How Long Does it Take to Make Money Producing Music?

If you're wondering how long it takes to be able to do music producing as a full-time job, let me just tell you it is going to be different for everyone.

A person's will to spend their time and effort, their passion for creating music, and frankly, how fast they understand what is required to be successful in the industry, are all going to be determining factors for that.

A big part of it is, how much time you're going to be putting in until you reach the point where you are ready to be producing music, that someone will pay you for. But this, of course, is going to depend on how much freedom the person has, in terms of their job, education, other activities, etc.

Aside from spending your free time at home to improving at producing, going to music production schools and academies, and taking courses will certainly help a lot with getting to that expert level in the craft of creating music.

An important tip is to practice every day, even for a short period, rather than taking long breaks between music production sessions.

But if you start to dislike or even hate that routine, a long break may be a good way to avoid burnout.

Watching tutorials and seeing how other people who are more experienced produce music also helps a lot.

How to Make Money as a Music Producer Online

Making money as a music producer goes further than just making songs or beats. There are some complementary skills that surround the creative side that are very important and shouldn't be ignored.

Here are some examples of good business skills to have as an online music producer:

• Digital / Social Media Marketing: Self-promotion and building an audience takes time and a presence on various platforms and apps. But you need a strategy.
• Networking / Communication: To get noticed by labels and actually collaborating effectively to leverage the audience of others, you need to know how to network.
• Willingness to invest: It can pay off to invest in your appearance online (cover art & logo/photo), your own education (courses & tutorials), and tools needed to produce (software/hardware). Even if it is just time.

All of these tie into monetizing your music in the best way possible. It helps bring awareness and connections to you as a producer, especially as an independent producer without the budget for a manager or outsourcing.

And that's an important point, the beginning is going to largely be DIY until you get enough money to hire others to help you scale.

How Long it Takes to Become a Good Music Producer

Following all these steps, a music producer can become a 'pro' and make a living solely out of creating music, anywhere from 1-4 years.

People who are faster learners, young people who don't have to work yet and can devote all of their time into it, and people who have some background in composing music, all have the possibility to make a living out of producing music, only one year after being a complete beginner.

And for the others, it is a perfectly achievable goal to reach the 'advanced' level 2-4 years after touching your first DAW.

It all comes down to the time and effort you put into making music, and whether or not there is a demand for your music.

So keep experimenting with new stuff, and different styles of producing, the fastest way to mastery is through exploration and repetition. And remember, you can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.