Supporting the Music Scene While Diversifying My Income
I’ve been looking at ways to diversify my income and take some pressure off the music itself.
Multiple streams of income while helping others. That’s the goal. It feels like a win-win.
In another post, I talked about how difficult it can be to make a living as a musician. That’s part of why I decided to take a step back from writing music and put some of my energy into building things around it.
One question I’ve been using as a filter is: does this keep me in my zone of genius? Or at least close to it?
By that, I mean the work I love and the skills I’ve spent years developing. If I’m going to expand my efforts, I want to explore things that let me keep using those skills and stay connected to music.
That’s how I’ve been thinking about what to pursue next.
Getting Knocked Off the Spaceship
It’s been a few years since I released an album, and I haven’t been in a good place creatively. Maybe that’s another article, but it’s part of the journey. There are going to be times when you aren’t writing, aren’t inspired, or are too distracted to get into that creative zone.
The story I tell myself—and this is the first time I’m writing it down and sharing it—is that I got knocked off the Anaamaly spaceship.
I was flying high in my creative zone, putting out a new piece of music every week, getting great feedback, growing, and evolving.
Then 2020 happened. The pandemic affected all of us in our own way. It wasn’t immediate for me, but the effects of that challenging period, along with a few other shifts in life, eventually knocked me off my spaceship.
I’ve been determined to get back on.
During that time when I wasn’t writing, I started asking myself, “What can I do?”
The last thing I want is to look back at five years and feel like I wasted them. Like I should have done something.
I’m a builder. I like to build and create, and I have a technical background. So if I couldn’t sit down and focus on writing music, I wanted to put that energy into something useful.
Building Around the Music
I decided to launch a music licensing company and put my efforts into building that business.
With Jaapi, the idea was to bring my music together under one roof and make it available for other people to license and use in their own work.
I might not have been writing new music, but I could work with what I’d already created and build something around it.
Then I took that approach a step further and launched VitalSynth.
Same filter: what can I do that keeps me close to the work I love?
Vital is an instrument I use in my music and wanted to learn more about. At the time, I hadn’t found a resource that made it easy to discover and explore the different presets, sound packs, skins, and wavetables available for it.
There was the main Vital forum, along with resources spread across lots of different websites. To me, it felt scattered.
So I started bringing some of it together.
Not everything. I brought together resources I was interested in exploring and thought other artists would benefit from. That became the foundation for VitalSynth.
The idea is to help musicians discover all things Vital, but there’s another side to that: helping the creators behind those packs and resources get discovered, too. Someone finds a sound pack they’re interested in, and that can lead them to a creator whose work they might want to explore further.
It gave me something to build that kept me connected to sound design and music production, while also supporting other people working in that space.
Sharing Music I Enjoy
Another thing I’ve done with my time while not writing music is curate playlists.
I have around 15 or more now, built around music I personally enjoy and listen to. It’s a way for people to discover my music, but also other artists and recordings I like.
That’s another way I can support the music scene. Share something I enjoy, help someone discover an artist, and maybe introduce them to music they’ll keep coming back to.
You can explore my playlists here.
Staying Close to What I Love
I’m still determined to get back on that Anaamaly spaceship. In the meantime, I’m building things that keep me close to music and, hopefully, help other people along the way.
That’s what I’m working toward: multiple streams of income, less pressure on the music itself, and useful projects that support the scene.
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