I'll Tell You Where You Are on Your Music Journey and How to Get Ahead

Let's see where you are on your Music Production Journey... and then we'll figure out out to get to the next phase and beyond.
🔥Stuck with your music? Need PERSONALIZED help and development?
🚀Submit your application to work with us: www.cosmicacad...
🤔 Are you trying to figure out where you are on your music journey? whether you're making electronic music, or DJing, we want to pin point where we're out - to see where we are going.
🤔 Do you want to see what's needed to get to that next phase? on the music production side, and the music marketing side. The numbers on Spotify, the amount of record signings...
In this video, Justin is going to explain where you might be at, and how artists get from one phase to other.
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WHY WE MAKE THESE VIDEOS: Cosmic Academy has taught 700+ producers/artists in the past +10-years through our premium Artist Development program. They sign to Spinnin, Toolroom, Anjuna, Monstercat, etc (in 2022 we had 300+ records signed)… They play the biggest festival (this year we have THREE Cosmic alum playing EDC.) Our goal now is to show you what we’ve learned, for free, cause we’re not some “internet gurus”… we actually do this stuff.
WORK WITH US: If you want more… and want to work with us on a personal level, where we really look deeply into your music / career and help you get to the next level, apply to our program. It’s an intensive 5-week bootcamp, and then a lifetime in our Development Community (3 feedbacks a week, 2 dedicated office hours with the teachers… forever… LIFETIME support system)
CLICK HERE 👉 You can click and submit your application here 👉 www.cosmicacad...

[@TheCosmicAcademy]

Stuck with your music career? Need PERSONALIZED help and development? Apply to our program… www.cosmicacademy.com

[@mutualmovementrecords7817]

I’m 20 years in this business, made around 100 records and collabs with well known DJs. You need someone to push you, if no one sees in you something you will stuck forever in phase 2. This market is so saturated that you have no chance to become a headliner on festivals. There are so many talented artists out there but no one cares. I had luck to be there at the right time and at the right moment. I have friends that are well known Music managers, and I know that there is a huge amount of money in the background of any successful artist. These are brands like you said. This is pure Marketing and investing for the major labels. It’s like everything on the internet, no one is telling you the full truth about the music industry. Money makes an artist successful and not the talent. At the end of the day everyone wants to sell you dreams. Your dream is their income streams.

[@Dmytronski]

Exactly! This business isn't fair and usually not what it's looks like. We see just an image, but we don't know who's on behind of this artists and why somebody grows big just in few years and somebody stuck forever at phase 2.

[@tomweatherill9301]

If you want it bad enough mate I feel you can make shit happen

[@darioparisi6863]

I think it's pretty shitty but not as much as you make it look. I'm pretty sure there are some pretty successful artists that slowly started rising and eventually got notices by big labels.

[@imperialbagel]

@@Dmytronski it's about who you know, not what you know.

[@DaveChips]

I would say it took me roughly 10 years to be happy with my music... From sound design, to composition to mixing and mastering.

[@92dough]

same

[@oliverhoschi6135]

i´m producing music since 1998, and stuck in Phase 2 since. I have some signings, but its of course: 2 - 3 a year. I´m now 41 and i don´t think i will make it past Phase 2. But its ok. Others are better and have better contacts. Not everyone can be rich and famous. I´m still working on my music to improve the quality, but for that you need money (plugins), time, research and a huge will. After all these years i invested a good amount of money in plugins. But time is the key here. And after all these years of producing music, i don´t know if some artists out there are fakes. How can some 18 or 20 year old producer make music that fills up a defqon one or other festivals? Sure, if you make music early enough and are not doing anything else and you have a huge talent, it will work. But come on... how good sounded your music with the age of 18? Maybe you have written great melodies, maybe you´re a genius at mixing. But to pump out traxx that are more than perfect in every way in such young years is nearly impossible. But ok thats not the point. The Point is.. Phase 2 is the most challenging. You can easily get stuck in it forever. I try my best to get better, time will tell how it will end.

[@ishaanmehra3350]

thank you for the reality check

[@erevigs7590]

I think I'll always be in some way, in phase 1 since I'm always learning about music, new things I can do, other genres, etc. I'm not married to any one genre, but I do want my music featured in rhythm games. The festivals, parties, DJing, that's kinda a lesser interest for me, getting signed is a case of being picky, so I know my path is going to be unusual and harder. The depressing part is not having any connections or not being impressive enough that your former connections remember you. I'm actively joining discord servers of other artists and keeping an eye out for music contests, trying to get out there, but it's pretty hard to connect with other people.

[@Iam_Governor]

Here from Instagram 🙏🏾 Thanks for adding value to our artistic expression 👑🎵

[@Dmytronski]

Every big artist you named has his own unique signature sound. Maybe it makes more sense to find it before branding, making content and all that stuff? The industry is overcrowded and I guess it's no valuable if you do some typical standard tunes in any genre. Your thoughts?

[@oliverhoschi6135]

The industry is overloaded due to cheap DAW´s and crackable Plugins. You don´t need to invest anything other than time. So everyone can make music for cheap. Don´t get me wrong, we have some superb artists on this planet, but in the electronic genre we have thousands of producers who all sound the same. And that makes it boring. A huge amount of producers are not even making their own sounds, they use copy and paste presets everyone can use. And thats why only a few stand out from others. You can use presets or samples for snare, clap, hats. But your key element should be self programmed. And that key element depends on your style. If its the bass, go and make your own bass. if its the main melody, go and make your own synth... easy eh?

[@JohnAndersen-uw2zp]

Great video Justin but let's be honest there's no guarantee at all. Music business is the most unpredictable. You can work pretty hard doing everything right but still stuck in phase 2 with no success. Is it worth it?

[@andressparks9853]

That is why my goal is not to succeed, I am here to enjoy

[@tomweatherill9301]

Hard work always pays off buddy

[@tomweatherill9301]

Read bounce mate unreal book

[@stormwave3001]

​@tomweatherill9301 Not necessarily

[@Jay-sl9jo]

@@stormwave3001 It pays of emotionally and spiritually.. But financially? Lmao, get real. Only for 0.001% of artists and musicians. Even artists in "Phase 4" aren't making much, and it's a constant, stressful grind making your art your main source of income. Musicians need multiple sources of income to be financially comfortable.

[@RVDENT]

Having been a touring musician for years (playing real instruments); I transitioned to electronic music in 20222 and managed to amass a couple million streams and a spot with a big label. I've also seen teenagers get millions of streams within a year or so of launching their projects so I would say that these timelines /phases are more academic ideas than a reality. There are tons of scenes phonk, krushklub, brazilian funk where you can just start a project and hit the ground running (with little to no technical experience) and start seeing some numbers.

[@andressparks9853]

I am glad that the Earth is pretty much the same in 20222

[@dopedeala666]

been making as much trendy and popular music (3 phonk house tracks and one recent brazilian funk track) as my own stuff and haven't gotten any more traction either it's all about luck or i've personally hit an unlucky jackpot for life in which case i'm doomed all of my "colleagues" got incomparably more views and popularity than i did, all while posting same music in the same time period as me seeing people's work get noticed and carried on to higher leagues (while trying to make same steps and moves and failing) is discouraging to say the least i hope i'm the only person who has this luck

[@thisguyrools2807]

The city where I went to college there was a DJ duo who was already signed to big labels I remember one of their tracks on armada back in the day. They were opening main stage at festivals then just like that they quit. Caught one of their last shows met one of the guys dads in the crowd and he said they just wanted to move on to other things. They accomplished everything they wanted but didn’t want a long career. In contrast the popular local DJ still can’t catch a break, he had residencies at some pretty big clubs. He’s friends with some big names, really talented producer. Tried to re brand himself after big room/electro house wasn’t as popular to a trap persona but should have followed trends a little better because trap was on its way out and tech house was on its way in. He moved to LA but it was a different crowd so he moved to the bay area where there were more places booking bass music acts

[@djwarzone6685]

I'm in the first phase, but I release music independently

[@djwarzone6685]

Techno is my love language

[@Turtlpwr]

This is the exact video I need right now

[@dominic834]

Great roadmap and probably the most motivating video I’ve watched on this journey

[@chrisssmith92]

Anyone else here also start producing before djing? I did and I’m not sure how to start my brand without being a dj first

[@LuniakBeats]

Yea, been producing for a while and me and my lady barely started releasing our music last year. We're now getting into DJing. I felt the same way which is why I started to DJ, still learning that side lol

[@DJTFalcon]

Thank you for this reality check Justin. Do you have any tips for us fathers of young children (2 and 5 in my case) that have very little time or energy?

[@brimmacofc]

Don’t have kids but have multiple jobs. You’ll never have any time with all of life going on. If it’s something you want to do, you need to create the time. Audit your own schedule and find out where you can squeeze time in for music, whether it being waking up an hour early or turning the tv off for 20 min, squeeze the time in a little each day and you’ll get there eventually.

[@DJTFalcon]

@@brimmacofc thanks for your reply! I think you're right, where there's a will, there's a way 💪🏻 I just wonder how much percent you must focus on what exactly to get most bang for your buck..

[@jonathanthedeceptikon]

Awesome video! Thanks for the breakdown of these stages.

[@crytech8882]

Been stuck at phase 1 for 10 years lol..

[@IQenjoyer]

I would argue subsidia is the top level dubstep label at this point. Excision has taken over now that never say die is gone and disciple doesn’t put in effort anymore

[@RickCp3]

🙏 i might definitely need this thanks

[@ashtonturkov]

John summit got to phase 5 pretty quick😅

[@MOYEBOY]

Great video dude

[@mostafadarwish9585]

I don’t know if I’m in phase 2 or 1 but I finished my first single and released it with a good label , but that was almost less than a year after I started producing note that I’m a vocalist and guitarist for 15 years , now I’m still learning even more than before haven’t released a song in 9 months cause I feel that I need to learn more specially my mixes doesn’t sound like great records I have finished 3 songs but always I keep changing and not confident enough to release even more than the time I started I was lucky enough to be booked for a really big festival in my country next October, But still have the feeling of phase one What should I do ?

[@Sachifu]

I feel like I'm the weirdest hodgepodge of all the phases simultaneously...

[@tomweatherill9301]

seems bang on this

[@OverdosedCaffeine]

does your daily driver DAW affect the future of your phase growth? I personally own FL and Reaper but I never gave it a thought about how often one should make songs, sign songs for labels, collab with others etc. I love reaper a lot but after watching this video idk if I should keep it up or just save up and go get ableton instead. I don't think it should matter but I also don't wanna have FOMO when I see someone cool to collab with and they go "lmao Reaper bro? really? yeah no".

[@123MineMan321]

I've been using FL for the last 7 years, DAW doesn't matter. FL is great, I went through the same debate when I was 1-2 years in. You can find a lot of FLPs online for free too which is great! Pick which one you are most comfortable with!

[@OverdosedCaffeine]

@@123MineMan321 that is reassuring, thank you so much for your feedback man, appreciate it a lot 🙏🏻

[@123MineMan321]

@@OverdosedCaffeine How long have you been producing? I highly recommend downloading some projects for FLP Family (youtube) you can get a lot of great samples and presets.

[@levy_music_ofc]

🔥🔥

[@SToXC_.]

i cant even get to phase 2 😭

[@thanos_k]

♥

[@Mike-vr7mb]

Sometimes you have hair and sometimes you don't! Sup with that?

[@deeeksidesound2368]

Sounds so horrible that you have to make yourself a product and make music what please to mainstream. I'll stay in the "underground" and make my OWN thing... Theres nothing wrong doing mainstream etc, dont get me wrong :)

[@henrikduende]

You can’t school your way to Avicii Today its a single market again Add kids can’t listen to an album. Too long 😂

[@siprturo]

I think this is super super generic

[@neavajee]

Phase 2 team here ❤ You can support me, thank You ❤😊