I've got twenty minutes to kill while some downloads...er...download so I thought it only fair to answer as well since you folks have been so open and enlightening.
 
First, I started playing and taking lessons at a very early age (4).  No foolin.  And I've continued on as this surreal life has passed me by.  So this music stuff is kind of ingrained in me.  Second, I'm pretty competitive by nature. And by that I mean If I actually do get off'n my lard ass and do something...I've got to try and do it as good as anybody else does it or face my own sense of crippling self doubt.  Which, as it turns out, I've been able to (mostly) avoid seeins as how I was born a self-absorbed blow hard with a messiah complex.  Plus, it turns out I do happen to love music near to death.  Alright then.
 
As some have alluded above, I sensed early on that it was also an easy way to attract females and guess what?  No, go on guess.  It actually does!!  So...until I met and married The Bear I was an unmitigated and unrepentant poon hound as well.  So I had that goin for me too.
 
But back to music and why I do it:  Peer group acceptance.  Pure and simple.  Oh sure, I've made a livin at it as well for lo these many years but that's always been secondary...if not by much.  In fact, those folks who'll spend seeming eternities on learning and producing in order to recoup not one red centavo simply mystify me.  But I'm sure that's just because to me it's always been a "job" as well as fun.  Don't get me wrong though...because it IS a job some of the time it can also be pure drudgery.  And how.  I actually envy you fellers and gals that just do it for enjoyment alone.  You're on to somethin.  Or maybe you're just ON somethin.  Hard to say which.
 
So, for my songwriting and producing, peer group acceptance it is and always will be.  But the key, of course, is the peer group a feller shoots for.  Mine happens to include folks like Randy Newman, John Hiatt, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen, Lennon and McCartney, George Martin, John Leventhal, Phil Ramone...you get the picture.  So...as you can see...most of my work still lies before me and I've still got a long hard road to travel.  Who knows if I'll ever get there?
 
But, hell, what else I got to do??
 
 
 

Rock On Myolpal.

Ya, we're all there with you!
 


 
(Damn that Pope Jon Bouy pic cracks me up everytime!  )

Oh sure...throw that up in my faces again!

Of all the imitators, I likes the Beagle the best.

I love to listen. I think I slowly got hooked, watching meters bounce, thinking it was nothing but a harmless hobby.
 
Now I'm always looking for good junk, but when it's not around I'll totally do SWAG.
 
I'm not a junky. I just maintain. i don't spend too much time watching the spikes bounce. Just enough.
 
:-)

yorolpal 
But back to music and why I do it:  Peer group acceptance.  Pure and simple.  Oh sure, I've made a livin at it as well for lo these many years but that's always been secondary...if not by much.  In fact, those folks who'll spend seeming eternities on learning and producing in order to recoup not one red centavo simply mystify me.  But I'm sure that's just because to me it's always been a "job" as well as fun.  Don't get me wrong though...because it IS a job some of the time it can also be pure drudgery.  And how.  I actually envy you fellers and gals that just do it for enjoyment alone.  You're on to somethin.  Or maybe you're just ON somethin.  Hard to say which.

I think the acceptance thing, and acknowledgment, may be a big part of it for those of us that don't make any money at it. Everybody likes to hear an attaboy now and then. And it's kind of cool to put your name on something that people can experience, and hopefully enjoy. Sometimes, that is payment enough.
In my day jobs (15 years as a journeyman plumber, and now a cable technician), the idea is to make my work as transparent as possible. As a plumber, I took a lot of pride my work. And outside of the inspector and my associates, nobody would ever see it. If the end user never knew it was there, I did my job.
All said and done, around 2000 home owners and businesses with one less thing to worry about.
A proud but silent legacy.
But I have the arts. Like so many here, music, painting, etc is just something I have to do. I can't not do it.
Yes, it can be a lot of work, but if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it.
And when it's done, there is something you can see or hear or touch. And my name's on it.
At some point, I am going to die, but my daughter will be able to say,"This is what my dad did".
I suppose my short term goal would be to have people be able to enjoy what I have done, but my long term goal is to leave her with that.
 

You'd be hard pressed to leave her something better Robert, ol pal. Rock on!

Some of the things already mentioned definitely apply to me:
1. To try out ideas that have been rolling around in my head.
2. To influence other musicians.
3. It's a learning/discovery process.
4. I enjoy messing about.
5. Just for the hell of it.

bapu

What, if any, are the goals of your music production?

 
To not have to answer questions like this?

Good point! And I agree!
 
When we all were kids and we didn't know music, we didn't have goals. We were hearing something or other that we liked and we stuck with it or not.