It's not easy as a musician right now, you have to be across SO many things whether it's writing, creating, promoting, content, admin, being a leader... the list goes on. It is so important that you take care of your mental health as without that you don't have anything. I hope this video helps you and whenever you need anything, I'm just a message away and I'll ALWAYS do what I can to help.
I swear this man is a treasure. After 20 years making my living playing other people's music, I finally decided to put my own music out there. I've just started, and it's definitely an uphill battle! But every time I watch one of Damo's videos, I get inspired and feel like "oh yeah, I can totally do this!!" So incredibly grateful for his guidance and encouragement. Much love to all my fellow artists and hustlers in this game- keep going, don't give up, believe in yourself and LISTEN TO THIS GUY! 😄
I'm 30 years old now and I'm starting to fear I'll never be able to do music fulltime. Gonna be stuck doing a job I only kind of like instead of doing what I love.
I feel very overwhelmed. I shift from moments of "Hey, I could do this" to "Where do I even begin? How do I organize my time best? How do I write, make content, produce, mix/master in a manageable way that promotes health and sustainability versus overwhelm and burnout?" I want to save up $200 for your music business academy!
As a pro athlete I’ve always had tangible markers of success in my career. The hardest part of my music journey has been knowing how to find those markers. Damian has really helped me identify how I can define success in this crazy industry!
I work a Job that is 55-60 hours weekly and it’s all commission based so the pay is not guaranteed. My set schedule is never accurate. After I have to take care of my wife and daughter. I’ve been through so much and use music as I was to cope… it’s my therapy that helps me with everything I go to. I just want to share my music to hopefully help others. Yet I find my self putting so much into my work then being a full time father/husband that it strains my mental health. So thankful to find your videos . Gives me motivation to keep going even at my lowest moments. Thank you Damian!
I needed this. Ive been a songwriter half my life now. The last 6 years i haven't really been able to create. The lyrics if write were so personal and emotional that itd just break me down. It was to the point where it was almost like counter therapy for me. Im getting back in the groove and it feels good but ik i have to keep my head right in order to write the type of music i do. Thanks for all your videos. Been subbed for years.
I've had an interesting relationship with my mental health for the past few years. I've struggled with it throughout my life. The first time that I was almost committed was in fifth grade. The doctors over the years couldn't agree what was wrong with me. One said clinical depression, another said bipolar type 2, and the last one I ever went to said Complex PTSD . The last full time regular job I had (Lowe's Home Improvement) I left in September 2019 and decided to just play music for a while. I fully intended to get a new job after about a month or two. Almost immediately, for the first time in my entire life, I was happy. I'd never just been happy before. It's been the sole focus of my life ever since. Even in my lowest moments and worst days up till now, I've been happy. Others wonder why I'm so determined to be a songwriter, and it's as simple as that. I'm just trying to hold on to the one thing that's actually made me happy.
As a musician, i had a dodge mental state to begin with. I found my songs when i was already at my lowest. So music was not the cause but the symbtom. 3 of the 5 songs on the "sharper ep" started as self delete notes. With songs such as "the black dog". It was the ongoing personal support of unexpected fans that talked me off the ledge, and they even check in on me if i have not posted in a while. If it weren't for music, i'd no longer be here.
Chronic Tinnitus will really give you mental health issues and carpal tunnel physical issues, those two will take you out. I speak from experience, protect your hearing and ergonomics!!
Love this one Damian. A lot of creatives could use these words of encouragement, myself included. It's very easy to focus on what ISN'T going well in your music career and what you DON'T have: completely disregarding how far all of us have come in our journey along the way. We focus so much on hitting big achievements and big numbers, and don't realize those small victories or milestones that happen in short bursts through consistency. I've built so many great connections on TikTok, etc, with likeminded musicians & singers, and that alone is a beautiful thing. It may not mean I hit a crazy amount of streams and subscribers tomorrow, but I'm slowly building something :)
Honestly, I’ve tried quitting music for my health. It didn’t work either. I have more hours and years in music than I want to admit. I hope nobody feels like I do. God bless you all. Seriously!
I literally just hopped on youtube to distract myself from my anxiety attack i was having after trying to work on some new tracks and BOOM here was this video. Thank you i needed this and it gave me lots of positive ways to combat this while still being productive!
I really appreciate that thanks so much. Make sure you stay positive and enjoy the creating, don’t get too caught up in the numbers and remember there are people who are there for you, myself included! Keep smashing it!
You seem to mean well, can I point out an issue? Many of us don't live in urban centers, I have no live venues in Granolaville, Rocky Mountain rurals, for example. The battle between the dying music industry and the artist trying to break in is what really causes the anxiety; We are not at the level of needing a marketing scheme or monetization, but the remnants of the industry demand we need be from day one, they suck the soul out of everything. We are meanwhile, just trying to meet eachother and share our passions, that is how organic growth works. Take Megadeth, for example. It took Mustaine falling out with others, learning want he didn't want from trial and error to arrive at what he did want. We however, today, have not so much as an algorithmic decimal point for trial and error. We are not the industry and artists need room to grow, whereas in 27 years, I have felt more confined by the expectation of pre-existing perfection. Ask yourself this: What need has anyone of industry if we have to pay to be it anyway? That's the anxiety man, I am just not Taylor Swift I need to be to reach a few people's hearts and minds, then maybe their friends...
Your videos keep me on the ball! It's amazing to hear from a very experienced artist, how he has been through the SAME THING, even though I'll be the one standing on stage all by myself in the end 😄When you feel on the edge and something even worse happens to you (my Bassist died last Tuesday), it's just amazingly hard to stay motivated and to not just give up. But the focus, the structure, the goals keep me going. Thank you for your videos!
I just go out on the lake and try to remember what was bothering me while I catch lunch but I do worry about not getting a long enough nap in before the show. Cheers Damo! 🐒
Thanks for the video. Your set looks great, btw. That's great advice on having a space to shoot videos in. I set that up for myself and it really takes a lot of work and anxiety out of the process. I'm still struggling through the early parts of trying to build and audience and determine what's working, but hopefully with time and patience I'll get there.
It is important to remember that you are not alone. Many musicians struggle with their mental health, and there are many resources available to help you. Mental health is important for everyone, but it can be especially important for musicians. The music industry can be demanding and stressful, and musicians are often exposed to high levels of pressure. This can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and burnout. By taking care of their mental health, musicians can improve their quality of life and their music.
I feel like things are starting to turn out for me, and I have Damian to thank in a big way. I wanted to be in a band but resigned to the idea that nothing cool was happening around me. I actually went out and looked for a band, and I found one - they even like ALL the same bands I do! I’ve been making micro content playing bass riffs (I don’t have any Spotify releases to make the type of content damo usually discusses) and I just had one recently pop off with 165k views!!! I can’t help but latch onto these negative feelings about the future though. I’m anxious about booking gigs and getting paid because I am not working right now and need cash coming in fast. They are interested in recording an album straight away but I’m apprehensive for a few reasons. We don’t have enough songs to make the selection process very thorough, our sound is still a bit scattered and undefined, and we could be using the time to gig. I can’t help but think recording a single would be best because we could use it for micro content and promote ourselves that way. That’d solve the recording problem and the content batching problem, but I’m still not sure what would be the best use of time. I always feel like there’s a clock ticking, just waiting for the music and the fun to be over and I have to get back to the “real world”. Hopefully I’m not alone feeling like this. This video helped to get me thinking about all this though, and take some steps to chip away at the problems ahead. Thanks Damian 🙏
Great tips. Some good advice I was given recently …. focus on GRATITUDE …. List all the things you are grateful for, and what is going well, or has gone well…. I find it tends to switch my mind into a more positive state 😊🎶🌈🕺🚀🌟
Love this! do you have any video where you talk about the TEAM that would be helpfull if you're a beginner artist ready to invest IN HELP? I feel stuck in "learning about everything" mode comparing to those who "can do everything themselves" and at the same time there's so much to do, I feel overwhelmed, I don't know where to start. tanks for all your videos, it really helps! sending lots of love from argentina!
This is excellent, thank you for sharing this, Damian. Whilst I don’t like to piggy-back off an important topic like this, I think you’d find my song interesting because it’s very much related… I have just released my first ever song and I chose the daring topic of mental health and anxiety. I just shared a video about the songwriting process about 10 minutes before you posted this video. I can really relate to the section about feeling overwhelmed by social media productivity. I have such a love-hate relationship with it, but I understand it’s a brilliant tool to get your music heard. Thank you for your content and tips, as always! Look after your mental health first, peeps! Always top priority. 🙏🏼 Rae
So glad to be able to help. So much of mental health is brought by overwhelm which the leads into paralysis and then anxiety and then the cycle continues around! I hope that some of the points here help :)
@@DamianKeyes it is such a vicious cycle… not to mention the performance anxiety! It’s helpful to hear someone with a platform like yours talk about these realities. It helps me feel a bit more normal! 😅🙏🏼 Thanks!
Damian, really appreciate your stuff here. Always on point. Simplifying the stuff I normally just think is a hassle, in a way that makes it interesting and doable! Thank you! 🙏
I started following Damian Keyes since last year December, after my last release made just 250 streams on Spotify, so I saw a video of following release plans, I wrote all the steps down and started following them on my new release . Now I have almost 10,000 streams on my new song on Spotify which dropped 2 weeks ago, and I have 6000 plus streams on Audiomack and 1200 plus streams on Apple Music plus other dsps. I really want to thank you for the support and the help , this page is a Gold mine if you’re willing to do the work. Although my contents aren’t doing so well on TikTok of late , I am still pushing and will continue my promotion for 1 month and more . Also for fellow artists that might see this comment, i want to implore you to make sure to chase down playlist curators, don’t overlook play-listing . Thanks Damian
Thanks Damo! We have definitely reached a point of frustration and anxiety. A lot of that comes from a DIY mentality. But we've decided to finish up our recordings at a local studio that has a good reputation and seemingly reasonable rates. After more than 3 years of trying to record ourselves in various practice spaces and garages we still haven't finished one song. The calendar idea seems really good too, but we've also fallen short on trying to use Google calendar and still had some people confused and misread dates for gigs and video shoots. Another point of anxiety we have is that certain band members are always hours late to practice and take anywhere from half a day to several days to return phone calls or text messages in attempts to coordinate rehearsals. It's like pulling teeth to get an answer. Not really sure how to remedy that. Granted, we all have day jobs and kids, but it literally takes a few seconds to respond to text message. We've attempted to practice on the same day every week, but that hasn't worked either. Thanks!
Totally understand what you’re saying, in a band a lot of it comes down to priorities. If someone is consistently late and doesn’t reply, they’re disrespecting you and the project and they’re not invested or interested. In life you either need to sort it out, learn that you need to get back to people or lose out. There’s always a level of grace to give people, but anyone who wants to be successful knows how important it is to take every opportunity and be polite and respectful to everyone. I would be looking at whether those band members want to be in the band and working on the plan going forward from that. A lot of this is conversations about being on the same page :)
I’ve been getting so much hate on TikTok. It doesn’t really bother me but it kinda does iykwim. I put my heart and soul into my music and I know it’s high quality. It’s just frustrating that 12 year olds on TikTok who’ve never made music in their life get to me.
I feel you on this, but if you can turn off the hateful noise in your head there will be people who appreciate you as the algorithm finds who wants more. TikTok can be a brutal place (I get plenty of hate too) but if you can stick with it, it will be helpful. The good news is that people want to comment which means they are watching and feeling something and that is so much better than people who dont care 🙂🙏
You make such good content about music but I was wondering where is your music I’ve looked all over TH-cam, instagram, and Spotify. I can’t find your music anywhere.
I did a lot of content stuff, tried the part time stuff. Had to stop, got a late job where I often finish at 5/6 am and I’ve yet to find a way to start again with pursuing my original music career cause I’ve began chasing pub gigs which I’m no as good at. I just don’t know where to start after I make my plans you know
I'm more into the DIY category. It's hard. You have to pay for the softwares for your daw, support the singer and songwriter (pain in the A$$, specially while producing and mixing our music). I make my own image cover for the single and then go to an online distributor for streaming worldwide. All the time and money invested ... to get 1 dollar in return for all the "plays" for one year ! LOL. Mental Health ? yeah, I think I'm an idiot to continue (everyone around me tells me to stop doing that !) ... but I continue ^^. When passion can override every saying around us, isn't it beautiful ? In the contrary, I do music to keep my sanity :)
I’ve been struggling a lot lately Damien, had a really successful single in January (200k first month) and just cannot seem to follow up with something good. Watching my monthlies start tracking down after it ran its course and feeling my anxiety / mental health stacking up is really hard. I just don’t know what to do. Spotify pays my bills but nobody seems to understand the anxiety that comes with that and I can’t find anybody to relate to what I’m going through
The recording and mixing prices in Austria giving me the anxiety of a lifetime. 200€ for 2-hour recording and 90€/hour for mixing(while master is 50€). The guy that sent me the prices also sent me the examples of his works, and none of them have vocals, they are all kind of electronic/trance 🥴
You can send your music literally anywhere in the world to get mixed and mastered. This person is not a professional if he charges for mixing per hour. I do mixing + mastering for $150/song (Canadian $) if you might be interested
Irrelevant but what were your thoughts on Mae Muller's Eurovision performance (UK entry)? I thought she was great and didn't deserved the penultimate place, meanwhile Sam Ryder whose phenomenon I don't get was 2nd last year??? Ah,,,,music tastes......
I’m going to be completely honest with you lol, I didn’t watch it! There’s so many factors, normally rooted in song choice and whether it connects. Also a lot of other world factors that come into play with it too!
Ok. You said leave a comment to help me relieve a bit of pressure........ I live off grid. My window for the Internet is basically during the day. I was trying to sign up to distribute my 1st single. The Internet was very slow and I kept getting frozen or bumped back to a previous page or clear back to the sign in page. I'm screaming at God, I'm screaming at the world. Doesn't God want me to post? Am I going completely around the bend? I'm not even sure if this song is the best one, but I think if I can get the first one done, the rest will be much easier. Who knows?
TBH we still haven’t fully recovered from the fiscal hit we took during Covid. The music industry has always been tough but these last few years have been exhausting.
I think that what would help my mental health would be if my fucking band mates would get back to me in a reasonable amount of time when someone offers us a gig!
Maybe time to call a meeting and lay down the law. Loyalty works both ways and if they are going to damage your chances of success it might be time to make some changes. Don’t forget it might be their fault if things fail but it’s still your career! Hope this helps dude, keep smashing it, I can feel your passion!
I think this is a really interesting aspect, that when you start mixing money with your passion, it's a very different ballgame than doing something because you love it. And different people have different levels that they're happy to go to. Some people want to go all in and monetise, others want to keep music as something they love and then try and leverage organic reach to get heard. It depends what your personal situation is and also what your goals are :)
@Damian Keyes hear that! I guess worth mentioning too. I'm still doing music and seeing how i can grow it. But not needing to rely on it or force it I feel like is making it feel more enjoyable too and able to try focus on doing cool sounds when I do it.
I'm not sure I care about music being anything other than a hobby anymore. If you expect hee haw it can't negativity impact you emotionally when it goes nowhere.
It's not easy as a musician right now, you have to be across SO many things whether it's writing, creating, promoting, content, admin, being a leader... the list goes on. It is so important that you take care of your mental health as without that you don't have anything.
I hope this video helps you and whenever you need anything, I'm just a message away and I'll ALWAYS do what I can to help.
Much love to you, Damo- thanks for all you do for this community! ♥
I swear this man is a treasure. After 20 years making my living playing other people's music, I finally decided to put my own music out there. I've just started, and it's definitely an uphill battle! But every time I watch one of Damo's videos, I get inspired and feel like "oh yeah, I can totally do this!!" So incredibly grateful for his guidance and encouragement. Much love to all my fellow artists and hustlers in this game- keep going, don't give up, believe in yourself and LISTEN TO THIS GUY! 😄
I'm 30 years old now and I'm starting to fear I'll never be able to do music fulltime. Gonna be stuck doing a job I only kind of like instead of doing what I love.
You're not alone Bro
I feel very overwhelmed. I shift from moments of "Hey, I could do this" to "Where do I even begin? How do I organize my time best? How do I write, make content, produce, mix/master in a manageable way that promotes health and sustainability versus overwhelm and burnout?" I want to save up $200 for your music business academy!
As a pro athlete I’ve always had tangible markers of success in my career. The hardest part of my music journey has been knowing how to find those markers. Damian has really helped me identify how I can define success in this crazy industry!
I work a Job that is 55-60 hours weekly and it’s all commission based so the pay is not guaranteed. My set schedule is never accurate. After I have to take care of my wife and daughter. I’ve been through so much and use music as I was to cope… it’s my therapy that helps me with everything I go to. I just want to share my music to hopefully help others. Yet I find my self putting so much into my work then being a full time father/husband that it strains my mental health. So thankful to find your videos . Gives me motivation to keep going even at my lowest moments. Thank you Damian!
I needed this. Ive been a songwriter half my life now. The last 6 years i haven't really been able to create. The lyrics if write were so personal and emotional that itd just break me down. It was to the point where it was almost like counter therapy for me. Im getting back in the groove and it feels good but ik i have to keep my head right in order to write the type of music i do. Thanks for all your videos. Been subbed for years.
I've had an interesting relationship with my mental health for the past few years.
I've struggled with it throughout my life. The first time that I was almost committed was in fifth grade. The doctors over the years couldn't agree what was wrong with me. One said clinical depression, another said bipolar type 2, and the last one I ever went to said Complex PTSD .
The last full time regular job I had (Lowe's Home Improvement) I left in September 2019 and decided to just play music for a while. I fully intended to get a new job after about a month or two.
Almost immediately, for the first time in my entire life, I was happy. I'd never just been happy before.
It's been the sole focus of my life ever since. Even in my lowest moments and worst days up till now, I've been happy.
Others wonder why I'm so determined to be a songwriter, and it's as simple as that.
I'm just trying to hold on to the one thing that's actually made me happy.
I really admire your ability to be so empathetic without sugar coating things. It's clear you really care, so thank you for posting :)
Hey I agree with you Damian👍
As a musician, i had a dodge mental state to begin with. I found my songs when i was already at my lowest. So music was not the cause but the symbtom. 3 of the 5 songs on the "sharper ep" started as self delete notes. With songs such as "the black dog". It was the ongoing personal support of unexpected fans that talked me off the ledge, and they even check in on me if i have not posted in a while. If it weren't for music, i'd no longer be here.
Currently binge watching ur vids👍
Chronic Tinnitus will really give you mental health issues and carpal tunnel physical issues, those two will take you out. I speak from experience, protect your hearing and ergonomics!!
Wearing the splints to sleep now. 10k hours? Try 100k, but can I mumble rap?...
I just don't see a point to living a false life anymore.
The gold I come to you for 👌🏾 more actually mentality than strategy most important 🖤
Love this one Damian. A lot of creatives could use these words of encouragement, myself included. It's very easy to focus on what ISN'T going well in your music career and what you DON'T have: completely disregarding how far all of us have come in our journey along the way. We focus so much on hitting big achievements and big numbers, and don't realize those small victories or milestones that happen in short bursts through consistency. I've built so many great connections on TikTok, etc, with likeminded musicians & singers, and that alone is a beautiful thing. It may not mean I hit a crazy amount of streams and subscribers tomorrow, but I'm slowly building something :)
i'd love to see an office tour, need some inspo on how to set up mine
There should have people in the industry protecting artists so they don’t have to worry about unnecessary things that do harm.
Thank you for this 7 rules.
Dude this is a fantastic video, one of the best ones yet. I found myself nodding along the whole way through! Really useful dude thanks 🙏
Honestly, I’ve tried quitting music for my health. It didn’t work either. I have more hours and years in music than I want to admit. I hope nobody feels like I do. God bless you all. Seriously!
I continue playing even though I'm pretty sick of it 😂
Sometimes work is even better, at least sometimes.
I literally just hopped on youtube to distract myself from my anxiety attack i was having after trying to work on some new tracks and BOOM here was this video. Thank you i needed this and it gave me lots of positive ways to combat this while still being productive!
I really appreciate that thanks so much. Make sure you stay positive and enjoy the creating, don’t get too caught up in the numbers and remember there are people who are there for you, myself included! Keep smashing it!
@@DamianKeyes thank you! ❤️
Systems > goals
Systems / habits = power
You really helped me rethink this, you are a great person
Excellent video with sensible and succinct advice.
Thanks Joe! Appreciate that and I hope it helps today :)
You seem to mean well, can I point out an issue? Many of us don't live in urban centers, I have no live venues in Granolaville, Rocky Mountain rurals, for example. The battle between the dying music industry and the artist trying to break in is what really causes the anxiety; We are not at the level of needing a marketing scheme or monetization, but the remnants of the industry demand we need be from day one, they suck the soul out of everything. We are meanwhile, just trying to meet eachother and share our passions, that is how organic growth works. Take Megadeth, for example. It took Mustaine falling out with others, learning want he didn't want from trial and error to arrive at what he did want.
We however, today, have not so much as an algorithmic decimal point for trial and error. We are not the industry and artists need room to grow, whereas in 27 years, I have felt more confined by the expectation of pre-existing perfection. Ask yourself this: What need has anyone of industry if we have to pay to be it anyway?
That's the anxiety man, I am just not Taylor Swift I need to be to reach a few people's hearts and minds, then maybe their friends...
Your videos keep me on the ball! It's amazing to hear from a very experienced artist, how he has been through the SAME THING, even though I'll be the one standing on stage all by myself in the end 😄When you feel on the edge and something even worse happens to you (my Bassist died last Tuesday), it's just amazingly hard to stay motivated and to not just give up. But the focus, the structure, the goals keep me going. Thank you for your videos!
Thanks 4 this Damo. I really needed it.
I just go out on the lake and try to remember what was bothering me while I catch lunch but I do worry about not getting a long enough nap in before the show. Cheers Damo! 🐒
Thanks for the video. Your set looks great, btw. That's great advice on having a space to shoot videos in. I set that up for myself and it really takes a lot of work and anxiety out of the process. I'm still struggling through the early parts of trying to build and audience and determine what's working, but hopefully with time and patience I'll get there.
This is much needed Damian. Thank you.
Love this video idea proper unique
Music and the creative process has never caused me a second of poor mental health.
Actual life has made up for it ten times over!
Once we realise its 90% not music then we can have a healthier mindset. Thanks again Damo
Thanks so much dude, really appreciate it 🙂🙂
It is important to remember that you are not alone. Many musicians struggle with their mental health, and there are many resources available to help you. Mental health is important for everyone, but it can be especially important for musicians. The music industry can be demanding and stressful, and musicians are often exposed to high levels of pressure. This can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and burnout. By taking care of their mental health, musicians can improve their quality of life and their music.
Love this so much!Thanks again Damian 🤗🙏🏻
I feel like things are starting to turn out for me, and I have Damian to thank in a big way.
I wanted to be in a band but resigned to the idea that nothing cool was happening around me. I actually went out and looked for a band, and I found one - they even like ALL the same bands I do!
I’ve been making micro content playing bass riffs (I don’t have any Spotify releases to make the type of content damo usually discusses) and I just had one recently pop off with 165k views!!!
I can’t help but latch onto these negative feelings about the future though. I’m anxious about booking gigs and getting paid because I am not working right now and need cash coming in fast. They are interested in recording an album straight away but I’m apprehensive for a few reasons. We don’t have enough songs to make the selection process very thorough, our sound is still a bit scattered and undefined, and we could be using the time to gig. I can’t help but think recording a single would be best because we could use it for micro content and promote ourselves that way. That’d solve the recording problem and the content batching problem, but I’m still not sure what would be the best use of time.
I always feel like there’s a clock ticking, just waiting for the music and the fun to be over and I have to get back to the “real world”. Hopefully I’m not alone feeling like this.
This video helped to get me thinking about all this though, and take some steps to chip away at the problems ahead. Thanks Damian 🙏
THANK YOU !!!
Great tips. Some good advice I was given recently …. focus on GRATITUDE …. List all the things you are grateful for, and what is going well, or has gone well…. I find it tends to switch my mind into a more positive state 😊🎶🌈🕺🚀🌟
Much Appreciated!!! Underrated topic!!
Love this! do you have any video where you talk about the TEAM that would be helpfull if you're a beginner artist ready to invest IN HELP? I feel stuck in "learning about everything" mode comparing to those who "can do everything themselves" and at the same time there's so much to do, I feel overwhelmed, I don't know where to start. tanks for all your videos, it really helps! sending lots of love from argentina!
This is excellent, thank you for sharing this, Damian.
Whilst I don’t like to piggy-back off an important topic like this, I think you’d find my song interesting because it’s very much related… I have just released my first ever song and I chose the daring topic of mental health and anxiety. I just shared a video about the songwriting process about 10 minutes before you posted this video.
I can really relate to the section about feeling overwhelmed by social media productivity. I have such a love-hate relationship with it, but I understand it’s a brilliant tool to get your music heard.
Thank you for your content and tips, as always!
Look after your mental health first, peeps! Always top priority. 🙏🏼
Rae
So glad to be able to help. So much of mental health is brought by overwhelm which the leads into paralysis and then anxiety and then the cycle continues around!
I hope that some of the points here help :)
@@DamianKeyes it is such a vicious cycle… not to mention the performance anxiety!
It’s helpful to hear someone with a platform like yours talk about these realities. It helps me feel a bit more normal! 😅🙏🏼
Thanks!
@@RaeLoumusic it’s completely normal, do not worry! It’s our job to learn how to manage the inevitable :)
@@DamianKeyes very true. 🙏🏼
I needed this video right now
So important this is awesome thank you. ❤
LIY - love it! 🙌🎶😃
Damian, really appreciate your stuff here. Always on point. Simplifying the stuff I normally just think is a hassle, in a way that makes it interesting and doable! Thank you! 🙏
I started following Damian Keyes since last year December, after my last release made just 250 streams on Spotify, so I saw a video of following release plans, I wrote all the steps down and started following them on my new release . Now I have almost 10,000 streams on my new song on Spotify which dropped 2 weeks ago, and I have 6000 plus streams on Audiomack and 1200 plus streams on Apple Music plus other dsps. I really want to thank you for the support and the help , this page is a Gold mine if you’re willing to do the work. Although my contents aren’t doing so well on TikTok of late , I am still pushing and will continue my promotion for 1 month and more . Also for fellow artists that might see this comment, i want to implore you to make sure to chase down playlist curators, don’t overlook play-listing . Thanks Damian
Thanks for these videos 😊
Thanks Damo! We have definitely reached a point of frustration and anxiety. A lot of that comes from a DIY mentality. But we've decided to finish up our recordings at a local studio that has a good reputation and seemingly reasonable rates. After more than 3 years of trying to record ourselves in various practice spaces and garages we still haven't finished one song. The calendar idea seems really good too, but we've also fallen short on trying to use Google calendar and still had some people confused and misread dates for gigs and video shoots. Another point of anxiety we have is that certain band members are always hours late to practice and take anywhere from half a day to several days to return phone calls or text messages in attempts to coordinate rehearsals. It's like pulling teeth to get an answer. Not really sure how to remedy that. Granted, we all have day jobs and kids, but it literally takes a few seconds to respond to text message. We've attempted to practice on the same day every week, but that hasn't worked either. Thanks!
Totally understand what you’re saying, in a band a lot of it comes down to priorities. If someone is consistently late and doesn’t reply, they’re disrespecting you and the project and they’re not invested or interested. In life you either need to sort it out, learn that you need to get back to people or lose out. There’s always a level of grace to give people, but anyone who wants to be successful knows how important it is to take every opportunity and be polite and respectful to everyone. I would be looking at whether those band members want to be in the band and working on the plan going forward from that. A lot of this is conversations about being on the same page :)
@@DamianKeyes Thanks Damo! We will definitely need to sort that out.
Good content damian, well done
I’ve been getting so much hate on TikTok. It doesn’t really bother me but it kinda does iykwim. I put my heart and soul into my music and I know it’s high quality. It’s just frustrating that 12 year olds on TikTok who’ve never made music in their life get to me.
I feel you on this, but if you can turn off the hateful noise in your head there will be people who appreciate you as the algorithm finds who wants more. TikTok can be a brutal place (I get plenty of hate too) but if you can stick with it, it will be helpful.
The good news is that people want to comment which means they are watching and feeling something and that is so much better than people who dont care 🙂🙏
U really be speaking game your videos really helping me out
So true and such helpful content! Thanks a lot Damian 👍
I tend to "wing" things like content. I appreciate this video very much. I realize now that I lack structure. I gotta do better.
Sir u r great, I needed this video,I'm suffering from depression n due to that I'm not able to my music gud enough, thx ❤
I'm so glad to help - I hope the video brings some clarity and helps you today. I'm always here :)
@@DamianKeyes that's a real teacher ❤👏
Thank you so much
Appreciate you 🙂🙂
You make such good content about music but I was wondering where is your music I’ve looked all over TH-cam, instagram, and Spotify. I can’t find your music anywhere.
I did a lot of content stuff, tried the part time stuff. Had to stop, got a late job where I often finish at 5/6 am and I’ve yet to find a way to start again with pursuing my original music career cause I’ve began chasing pub gigs which I’m no as good at. I just don’t know where to start after I make my plans you know
Here in Mexico everybody so selffish and on pose
You my dude are super underrated
Thanks Rachel, I really appreciate that. I hope your neighbour is letting you sing now and you are safe 🙂
Nice advice, as usual, ❤❤
I'm more into the DIY category. It's hard. You have to pay for the softwares for your daw, support the singer and songwriter (pain in the A$$, specially while producing and mixing our music). I make my own image cover for the single and then go to an online distributor for streaming worldwide.
All the time and money invested ... to get 1 dollar in return for all the "plays" for one year ! LOL.
Mental Health ? yeah, I think I'm an idiot to continue (everyone around me tells me to stop doing that !) ... but I continue ^^.
When passion can override every saying around us, isn't it beautiful ? In the contrary, I do music to keep my sanity :)
Goal Goal Goals...Make a few score a few right?
I’ve been struggling a lot lately Damien, had a really successful single in January (200k first month) and just cannot seem to follow up with something good. Watching my monthlies start tracking down after it ran its course and feeling my anxiety / mental health stacking up is really hard. I just don’t know what to do. Spotify pays my bills but nobody seems to understand the anxiety that comes with that and I can’t find anybody to relate to what I’m going through
bravissimo💙⚡❤
self-funded album video pls. how much is good enough to break through pls pls 🙏🏼
He said he's working on it this week
Hey! Leave it with me, I'm working on it for sure. It may take me a few weeks to get it together but I'll get it done. You got this :)
The recording and mixing prices in Austria giving me the anxiety of a lifetime. 200€ for 2-hour recording and 90€/hour for mixing(while master is 50€). The guy that sent me the prices also sent me the examples of his works, and none of them have vocals, they are all kind of electronic/trance 🥴
You can send your music literally anywhere in the world to get mixed and mastered. This person is not a professional if he charges for mixing per hour. I do mixing + mastering for $150/song (Canadian $) if you might be interested
00:23 I would totally love to suffer from mental health 😂🙌🏼
Irrelevant but what were your thoughts on Mae Muller's Eurovision performance (UK entry)? I thought she was great and didn't deserved the penultimate place, meanwhile Sam Ryder whose phenomenon I don't get was 2nd last year??? Ah,,,,music tastes......
her vocals SUCKEEDDDDD and she only appeals to the Gen Z
I’m going to be completely honest with you lol, I didn’t watch it! There’s so many factors, normally rooted in song choice and whether it connects. Also a lot of other world factors that come into play with it too!
Convert DIY to LIY! Thx!
Ok. You said leave a comment to help me relieve a bit of pressure........ I live off grid. My window for the Internet is basically during the day. I was trying to sign up to distribute my 1st single. The Internet was very slow and I kept getting frozen or bumped back to a previous page or clear back to the sign in page. I'm screaming at God, I'm screaming at the world. Doesn't God want me to post? Am I going completely around the bend? I'm not even sure if this song is the best one, but I think if I can get the first one done, the rest will be much easier. Who knows?
Fucking love your channel
I lost all my faith 😥..but tnks for this beautiful channel
TBH we still haven’t fully recovered from the fiscal hit we took during Covid.
The music industry has always been tough but these last few years have been exhausting.
Nothing that has kept me alive has made me want to die more than being a songwriter.
Setup a technical workflow, create your software template and save a lot of time, and pure immediate creativity. 🔊🔊🔊
Anything that helps save your energy is always the right thing to do! :)
@@DamianKeyes agree, time optimization and focus on the creativity part of the process. Keep clean the computers, the studio, to keep it "simple".
I think that what would help my mental health would be if my fucking band mates would get back to me in a reasonable amount of time when someone offers us a gig!
Maybe time to call a meeting and lay down the law. Loyalty works both ways and if they are going to damage your chances of success it might be time to make some changes.
Don’t forget it might be their fault if things fail but it’s still your career!
Hope this helps dude, keep smashing it, I can feel your passion!
hear u like sweet chord teachee
In all honesty, going for something else for money is helping my mental health! The music industry is horrendous lol
I think this is a really interesting aspect, that when you start mixing money with your passion, it's a very different ballgame than doing something because you love it. And different people have different levels that they're happy to go to. Some people want to go all in and monetise, others want to keep music as something they love and then try and leverage organic reach to get heard. It depends what your personal situation is and also what your goals are :)
@Damian Keyes hear that! I guess worth mentioning too. I'm still doing music and seeing how i can grow it. But not needing to rely on it or force it I feel like is making it feel more enjoyable too and able to try focus on doing cool sounds when I do it.
I'm not sure I care about music being anything other than a hobby anymore. If you expect hee haw it can't negativity impact you emotionally when it goes nowhere.
😂😂😢😮
Deffo mental here but the drugs help.