Thanks Susie. I've been making electronic music on-and-off for many years, though I haven't done much in recent years because I've been busy with other things and got out of the habit.
That particula piece was created using software called Reason, which I bought about 8 years ago. It's essentially an entire electronic music studio in software form, with loads of different synthesizers, drum machines, and effects units, plus a mixer. And I have a MIDI keyboard I connect to my computer, so I can play stuff in on the keyboard and then edit and arrange the notes on the screen.
If you want something with a funky feel (but still melodic), you might like this one:
https://soundcloud.com/laughingatthesky/dance-of-the-dream-cave
If you want something more high energy and dancey, you might like this:
https://soundcloud.com/laughingatthesky/chasing-the-rainbow
If you know anything about music, you might notice that my pieces tend to be full of key changes. That seemed to become my thing. I suppose I just like the effect that key changes give. In fact, I came up with this formula that if you're in E minor, it's great to go up 3 semitones or down 2 semitones, or both up and down 5 semitones. That just always seemed to work well.
With Upwork, I increased my rate a few months ago from $20 per 1,000 words to $30. My regular client agreed to that, so that's what she pays me now.
My new client I charge $20 per hour. But that includes any meetings I have with him (most days he likes to have a meeting with me to talk through things). It all goes on the timesheet. So, if I spend 5 hours in a day working on his stuff, that's $100, of which I will get $76. It's still not loads, but it's okay. But this is why I want to keep doing online courses. When I pass them, I can list them on my Upwork profile, and hopefully start to charge more money in the future.
On Medium, I earned $56.63 in December. I've published over 550 articles here. So, the decision is made for me. My Upwwork clients value my time more than Medium does.
I have a problem with the unknown aspect of Medium. The deal is: we can write what we want, and it may or may not earn much money. There are no guarrantees, so Medium can always turn around to us and say, "We never promised you would earn loads of money."
But Medium must know what does well and what doesn't. They have the data. They could tell us what topics to write about, and if our articles get approved by their editing staff, they could guarrantee to pay us a certain amount. But they probably won't do that because that commits them. It's more convenient for them if they just keep things vague, with no promises. Then all the risk is on us, not them.
Of course, it's not for me to say what you should do, Susie. But I suppose it's a case of asking yourself why you're here. If you enjoy writing Medium articles and don't particularly need the money, maybe there's no problem. But if you're always hoping that one day you might earn more, it's worth asking yourself how realistic that is. How long have you been here? Nearly two years? And in that time, Medium has changed CEO, sacked a buch of staff, and been messing about with the algorithm, etc. At what point do you draw the line? Or are you happy to just go on indefinitely?
It's kind of like being in a relationship where you're always hoping that the other person will eventually become who you want them to be. At what point do you decide to either accept how things are or move on to find someone better?
