How old were producers when they started to ‘make it’? It was recently my own birthday, and I started to think about my own accomplishments. In hindsight, this was a terrible idea to try and compare myself once I started to dig (as a person who isn’t world famous by age 23). I thought it’d be interesting to see the ages of various producers. I’ve put together a short list of producers along with how old they were when their first album was released. The purpose to this was really just to see when some of these guys had seen success by a certain age. I was pretty surprised to see some of the results that surfaced in this collection on both sides of the bracket. There’s a lot of data readily available for these producers, and I thought it would be an interesting project to start compiling. There’s a huge data movement right now in many other industries from retail and financials, to the big boys in advertising. Decision-makers are starting to realize the importance of numbers regardless of your sector. We might as well see what conclusions we can draw from something simple in this corner of the music industry:
Age of Producers:
Deadmau5 – 32 (Jan 5, 1981)
“First” album: 24 years old
DJ Tiesto – 44 (Jan 17th, 1969)
“First” album: 32 years old
Avicii – 24 (Sept 8th, 2989)
“First” album: 23 years old
Paul Van Dyk – 41 (December 16th, 1971)
“First” album: 23 years old
Benny(Marco) Benassi – 46 (July 13th, 1967)
“First” album: 36 years old
Armin Van Buuren – 36 (December 25th 1976)
“First” album: 23 years old
Steve Aoki – 35 (November 30, 1977)
“First” album: 35
Ferry Corsten – 39 (December 4, 1973)
“First” album: 23 years old
ATB (André Tanneberger) – 40 (February 26, 1973)
“First” album: 26 years old
Afrojack – 25 (September 9, 1987)
“First” album: 23 years old
Markus Schulz – 38 (February 3, 1975)
“First” album: 30 years old
Calvin Harris – 29 (January 17, 1984)
“First” album: 23 years old
Edward Maya – 27 (June 29, 1986)
“First” album: 27 years old (TBA)
Basshunter – 28 (December 22, 2984)
“First” album: 22 years old
David Guetta – 45 (November 7, 1967)
“First” album: 35 years old
Paul Oakenfold – 50 (August 30, 1963)
“First” album: 39 years old
Daft Punk – 38 (Thomas Bangalter) (January 3, 1975)
– 39 (Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) (February 8, 1974)
“First” album: 25/26
Zedd – 24 (September 2, 1989)
“First” album: 23 years old
*Please note these are dates gathered from Wikipedia, and may not include time spent under different artist names/groups. These dates do not include the release of singles, mix albums, or other various contributions.
**There really isn’t enough information here to draw any type of conclusions, and there isn’t enough of a sample to use directionally. This also does not take into account anything other than date of birth and album releases, so keep that in mind as well.
So, what is interesting here?
There seems to be a theme here with an album being release at the age of 23 years. However, if you average out these ages, it’s normal to not have an album out until you’re about 27 years old. Don’t let this crush your dreams of course. Something else to think about as well (keep in mind the small data pool), there seems to be a correlation between the era a DJ was born, and the age at which they released their first official studio album. Older producers like Benassi, Oakenfold, and Tiesto were much older for their first studio album release than some of the current, younger guys out there. It’s nice to know you’re never too old to make it in the industry, and really goes to show that it never hurts to get started early.
The two factors here that really stand out to me would be technology and trends.
Technology is the big one here purely because it tears down the barriers of establishing your brand. It’s so much easier to reach your potential audience through social media, and to share your sound through tools like YouTube and SoundCloud. The other aspect of technology to think about, is the production process itself. It’s never been less expensive to get into music production. Granted, this leads to increased competition, but competition is good for growth. It’s what helps an industry push the boundaries instead of settling on what we can grasp.
Trends are the other major factor. The growth of electronic dance music has exploded. Even in the last 5 years, America has really grown to embrace this genre. It took a lot of pop remixes and some creative costumes to make this happen, but it’s becoming strong enough to be heard on terrestrial radio. Think about it, Deadmau5 was featured for the Video Music Awards in 2010. MTV puts on an annual event honoring the best in the industry, and an electronic artist was a staple for the entire event. Despite your feelings towards MTV, that’s still one giant leap for this brand.
On that note, happy belated birthday to Zedd, Avicii, and Afrojack. Make sure you have cards ready to send to Guetta.