love this quote, thank you!
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At least you know how much time you had to devote to making music to get to these moments of luck. And how much expertise you had to develop to indentify them.
Patience is a skill and taste is unique to you.
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You have to get out of your mind sometimes (and probably more than your used to) and focus on practices.
Practice focusing on how you feel.
Practice creating.
Practice accepting compliments.
Practice making quickly, slowly.
etc
To answer your question:
how does one know that they’re good at making music?
It’s entirely subjective. That subjectivity will inform if something does “well” in the world, the cool thing is, everyone’s subjectivity can do this, even yours. The short answer is tell yourself you’re good, and find practices to believe it. It’ll get easier.
There is no one way for creation. It takes multiple forms, even in one output. Something can be great, and crap. Lucky and intentional.
Practice listening to your work, listening to others, and allowing yourself to move around, allow it to take what forms it needs to for those who want that form and for the time in which that form takes place.
Your sense of what it is will change too. Art, doesn’t live in a controlled vacuum, even if private work, kept away from the public, it transforms. It can be sometimes difficult to let it be what it wants to be.
Remember, whatever you may feel about your creative intentions, it wasn’t there before you made it. It didn’t exist. You put it there. How you got there has its value, but it’s not integral to its existence nor its value.
Even birth itself is wrapped up in desires, luck, pain, joy, sweat and tears, and that’s just at birth, let alone what comes in all those years after.
Practice less being the “artist” and more being an audience. It’ll get easier.
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There is no self, not really.
There is only world. 
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Keep an eye out… once this passes, look out for the next post like this and tell them what you learned from this growth period, and pay it forward
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I read a super motivating book Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles | Goodreads that really helped me get over my ego/fear/block of music making. I learned so much from this book about the mental aspects that prevent artists from creating. Can highly recommend.
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Read Advaita Vedanta.
The self and the world are one. There is no separation.
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I played Heros of the Storm for 4 years or so - i never was good at it, i played copper or silver league at most, i still kept doing it, because it was fun.
I dont have to be good at playing music, its just that its fun to me, the moment i gave up on beeing good and i decided i just make noise which i like, the fun was back, also i started to experiment again, which was the actual fun, which introduced me into electronic music, exploring what is possible.
Learning is often following recipies - when you start to cook up, and try to find new ways to do things, then the fun is there.
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“Music doesn’t have to be good”
- The Platform Five(5) Manifesto
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Impostor syndrome is a widespread problem in first world countries.
And for a long time.
Psychological studies from the 1980s estimate that two out of five successful people classify themselves as impostors. According to other studies, 70 percent of all people feel like impostors under certain circumstances or at certain times.
You pretty much nailed the description with your post, common typical symptoms are:
Imposter Cycle (Over-Preparation and Procrastination)
Perfectionism (Fear of Lacking)
Super-Heroism (Urge to better than the rest)
Atychiphobia (Fear of Failure)
Denial of Competence and Capability (self explanatory)
Achievemephobia (Fear of Success)
There are many reasons for this cognitive disorder in our modern times, but mainly
what other people already mentioned: the constant comparison and the fear of making mistakes.
Both of those things you have to experience and overcome to grow as an artist. I also suffer from many of those symptoms above and needed help, I took cognitive behavioral therapy sessions because of it.
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smart. I like this
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…ego is everywhere…and never ur best friend…
not getting any better in these days’ selfpromoting wonderland competition battle, where everybody is at least a dj…
always remember ur roots and first motivation, why o why u started all this…
was it for social status, for the attraction game…or for music itself?
if ur a truu artist, is not up to u to finally decide…but finding urself in struggles of asking urself that selfdoubting question is not such a bad indicator for getting a glimpse that u are, somehow, indeed, end of the day…
and always keep in mind…even the greatest dreamjob is nothing but a job…
meanwhile, everybody needs a mission…
and it’s never been that easy to produce music…style beats talent…style belongs to zeitgeist, while talent has no timeframe…
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Doesn’t matter a fuck, for one thing “happy accidents” have made many a artist famous/successful, for another the people who say this are oblivious and probably not even concerned about your process they are only commenting on the end result, and another luck and randomness don’t finish the track, work does.
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The ears that flock to streaming services are fickle, and largely unrefined, or at least disinterested in genuine exploration beyond the bounds of their existing sonic palette. It sounds like in your case, your listeners were maybe attracted to the tracks you made that were more explicitly derivative of other people’s work.
Now that you are breaking away from that and focusing on intentionality, and finding your listeners are drifting…I suppose I interpret that as a sign of growth, although it’s perfectly understandable to see how that would lead to your current existential crisis.
You may be entering a period where you don’t get the same kind of engagement you did before, and if it is indeed a mission as you say (and not the more direct path to pleasure many of us find in the journey itself when making the bleeps-bloops), you may just need to power through it with work and grit. Try hardest maybe to be your own audience. Try to make the music you want to hear. Be critical of yourself, but don’t beat yourself up.
It sounds though like your nature/goals in music-making require validation through the ears of others, which is perfectly natural when you are trying to produce art of value. Do you ever play live sets? You may find that getting your music out that way leads to a more authentic and deeper engagement with an audience.
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i’m good when i like what i’m done. that simple.
(and it’s not easy to satisfy me.)
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Firstly, thank you for naming my next album.
Now to give my answer - and I will ask in advance for your understanding @Ryan because I don’t want you to think I’m just being a d!ck…
Your music sucks, you are an imposter, any simple command prompt into an AI generator will yield far better music than you have ever produced or will ever produce.
You might as well sell your gear and play mindless video games for the rest of your life because what you are doing now is pointless, childish, and a total waste of time.
Now, if this is what I really thought… would it matter to you? Would what I say change anything about your experiences so far as a musician or producer or what you see yourself as? Having me sh!t all over your music like a pope in the woods - did it change anything from 5 minutes ago?
How about this… Your music is so totally awesome. You are gifted, a real musical genius. When I listen to your music I am transported to the farthest edges of the universe and wrapped in the wings of angles!
Did one response or the other really make or break your desire to make some rhythms and melodies?
I’m suspecting the true answer is no.
I’m really lucky when it comes to this music making. I was never a musician when I was younger. I was too busy skateboarding to give a sh!t about stuff like that. But much later in life I discovered DAW’s and synths and drum machines. It was really cool. I wanted to learn how to do it.
I’m still learning how to do it. Sometimes I learn something and I make a cool beat or song. Sometimes I fail. My goal is the same though - keep learning. I just have to try to get better to be a ‘success’. I don’t even have to actually get better, I just have to honestly try.
I say keep trying, really dig in and try harder than you ever have. Don’t stop to assess things, that’s going to wastes the precious little time you have left to try and improve your music. Don’t do that to yourself, don’t waste that valuable time anymore.
Keep trying.
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Speaking about imposter syndrome… This might be different, but I kind of always felt like this in life.
I have a decent somewhat creative job and a possibility to make quite a bit of money, but sometimes I feel like a dirty nasty quack with neither talent nor aspirations. Objectively, my road in life wasn’t always smooth and I was completely on my own most of the times, but yet it feels that somehow still I passed everything with flying colours, somehow nearly effortlessly, and ultimately, I didn’t really deserve the end result. I cheated and stole all the ripe fruit.
Worst of all, there’s always this stupid insecurity and doubt. Thinking that somebody will reveal my secret lack of talent, skill and will. I think that’s one of the main reasons why I have so much anxiety and gut problems.
When I self reflect, I think I was a rather spoiled child during my early teens because my parents felt I was somewhat gifted. I loved to draw and paint, and play, and sing and impress adults. And I was probably a tiny bit better than some of my peers. But now I am a man in my thirties, feeling a bit like poo.
Again, objectively, I understand (I think at least) that I probably learn things fast. That’s my only true gift. And then, deep down somewhere, I am probably a very capable and strong-willed man, but not gonna lie, most of the day, I feel like flatfish drifting convulsively somewhere at the coast with every ebb and flow.
And I’ll probably stay like this for a while. Until somebody figures me out and sends me to quack prison 
And my music is rubbish too. I don’t think I am able to do anything about it anytime soon though. I’ll just keep being the flatfish. 
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If you think it is good, it is good!
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Think about it.
There’s people out there that like having someone in stilletos stand on their gonads so much they’re willing to pay good money to have someone do it to them.
If that shit exists, there’s a crew out there for all of us. The trick is not to make your music perfect, it’s to find the group of perverts* who like it as it is.
*Not all your fans will be perverts.
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Hi @Fin25 !!!
I’m a big fan of your music.
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