Get out of your bubble. Take off those blinkers. Listen widely. Because if you always listen to mediocre music, you’ll only ever make music that’s mediocre.Cheap technology means that there’s now more mediocre (ok – let’s be honest – terrible) electronic music out there than ever. In fact there might be more terrible electronic music now than terrible anything else.

But don’t settle for ordinary and average just because you’re surrounded by it. By confining yourself you’re missing out. There’s a world of amazing music out there waiting to be plundered for ideas, inspiration and perspective. Don’t dismiss it. This is music, not a religion.

If you don’t already, pick a genre you’re unfamiliar with and look it up on Wikipedia for its classic albums. Then listen to just one of them a week. Just one of them. Once. Who knows, you might even like it. But if you don’t, you’ll certainly learn from it.

By making the effort to broaden your horizons not only will you learn more fast, you’ll have a massive advantage over many other producers who obsessively listen to music from their minute sub-genre.

I make my living from writing electronic music. I’m not putting it down, I love it. The best of it easily stands up to the best of anything else. But I’ve learnt more from the masters in other genres than the masters in my own. I’ll even prove it. Look out for forthcoming posts on inspiration I’ve found and techniques you can learn from music in other genres.

I’m curious to know, how often do you listen to other music? What non-electronic music inspires you? Feel free to share in the comments…