At 20 years old ... If you're going to do it ... DO IT! RIGHT NOW! I'm 29 ... at 22 I had placements w/ Tech N9ne ... and some other very notable independent artists. In your personal life ... avoid or be very cautious with credit cards ... relationships ... making babies. Also take care of yourself (health wise) These are things that will hinder your creative growth ... IF YOU ALLOW THEM TO. And all those things are GREAT things ... BUT the truth is ... these are things that will "enslave" you to some degree. I would say time is of the essence for you. Start sacrificing ... RIGHT NOW ... eat ramen noodles ... live cheap ... save money. MONEY = TIME. So if you can live cheap and save money ... you'll have more time. In my opinion .. that's what it boils down to.
I mentioned my age and placements because I came to that VERY crossroad. I chose the easy way out. I did not sacrifice .. I did not take a risk ... I did not INVEST IN ME! The sky was the limit for me then ... I just didn't go after it. After plenty of confirmation that I was in the right lane.
7 years can fly by ... And to me .. each year FEELS faster than the one before.
I'm stronger and better than ever ... because for those 7 years ... I made productive use of my free time. And continued to fight. But when your free time is necessarily consumed with production. and your day job pays your mortgage, car payment, bills, credit card debt. There's not a lot of time to generate funds to invest in yourself.
YOU STAY IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE! Something drove you to get into this and stick with it up to now. ESPECIALLY as a producer ... You have something special tugging on you. Don't ignore it.
NOTE: I don't think producers are smarter than DJ's. I just think audio production is a MUCH deeper, MORE technical CRAFT.
I supplement my income by DJ'ing on the nights and weekends. I would suggest you do that to.
I may sound frantic and panicky ... but ... you are at an age where you can still create your own balance! And balance is key to everything.
Best of luck.
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