#202: I Gamified My Music Production - It Changed Everything

Ever wondered if you're tracking the right metrics in your music production journey? That nagging question—"Am I measuring what truly drives growth or just staying busy?"—led me to create something that transformed my creative process completely.

In this episode of Inside the Mix, I introduce the Producer Growth Scorecard—a free, gamified tool designed to help you track what actually moves the needle in your music career.

Whether you're trying to release a new track every six weeks or just break through creative ruts, this system helps you focus on the right production habits. Each task—like finishing a loop, mixing a track, or releasing a single—earns points toward a weekly goal. The target? 40 points per week. Simple, measurable, and motivating.

We’ll dive into how the scorecard works, how it ties your day-to-day activity to long-term output, and why it’s helping producers worldwide stay consistent and finish more music.

If you’ve ever asked, “How do I stay productive as a music producer?” or “What should I track to grow as an indie artist?”—this is the episode for you

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Episode Transcript

Marc Matthews (00:00):
I've nailed my six-week release cadence.
But here's the real question AmI tracking what truly drives
growth as a producer, or juststaying busy?
And, more importantly, what amI actually using to track my
progress?
You're listening to the Insidethe Mix podcast with your host,
mark Matthews.
Welcome to Inside the Mix, yourgo-to podcast for music

(00:21):
creation and production.
Whether you're crafting yourfirst track or refining your
mixing skills, join me each weekfor expert interviews,
practical tutorials and insightsto help you level up your music
and smash it in the musicindustry.
Let's dive in.
Hey folks, welcome to Insidethe Mix.
Now, if you listened to episode200, you will be aware that I've

(00:43):
been sharing my journey to10,000 monthly Spotify listeners
and I've been sharing what'sworked well, what hasn't worked
well, my reflections and how I'mevolving my strategy over time.
But in this episode, I'mzooming in on how I measure
progress over time.
So this is all about tracking.
If you're a longtime listenerof the podcast, you will

(01:03):
probably know very well that Ilove to track things and I do it
outside of music production aswell, because it's all about
maintaining consistency and it'simportant to track the right
things, and that is why Icreated the Producer Growth
Scorecard which, again, ifyou're a long-time listener of
the podcast, you probably wouldhave heard me mention before.
Whether you're stuck in acreative rut or you just cannot

(01:26):
seem to move that needle, thiscreative framework, this
producer growth scorecard, willprovide you with the clarity
momentum and identify measurableimprovement.
Now we haven't gone through theproducer growth scorecard yet,
but the best part it's entirelyfree.
I like to give all this stuffaway for free.
You can click the link in theepisode's description and you
can grab your copy of thescorecard and start tracking

(01:48):
your results and make ameaningful impact.
Now, if you want to learn moreabout tracking and, in
particular, how work expands tofill time and why deadlines are
important, then check outepisode 151 with Travis Ference,
where we discuss Parkinson'slaw.
I'm going to describe theproducer growth scorecard to you
.
So it is a Google sheet whenyou get a link to it.

(02:09):
So click that link in theepisode description.
You will then need to make acopy and there is a link to
watch a video to go into moredepth and how to use it, but
I'll briefly describe it to you.
There are three sheets in hereWeek template, so you've got
action taken and it ranges froma new album release, create an
eight bar loop, complete a finalmix, create a door production

(02:31):
template, and each one has apoints value attributed to it,
ranging from sort of one pointfor receive feedback on a work
in progress to five pointspractice a new songwriting
technique, and you then, justwhen you complete that task on a
given day, you write in thevalue and then the idea is over
time, you will build up pointsover time and you'll get a total

(02:55):
.
Generally, I aim for 40, atleast 40 points in a given week,
and in doing so, you'regamifying your music production.
Now, when you get your copy ofthis, you can change all these
actions.
These are the ones that I'vejust put in and these are from
discussions with existing usersof the scorecard.

(03:16):
So there's hundreds of peopleusing this now, which is amazing
because it's been around for acouple years and there is a
previous podcast episode on it,but I wanted to revisit it.
And again, as I always say withthis, this is conversational.
So if you're watching this onYouTube, in the comments, let me
know how you've altered this,if you've got your version of it
.
Alternatively, you can DM me atInsideTheMixPodcast and let me

(03:39):
know how it could be improved.
It's a work in progress and I'mcontinuing iterations of it
over time.
But basically, yeah, you'regamifying it.
And again, watch the video.
There's a link in the scorecard.
You can watch the video and itgoes into more detail.
But we're gamifying our musicproduction.
We're attributing points totasks, the idea being we want to
get above 40 in a given week.
That's sort of the benchmark Iwould go with.

(04:00):
Some of these tasks might notbe applicable to you and again,
you can change them to make themapplicable.
There is an example week inhere and in this example week
I've got 46 points from a rangeof tasks, from creating an
eight-bar loop, songwritinggreater than 30 minutes, create
a door production template.
Some of these are one-off tasksas well, folks.

(04:21):
So some of these you'll only doonce favorite your favorite
presets.
So maybe I need to rewrite that.
Favorite your favorite presets.
Maybe I'll put star yourfavorite presets or save or
something on those lines.
That's a big one.
Just I do that.
I've recently got serum 2 andI've gone through it and I've
listened to all the patches inthere, the presets, rather,
rather, and I've starred theones that I really like.
It just means I can hit theground running when I want to

(04:44):
find a bass sound, but littletasks like that gamify your
music production and this hasreally helped me continue that
songwriting, that releasecadence of six weeks.
Again, some of these tasks I'mnot going to do every week but
some of them I will likesongwriting greater than 30
minutes.
You know, one of these newsingle b-side single again

(05:07):
probably need to rewrite thatone, so maybe I'll rewrite some
of these in between recordingthis and it going live.
And then what we have is theprogress tracker.
This is the third sheet andbasically in here I've got it
set from cycles 1 to 12.
So with the week template youwill need to create weeks 1, 2,
3, 4, weeks 1, 2, 3, 4.

(05:28):
So you need to right click,copy that particular duplicate,
that week template, that sheet,and then what you're going to do
is at the end of each 28 daycycle so four, sevens you're
going to total up the producergrowth scorecard point total.
So you're going to add weeksone, two, three and four
together.
So in theory it'll be above 160points and then you'll see a

(05:49):
graph over time.
The idea is then there is a incolumn c, you've got producer
releases for that 28 day cycle.
So, the idea being you can sortof make a number of how many
songs you're releasing and trackit against the points value and
see if there's a correlationbetween more points and more
songs released, basically or itmight be the other way and then
you've got a graph, so thatgraph will update and populate

(06:10):
as you enter data into thisparticular sheet.
And then you've got top singleday point total, top seven day
point total and top 28 day pointtotal as well, so you can track
your best days, weeks andmonths, 28 day cycles.
And then there are targets.
I've got four targets in here.
Usually I probably go with onlythree, but I've got four
examples create at least threeeight bar loops per week and

(06:33):
another one.
Release one ep, and you canchange these goals.
I'd probably go with three, tobe honest, but I've given you
four just to get you started.
And that's it, folks.
That is the producer growthscorecard.
So it's quite a short episode.
What I really want you to do isclick the link in the episode
description, get your copy ofthe scorecard, watch the
detailed video that goes with itand just implement it.
It won't take you long to startusing it and start gamifying

(06:56):
your music production and seeingif there's a correlation
between score and releases overtime and see how you get on.
So again, click that link inthe episode description and I
will send you a link to get yourown copy of the Producer Growth
Scorecard.
And once you've got it up andrunning, please do DM me at
InsideTheMixPodcast or leave acomment on YouTube if you're

(07:16):
watching this on YouTube, as I'dlove to hear what tools,
techniques and tactics tracking,maybe tactics you are using to
stay sharp with your musicproduction.
Until next time, stay inspired,stay focused and keep
experimenting inside the mix.