Your first release will be bad. Not broken beyond repair, not embarrassing, or a mistake you should hide from. It will be “bad” in the simplest and most inevitable way: unfinished by experience. Your newness is not a weakness, it’s a learning opportunity.
Being new in the music industry means you’ll have to endure the “humiliation ritual” of releasing sub-par work in the beginning. Don’t let this be something you fear. Expect it. It’s a cannon event.
Every caliber artist starts small with half-baked early versions of their work. Eventually, that work turns into a portfolio of something they’re proud of. For now, as you get the ball rolling on your music career, enjoy the ride. Make bad art, and eventually it’ll be good.
Where Every Career Actually Begins
When you start creating, it’s usually with a clear vision. You know what the final product should sound like and the standard you admire. But as a new artist, what you do not yet have is the lived experience of turning your vision into a working release.
Your first release will expose the gap between your intention and ability to execute. It won’t sound exactly like you want unless you’re working with an engineer and producer in a professional studio. Don’t take it as a sign of failure; this is you making your work visible. And that’s where every music career begins.
Imperfection Is Not the Problem
The problem is believing that imperfection means you’re not ready. Imperfection is how you learn. A first release that feels rough is doing its job. It shows you where your workflows strain and how you can sound better.
Without a crappy first release, improvement is theoretical. Bad releases help you measure your growth as an artist over time.
Turn Guesswork Into Direction
Before you release a song, everything might feel equally important. You may tweak it for hours thinking you have your priorities straight. But after release, your next priorities reveal themselves. Instead of guessing how to make your music sound better, you can take concrete notes on things to improve in future tracks.
Learning from early releases, your strengths also become obvious. This is how the work starts teaching you how to evolve. The first release does not answer every question, but it answers the only one that matters early on: what should happen next to improve?
Waiting Feels Safe but Isn’t
Delaying a release often seems like a good idea. It looks like discipline. But in practice, it usually leads to stagnation. The longer you wait to release music, the heavier it becomes. It starts to feel monumental to your journey, like a statement of your ability, when it’s actually just a small step to building your portfolio.
Waiting to release adds pressure that makes shipping harder. Momentum and confidence fade. A learning moment is ruined (or at least postponed) due to prolonged hesitation.
Releasing early breaks that cycle. It replaces pressure with progress. Release your music, don’t sit on it too long, and start building.
Building Is an Ongoing Conversation
First releases can’t be expected to bring you a moment of brilliance. Brilliance comes from the long-term conversation you start that shows your intention, execution, and response to listeners. Releasing music helps you open that conversation.
Over time, what once felt like “bad” music becomes a foundation for something strong, cohesive, and intentional. Your early releases will show you who you want to become and how much you’ve grown as an artist, eventually.
Real music careers are built deliberately, step by step. Your first releases will help you make future releases that meet your standards. And soon, your standards for your music will rise. That’s the point. Growth changes your perspective.
For now, release the best music you can, but don’t wait to do it. Make your music visible and learn from it to sound better.
The first release is the beginning of your journey.
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