Most producers I talk to have hundreds of unfinished projects on their hard drive. Ideas that started with excitement, but never made it past the drop or arrangement. You know that feeling, the first 30 minutes fly by, the loop sounds great, and then… it dies.
It’s not because you’re lazy. It’s because starting is easy. Finishing takes discipline.
During ADE week, Jay Hardway and I talked about this exact thing on the podcast. He mentioned something Axwell once said:
“You can only judge a track when it’s finished.”
And he’s right.
You don’t really know if an idea is good until you take it all the way. A melody on its own means nothing; the full picture does.
Finishing tracks isn’t just about releasing music. It’s about training a muscle.
Every time you push through the boring middle part, the mixing, the small tweaks, the endless rendering, you’re building creative endurance. You’re teaching yourself to stay consistent, to stay patient, to close the loop.
That’s how careers are built. Not from one hit, but from hundreds of finished tracks that no one ever heard, each one sharpening your skill.
If you struggle to finish, try this:
- Set deadlines. Give yourself a date and stick to it. No one’s coming to rescue your project.
- Work in sprints. 30 minutes of new ideas every day. Then pick the best one to finish each week.
- Don’t judge early. Wait until the track is done before deciding if it’s good.
- Finish, even if it sucks. You’ll learn something from every track you close.
The real growth happens between “this is fun” and “this is done.”
That’s where you become an artist, not just a producer.