The Biggest Project of My Life

I’m starting one of the most ambitious projects of my life. 

It’s called the 100 songs project (mesmerizing, I know). 

My goal is to improve in songwriting, music production, and content creation (I’ll get back to that in a second). So I plan on creating 100 songs with the intention of building an audience and opening up doors of opportunity in the new music industry that is emerging. 

So let me break it down.

The music industry is rapidly changing. 

And I’m seeing some incredible opportunities for musicians to create a path for themselves without having to go the traditional route of getting a record deal. 

To create a path in this new music industry it seems like you just need two things: 

1. Music
2. Content

It’s pretty simple. 

In order to grow your fanbase, you have to have new music for people to listen to. 

And in order to get people to listen to it, you have to get their attention through content.

So if you release songs more often, and create content that gets attention for the songs. 

Then over time you should be able to grow an audience that loves your music.

So why 100 songs? 

Repetition is the best way to get better at anything. 

You’re going to suck at first, and that’s okay. 

But after you do something about 100 times, you should be pretty decent at it. 

And if you get feedback and improve each time you go through the process, you’ll get better even faster. 

Your goal at the beginning is not to create masterpieces. 

Your goal at the beginning is to get used to what it takes to take it from idea to completed song. 

And then once you get comfortable with the process of start to finish, then you can look at getting better each time. 

And that’s what I’m going to do. 

What are the rules to the game? 

This is how I’m planning on playing the game. 

I’m not setting a time limit on how quickly I have to get something done. I’m just going to go through the process from start to finish a few times to get a feel for how long it takes me. 

I’ll benchmark that as my baseline. 

And then I’m going to work on improving that over time. 

I’m going to create a loop of how I work. 

• Write a song
• Produce the song
• Release the song 
• Create 2-4 pieces of content to get attention for the song

There’s a lot to do to make that happen. 

And I’m going to have to get good in a lot of different areas. 

I’m going to have to learn how to be decent at: 

• songwriting 
• Recording and arranging
• Mixing and mastering
• Writing
• Creating hooks
• Recording video 
• Editing videos
• storytelling 
• Graphic design
• Etc. 

Now I have some experience doing each of these things. 

But not at this scale of 100 times over. 

I have released a few albums already. 

And I’ve been making videos for a YouTube channel for a while as well. 

I’m just going to be combining these things in a different way. 

I’m not doing this full time, either. 

This project will be done around a full time job, and all the other responsibilities I have as a husband, etc. 

So this will be outside of the 9-5 hours (i.e. in the mornings, evenings, and weekends). 

MY GOALS: 

This is what I’d like to get to as a rough ballpark: 

• Release 1 song every 2 weeks (not strict, just a loose timeframe)
• Publish 2-4 pieces of content every week
• Build an audience that loves my music 
• Do collabs with artists I admire
• Building relationships in different industries
• Share the things I’m learning as I go
• See what sorts of doors open up from there

MY ANTI-GOALS 

I don’t want to: 

• Tour and be on the road a bunch (i.e. probably not lots of live shows)
• Be militant with the time frames (I want to produce quality vs just quantity)
• Limit myself to only one type of song, etc. (I want to explore music)
• Bury myself in my little creative world and not connect with other people

How are you going to hold yourself accountable? 

I’m going to start by creating some tracking that I will be displaying and updating publicly.

And then my goal is to get into some communities and make some friends with people who want to do the same kind of thing. 

I’m going to try to create some basic daily practices that will be easy to do, but will move me in the right direction. 

Work on music for 30 minutes a day. 

Work on content for 30 minutes a day.

If I do those things consistently, then I will be moving the right way. 

I’ll track that over time. 

The fun part is that I’m setting up this project to kick off at the beginning of 2024. 

(And I already have one song completed, and scheduled to release).

But I still have to make the content for the song. 

What’s at stake if you fail? 

Probably nothing. 

But I will have to resign myself to the idea that I gave up on something that could have led to amazing things. 

Then I will have to continue what I’m currently doing day in and day out for years and years. 

And I’ll always have to wonder if I could have accomplished something great. 

And wonder if it would have led to amazing connections. 

Amazing opportunities. 

Maybe a different kind of life altogether.