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Are you a composer who's feeling stuck? Feeling like you can't finish your tracks? You're constantly feeling overwhelmed or unsure of which direction to take your music? And even once you actually finish your music, you don't know what to do with it. You don't know how to make the most of this piece of music you have, and you're wondering, "Where are the opportunities?"
If you're ready to start feeling unstuck and really start levelling up your music career, then this is the roadmap for you.
In this post, I'm going to show you my system. The very system I've used throughout my career, which has enabled me to:
Produce 30 albums in six months
Write an album in a day
Land hundreds of placements
Get regular royalty statements for my music being used on TV
And most of all, to turn my music into an income
There are four essential steps to this. Let's dive in.
Step 1: Identify Your Block & Dig Deep
This first step is really important and often completely overlooked. You need to look at where you're feeling stuck. What is actually blocking you?
It could be a messy workflow, intrusive negative thoughts, or just a general feeling of not knowing where to go. But looking at that block is crucial.
I often suggest doing something like journaling, or just going for a walk and really thinking about what's going on. What is happening in your process? What is stopping you from achieving the things you want? What is stopping you from taking your music from A to B?
This is your chance for a little bit of reflection. To sit back, look at your process, look at what you're doing, and really think about it. Because, as much as I can show you the ropes and give you all the steps you need, if you're not going to put the time in here, you're not going to see the results. This is your first chance to prove yourself and dedicate the time.
Maybe it's a lack of confidence. Maybe it's a lot of self-doubt, those intrusive negative thoughts like, "Oh, this isn't good enough," or "That's wrong," constantly criticising your work. This mindset stuff is probably the biggest block for most composers, but addressing what it is is the critical first step.
You might know straight away what your block is – in which case, step one, tick! Or you might realise, "You know what? I just can't get my tracks over the line." You can produce music to a certain level, but finishing it feels impossible. Again, very common.
So, once you've addressed this block, the thing that is stopping your flow, it's time to move on.
Step 2: Establish Your Goal & Your Music's Purpose
This is all about establishing your focus and your goal – where you want to go. Because if you create a piece of music and it doesn't have a clear intention behind its creation, it's much harder to understand if that piece has achieved its purpose.
Let's say you just write. I do this sometimes, just for fun. And that's fine! I establish that it's "just for fun." If I enjoy it, job done. But if I produce a piece of music with the intention of it hopefully making me money, and I finish it and go, "Well, now what am I supposed to do with it?" All of a sudden, we're still lost, even with a finished product. Why? Because we haven't established the focus or the goal.
This is really, really important. I talk to all of my mentoring clients about focusing on where they want to be.
Want music in trailers? Great, but what type of trailers? Psychological horror? Jump scares?
Production music? What's your bag? Minimalism? Electronica?
Streams? Fantastic, but how will this track contribute to that?
I can't tell you where your music needs to be. That's for you to decide.
You might be thinking, "Shouldn't I do step two first?" Honestly, steps one and two can happen at the same time, or you can swap them around. Establish where you want to go, and then identify what's stopping you from getting there.
Think of it like making a trip. "I'm going to London today." That's your destination. "What's stopping me from going?" "I don't have enough money for a train ticket." "Okay, how do I get the money?" "Take it out of the bank." Boom! Journey planned.
Step 3: Implement Your Flow & Finish Your Music
This is where you actually do the work. This is about getting into the flow to produce your best work, writing music quickly, easily, and enjoyably.
Let's say our composer wants to do psychological horror trailer music. They've established that their workflow is an issue. The next step is to focus on addressing that.
I often encourage people to shrink their expectations of themselves. Not in a negative way, but in terms of celebrating small wins.
Workflow improvement: Lay out your templates so you can just get on with writing. When you've done that? Celebrate! That's a big win!
Intrusive thoughts: Practice something like The Composer Hat. Sounds silly, but whether physical or pretend, when you put that hat on, only the composer is allowed to be there when you're writing.
When you're writing, it's not just the composer. It's the producer, the mixing engineer, the marketing agencies. All their voices are in your head: "Oh, this isn't good enough yet."
Tell them: "Oi, producer, step out! I've got my composer hat on. I'm only writing."
Let the composer write. Let that idea out and sketch the whole track from start to finish.
Establish the structure, main chord progressions, and main melodies. That's your sketch. Add hits or transitions if you want, but for now, it's stripped back to essentials.
For me, this often means a baseline, a melody, and an ostinato/pattern/riff. Those three elements allow me to shape the whole track incredibly quickly.
Many people suggest writing your third act completely first, especially in trailers. I disagree. The best way to relieve pressure is to sketch the whole track. Then add orchestration and layers. Then the details. Then the polish.
If you try to polish one section completely, everything after it will sound weak and unfinished by comparison. By growing the whole track at the same time, you'll find yourself finishing music much more easily and enjoyably. This is crucial!
Step 4: Outreach & Building Your Portfolio
So, you've established your blocks (Step 1), set your career and music goals (Step 2), and finished a piece of music (Step 3). Now, if we return to our goal from Step 2, you can get even more focused.
You might say, "Right, I want to approach this specific library with my psychological horror music." You listen to their catalogue, and you ask: Does my finished track hold up to their catalogue? Or, even better, does it fill a gap in their catalogue?
This leads us to Step 4: Outreach. You've got your goal. You've improved your flow. You've written a piece of music for that goal. Now, you're going to take it to the next step.
This is where you start:
Pitching to clients
Pitching to production companies
Pitching to production music companies or trailer music companies
Playlisting
Whatever your goal is, this is where you start getting your music out there and getting it heard.
But remember that goal from Step 2! Does this music fit your goal? Will it fit on that playlist? Will it fit with that Trailer Music Company's catalogue? Will it fit on that TV show?
Once you can confidently say, "Yeah! I'm happy with this. In fact, I'm really happy with this," that's when you take it to this next stage: outreach.
But you need a portfolio first. It sounds pretentious, but it just means a collection of your work. I often recommend a portfolio of only three tracks. We want three bangers. Whether that displays a range of genres or three similar tracks for a niche, it's up to you and your goal.
We go for three because we want to go back to that idea of celebrating small wins. Don't set yourself up to create 10 tracks and get burnt out. Produce three tracks. Once you have them, start reaching out to the appropriate people.
A note on outreach: You're dealing with people. They're not gatekeepers, they're just busy people.
Send a personalised email. "Hey, I absolutely love the work you've done, and I think my music would be a great fit."
Include a link to your portfolio or tracks.
"I'd love to hear your thoughts and really love to work with you guys in the future." Keep it simple.
Follow up! You might get a "Thanks, but no thanks," or a "We love it!" Or nothing.
If nothing, leave it a week and email again. "Hey, just following up on my email from last week." I suggest following up twice, so three emails in total. It's not annoying when someone follows up if it's relevant.
Keep it personal and focused. Give an example like, "I love that you've chosen this track in your playlist," or "I love that you landed this trailer," or "I love this album you produced."
The Loop of Success: Write, Finish, Submit, Repeat!
When you get to this point, you're now in this fantastic loop:
Writing → Finishing Tracks → Submitting Tracks for Work with Clients.
You just keep doing it.
This is what's happened with my students who've gone through my mentorship. We worked together to build their confidence and refine their portfolio to a level where they felt confident in submitting. They started submitting, and lo and behold, they got responses! Now they're working with libraries linked to their goals. It's really exciting!
The reason we keep reaching out is twofold:
It stops you thinking about the emails that haven't been responded to.
It keeps you in a proactive state.
I'm not suggesting you spam every contact. Remember, this needs to be related to your goals. These need to be the companies you want to work with, the playlists you want to land, the people you want to collaborate with. It has to be focused.
And eventually, maybe immediately, someone will respond. And then it will be writing, finishing music, and working with a client!
(A little tip for playlisting: quite a few of my students have used Real Crafter. You can create nifty landing pages and see who has clicked your link and listened. This helps with that feedback loop. You know if a library actually clicked and listened. If they haven't clicked, send it again!)
Ready to Get Unstuck and Level Up?
This is how you get unstuck and take your career to the next level using those four steps:
Establish what is stopping you from getting where you want to go.
Establish where you want to go with your music and career.
Work on your workflow, creativity, inspiration, and producing/finishing the music.
Get it out there, sharing it with the world in a focused, targeted way.
If you're interested in working with me and having direct mentorship to apply this system, I'd love to chat. I'll pop a link in the description below where you can book a call. We can talk about your specific goals and how we can work together to get you unstuck and to the next point in the career that you want.
I'm really grateful that you read this, and I truly hope it's helped you. Feel free to drop some comments below with any thoughts or feedback. Love to hear from you guys – you're awesome
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