{"id":6758,"date":"2022-02-03T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:58:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T21:58:05","slug":"finding-purpose-creative-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/finding-purpose-creative-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding purpose in your creative life as a musician"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illustration:<\/strong> Daniel Zender<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

Anyone making music or art of any form likely began on their creative path with a reason for doing so, however simple.<\/h2>\n

Maybe it was fun. Maybe it was inspired by exposure to other art. Maybe it was a way to explore one\u2019s self or spend time with others. As time goes on and our work becomes more habitual, we might not actually consider the purpose of what we\u2019re doing. It can be years down the line until we stop and wonder: \u201cSo, this music thing\u2026 What’s it all for? Why am I doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n

What does it mean to spend ten-hour days or sleepless nights in the studio searching for your creative identity? What does it mean to sacrifice your free time or even financial stability to work on your craft? The gravity of these questions can weigh heavy when the growth isn\u2019t so tangible or our reward-seeking mentality is left disappointed. Maybe the press didn\u2019t click with that last release. Maybe your inbox isn\u2019t exactly flooding with booking offers and label inquiries like you were hoping it would be. Did all of those hours spent on that record even move the dial?<\/p>\n

Artists often conflate their self-value with their work. \u201cMy life is my art,\u201d one might say. \u201cI am my work.\u201d More dangerously, artists can equate their self-value with the \u201csuccess\u201d of their work. Fortunately, we’re in control of how we define success for ourselves.<\/a> You probably have at least a vague notion as to why you\u2019re making music (\u201cI enjoy it,\u201d \u201cit\u2019s fun,\u201d etc.), but being as clear as possible with yourself in respect to why you\u2019re making music will build a strong foundation for your practice and your mental health. Let\u2019s explore some healthy perspectives on finding meaning and purpose in one’s artistic practice.<\/p>\n

Creating for yourself vs. creating for others<\/h2>\n

Before we begin, let\u2019s return to the question: \u201cDid all those hours spent on that record even move the dial?\u201d It might be interesting to counter-ask: what is<\/em> the dial? What is it measuring here? Career momentum on a scale of 0 – 100? Acceptance measured in units of likes? If this is the case\u2014and wow, does society trick us into letting it be<\/a>\u2014then the meaning of your life as an artist is chasing external gratification and ambiguous rewards. Perhaps your goal is more specific: a Pitchfork review, or an income of $40,000\/year. It\u2019s okay to have materialistic goals\u2014they can amount to survival\u2014but sometimes, they may still leave us feeling empty or without purpose. After all, how much meaning can one find in experimenting endlessly, making things with no ascertainable value in hopes of a commensurate monetary reward? There must be more to the artistic life than this.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a selfless merit and commendable generosity to making work for others\u2019 enjoyment, but satisfying the abstract, moving target of what others will like (or more accurately, what you think<\/em> others will like) can be exhausting. There are a few solutions to this problem that can bring an immense sense of purpose to one\u2019s creative practice and life.<\/p>\n

One such approach is insisting on a creative process that\u2019s focused on bringing yourself joy. Being content with finding satisfaction from within isn\u2019t a selfish pursuit, nor is it without its impact on the world. If you’re making work that brings you joy, you’ll then be bringing more joy into the world through your every interaction with it. If your goal is to make an impact, you are! Even if no one hears the music but you. If the work is bringing you joy and you’re therefore engaging the world with more joy, your music is of benefit to both you and your environment.<\/p>\n

Another alternative to creating with your audience\u2019s satisfaction in mind, while still serving their best interests, is making the work that you want to hear. If you would want to hear the kind of music you\u2019re making and you trust your taste, odds are others will too. Making something that you think others will like can often backfire, resulting in music neither you nor your audience actually care for.<\/p>\n

Building a narrative<\/h2>\n

We often create music<\/a> without thinking about why we\u2019re making it. It\u2019s okay to operate on intuition and make music for music\u2019s sake, but it may still benefit you to ask yourself: What is the music about? Moreover, what are you all about? Before even beginning a project and arriving at an artistic identity, it can be elucidating to define some themes and create a language around what you and your work are all about. The purpose of your music can now be to tell your story, or at the very least, you\u2019ll have an angle that can be expressed in words.<\/p>\n

Another way to anchor your work in meaning is to align it with a cause, be it social or political in nature. If you choose to go this route, the purpose of your music can be to bring awareness to something greater than yourself. This additional dimension of thematic foundation to a creative project can work wonders for the urgency and vitality of a project. Your work can have meaning as a social commentary through lyrics, or even more subtle means such as track titles if you make instrumental music.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s natural to want others to enjoy your music, and even more natural to want the money you need to support yourself while making it. However, deriving your sense of self value from anywhere but within is a dangerous game than can be circumvented by the approaches above and heaps of mindfulness. Besides, recognition and financial stability often have an interesting way of arriving as an indirect result of rooting oneself in a greater sense of purpose. A sense of purpose based on cultivating inner joy and meaning in one\u2019s life is a magnetic field to which the world is drawn. Don\u2019t let yourself be worn down by the moving targets of external gratification. It might take a leap of blind faith that it will work out, but next time you work on music I encourage you to do it for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Spark inspiration for your music with expertly-curated loops, one-shots, MIDI, presets, and more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Join Splice today<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists too often conflate their self-value with their work\u2014in this article, let’s explore some healthy perspectives on finding purpose in one’s artistic practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":6760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1859,1696],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinding purpose in your creative life as a musician - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Artists too often conflate their self-value with their work\u2014let's explore some healthy perspectives on finding purpose in one's artistic practice.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/finding-purpose-creative-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding purpose in your creative life as a musician - 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