No One Is Going to Care About Your Music Career (And Why That’s Not the Point)

The music business

Let’s get this out of the way first:

No one is going to care about your music career.

Not at first.
Not while you’re writing songs in your bedroom.
Not while you’re recording demos on modest gear.
Not while you’re playing to small crowds or posting songs that get a handful of listens.

People start caring when you make it big.
When you’re wealthy.
When you have a hit song.
When your name carries power in the industry.

And that alone should tell you something important about the culture we live in.

Fame First, Meaning Later (If Ever)

Modern society is obsessed with outcomes, not process. With visibility, not substance. With celebrity, not creation.

People don’t ask:

• How does making music make you feel?
• What does it unlock inside you?
• How does it shape your inner world?

They ask:

• Is it successful?
• Is it profitable?
• Is it impressive enough to validate?

If the answer is no, the art is dismissed.

But what many miss, especially those who’ve never tried to create anything deeply personal, is that the reward of being an artist isn’t approval. It’s expression.

The Nearly Impossible Path That Gives Everything Back

Choosing to be an artist, songwriter, or creative is choosing a nearly impossible route. It’s uncertain. It’s misunderstood. It rarely comes with immediate validation.

And yet, it gives something most people spend their entire lives searching for:

The ability to release what’s inside you.

Writing a song, painting a picture, shaping a story, or creating something that didn’t exist before is not just “productive”, it’s liberating. It’s a direct line between your inner world and the outer one.

That kind of expression has value that no amount of money can replace.

Dopamine Isn’t Just for Purchases

We live in a dopamine economy.

Buy something new.
Get a notification.
Chase a like.
Scroll endlessly.

But there’s a different kind of dopamine, one that’s slower, deeper, and far more satisfying.

Pick up a guitar and write a song that pulls something out of your chest you didn’t know how to say.
Finish a verse that finally makes sense of a feeling you’ve carried for years.
Create something honest and let it exist in the world.

That rush, the kind that comes from creation instead of consumption, is rare. And once you experience it, you realize how empty most substitutes are.

Imagine finding that kind of treasure in life.
There is nothing like it.

Why People Judge Artists (Especially Independent Ones)

If you’re an independent artist of any kind, you already know this part.

You will be judged.
You will be laughed at.
You will be told it’s unrealistic.
You will be told to “get serious.”

But here’s the part that often gets overlooked:

Those comments almost always come from people who never tried, or from people who never found the thing inside them that truly satisfies them.

And sometimes, your passion doesn’t just confuse people. It threatens them.

Seeing someone genuinely excited, fulfilled, and alive in what they’re doing can subconsciously offend someone who settled, silenced themselves, or gave up. Not because you’re wrong, but because you’re a mirror.

Success Isn’t the Point, Expression Is

Money fades.
Status shifts.
Fame comes and goes.

But the ability to express yourself, to turn emotion into sound, words, or form, is something that stays with you for life.

Art doesn’t need permission.
It doesn’t need mass approval.
It doesn’t need to be justified by charts or income.

It just needs to be made.

Carry On

So if you’re creating while no one’s watching, carry on.
If you’re releasing music that feels honest but unnoticed, carry on.
If you’re choosing expression over approval, carry on.

You’re not failing.
You’re doing something rare.

And long after the noise of fame, status, and dopamine shortcuts fades, the people who found a way to express what lived inside them will have already won, quietly, deeply, and completely.

Keep creating.