Fuzzable
Electronic music is a genre that encompasses a broad range of subgenres. You can find fusions with folk, jazz, and other musical styles, making electronic music a highly flexible medium. For sure, as music technology keeps evolving, electronic music (or electronica) will continue be a staple on the airwaves for generations to come.
That said, you can expect new electronic artists to emerge year after year. There’s a good chance that anyone can make it on a Spotify playlist or the Billboard Top 100, which makes for a legitimate motive to start a career as an electronic musician.
Still, becoming the next CHVRCHES or Grimes may sound like a long shot to you, but at least electronic music is a fun genre to play with and it also makes for an exciting career that’s part creative and part technical.
Here are a few things to consider to get yourself on the right track.
1. Start with a goal
Of course, every ambitious dream has to start somewhere, so in this case, you might as well plan your goals from the get-go. This should involve coming up with a long-term goal, say, going on tour with Glass Animals or some other big name indie artist. From there, you need to create short-term goals, under which are subgoals. You need to take the journey step by step in order to reach your goals faster and avoid getting distracted. Once you have a clear plan for the future, it’s only a matter of handling the creative aspect of this journey.
2. Get inspiration for your style
What is your main area of focus? For sure, most musicians will start off sampling another artist’s work. It may seem like the most inauthentic and sleazy thing to do, but we have to admit that music is a never-ending cycle of ideas. “People borrow and sample, and have great success doing so,” says BoldMusicLessons.com. That said, you might as well kick off your career by getting inspiration from the artists you love and letting your style evolve throughout the process.
3. Invest in the right gear
Being an electronic musician is an expensive career choice. Folk and country musicians only need guitars to create great music. In your case, you need to get the right music production software and instruments before you start composing. However, you don’t have to get a Mac or a Roland Juno-60. You can still make do with basic, lo-fi equipment such as drum machines and beat pads. Don’t worry about quality, since you can always compensate by using mixes that work well.
4. Experiment and experiment!
The best thing about making music is that you don’t have to limit yourself to certain rules. You are basically free to explore your style all you want. In other words, play with different arrangements and mix things together until you discover what could be the next best thing to hit the charts!
You have a long way to go before you become a big name in the electronic music industry. But keeping these tips in mind, anything is possible!
