Some people think of selective listening — the process of filtering what you hear to get a general impression of what’s being said — as a bad habit. 其他人，比如小丹·布朗.我知道这其实是一项磨练得很好的技能.

“I was in class one day, 和 the instructor was talking about production music libraries,” says Dan. “I’d been a musician all my life, 和 here was a whole industry that was somehow not on my radar. My teacher was talking about licensing 和 performance royalties, but I didn’t hear any of that. All I heard was: This is how you turn your natural talent into an income.”

从满帆毕业后 音乐制作 program, Dan has gone on to write music for networks such as A&E，氧和E!. 不到两年, 他创作了300多首原创歌曲, 他授权在电影中使用, 电视, 还有电子游戏. His latest contract is with Disney, mixing 和 scoring music for web 和 mobile content. Oh, 和 if that’s not impressive enough, he also recently completed a master’s degree in 教学设计 & 技术.

他笑着说:“我就是这样的人. “My goal is to make money even when I’m sleeping.”

不过，事情并不总是这样的. Growing up in a family of bluegrass musicians, Dan was what he calls a quintessential “guitar guy.”

“我在高中乐队演奏. 我做过一段时间的巡演. I developed some pretty good chops,” he says. “但我没有满足.”

年过去了. He met his wife; they had a son 和 moved to Denver, Colorado. He got a job working as a music director for a local church. Through it all, he was still just a guitar guy. Finally, he decided to make a move by going back to school.

“I really wanted the credibility of a degree,” he says.

Just before graduating from his bachelor’s program in 2013, Dan decided to make another move—this time to Los Angeles, California where he was able to l和 a gig composing music for Liquid Cinema, a production library that he reached out to during his early days in the city.

“I didn’t have a connection on the inside, but I knew I had some pretty good demo work. 我有学位的信誉, but I also knew it was worthless if I couldn’t deliver a good product. This is where my networking skills really helped me. 在L.A.你认识谁并不重要. It only matters who knows what you can deliver.”

他已经交付了. 你可以在节目中听到丹的作品 好莱坞的媒介 和 国际日期变更线NBC. He’s scored countless independent films, 和 currently holds contracts with six production libraries. And while he loves being able to work for himself, Dan says it’s not always easy balancing so many projects at once.

“Asset management is the DNA of a busy dude. I have a dedicated filing system 和 a spreadsheet that helps me keep track of deadlines. The good thing about writing production music is there is no hard deadline, so I can easily put those projects on hold if something more timely comes up.”

在未来, Dan says he’d like to share what he’s learned about production music with other guitar guys or girls looking to break in to the industry. That’s where the 教学设计 master’s degree comes in.

“回到过去, I supplemented my income by giving music lessons, so I have a pretty extensive teaching background 和 it’s something I enjoy. 小时候, 我学得和别人不一样, so I try to come at instructional design from every angle. I’d love to develop a curriculum or instructional content around the work I do now.”

For now, though, Dan’s simply happy to make music — 和 get paid for it.

“As an artist, I’ve always known there’s no guarantee that my art will sustain me in any way. When I call myself an artist now, I mean a commercial artist, 和 that’s what drives me. I would rather die trying 和 failing than live failing to try.”