#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

Links mentioned in this episode: 

Grab your FREE Producer Growth Scorecard

Transcript

Marc Matthews 0:00

I've nailed my six-week release cadence . But here's the real question Am I tracking what truly drives growth as a producer , or just staying busy ? And , more importantly , what am I actually using to track my progress ? You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host , mark Matthews . Welcome to Inside the Mix , your go-to podcast for music creation and production . Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills , join me each week for expert interviews , practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry .

Are You Tracking the Right Music Growth Metrics?

Marc Matthews 0:37

Let's dive in . Hey folks , welcome to Inside the Mix .

Marc Matthews 0:40

Now , if you listened to episode 200 , you will be aware that I've been sharing my journey to 10,000 monthly Spotify listeners and I've been sharing what's worked well , what hasn't worked well , my reflections and how I'm evolving my strategy over time . But in this episode , I'm zooming in on how I measure progress over time . So this is all about tracking . If you're a longtime listener of the podcast , you will probably know very well that I love to track things and I do it outside of music production as well , because it's all about maintaining consistency and it's important to track the right things , and that is why I created the Producer Growth Scorecard which , again , if you're a long-time listener of the podcast , you probably would have heard me mention before . Whether you're stuck in a creative rut or you just cannot seem to move that needle , this creative framework , this producer growth scorecard , will provide you with the

What Is the Producer Growth Scorecard?

Marc Matthews 1:32

clarity momentum and identify measurable improvement . Now we haven't gone through the producer growth scorecard yet , but the best part it's entirely free . I like to give all this stuff away for free . You can click the link in the episode's description and you can grab your copy of the scorecard and start tracking your results and make a meaningful impact . Now , if you want to learn more about tracking and , in particular , how work expands to fill time and why deadlines are important , then check out episode 151 with Travis Ference , where we discuss Parkinson's law .

Marc Matthews 2:03

I'm going to describe the producer growth scorecard to you . So it is a Google sheet when you get a link to it . So click that link in the episode description . You will then need to make a copy and there is a link to watch a video to go into more depth and how to use it , but I'll briefly describe it to you . There are three sheets in here Week template , so you've got action taken and it ranges from a new album release , create an eight bar loop , complete a final mix , create a door production template , and each one has a points value attributed to it , ranging from sort of one point for receive feedback on a work in progress to five points practice a new songwriting technique ,

How the Scorecard Works: Points, Goals & Workflow

Marc Matthews 2:44

and you then , just when you complete that task on a given day , you write in the value and then the idea is over time , you will build up points over time and you'll get a total .

Marc Matthews 2:55

Generally , I aim for 40 , at least 40 points in a given week , and in doing so , you're gamifying your music production . Now , when you get your copy of this , you can change all these actions . These are the ones that I've just put in and these are from discussions with existing users of the scorecard . So there's hundreds of people using this now , which is amazing because it's been around for a couple years and there is a previous podcast episode on it , but I wanted to revisit it . And again , as I always say with this , this is conversational . So if you're watching this on YouTube , in the comments , let me know how you've altered this , if you've got your version of it . Alternatively , you can DM me at InsideTheMixPodcast and let me know how it could be improved . It's a work in progress and I'm continuing iterations of it over time . But basically , yeah , you're gamifying it . And again , watch the video . There's a link in the scorecard . You can watch the video and it goes into more detail .

Marc Matthews 3:52

But we're gamifying our music production . We're attributing points to tasks , the idea being we want to get above 40 in a given week . That's sort of the benchmark I would go with . Some of these tasks might not be applicable to you and again , you can change them to make them applicable . There is an example week in here and in this example week I've got 46 points from a range of tasks , from creating an eight-bar loop , songwriting greater than 30 minutes , create a door production template .

Marc Matthews 4:19

Some of these are one-off tasks as well , folks . So some of these you'll only do once favorite your favorite presets . So maybe I need to rewrite that . Favorite your favorite presets . Maybe I'll put star your favorite presets or save or something on those lines . That's a big one . Just I do that . I've recently got serum 2 and I've gone through it and I've listened to all the patches in there , the presets , rather , rather , and I've starred the ones that I really like . It just means I can hit the ground running when I want to find a bass sound , but little tasks like that gamify your music production and this has really helped me continue that songwriting , that release cadence of six weeks . Again , some of these tasks I'm not going to do every week but some of them I will like songwriting greater than 30 minutes . You know , one of these new single b-side single again probably need to rewrite that one , so maybe I'll rewrite some of these in between recording this and it going live .

Marc Matthews 5:14

And then what we have is the progress tracker . This is the third sheet and basically in here I've got it set from cycles 1 to 12 . So with the week template you will need to create weeks 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , weeks 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . 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 day cycle so four , sevens you're going to total up the producer growth scorecard point total . So you're going to add weeks one , two , three and four together . So in theory it'll be above 160 points and then you'll see a graph over time .

Marc Matthews 5:50

The idea is then

Using the Progress Tracker to Stay Consistent

Marc Matthews 5:51

there is a in column c , you've got producer releases for that 28 day cycle . So , the idea being you can sort of make a number of how many songs you're releasing and track it against the points value and see if there's a correlation between more points and more songs released , basically or it might be the other way and then you've got a graph , so that graph will update and populate as you enter data into this particular sheet . And then you've got top single day point total , top seven day point total and top 28 day point total as well , so you can track your best days , weeks and months , 28 day cycles . And then there are targets . I've got four targets in here . Usually I probably go with only three , but I've got four examples create at least three eight bar loops per week and another one .

Marc Matthews 6:33

Release one ep , and you can change these goals . I'd probably go with three , to be honest , but I've given you four just to get you started . And that's it , folks . That is the producer growth scorecard . So it's quite a short episode . What I really want you to do is click the link in the episode description , get your copy of the scorecard , watch the detailed video that goes with it and just implement it . It won't take you long to start using it and start gamifying your music production and seeing if there's a correlation between score and releases over time and see how you get on . So again , click that link in the episode description and I will send you a link to get your own copy of the Producer Growth Scorecard . And once you've got it up and running , please do DM me at InsideTheMixPodcast or leave a comment on YouTube if you're watching this on YouTube , as I'd love to hear what tools , techniques and tactics tracking , maybe tactics you are using to stay sharp with your music production . Until next time , stay inspired , stay focused and keep experimenting inside the mix .