A producer and songwriter with more than two decades of experience, who began recording on 2-inch tape and floppy disks and now works with digital audio workstations (DAWs), plugins, Virtual Studio Technology (VST) instruments, and AI tools, observes that the hardest part of music creation has never changed: knowing if a song is actually good.
The key, according to this veteran, is self-awareness: the ability to step outside one’s own head and judge a track as a random listener would, not as the ego wants to. Without it, artists tend to overrate their work. Beginners almost always believe their early songs are hits, when statistically they are not. Emotional attachment after hours of production clouds judgment, making every chord and mix sound flawless.
The Self-Awareness Gap
Self-awareness is not just a skill; it is a personality trait that separates artists with top-notch music from those with merely okay tracks. The producer recalls that his first songs were “terrible,” yet he genuinely thought they belonged on the charts. It took years to develop honest self-assessment. The moment an artist finishes a track and feels a rush of excitement is precisely when self-awareness must intervene, prompting a cold interrogation: Is the chorus boring? Are the vocals strong enough, or just familiar? How does the mix and master hold up? Is the melody truly sticky, or only after 400 listens?
Testing Against References
One practical method is A/B comparison with commercially successful songs in the same genre and sub-genre. Producers, mixing engineers, and mastering engineers routinely do this, but songwriters can benefit equally. By switching between a reference track and one’s own, an artist can hear where their work suddenly feels small, flat, or amateur. The lessons are embedded in other people’s records, available for free.
The Cold Listen Exercise
A more advanced technique is to pretend the song is not yours. Shut your eyes, imagine an unknown artist just hit play, and kill all attachment. Forget the late nights and the pride in a clever transition. Listen cold. When this is mastered, weak bars, lazy second verses, and hooks that fail to hook become glaringly obvious. The producer notes that once he developed this ability, his songs improved dramatically.
Seeking Qualified Feedback
External feedback is essential, but the source must be chosen carefully. A parent or neighbor will offer kindness, not useful critique. A documentary featuring Lewis Capaldi showed his mother giving him poor advice on a new song in their kitchen; for a young artist lacking confidence, such well-meaning but uninformed input can be more confusing than silence. Instead, seek out a producer, an engineer, or another artist further along in their career. When ready to test music beyond a personal circle, research music promotion services suited to the genre, budget, and career stage. That kind of targeted feedback is worth far more than empty praise.
Timing Career Moves
Knowing if a song is good is one skill; knowing where one stands in a career is another, and both stem from the same self-awareness. If a second single is drawing only a trickle of streams, that is not the moment to contact Universal Music Group. One Submit, a music submission platform, reports receiving frequent emails from artists asking to submit music directly to Universal Records. Major labels will find an artist when the numbers and timing align. The same honesty applied to a track should be applied to the plan: build until the data supports a push, then act.
Until then, you build.
