**Guest post written by Cássio from CS Discos.

"For the first time since 2008, I decided it was time to take a break from music. No more producing, playing, posting, recording, or any activity related to creativity. That decision came along with a detox from social media, and the reason why these two events are related is the portrait of what many people in the music industry have been experiencing.

In this age, making music is not nearly enough, in contrast with earlier times, when making good music until a producer liked it was the most common path. Saturation in the market and the breaking of the barrier to publishing a music catalog created a market in which the majority of content is never seen. With roughly 100,000 tracks being uploaded daily on Spotify, the offer is exponentially higher than the demand.
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We can, however, see some musicians and content creators making it to success with little to no effort. Because we don’t see the smashing majority of people who don’t succeed, we have the feeling that this should be an easy accomplishment. That’s where social media comes in: their algorithms are optimized to hook your attention. It’s not interesting for them that you know that you probably won’t make it. They need you to believe that you will.

This misplaced optimism makes many musicians dive into a never-ending process: figuring out the algorithm, aiming to reach as many people as possible. Many hours are spent consuming content on social media by people who are doing well, so the key points can be recreated. Making art for the sake of making art takes the backseat while figuring out human psychology to boost numbers is the main driving force.
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The burnout starts taking place when the inevitable comparison happens. The initial excitement, along with all the hours and mental energy invested, is replaced with frustration. That’s when the strategy asks for an adjustment – more content on social media is consumed, more dopamine is released, and this becomes a highly addictive endless cycle. The more is consumed, the stronger the feeling that you’re not making the right things.

The reason why it’s so hard to get out of this cycle is that we can never stop seeing people becoming viral very easily. There are always rabbits to chase, and they will never stop coming.

I went through all these phases, until my stress levels were too high to ignore, which is why I stopped. I noticed many things happening in my brain right after uninstalling all social media apps from my phone, and after quitting all activities related to music.
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More time: The days started feeling longer, as I wasn’t spending hours consuming and producing content for social media.

Focus: My ability to sit down and have moments of highly focused work increased, allowing me to get more impactful tasks done.

Connections: I felt more compelled to connect with real people close to me. My focus turned to organic networking, making me discover groups of people interested in self-development and teamwork.

While quitting social media and the chase to be successful in music sounds simple, the lifestyle of most humans is optimized to keep everyone from freeing their minds. Attention and focus are the most valuable currencies nowadays, and our environment is built to make sure we have no control over this asset.

I have personally developed strategies to make sure my attention is not getting stolen, freeing up my mind to focus on meaningful activities. To keep this conversation going, I am creating an online community for musicians struggling with high-stress levels due to social media toxicity. The idea is to share experiences, coping mechanisms, struggles, and just to be there for each other.

If you wanna be part of this, please sign up HERE and we’ll talk to you soon."

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CS Discos is a professional record label dedicated to supporting independent artists. Since 2015, the label offers a platform for low-budget artists to showcase their music with industry-standard production quality. It focuses on providing affordable, high-quality production services. The label fosters inclusivity, nurturing a collaborative, diverse artist community. CS Discos aims to spotlight independent artists globally while promoting industry-wide creativity, collaboration, and fairness.