Don’t finish your song, release it now!

Are you struggling to finish your songs?

Me too.

I mean, I did so I know what it is.

But why can’t you stop modifying your next creation?

In this article, I want to help you find some clarity.

Watch the video:

Why is it so difficult to finish a song?

I have experienced that myself so much.

I know how you feel.

You say to yourself: “It is not perfect, I can’t release that” or “What if I put a little more compression on the drum kick?” or again “Should I change this chord progression during the bridge?”

A song can be a quite complex piece of art indeed, from the composition to the final mastering.

There an often several instruments. Differents parts. Different rhythms. Maybe lyrics.

For each of them, you have countless possible choices and you need to make decisions.

What to play, how to play it, with which sound, at what time of the song. How to mix, which effect to use, and when. With what parameters.

How all this couldn’t be overwhelming.

You have an infinity of possibilities in front of you.

That’s what will make your song unique. But that’s also scary because you may make the ‘wrong’ decisions. And ruin your song.

Or at least, that’s what you think.

Is it really the case?

You know your song better than everyone else. It is your creation. How can it be wrong? it is what it is. Some people won’t like it and may find it rubbish. Others might love it.

You don’t know. And you will never know before it is released to the world.

It can’t be perfect. For two reasons.

First, perfection doesn’t exist.

Second, how do you measure that you are closer to “perfection” by changing this or this?

That’s the big issue with creations.

There is nothing to tell you (or anybody) what is good or not. Within certain limits of course.

But you have no way to decide if it is good.

I watched a video by Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon, who talk about this problem.

Here it is:

He takes an interesting comparison with sports.

In sports, you know if you do well or not. You score or not. It is binary.

In music? Good luck!

There is more than one famous music artist who has been surprised to see a song that he or she didn’t like becoming a massive hit.

You have no control about that.

The only thing you can control is to create and publish.

And to quote Jack Conte: “Publishing is not finishing”.

Conclusion

The message here is: don’t finish your song, publish it.

And move on to the next.

The more you do, the higher your change to see one becoming popular.

And as musician, your “job” is mostly to create, right?

Now go and publish!