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Let's overanalyze our spending on musical equipment
I don't make money with my music, but I really (really!) like making music. When it come to buying things related to music, I always want to buy the "pro" stuff even though I'm an amateur. It's not that I am a pro, it's that I have fancy taste and I know what is good and why because I'm extremly curious when it comes to musical gear.
But I don't know which part of my budget should I spend on music.
I don't want any tips to teach me how to spend my money, but I'm curious to read your thought process about this: how do you make your budget related to musical instrument? Do you have a budget?
I heard so many youtubers said "investment" when it comes to musical gear. For me, it's a spending since I'm not making any $ with my creation. It's an investment if you make money with this but I'm sure it's a minority of people.
It makes me think that I bought 2 guitars 2 years ago for $1000 and $1200 and now the same guitar are worth $3000 in total so yeah, if you are lucky it may be an investment (#priceofwoodskyrocketlyhigh)
The Keystep 37 was 229$ a couple of month ago in Canada and now it's 259$. It's a big raise.
Comments
I always vet thoroughly every piece of hardware I buy. The taste side of it is usually the easy part. I only regret purchases where I thought I could cut cost by choosing something cheaper and believing the marketing bs... + we all justify our reasoning once the purchase is made...
So, I don’t think that’s what ‘they’ mean by investment... imo it’s more about ‘you will end up spending way more over the years’ / ‘spend more time looking than using’
In that regard pro or not makes small difference... pro has to rely on it to make money, so it’s usually a straightforward decision, but an amateur wants to enjoy the process just as much, though harder to justify... I rather save for another month or year if it’s something important to me.
In your example, you could have convinced yourself that a 200 guitar will do the job, then spend a year struggling with tuning and tone, buying another one for 400, enjoying it a bit more but still not quite there and ending up on the same guitar you’ve enjoyed for the past 2 years... spending more money and time... I’m guessing you’re enjoying it not because it was ‘expensive’ but because it does what you’d expect.
I bought a lot of apps during my first couple years of iPad musical explorations.
Today, I feel I have a better understanding of what I'm into, and that is experimenting with sound design. I also play almost every day, and the sounds I create through experimenting inspire what I play.
So, I've changed from buying every new App that looks cool, to looking for new Apps that I can use in my sound design experiments.
My disposable income budget is tight, and I'm way more selective about making purchases than I used to be.
The biggest expense ever for me was a piano, probably followed by various guitars and an alto sax. Apps have been peanuts in comparison.
Whenever I go to buy big music things I think ‘OMG I am spending way too much on this hobby, I am crazy!’. Then when I see the actual dates of when I bought past things I realize it has been way longer than I thought so I tell myself, ‘Relax and just buy it already, enough damn whinging, you deserve it Gus!’. The mrs thinks I am nuts and just tells me to buy it too.
i spend on whatever it is i need, i upgrade my studio every few years as my workflow or space evolves. I also do music for a living, so its an investment.
I think these days there's a lot of parity when it comes to the music tools we use. You can often achieve the same results with budget gear that you can with pro gear.
BUT!
For a lot of people investing more money into something can be the thing that helps them continue to take it seriously and want to learn how to use it more. It makes it more fun, and they commit more to to it because they know how much went into getting the funds to even make the purchase.
So for me it's usually less about "is this worth the price in terms of the features I get?" and more about "will this push me to really use this all the time to make art that I enjoy?" WE define what is valuable to us, not the price tag or what other's think, so I don't worry about that too much.
For most of my life, I was tight with money, because money was tight. But this extended to always buying the cheapest, second rate stuff, food, tools, - musical gear - anything, even if on occasion, I could have got something better. I lack talent and ability, and the noises I make are only ever for my own amusement and ego. I know this.
Then, a few years ago, a very dear friend, younger than me, with a young family, was cut down by an aggressive cancer. It seems trite, maybe, but this death, the first in my life that had really touched me, made me truly understand that we are all here for such a brief and uncertain time.
Since then, I have retired, there is Covid, and the world turns ever darker. I have some health issues now, small reminders - so far - of my own mortality.
I have no family to leave anything to, and I am fortunate in having a small but adequate pension to live off. The noises I make give my remaining days focus and pleasure, and I have made arrangements upon my own death for all my musical equipment to be donated to a local youth music studio.
So really, I am just borrowing the stuff I buy now, the best stuff, the good stuff. I am making sandcastles on the beach, but that tide is surely coming in, and the sun is going down.
I’ll play while I can, before the water reaches me, before the darkness comes. With a really, really good bucket and spade though.
And that’s ok.
How much time and pleasure will it bring you? If it’s a lot of hours of enjoyment it’s worth it.
I stay away from free apps (except GarageBand, which wasn't free when I got it and ZenBeats) unless the app is exceptionally well designed. Free apps from devs who also sell paid apps or IAPs or from large companies with a track record of managing successful apps with a promising future (eg: Steinberg, Roland, Algoriddim) are fine. Not sure for how long free apps can sustain - the dev still has to pay Apple annual subscription of $99. If the free (or even the paid) app gets abandoned, what would happen to all our projects made using it? I prefer easy-to-use tools that let me FOCUS on doing the task.
I don’t buy gear as an investment and don’t expect it to appreciate in value. I tend to work a few months of overtime every year and during that time I often splurge on an app or two (or three) a week. As for hardware I seem to treat myself to one item per year…. So for the last few years… a Neutron, Minilogue XD, a Sensel Morph, and Hydrasynth. Thinking next up is an Iconnectivity audio4c and if I sell some gear then I will get a Deepmind 12. Wishing there was some super cool new hardware sampler because that is where my heart lies, but alas none that catch my fancy.
Nicely put 🤗 Let’s hope it’s a while yet.
Thumbs up!
Beautiful sentiments @Svetlovska
This post resonate with me, thank a lot for sharing.
Perhaps it’s an investment into one’s mental health?
I am not a pro when it comes to electronic music but even in my music earning part of life I seek for functional rather than ‘best’ premium solutions.
Evaluating what is good enough for the job set against me actually using it productively as opposed to having a new toy is an important consideration. There’s not much point in getting new gear if I’m not actually properly using it, although retail therapy factor shouldn’t be underestimated.
As software goes, since getting DrAmbo I had a very limited desire to purchase in order to combat a low creative tide…and when a tide is high I sure know where to go.
I started to get interested in gear when I was a student with almost no spare cash. I bought a piece of gear and thought long and hard about it and sold it again with minimal loss and repeated the process. But the next time I had the little spare cash plus the money I got from selling it. So I could afford a more expensive unit to try. Over the time I tested so many things and I’m confident right now that I know exactly what I want and need. I think I built a very compact, reasonable and flexible setup that will not age, does reliably what it’s supposed to do, does not take up much space and all without breaking the bank.
And… buying a used iPad Pro was one of my single best decisions in this space ever. That being said, I go pro if I need the pro function. It isn’t worth it to me to buy an iPad Air instead of a pro. Likewise it’s necessary for me to buy a pro midi controller, because cheaper ones do not do, what the expensive one can do for my system as a whole.
I want to +1 on this. I find it very disturbing to see so much overpriced plastic devices in the market right now..
People want to buy the cheapest thing always.
So, if you make premium midi controller with wood and metal, you will have to sell it for more than those in plastic.
I think there is a lot of people who put to much emphasis on the price so it's difficult to compete against plastic.
Plastic make us forget how much things cost.
That is a good point, but you can always freeze the audio, or record that section. There’s some great free apps out there, and we don’t know each developers situation, maybe they have lots of money and just do it as a hobby.
I think it’s question of value vs. affordability. If someone sees the value in something they will spend a little more vs. what is affordable to each individual.
Everything I purchase apps, groceries, everything, is individually weighed on my internal value vs affordability scale. Sometimes it’s worth it to me to spend a little extra if I see or know the value in that item is there. Other times it’s an issue of affordability, what I can and can’t afford. Every purchase is different, and sometimes for example the generic “Rice Krispies” or whatever are just as good as the name brand. I used to be in sales so this is in a nut shell, how people buy and sell things. The only other main factor is trust. Wether one trusts the brand, company, etc… or not.
3 main objections (reasons they don’t purchase) that buyers have are value, affordability, trust. And almost every reason given not to buy, can surprisingly fall into one of these 3 categories. Either they don’t see or know or care about the value, they can’t afford it, or they don’t trust the company, service, product, etc…
I know that I'm definitely overcompensating sometimes from when I was a younger guy without any musical equipment and parents actively against me pursuing the hobby. So when I started making a decent living, I was buying any random gear I wanted, wasting money/time on gimmicks, never learning how to use any of the good stuff it to it's fullest, spending more time troubleshooting than making music. I also moved around a bit and sold stuff while I lived simply, which was always my most productive time as I had less to fiddle with.
I think that's why I love iOS music making so much. It lets me indulge in a little splurge here or there without spending tons on random noise boxes or keyboards (or keytars
). I make way more music now and can enjoy a new app or noise maker here and there and not feel like I absolutely have to learn it because it's only $5-10 instead of $400-600.
My next "big" music purchase planned are some ~$100 speakers for my new apartment.
What I really like about iPad production is how much the Plattform offers right out of the box. It is small, Mobil, extremely flexible and powerful. My iPad Pro is a multitrack mixer, multitrack recorder, multi effect, instrument, sequencer, looper and mastering tool. I can record right in here without any additional cables, boxes, cash etc.
I am aware that you would most likely choose something different for professional use but for a hobbiest it’s a no brainer. Also there is this very weird market situation with iOS right now, that prices cannot be as high as on Mac / win but demand exists. So we get so much on heavy discount right now it is ridiculous.
Marketing is a science these days - an immoral one that purposefully bypasses our rational defences, manipulates our wants and loosens our purse strings. They are not playing fair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing#Manipulation
Be mindful of where you put your attention, folks.
Watch out for that YouTube side bar.
BTW - wood and metal MIDI controllers are here, if anyone was looking:
https://shop.synthesizers.com/collections/keyboards
(I don't have one because OB-6, because nice things are good.)
Also, I likely wouldn't have an iPad if it weren't so multi-purpose. Music production, drawing/animation, photo editing, video editing, streaming, facetime, book reading, social media, and web browsing.
“ Let's overanalyze our spending on musical equipment”.
Let’s not!! 😂
Right? I was pretty much satisfied with my current setup until I saw the new Ibanez QX guitars...
I just had to google it…. God damn….
And I can justify it because while I am not a metal shredder guy, I am in my fifties and occasionally deal with some pain in my wrists and fingers. The light weight and ergonomics of this axe would hopefully mean more and longer playing time, both in terms of minutes of a day and days over the years. (Plus the Wife said "Go for it")