Yup. In my post above, I was originally going to expand on that phrase I used: "if you're lucky enough to attain it [success in art or music]." A lot of it truly is luck. That's been obvious to me, watching some of my family members become successful while others struggle, despite them all being very talented and hard-working.

Luck (as well as the rest of Mat Zo's advice above) applies in any field, not just artistic ones. But the thing about artistic fields is that, like sports, they are especially brutal in terms of success because there's such severe a bottleneck about how the "end product" is "consumed."

In computer programming, for example, as long as you work hard and are good at what you do, you only need a tiny bit of luck to land a very nice job and be on a very good career path, earning a very comfortable income. Compare this to an artistic field where even if you work just as hard and are just as good at what you do, you need a hundred times better luck to achieve that same kind of success.

And then the downside of needing a lot of luck to be successful is that luck isn't ever really yours: you can wake up one day and it's gone. But hard work and talent and skill stay with you.

All that in mind just makes it that much harder to have the guts to pursue music at a career. We can agree that luck is an essential ingredient but the question is just how far can hard work and talent take you? Is it possible to survive in the industry off luck alone or hard work alone? Or are they both two necessary pieces to a puzzle that go hand in hand?

All that in mind just makes it that much harder to have the guts to pursue music at a career. We can agree that luck is an essential ingredient but the question is just how far can hard work and talent take you? Is it possible to survive in the industry off luck alone or hard work alone? Or are they both two necessary pieces to a puzzle that go hand in hand?

You need both, always, and I'm using hard work as a constant (you can control it) while luck is a variable (you can't control it). So the question is what ratio of luck to hard work is necessary for success. I'm saying that in the arts, you need a high ratio of luck to hard work. A higher ratio means it's harder to achieve and maintain success.

I really think this is a terrible way to think about pursuing production as a career. Thinking that you can't make a living off of it just because you're "unlucky" will only make it harder for you to get to where you want. Luck is only the accumulation of hard work and persistence. If there's a needle in a haystack, you're going to find it eventually, the only difference is how soon you find it. If you give up just because you couldn't find it in the first couple years, then there is a 0% chance you'll find it. Becoming successful in the music industry is mainly achieved by knowing the right people, there's just too much music for your music to stand out without shaking a few hands.

When people say "you make your own luck" this is kinda what they mean, but there's still the fact that when you're looking for a needle in a haystack, you might get *lucky* and find the needle lying right on top, while other people might only find it after they've sorted through 99% of the hay. Some people never find the needle. (And then a lot of people find the needle only to get stabbed in the trachea with it!)

So it's true that if you never try you are guaranteed to have NO luck, but it's not true that trying more will necessarily give you better luck than trying less. Again, I know this from observation of my various artist family members who are all very hard-working and talented but have had different levels of success. Luck is the primary differentiator.

As with discussions where people ignore the existence of "talent", it's good to find ways to encourage people, but it shouldn't require the acceptance of falsehoods as truths. As the saying goes, "knowledge is good."

Now, if you absolutely are going to go into an artistic field, being an EDM producer is a good bet right  now: it's an expanding and new genre with a lot of room to grow and a lot of demand, and the barriers to entry are low--all you really need is a decent computer and speakers. Even though it's harder without them, you don't need any music theory or instrumental ability. Producers tend to be solo acts, so you don't have to worry about "band chemistry" and all that other stuff. You don't have to buy and transport a lot of gear when you play shows. And with the internet now, all you have to do is upload your tracks to a website like this and you'll get instant feedback from professionals. So, the same amount of luck that might have helped you a little if you decided to be a classical violinist or painter or pro basketball player will take you a lot farther when you decide to be an EDM producer.