get as involved as he can in the commercial music scene over here. He has tons of equipment, he know people who can help him polish his sound, he's a super talented musician, and he's got an incredible heart for it. Yet he still has trouble landing gigs. He hardly ever gets published anywhere. He's farther along than pretty much everyone I know, yet he still isn't close to making it, yet he will never give up, no matter how discouraged he becomes, because in the end he's still doing what he loves. He has many musician friends with worse luck than him, who are already in their late twenties, still playing local bars on Thursday nights, barely scraping to at least have something to eat, often working really lame jobs because they wouldn't have a roof over their heads if they didn't. But they haven't given up.


Now, let's go to the second scenario. I'll venture another guess and assume you're doing this because you want attention, which seems more likely, from what I've read. Let me ask you a question first; how are you going to know how much attention is enough? Would having the same amount of subscribers as Omni make you happy? If so, why? What happens after that, anyway?

Doing things without any motivation other than attention is a surefire way to get disappointed and frustrated fast. You may already be aware of this. On this front, I can't really offer any help, I can only advise you to rethink your motives, and what you expect out of this, and more importantly, why you want this, and what will happen after you get it, if you ever do.


I'm going to go on a little tangent here, and say that this reminds me a bit of something I was told a while back, about why there's so much corruption in regards to administration of money, at least here in this country. Ever since we're little, we're told from every front that we need to make money the thing we base our lives around. We won't get anywhere in life if we don't have a lot of money, we will never be anyone if we don't have a lot of money, our lives will be worth nothing if we didn't make as much money as we could. And some of us do buy into this idea. But the thing is, money is hard to get. So when money isn't handed to these people on a silver plate, they start looking for easier ways to get it, and it eventually descends into an "oh, so nobody will give me my money? Well, I'm going to take it anyway, no matter who I screw over in the process, because it's the thing I want the most in life" affair, and everything just goes to hell then.

Now, I'm not comparing you to these people, but you do seem desperate for attention. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) for you, it's not something you can just go and seize.


To wrap this up. Your music is greatly enjoyed by a lot of people. You have a decent amount of attention, yet you don't seem to be happy with it. Furthermore, you seem to be doing music around MLP just to get an audience, but doing it doesn't make you happy, and it leaves you feeling even more unfulfilled when you don't get the response you expected. So when one approach isn't working, the most logical thing to do would be trying a different one, right? Yet it seems to me that in your case, a change of appreach in the music you make would not make a big difference (and that is what I tried to illustrate with this entire post), so it has to be something else that needs to be fixed.


I wish you the best of luck in finding a solution to this.



EDIT: looking back on this post, I realize that it may not have much to do with anything after all. Codeum, I apologize if I completely missed the mark. Oh well, if anyone can still take anything from this anyway, then it's all good.

This
...
Covers what I was going to say...
In significantly more detail than I typed out.
I think everyone could take at least something away from this and better themselves. Whether or not it exactly hits the mark that Codeum was looking for, it provides insight into what kind of a beast the music industry is and what others have to do to survive, as well as pointing out things that it would seem to me have been overlooked and need to be deeply reflected upon.

[Mingus]

I sort of just want to add a few cents of mine into this.

Music should NOT, and may NEVER be seen as a business. I'm a music major (in "classical" composition and performance), and I'm pretty much surrounded by hundreds musicians in a wide spectrum of talent and styles. If you were to ask any of them what they see in the future, I guarantee 99% of them will say that they will live in a cardboard box. Heck, being a composition major pretty much guarantees me being broke. So why are they spending so much money to study music, you may ask? Well, just like everyone here, we enjoy the hell out of music. We WANT to keep music to be a part of our lives.

I even know some musicians who are currently in the music scene, and they pretty much hate everything about it. Some don't even want to touch their instrument, sadly. And there are some that enjoy every single bit of it, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/arts/ ... ref=slogin
I highly suggest you read this article. These kids went to Juliard, which is praised as one of the best music schools you can get in to. Yet, they are struggling to make their way around.

So pretty much, don't be so stressed about the future. Just worry about the progress you're making right now, and let the events go as they please. I know I have a very tough future ahead of me, but I'm not so worried on bit. =]

Hopefully this was useful.

[Codeum]

I'm going to say it one more time; I just want to not have to worry about how I'm going to feed myself every night. I love music, it kept me sane when a lot of other people would surely have been reduced to attempting suicide. I like electronic music from Europe such as trance because of the feeling and the complexity and the amazing vocalists associated with it. I want to be able to make that kind of music and fill everyone else with the same kind of joy I feel when I listen to the music I love so much. I don't want attention, I'm not selfish, I want to share everything I can with everyone I can. Even now, when I have close to nothing, I still continue to give. I have a feeling I will continue to give no matter what happens to me. Is it too much to ask to have a large enough fan base that will allow me to live and continue to share my soul with all of my heart? I figured that by gaining popularity amongst bronies, somebody would notice me, from there on, I'd have enough support to let my music spread without having to be featured on that silly site. As soon as I start getting more than, say, 2,000 on a non pony track within a month of it being posted, I won't push so hard to make everything pony. Honestly, it was fun when I did flutterstep, it was fun when I did sparklehouse, and it was even still a tad fun when I did the smile remix. The dilemma is this; When you have nothing but sweet juicy chicken for every meal, after a couple of days you just want something else. You have nothing against the chicken, but it just gets old. Will I continue to write pony music even though it frustrates me? Yes, because I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. I finally see a degree of people enjoying what I create with my own hands. Thats my spiritual food. the view count will just happen to help me eat physical food.

[CommandSpry]

I'm going to say it one more time; I just want to not have to worry about how I'm going to feed myself every night. I love music, it kept me sane when a lot of other people would surely have been reduced to attempting suicide. I like electronic music from Europe such as trance because of the feeling and the complexity and the amazing vocalists associated with it. I want to be able to make that kind of music and fill everyone else with the same kind of joy I feel when I listen to the music I love so much. I don't want attention, I'm not selfish, I want to share everything I can with everyone I can. Even now, when I have close to nothing, I still continue to give. I have a feeling I will continue to give no matter what happens to me. Is it too much to ask to have a large enough fan base that will allow me to live and continue to share my soul with all of my heart? I figured that by gaining popularity amongst bronies, somebody would notice me, from there on, I'd have enough support to let my music spread without having to be featured on that silly site. As soon as I start getting more than, say, 2,000 on a non pony track within a month of it being posted, I won't push so hard to make everything pony. Honestly, it was fun when I did flutterstep, it was fun when I did sparklehouse, and it was even still a tad fun when I did the smile remix. The dilemma is this; When you have nothing but sweet juicy chicken for every meal, after a couple of days you just want something else. You have nothing against the chicken, but it just gets old. Will I continue to write pony music even though it frustrates me? Yes, because I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. I finally see a degree of people enjoying what I create with my own hands. Thats my spiritual food. the view count will just happen to help me eat physical food.

"I'm going to say it one more time; I just want to not have to worry about how I'm going to feed myself every night."

Uh excuse me mate, but isn't this what everyone essentially wants? What you want mate is to live your life doing the things you want to do. In your case this is making music. It isn't always like that. More so, in more than half the cases people do stuff that isn't their real interest. For example, I would love to make music and DJ for a living, but I have to study for IT instead.

So what you're saying is that we should all promote your music because you want to be famous and what you currently have is not enough?

What makes you different from the rest of brony musicians? Some of us are very small and we still give to the best of my abilities every day; Example? Have you heard of me? Of course you haven't, you probably haven't heard of 99% of Brony Musicians on this site.

Popularity is the luck of the draw my friend; some people have it, some people don't. So either you're saying that your music is on a such a better level than let's say Addictia or Michael. A or MHM that you need thousands of subs, or you're frustrated that not too many people discovered your stuff. Probably the latter, but that's a con all small time brony musicians have to deal with..you don't see us going around, asking people to sub our channels, we make music, let it out there and hope people enjoy it. If the music is as good as you make it to be, people will subscribe after hearing your tracks.

Early Brony musicians got very popular because it was new; fresh; and because they are very talented. But you can be as talented as you want in the Brony Community now, you won't get like, 5000 subscribers in a week. It's a much slower process, but I'm not saying you can't be a "famous" Brony musician even now.

And almost all of us, if not all, do this for the love of the show and making music, and letting our music out to the brony community to give something back to it. Well, at least that's my motive, sorry if I'm looking like some bloody angel or anything..still, you're in it just to promote your stuff and make a living out of it; are you sure that this is the reason people should transition to brony music?

My recommendation is: Either make non-brony music with your motives and try to get big, or look for other jobs. Don't make brony songs if you don't enjoy making them. Please, for all of our sakes.

Have fun mate,

-CS

[Freewave]

Again no one is going to blame you for wanting to make a living making music. We all would want our hobbies to be sufficient for ourselves to live on. But again this is Pony music you're talking about and you're also aware of the level of popularity you are currently at. There are only a handful of artists that came out during the first wave of Brony music that are at the level that they can expect a small flow of income (Omni,Silva) and there are quite a few that COULD be charging but aren't (which i am happy they are not). I don't have big qualms when an artist puts out an album on bandcamp and puts it out for $3 or so but when it becomes all ABOUT the money, and the tracks aren't very pony, and it gets rubbed in the faces of people who do this for free and in our freetime (98% of us) it's a recipe for disaster. There's only a few people who charge money and it clouds eveything they do and their reputation.

Short answer is this: don't expect your pony music to feed you, it won't. When people of your calibre and better are giving the music away for free you can't expect to get paid (or at least more than a small trickle). If it doesn't make you happy to make this music (whether pony or electronic) then don't do it. Do something you enjoy or at the least WILL pay to feed you. If you need to be fed and have shelter then get a real job. Having some extra youtube subscriptions is not gonna do the trick. Making a few bucks on bandcamp is not going to do the trick. Make some real life decisions if it really is "I need to feed my family". Keep the money part out of it here as MLR isn't here to further our "careers" its about a community of free musicians who do it simply because they enjoy it. As I said you need to re-evaluate why you are doing this and make some changes accordingly.

[Freewave]

Early Brony musicians got very popular because it was new; fresh; and because they are very talented. But you can be as talented as you want in the Brony Community now, you won't get like, 5000 subscribers in a week. It's a much slower process, but I'm not saying you can't be a "famous" Brony musician even now.And almost all of us, if not all, do this for the love of the show and making music, and letting our music out to the brony community to give something back to it.

CS is right in that as more and more brony musicians enter the community its only going to get harder for me, you, and ESPECIALLY them. We're all wanting to get our music heard but there's a plethera of artists now and only a few avenues to get it out to people or get noticed. Again if you only focus on "selling" your music and not an open communication (contributing here and elsewhere and listening to other brony artists) it will be noticed and people won't be as receptive to someone who comes at this with selfish reasons. There's people who come on MLR, post their tracks, sometimes get defensive when there's even a positive critique, and then leave and that's how they use this forum. That's nothing more than "check out my stuff" which is no different from "selling". Re-evaluate your reasons for making this music and if you're ready to make a u-turn on your approach and a contribution that includes being part of a greater community and giving something back we'll still be here.

[StellaRbRoNyBeaTz]

A lot of deep stuff here, and a lot of good advice. I'm looking to get into remixing myself but having a hard time getting started, all I can say is you should at least be happy you're able to do what you love. Fame and money are things I've long sinced realized I don't desire, I'd just give anything to finally be able to bring to life all the ideas I have locked inside me, and as long as at least one person can enjoy what I have to offer thats all I desire. Not trying to call you out on your morals or anything, just saying be thankful you can do what you love.

On a brighter note I'm digging the songs

[TheSunAndTheRainfall]

That last post.

Well, that clears it up a lot more for me. I do see where you're coming from, and I can even relate. Personally, I'd love to make a living out of my music, but the truth is it's going to be damn near impossible. Still, I'm going to try. I'm going to do my damndest; I won't be able to live with myself if I don't. But I'm still going to try to be prepared for the worst, in case nothing ever pulls through.

Listen, I'm not going to lie, there was this one time when I was making a song, I was worrying all the time about what elements could make my song a bigger hit, trying to stay tuned to what was popular at the moment, and trying to replicate it. Because I wanted to seize a place in the community, and perhaps start building from there. And you know what? It sucked. I could never seem to get it right, I became too bitter and frustrated, and when that song flopped (at least in comparison to my expectations) I almost dropped music for good, I sulked for days, you get the point. But you know what, in the end I just got so fed up with trying and trying and never getting there, that I just stopped caring. I sort of stood to the side and tried to take everything I'd done in, and I realized I had forgotten why I'd gotten into music in the first place.

So now I just do my thing. I take months to release one song, and while in the past that would have stressed me out because it was always "getting late" (what for, I have no idea), now I just roll with it. That doesn't mean I haven't given up on making music a source of income in the future, I just now keep very present the fact that there's more to it than just getting an over 4-digit amount of views on Youtube.

I made the mistake of assuming you were not passionate about music, and I'm very sorry about that. There's nothing wrong with being passionate about something and trying to benefit from it too. But it can really affect both you and your music if you put the benefits you can get from it before your passion. Really, when you love doing something it shows, and the products are always good. Moreover, there's no getting worse with this kind of thing, your music can only improve, no matter what you do. You're on the right track about this, then, if you are doing what you love.

But the problem is getting your stuff out there. In that other post I made here I mentioned people with preestablished good connections. For us little people who are starting from the bottom, the only way we can make it is by seeking out and building our own connections. You already have the good music bit down, that's important, but getting featured once in a site dedicated to a relatively small demographic is not going to get you far.

Music is a business that works based on who you know more than on what you can do. So the best advice I can give you is to start networking: make friends and acquaintances with musicians (it seems like you already have a good start on this, simply by being friends with Omni), collaborate with people, compliment other people's works, ask about their technique, hang out, start knowing people, and when you feel like you can secure a listen, ask people to check out your stuff. It's gonna take forever, and a lot of the time you'll feel like you're getting nowhere, but there's a saying in over here that translates roughly as "a saint that is not seen cannot be worshipped". Sooner or later someone in a position to help you is bound to listen to your stuff. In fact, I'm sure there's someone out there in a position to help for everyone out there with good ideas in his head. We just need to find them.


Still, for the time being, it's best if you have a backup plan to keep you afloat while you seek out your dream. Me? I plan on continuing studying, pursuing a masters degree, and perhaps even a PhD. The scholarships over here are pretty awesome; they pretty much pay you for studying like they would pay you at a half-decent job. Sure, it would cut on my time to make music, as it does now in college, but I'm confident that I'll be able to get somewhere, either in music or in some other professional field. I'm just settin ghtis as an example; I'm sure you can think up something that suits your abilities, your interests and your life plan better.


I wish you the best of luck, man.

[Tsyolin]

Hey guys, EqD Prelistener head here. I was directed here after a coworker of mine was having trouble writing a rejection letter for the "Pink Guppy" track after seeing this thread. So instead I'm just gonna go over everything myself.

The EqD Prelistener system was established to lighten the load off Seth as well as to bring in system that contained some of the pros that are very knowledgable about music as well as unbiased and not afraid to turn something down if it doesn't meet the standards. We then make an attempt to write rejection letters to whoever we turn a song down from. Sometimes we don't get them all, we get submitted a lot of songs so it get's difficult. Anyways, there is a lot of info that I went over in another thread that was linked earlier in this thread. Check that out if you wish.

Anyways, on to the topic at hand. Bro, we all want people to listen to our music, but sometimes that just isn't the way it is. I've been at this for quite a while now and I've only got 2,000 subs. Omni on the other hand is getting close to 10,000. Am I jealous? No. Because I don't need fame to motivate me to do music. Becoming famous is possibly the worst motivation to make music because often, you will not get famous. And therefore you react to not getting famous by quitting. Wrong move. You just keep working at it and working at it until something happens. I joined this fandom in early October and didn't start to make music until the end of that month or so. So I came in much later while making music in a fairly unpopular genre.

However, I kept at it, didn't let any sort of non-fame get me down because I knew that there were a ton of musicians in the fandom and it was not gonna be easy to get attention. I can say that after having kept working at it for months and months and months, I finally have somewhat of an audience. I still don't really have much of an audience and I will never be as big as Omni or Archie because it's a genre based system. As sad as it is, bronies like certain genres more than others, and orchestral is nowhere near as high up there as most electronic music. So, I deal with it and keep making music because I enjoy it and I've met amazing people in the process.

Being rejected should not be a demotivating factor. Being rejected should be the best motivation to keep trying harder. If you get featured on EqD and you get some subscribers out of it, be thankful for each and every sub you get because that is one sub that many other people were not able to get. All in all, be thankful for what you receive, rather than demanding for more.

[Codeum]

Hey guys, EqD Prelistener head here. I was directed here after a coworker of mine was having trouble writing a rejection letter for the "Pink Guppy" track after seeing this thread. So instead I'm just gonna go over everything myself.

The EqD Prelistener system was established to lighten the load off Seth as well as to bring in system that contained some of the pros that are very knowledgable about music as well as unbiased and not afraid to turn something down if it doesn't meet the standards. We then make an attempt to write rejection letters to whoever we turn a song down from. Sometimes we don't get them all, we get submitted a lot of songs so it get's difficult. Anyways, there is a lot of info that I went over in another thread that was linked earlier in this thread. Check that out if you wish.

Anyways, on to the topic at hand. Bro, we all want people to listen to our music, but sometimes that just isn't the way it is. I've been at this for quite a while now and I've only got 2,000 subs. Omni on the other hand is getting close to 10,000. Am I jealous? No. Because I don't need fame to motivate me to do music. Becoming famous is possibly the worst motivation to make music because often, you will not get famous. And therefore you react to not getting famous by quitting. Wrong move. You just keep working at it and working at it until something happens. I joined this fandom in early October and didn't start to make music until the end of that month or so. So I came in much later while making music in a fairly unpopular genre.

However, I kept at it, didn't let any sort of non-fame get me down because I knew that there were a ton of musicians in the fandom and it was not gonna be easy to get attention. I can say that after having kept working at it for months and months and months, I finally have somewhat of an audience. I still don't really have much of an audience and I will never be as big as Omni or Archie because it's a genre based system. As sad as it is, bronies like certain genres more than others, and orchestral is nowhere near as high up there as most electronic music. So, I deal with it and keep making music because I enjoy it and I've met amazing people in the process.

Being rejected should not be a demotivating factor. Being rejected should be the best motivation to keep trying harder. If you get featured on EqD and you get some subscribers out of it, be thankful for each and every sub you get because that is one sub that many other people were not able to get. All in all, be thankful for what you receive, rather than demanding for more.

Pfft what makes you think I'm quitting? I"m just upset because I taught that bastard omni everything I knew about mixing and composition. I'm just wondering why I ain't good enough.

[Tsyolin]

Pfft what makes you think I'm quitting? I"m just upset because I taught that bastard omni everything I knew about mixing and composition. I'm just wondering why I ain't good enough.

5 words we all know too well, "Early Bird Gets the Worm". This applies 95% of the time.

[Wintergreen]

Getting rejected from EqD was, in a strange way, probably one of the better things to happen to me in the course of my music. It forced me to take a closer look at the inspiration source, and have it be truly incorporated into my music, and have it subtly alter entire song to go with what I was thinking. But that's beside the point. In fact, I'm not really sure what my point is.

I'm 19, and in college, and quickly running out of money, and I'm getting a job. Simple as that. I'm sure you've heard it a million times (I know I have) but if you really, truly look, you WILL find a job. It's not gonna be what you want to do. It's not, most likely, gonna be anything even approaching enjoyable. But it will pay a check every 2 weeks.

Music is not a way to make money, much more so in the brony community. I would love to make money from this, but I simply know that's not gonna happen. I make pony music (To me it's pony music, but to others it's less obvious without my explanation of where I'm getting my ideas) because they're what I love. I had never touched a sequencer or messed around with composing before ponies (except garageband, but I think we can all agree that doesn't count [don't mean to offend anyone who uses garageband]) But the ponies spoke to me, and I put what I felt to the piano roll. The built-in community, and the possibility of getting featured on EqD is just an upside. (A big, huge, amazingly large upside, but a benefit, rather than the main goal.)

I'd like my stuff to be seen by the world. I'd like to be the next deadmau5 or Archie. I'm happy to know that I made my stuff. I need money, so I make it in a job. I need satisfaction, so I make it through music. And ne'er the two shall meet.

[Lavender_Harmony]

Alright, there's so much cross-talk in this thread, it would be difficult for me to reply with all points of view, so I will tell my story, then give my opinion on what you're doing.

I'm 23. I've been making music sine I was 12 years old, and I'm currently living in a shared flat, barely paying rent. When I was 15, I was being heavily bullied, so I dropped out of high school early to start (the UK equivalent of) college. I studied music there for three years, did everything I could in the meantime. I sent constant emails to mobile phone game developers, looking for potential start-ups and such. I landed lucky a couple of times, where they ahd initially planned to shell out money on sub-par 'stock' music, but instead we worked it out, and in the end I made around £800 from those endeavours. I then had the opportunity to go to university, and because of my three years, they demanded I enter in second year, so I was deprived of the whole first year's worth of learning. I had to spend the first three months catching up on all that work in time for the first salvo of assessments. After all that, learning about stuff I never thought I would, I walked out with a degree, at 21.
In the meantime, I went about trying to find a job. I made dozens of phone calls to all the local studios and film production companies, sent out my CV and a portfolio CD to other companies, trying to make an impression.

I didn't get one positive response.

A few months later, on the brink of defeat, I landed a call centre job. This lasted me six months, and barely helped me pay rent, and sent me into a heavy depression. I didn't make music for weeks, I would come home and just sleep. They asked me to do ridiculous hours, and then after six months they let me go with three days notice.

Since then, I've been focusing myself on my music entirely. I revived my muse (somehow) and I've been creating music non-stop since I joined MLR. I've been taking on as much information as I can, and passing down what I have learned to others in return. While doing that, I've sent out another salvo of portfolios. Just a few months back, I got a response from one company. I met the CEO of the company a couple months back, then he contracted me onto a project, to score a feature length film. I'm not getting paid for it, but it'll be an impressive piece for my portfolio, and will get my name out there. I'm currently self employed, doing small musical works for a few people around the web, for pittance. it's not much, but it gets me through.


Uploading your songs to YouTube and submitting them to EqD isn't going to earn you fame, and even if it did, that wouldn't pay the bills, not by a long shot. If you seriously want to get yourself going in music, you're going to have to do a lot more. I know it's hard, I know it's stressful, I've been in your position, pretty much at your age. It takes time, and a lot of work. But once you get your name out there, and people know you, it snowballs. It;s that first step you need to overcome.

Put together a sample CD of your work, don't brand it with pony. Just fire it out there to studios, film houes, animation studios, game developers, radio, publishers, anywhere you can find. It doesn't matter where they are, we have the internet. Just go crazy. Do it by mail too. It's more expensive, but they're more likely to notice a well put together presented portfolio and CV in the post. Even if they don't get back to you, that will likely get put in some drawer somewhere in the office, and that one time they really need your music, they'll be able to find you without trudging through months of emails.

Another way to look is these stock sample sites. Composing full pieces and putting them online for sale can earn you a little money from time to time. It's not going to be a lot, but a little is more than nothing.

Subscribers and comments aren't going to earn you any money. It might boost your confidence, but nowhere near as much as a paycheck.

Best of luck. I hope you find the right direction soon, you just need to re-evaluate your strategy for getting into the business.

[Glitchhog]

*Stuff*

Quoted for truth. This is the right way to do it. I'm in this for the fact that I love ponies, and because I want some recognition for something I truly enjoy doing. I don't want to make money off of this, I merely love the feeling I get when people tell me how much they enjoy something I've written.

[Cyril]

Best thing to do: Play in bands, try to be an engineer, composer and manager all a the same time.

I'm not even kidding, my strategy to make money doing what I love is to literally attack every area of the industry I'm good at. Chasing straws and trying to become known for what I do.

Plus everything Lav and Rainfall said.

I fully expect to have to have a dayjob for a long time, but after I pay dues up the ass, maybe eventually I'll be able to call this my full-time job. I also am blessed with a great support network of friends that I've somehow (despite my best efforts at not having one ) gained over the years.

Good luck, that's just my two cents. Not that it matters becuase I've not experienced it... yet.