We tested Rick Rubin's Process on 75 Bedroom Producers (here's what happened) 

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I've been making music for a living since 1995. One evening at a DJ gig, another DJ and music producer came to me and said: “Kai, you are so lucky that you can make the music you like and be successful with it.” I never really understood that, because I always thought everyone made the music they liked.

This video is missing the point of what Rick is saying. He is saying make stuff you TRULY LOVE. If you love it, then there’s a good chance other people will love it too. You can simultaneously make something you love that also fits within a popular genre.

It blows my mind that people need to learn this from Rick Ruben. It really shows how hypnotized the world is. If people would truly understand the effect of sound and music on consciousness this commercial creation wouldn’t be desired and thus composers wouldn’t have any incentive to create it. The best artists always have been people with a unique vision who would believe in themselves and just make what they wanted.

there are 8 billion people out there, meaning if you're making great art, eventually you'll find your audience. keep walking 💜

Music for yourself... When you think deeper about this, it's not hard to see that it's actually true. Also, If you are not doing it for yourself, you might fall into the toxic music industry trap, and eventually get frustrated, and lose all pleasure in making music. If that happens, you're not going to do better, but worse. As with many things, the truth is in the middle I guess.

Ricks advice is key but u just need the right audience to find u. The students just didn't have enough time to find that audience. It can be a long game even if ur already established in another sound. People usually respond negatively psychologically to a rebranding too because it's different to what they're used to u making. If they stick to it and continue to develop the sounds they like the crowds will come. There are over 8 billion people on this planet.

I do think u can do both! This is a philosophy ive been approaching for quite a while. I wanna be my favorite artist! And i remember Rick Rubin saying… if ur true to ur art… ppl will notice and if u have genuine taste they’ll enjoy ur work. I guess as long as ur not Squidward and his fckn obnoxious clarinet lololol… making music u enjoy will get u results

The other thing with mentioning here is that obvious fact that **Dance music is different than Rock**. It fundamentally serves a different purpose, is presented in a different way, is made differently, consumed by a different audience, etc. Everything about it is different, and because it's underlying purpose is functional -- to make people dance -- you have to take the audience into account in a different way than you do with rock. It's the difference between music you _could_ dance to vs. music that you _absolutely cant stop_ dancing to. So yeah, the audience matters, and while Rick is correct in general, it totally depends on the context.

Sounds like your students didnt take it seriously enough

If you think horizontally, “the audience comes last” just means they are the last in a chain of events. Meaning you need a moment to be egoistically in love with what you are doing and another different moment in your creative process to compromise and shape your music to others (audience, record labels, etc…)

With 100,000+ songs uploaded on Spotify every day, at least 99% of these music makers won’t generate enough revenue in their lifetime to pay for their guitar strings. So the choice is really quite simple: either accept the reality that pursuing a career in the music business is a virtual prescription for failure, or write music that you (and maybe some others) want to listen to and avoid years of broken dreams and relationships and fistfuls of money down the toilet.

I dont think its as black and white as you are putting it.... It just needs more time to grow that fanbase back up. Rick is a executive producer. The term producer got hijacked. in the big big industry we are artists. beat makers. a producer is more like what Rick does.

This was depressing - but I also appreciated the honesty. I feel like all the true artists are just dying out in electronic dance music and we aren’t even pretending anymore. Matt Lange left Anjunabeats because he couldn’t stand how restrictive they were, yet he made some of the best, most memorable Anjuna records ever- due to his artistic mind and musicianship. Andrew Bayer also made insanely inspiring records for Anjuna back in the day, but ended up just giving in to the belly of the beast, and wanting to pay his bills ( which I don’t blame him for). There has to be a better way, maybe going 50-50, making it for yourself, and for the audience ?

Im inclined to believe those tracks were great...but the homogenizing of music is hatekeeping out anything that doesnt bow to the "formula". For sure learn the craft, but keep Ricks method in mind when it comes to WRITING. Its truth. I think what Rick fails to mention tho, is you can write for others and yourself at the same time. You can do both, and you should. If what you make kicks ass or has genuine feeling that people will relate to, then fuck what the suits say and break thru their artificial barriers. You can't stand out by blending in. If you nail it...they will come.

Missed the point of what he was saying the problem is that art is a product of you have been manufacturing music for years and introduce something new that’s true to yourself of course people aren’t gonna like it. If you start true to yourself you won’t have such drastic setbacks. It’s totally ok if you’re doing it for the money and attention but for a lot of people it’s much more than that. That’s who Rick is talking to.

The Audience comes last does not mean that they will not come and pay you... Rick is saying that the Audience want YOU, so your job is to focus on yourself. (You need read the book again)

I find that Rick is 100 true, and here is the simple way to look at it. I have Djed for 20 plus decades when most people didn't even know what House Music was in the USA, and never did I want my style to be catered to my audience but I knew that I would also take a risk of high chances of failure that was worth it. If one follows your advice one needs to know that they will never be great, innovative, original and an artist, but simply a trend chase who will sooner than later be forgotten. Yes you might make some money and play a few gigs for the short time being and then you will dissipate. But the worst part about it is that you will know what you let yourself and your true love for the music down. That is why I always said make music without needing to depend on it for your living because if you do depend on it for your living you will compromise and become a short term trend chaser, guaranteed. Ricks advice is also high in probability that you will also not make it but it is the right risk to take and worth it if you truly love music and the art of it.

I love Rick. he is my hero. Music IS for the artist.

Rick Rubin’s pint was make art for yourself. Then figure out how to package it commercially after.

Rick is the type of producer that I was when I first started to produce. I understand him. I couldn't engineer, I couldn't mix, I couldn't make the beats. I knew musicians who could make what I wanted, I knew how to direct them to do what I wanted, I had access to a studio with an engineer, I could show them or explain to them what I wanted and they could create it. My friends were vocal artists and songwriters, so am I. I just needed to put it all together and it worked. I still regard this type of producer as a producer. The Beatles were produced by a producer who couldn't engineer either. Knowing what you like and being able to get your team members to do it, that is producing. Building a beat just makes you a musician. Recording and mixing it makes you an engineer. Mastering it makes you a mastering engineer. To produce you need to be able to see the full picture and then create it, with an artist if you are producing the artist on the track. If you are doing an instrumental album and you create everything then you have produced the album. That's how it used to be so I still maintain the original concept of a producer.

This guy is a great salesman, tapping into emotions(mostly fear and hope) However, I fucking hate salesmen.

There's a big context behind what Rick was saying. First, it works for certain artists who have developed knowledge and experience to craft something to express themselves efficiently in the form of music. Then, even for those artists, Rick was given some insights about what he was feeling about the music, which gave them a chance to make adjustments. The artist's journey and the Ricks's insights are crucial to this formula. Some people achieved it without Rick, but not without discovering how to properly express themselves in a certain way. And one way to achieve it is to do both things, experimenting in parallel with making music that a particular audience likes.

I think that's completely wrong. Yes, think about the money and how you're going to pay the bills but if you tell a bunch of hardcore EDM producers to "make for themselves" and they want to put it out, why put it out on their current platform? Why try to get that music signed? Plenty of artists work independently and plenty more work closely with their label to get what they like into something marketable. I slightly disagree that you're making music just for you- all art is for you until you release it. Then it belongs to the people. Think logically- if a drum and bass artist releases a house track their fans aren't going to be like "AWSOME MUSIC BROOOOO" because it's not what they're expecting. Make what you like and push it to people who will like it too. I was making sucky edm music that was meant to be just background stuff. People liked it but then I changed my sound. Lost those fans but gained new ones. If you're really going to tell people to make music for the audience so you can make money, I don't think you're teaching the right thing. If you truly want to go into music and truly want to do this as a career why would you go in only for the money? this is one of the absolute hardest industries to make it in. Make the music you like. Make the music you want. People are out there who will listen. Don't waste your time if you just want to make money- that's what desk jobs are for.

There are some things that are right and some things that are wrong about your presentation here. You were not emulating Rick Rubin's production process by telling people to make what they love. He was also there, guiding what was good and what wasn't, leaning in or pulling back on things. It has nothing to do with Rick's lack of technical production skills. He wasn't a music producer in that regard, he was an executive producer. He was an ideas guy that understood taste and beauty with respect to what his taste has connected with in the world. Just telling some of your producers "Make what you love for you" without guiding them through that process is not at all the same process, so when you say you're not sure that it works today and that people need to learn production software and engineering, you're missing the point and conflating things that aren't even the issue. That being said, I do agree that obviously an individual needs to understand what their motivation is to be making music. If they are trying to go from zero to hero and have music production be their primary income stream then yes they will likely need to find some niches to land in and interact commercially with the world. They can also strive for a balance somewhere in-between. I understand you have a service to sell and I respect you and your team's efforts to do so, but don't do it by mischaracterizing Rick Rubin's production process in order to lift yourself up. If Rick Rubin produced any music with one of your students they would be lucky as fuck like winning the lotto lucky, and that will remain the case until he's on the other side of the ground. Do what you do and teach your students well, don't conflate his production style and a generic discussion about commercializing your sound.

You can’t tell me that every single student of yours who made music “ for themselves” just flopped lol aint no way. I only ever make music for myself. Who the hell else would I be making it for? It would be in authentic any other way imo.

It takes time for the art to find the right ears. If you are changing up your fanbase you're going to have to rebuild that group.

Is it more important for immediate gratification then creating art that will last, Rick is still here after almost 40 years and he has amassed a fortune but his point was more about creating what you love which is from your soul and your heart, this will last, you can be proud of it, it is unique, it is your voice, your fingerprint, making stuff for the masses has no soul, it's not unique and won't last. Not great advice, the greatest artists of our time don't sound like everyone else. Rick is right.

Yeah it doesn't really apply to generic EDM music because that's already hyper commercial music that's just as much about the image and scene, maybe more so, than the actual music itself.

Rick is a 100% right ! Go make shitty music for the masses ! Fuck commerce support me in the fight against artistic mediocrity !

I just remembered a similar argument. Some people criticize learning music theory or even playing an instrument. They argue that certain successful artists didn't know any music theory or how to play an instrument, yet they're selling records. This suggests that music theory or learning an instrument is a waste of time and not necessary. My response to this argument is that you are not that artist; everyone is born different. Some are gifted with good ears and a rhythmic sense, while others are not. This is the reality. There are some things you cannot do the same way they do, and it's also the other way around. If you can produce music without learning music theory or playing an instrument, then that's good-congratulations, you have a nice musical sense. However, in most cases, people have to develop these skills through hours of practice. So, learning music theory or playing an instrument will help you in the long run

Homogenized cheese whiz substitute is the order of the day....Zappa and Beefheart would have never survived today.

I can totally relate with Rick. I do music that I like. But I m still happy if people also enjoy it. If you start producing for the masses you equalize. Imagine a ten sided dice that reflects your rating of music. If you roll only for yourself you might make a 1 score song but also you might get a 10. if you roll for a million people you always end up with 5.5. that’s what you get when you care for more than just yourself.

I'm not aware of Rubin EVER making dance music. Dance music is almost, BY DEFINITION, not "art" - b/c it's made to serve a very particular PURPOSE and incite a PARTICULAR response. It's UTILITARIAN. If a "dance song" doesn't make you move, it's not a USEFUL song. Disco wasn't art... House music. Techno. Polka. EDM. They're all outside of who Rubin is speaking to.

Loved this video. It’s so hard for people to get what they want without understanding your purpose. I’ve been making music for myself for like 9 years and when I start to try and mimic what’s popular I start feeling less like myself and I don’t like it. I love making music but it’s never been in me to only go for what’s a job instead of just being me and trying whatever I might like

First of all, if you are in the commerce business, there are better jobs than being a musician. Second, I bet that none of your "producers" had a producer. And that's the point: you need someone to take you through the process of making music, otherwise you'll end up doing shit nobody likes but you. To put in a nice way, you won't be challenged in giving your best.

Coincidentally this is what I’ve been thinking for a while. In an ideal world art should be a pure expression of what the artists desire without thought or consideration for fame, popularity, money or success. It should be for made the artists own person gratification…If someone else happens to like it then that’s incidental. In the current musical economic climate hardly anyone one makes any money from music so we might as well just make what we want. It’s not really possible to produce in a vacuum devoid of outside influences though. I’ve never really been comfortable with art being corrupted by business and pandering to commercial tastes. Maybe that’s why so much music sounds so generic and uninteresting. The only thing you can get out of it is the enjoyment of making it and the enjoyment of the result. That’s often not the case though.

Meh, I think Rick Rubin is right. All the way.

My question is how anyone finishes a song if they aren't completely in love with it. What would be the point?

ThaNK YOU FOR THE VIDEo first of all! Love from Ukraine! But I do not agree with your point. Here's why. I just think it's okay to have LIMITED SPECIALIZATION in music. For instance - creating songs, and concepts and, in addition, having energy for perforing songs live and be out there in public. NOT EVERYONE can do that, right? And having no mixing ability, no music language knowledge, no marketing skills (or desire to do marketing) in also OK. I strongly BELIEVE there are people out there that MIGHT LOVE what I do and might WANT to do SOMETHING THEY ARE SPECIALIZED in to ENRICH what I do. As a result. WE might create a PRODUCT FOR FANS in the end. Trying to do everything at once may turn out DANGEROUS for artists. It definately wounded ME. I'm CRYING watching this video, because it gives a feeling that I'm NOT ENOUGH. I am enough. I just know.

David Bowies rule of success expressed with this terminology: 50% art 50% commerce 😉 so you give people a chance to buy into your art but still give them what they want 🖤 find this sweet spot (or adjust this ratio to your liking) and that's what's going to define you as an artist. Because AI may already write better The Weekend style songs than you 😂

Did the test producers show the music they liked to their current fans and label?. For instance showing trap to heavy metal fans and label, you shouldn’t be surprised they got no shows lol. Maybe realise that they were basically starting from scratch and you expect to wait atleast a year to find their own fan base.

Only if you make music that truly resonates with your profound self you get a chance to make a mark and be remembered. But then, paying the rent is also super nice... There's definitely a balance to find here. I think the best bet is to find at least some time for the deeper self to express itself without barrier, because you might just create the next big thing.

I think it depends a lot on the genre of music you're producing. Labels dedicated to particular subgenres of House and techno are extremely specific with their requirements, so you really do have to produce music to their requirements if you want to get your tracks picked up. Also to get into a dj set your track needs to fit with a particular tempo and feel. With rock, pop and other genres it's much easier to do your own thing in your own way.

The average person doesn’t like what i like.

It's a bit of a catch 22. Labels and fans want artists and music that are new and original. They don't want another Tiesto or Snoop Dogg because we already have a Tiesto and Snoop Dogg. So, you have to be new, original and unique - which luckily, we all are naturally - we just need to be brave enough to put that on display for the world. The only way to be new and original, is to make music for you first. That's how you create a unique identity for yourself. Then, you need to find where that music fits in. Which DJs will spin it? Which labels will sign it? Fans of which artists will like it? If the music you're making is too far off into left field to relate with any DJ, artist or fan, don't expect it to find any commercial success. If it does, then amazing. That was our creator's plan for your life. But for the most part, you have to find a place for your art to sit to find commercial success. Otherwise, it will just sit on your hard drive or in the cloud.

You want Spotify plays.. you don’t need school.. you need a distributor/promoter.. you need to pay to play.. This industry is a joke.. The teaching industry.. Not the music industry.. 🤘😜👍

Pretty interesting from the statistics side: lesser successful people with lesser years of experience and lesser money on the bank account are more important in judging what works today, because Rick started in the 1980s, has no technical experience and the like? There‘s a deep philosophy behind what Rick talks about that allowed him to become famous and rich. And the last decades were tougher than what is able today with cheap technology, fast and cheaper marketing and sales via the Internet, etc. Rick is one of those unique icons because only a few people understand what he‘s talking about. This experiment and it‘s interpretation are pretty weak.

I think the word “producer” is the problem. The word “artist” never made into your reasoning. Those records were great not JUST because of Rick Rubin, great bands make great records with great producers. That’s art. Coincidentally that also sells well so it can be commerce. I don’t know why at some point music makers decided to call themselves “producers”, I find it limiting and demeaning, producer to me sounds as creative as accountant. If you yourself don’t see the art in what you do, how can expect others to respect it? You might get some good commerce out of it, but you might never get art

It would help the cause to let people hear this "made it for myself" that bombed and contrast that with a) what those people normally deliver, and b) what their audience expects. IF they normally make Metallica and then delivered Bony M, it could be amazing but with (esp) modern one-eyed audiences they would get crickets or worse abuse. The Art may be better than the formula stuff but it is simply a case of mismatch. If however, the acts delivered unlistenable twaddle then it raises the Q if these people are really artists or employees of a cookie-cutter process. Ok in itself but the wrong place to try the experiment, compared say to giving that challenge to KISS or the Eagles. 🙂

Most of the people on this post seem to hate EDM/Dance music. I do agree that it’s disingenuous to tell people who are depending on music to eat to not worry about commerce when your net worth is $300 million. You do have to make your art something you love but that doesn’t mean make ‘free jazz’. Maybe be an artist when you are making it and then be a businessman in the final process? Personally the book is great AND I make adjustments. If nobody likes what you do now that doesn’t mean you are a great artist and people will like your work 50 years from now. That’s a pipe dream.

From my point of view Rick Rubins advice applies to being a visionary artist, not necessarily a popular artist. It takes longer than a few months of cultivation to become that kind of artist (although I do like to hold onto the belief that anybody can become one). In fact, I think the failures that the example artists here experienced are a necessary part of their development on that path of becoming the kind of visionary artist that Rick is talking about. It’s definitely not for everybody, and that’s why everybody doesn’t persist long enough to uncover what lays dormant inside of them. Many of these kinds of artists still may not find commercial success in their lifetime… but when I’m feeling optimistic, I would say I believe that art has still served its purpose, whether it’s “successful” or not.

Schools like this cannot stick to Ricks way. It’s bad for business. If you want to be a unique musician Rick’s advice will be highly beneficial. If you want to be a copy of someone else then continue to make music for the audience.

I think treating this as an either or is a false dichotomy. You can have both external success AND internal fulfillment.

it's almost like Rick Rubin works with ppl who are already successful

This isn't a unique thing to Rubin. I've heard this before. I know David Bowie has said this as well.

I spent decades to make some music, and become a DJ.....a have to pay rent, feed my family...well I'm 38 now...and a'm a forklift driver.... maybe on my pension I'll start to make music and DJing 😊😊😊

Dude, with respect …. you spent 4min repeating yourself over and over. Could you have dumbed it down anymore? We get it. Rick says “Make music for yourself, the audience comes last” Art is a language. What is the point of documenting something in art form so you can communicate that idea to yourself? Would you write a book only for yourself? (That would be called a diary). Or make a film only for yourself? Ultimately you’re going to expose it to people eventually, otherwise what’s the point of translating it to another medium? You already have that idea or feeling in your head. Why spend years honing your craft only to articulate something to yourself? Perhaps Rick’s idea could be better articulated by saying don’t be a people pleaser, or your art is compromised when you treat it like a product to be marketed. Rick has always ridden the coat tails of the talented people he’s worked with. He’d be the first to admit it. They were talented before and after they worked with him. He managed to achieve guru status because of his association with iconic artists. He understood culturally which buttons to push. He went viral way before social media was a thing. That was no accident, he engineered that. (No Beasties, no Rick, No Run DMC, no Rick). He’s also very musical, and has good taste. That’s a big part of it. He’s like a modern day Phil Spector. He thinks outside the box and was at the right place at the right time (New York in the 80s). He invented himself. And because of that, the myth of his musical genius has been celebrated by people who don’t know any better.

That means technically, I knew more than Rick already 20 odd years ago, because, I at least knew how to opperate my mixer, started screwing with cool edit pro, and vst's, and only recently started being happy with my results, when I started hearing those frequencies individually, I am self taught took years, and I studied contemporary music back in 2008, 2009, worked a nasty day/night job for 8 years, bought more gear, and only now in 2024, I feel, the stuff finaly sounds the way I want, if only I had these realizations sooner.

Probably, the way Rick likes music to sound just happens to fit with how many other people do. If that's the case then you definitely can do it his way. If you have Stockhausen's musical sensibility you're probably best off keeping music as a side project next to your day job.

Van Gogh sold one painting during his lifetime. Rick is right. It's not as you say 'for fun or personal gratification' - it's art. It occurs to me that maybe you don't get it or agree. That's fine. Commerce is good. There's commerce and there's art. Sometimes real Art becomes commercially successful during the artist's life, that's cool - but don't expect it. We all know that if you want to 'make money' - you have to do something worth remuneration from a marketplace.

I would never make a song for a audience, All my music is for me first, If I don't like it why play it or take the time to make it. The audience really is last in the process. The saying will forever be true,.. "If YOU build it THEY will come"

I'm pretty sure Rick wants the mediocrity to cease, and if everyone is doing what they want only then only a few will become successful. Meaning if you do what you want and it sucks then cool, you have revealed yourself lol. Rick seems only focused on finding UNICORNS hahahaha.. He can't go unicorn hunting if the habitat is crowded with wanna be's.. Following a formula VS being a visionary that is so good and desired that the formulas are formed from de coding what the visionary did .

Rick Rubin: the music making process should not be for the audience So Rick what skills do you have ? Can you play music, can you use audio equipment? Rick: I’m good at being the audience Total brain fuck

Wait wait wait, you’re missing something here because Rick Ruben is still producing hit records, What’s the secret sauce to making art that also sells? Cause that’s what he’s doing right? I actually think you have to look no further than these bands like RHCP and SOD because while they do in fact make lots of crazy eclectic and artistic music they still put out enough hot singles to get them in the charts. And that’s exactly what we have to do maybe even more so as EDM producers, more of our catalog Hass to be hits, but we need to keep peppering in little parts and prices that are purely art. my personal strategy is to make music that sounds like it’s commercially viable but all throughout it are a little Easter eggs of my art. My jazz and rock background, my college level music theory knowledge, I make my art and disguised as something commercial. That’s what we need to be doing.

You’ve missed the point boss he’s talking about making great art and great artist will make 1000x the money your commerce DJs ever will ! If your DJs didn’t sell wat they love making they need to question how grounded they really are in music .. it’s not about giving up on wat they love making and resort back to making trash that sells it’s about finding themselves in thier music and rising above the commerce trash that they make ❤

There are two types of people who make Music (See: Art) People who want attention, and people who do it because it's painful if they don't. There are a lot of people in the former category who think they are in the latter until they get a real taste of success and then have to follow it up. If you aren't comfortable with this idea, you may be in this for the wrong reason. Success can be the ultimate kind of failure and also, Rick isn't correct. There is Artistry and there is Craftsmanship. You don't hire wood sculptor to redo your kitchen cabinets, as you also wouldn't hire an architect. Some people like to get up in front of a crowd and play other people's songs in a blues, country or what have you band and entertain. These People aren't really making art. They may be putting their own touch on it, but It's not dangerous, and it can pay the bills. DJ's are the same way. Calling them Producers has just became a fancy way to say Midi Programmer and audio engineer, and possibly Sound Designer. Can they be happy with the music they make? The really damaging thing is that if you ran this experiment like you said you did, and they truly enjoyed the art they created, and then had to go back to the cold reality of paying their bills that it planted a seed in them and while some may be able to make art in private and create craftsmanship for public consumption, ultimately It will steal their joy and kill their dream. Rarely have there been artists good enough to create Art and Craft it. But this also begs the question, what is art? Isn't Art the conveyance and transmission of one persons thoughts, ideas and emotions to others? If it is created and not shared is it actually art? Maybe it isn't. Maybe that's the thing about real art. It reaches people. If "your" art doesn't, then it may not be. Things to consider.

Rick rubin is right! I thought it was going to be a nice lesson to people than at the end everything falls apart lol Off course you need to learn how work a DAW, how to play, mix and master but your philosophy NEEDS to be the same as his if you want to truly succeed or you are just not paying attention quite right You have to believe so much and study so much about the genre that you are working that the process will become natural and you will find your way out to make sormthing original and sell it at the same time. The way the vídeo ends doesn't quite gives the messenge of chasing new feelings in the tracks you produce, push music forward and with New meenings as you just feel whats right for you for a long time until it start connecting with the audiência by itself The right thing is to chase no matter what than you will become the only artist who can make that amazing unique sound that can't be player by anyone else. Thats what you need to chase! always!

I'm just so tired and sick of the music industry, at least in my country (Mexico) everything is so overrated and pointless, no good festivals, no headliners, everybody just want to hear what is popular or follow the big names and the crap is going mainstream is so terrible, no scene, no audience, no support from the public, and the ones that stand out are the ones with money the daddy's rich kids or the same artists from 20 years ago monopolizing every gig and venue, promoters and bookers are just mafia, they don't allow new talents to rise up, everybody is just faking it, so yeah I totally prefer doing it for myself.

What was it that the Beatles sang... "The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees. Now give me money(that's what I want) Whole lot of money (that's what I want)"

Thanks. Your comparison breaks as Rubin is Not making the tracks - he's producing them. So you cannot compare it to what your students are doing, as they create the music themselves.

To me, all you need to know about Rick Rubin is that he produced the best hip hop and pop albums, and ALSO the best Slayer album lol BUT, he's talking from a different perspective even back then. He isn't making the music, he was selecting the artists and then telling them to be themselves because he knew that's what people wanted from them. He even turned down the Red Hot Chilli Peppers before he decided to work with them later 😋

But .... Rick Rubin won several Grammy's and helped to make some of the greatest music of all time using this process so .... I dont think he was saying to make stuff thats so far out no ones gonna dig it. Just that if you do what you absolutely love most, you will become great at it, then you find your audience.

In short Rick Rubin is just a hype man. A person who has an ear of a consumer of music and not a producer. As a professional consumer of music he is able to tell you what other consumers would like. I don't understand how everyone calls him a producer, a producer of what exactly?

I think the healthy option is going 50-50. Keep your soul and your individual taste intact, but don't go so overboard with your sound that you loose sight of the dancefloor. At the end of the day, if you do cookie cutter tracks ONLY with commerce in mind, you're not guaranteed any kind of longevity in this game. Are people still gonna book you in 20 years if all you did was match exactly what was popular today, and are you gonna be proud of what you did at the end of your career, if you never tried to do something that YOU liked?

Rick is spot-on; been saying pretty much the same thing for decades. This is why I laugh when people refer to every music-maker as "an artist". Art, as classically defined, is pretty much dead. So many refuse to understand it; truth often devastates the ego.

I know heaps of succesful artists that love their music and have fun making it and also play big gigs etc. If you make music you don't like and you get big gigs and deals etc, It'll feel pretty empty even with the success.

Same word but totally different meaning and role, Rick as a producer similarly to movie producers and older type of music producers was working on the management aspect of bands , collaborations, what to keep or discard etc this type of decision making, the bands were making the music. A producer in the modern era is the person that actually makes the music and works the equipment. It is a different universe of roles. The whole experiment could work also at a commercial level in different situations, a experimental work from a known producer in a specific style if you give it time and more than one song can be a fan favourite album for different audiences for example, if it had a support system from labels etc like the system around Rick then it could also be a commercial success maybe at different festivals or different line ups etc

Rick also said, that he was lucky that a lot of people like what he likes. I think there is the difference to your producers. They like something that not the majority of the people like. And thats okay but thats keeping them from being successful mainstream.

Such a deep video ngl (I believe it's the mix of our style and art, in the favour of the majority which is a perfect point of balance)

Its a journey of self discovery not a chasing of praise - If you stay true to yourself then youll eventually create a whole new genre and a lasting lineage, but this does take a lot of time - Its not a short term get praise quick scheme kinda thing.

Get a regular job to cover the basic bills , keep being true to 9:02 yourself as an artist this will keep it following. So no need to confirm to the commercial trap . If you really want to be big in the industry you got sell your soul anyway.

I have to agree. Nowadays people are better informed. You can’t teach people how to be Jesus but they can still learn a lot by reading the Bible 😁

This looks at Rubins process from a very narrow perspective, struggling to grasp more abstract concepts. Zoom out. Give it time. Taking his process and shoehorning yourself into having to do a gig at a specific concert, that plays a specific niche type of music, is just silly. Maybe giving it some time & doing what you like, will lead to you getting booked at the right place, where you organically fit in. Not the mention the art will be a lot better.

This seperates the real artists to artists who just do it for monetary reasons, yes you'll have income in the start making beats people like, but you will never be cemented, some of the top artists struggled years cause no one understood their art but they stuck by it slowly improved it and now they will never be forgotten and they are cemented in history worldwide for centuries to come. So it all depends on the person which route they take, this also shows what you lack it pressures you to fall short which isn't a bad thing but everyone is diferrent so either you feed them what they want or you feed them what you actually like.

While I respect your transparency, this is inadvertently depressing. Your students stepped away from hustling mediocre fodder to actually do something that they were passionate about, and it just reinforced for them that all the world wants is more mediocre fodder.

Everything that you describe in this video is what is problematic in the modern music industry. Everything highly commercial sounds the same.

So, all those students have bad taste and they sign tracks with labels because they just follow (copy) successful songs?

Thx that you take this point... He is the muse..he is like the audience for the crews and groups because of his specific taste and they listen to his advice and create the music for him and his vision ..on the other hand he says" dont do it for others".. it's like models who say they eat good and do sports..fairy tales

Here's the thing......the artists Rick helps out are artists who have talent, who already have a name for themselves. So it's natural to assume Rick simply helped polish a song the artist already had. Basically .....give Rick a bunch of songs and he will probably get 1 hit from them. But not every song will be a hit, in fact, the majority of those songs will not be hits. Rick isn't special......and anyone with a brain can spot that. You don't need Rick to get a hit. Stop praising him

Rick Rubin definitely has musical skills have u heard the early hiphop tracks he produced the guy knew his way around a drum machine

Rick Rubin played in punk bands growing up think he might be downplaying his musical acumen just slightly

Clearly your producers don’t know a good song when the hear one Rubins ability is he knows a great song when he hears one clearly most people don’t.

Do both. Pay the bills and craft your own sound. With luck and preparation the two will intersect.

Bunch of copycat producers just remaking someone else’s sound over and over is exactly what has been clogging the playlists and sucking the life out of dance music. New sounds come from pushing the boundaries, going into the unsafe places. Yeah if you get weird you might not have a built in audience but it doesnt mean you cant grow one. And that audience will stay with you because you have found a unique voice.

I want to listen to those 75 producers through that method

Then how do you explain the overwhelming success of Taylor Swift???

It's simple: what he likes is what most of the population likes, so it also works commercially. Thats what i think

I’d like to hear those tracks that flopped. I would not be surprised if these were better than many of the tracks released on the labels you mentioned.

art not commerce .?Then i must be an amazing artist because nobody likes my shit