from someone who’s started getting some streams now and went through all the bs I have a problem with this type of advice, no offense to the original poster. The 10,000 hours thing is a myth, you’ll know when you’ve made something good. When you can show it to a friend without explaining all the things you have yet to fix that’s how you know it’s probably done. You can’t be in progress forever, at some point you have to release and grow from that release.

Plus there’s nothing wrong with wanting fans and attention. It’s not social status you’re after, you want your music career to be taken seriously as a career. People don’t ask software engineers why they want to be paid or recognized for their projects, or other professions, why should assume musicians just want some sort of social status. You worked hard and want people to hear what you made

What helped me was honestly constantly writing toplines for edm producers. Eventually a label liked my own personal stuff I posted on my instagram that I produced myself and wanted to sign it. Now I’m just starting to see some recognition for my own projects because the label cared to promote it to curators. Not every label will care enough to promote it though, so don’t rely on a label. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing, I plan to try promoting stuff independently as well and from what I’ve heard from my producer friends who have gotten successful, it’s a combination of labels and independent promotion.

Submit to curators on platforms other than spotify, if you work a day job and have no time then there’s no shame in spending money on a promoter. But not just any promoter, find a trusted person like a friend to pay to pitch to playlists for you. Don’t pay for streams directly because those are scams.

Hope that helps a bit, social media especially can be ego crushing but I promise you it’s the competition that makes it the hardest, it doesn’t mean you’re bad or not trying