Ten years into his career, Tim Schaufert almost skipped the release that would become his most successful song. He didn’t think much of it. He played it for his girlfriend, the only other person to hear it before it went out – she wasn’t sold either. He had an open release slot, though, so he uploaded it anyway.
That’s not the story most independent artists expect to tell about their biggest song. But Tim Schaufert has spent a decade learning not to fully trust his own read on what will land – one of the things that happens when you make music meant to sit quietly in the background of other people’s lives, and then watch strangers decide what it means.
Who Is Tim Schaufert?
Tim Schaufert describes his sound simply: “Chill, calming. Modern but connected to nature.” He’s been releasing music for ten years, currently living nomadically – based, at the moment, in Vietnam, after years of moving to a new country every year or so.
The reason he started making music at all has stayed consistent. “Originally it gave me an escape from social situations that made me feel stressed,” he says, “somewhere where I can create my own world and something that I was good at.”
His process starts at the piano, though not in the way piano usually shows up in ambient music.
“I love using the piano but it was getting a bit stale to use it in every song so I found a technique that made it sound a bit different, more rhythmic,” he says. “By splitting it up into grains and having the grains shift in a wave like movement.” That texture became the foundation for everything else. “That gave me a really strong, fresh core and I built the rest of the song naturally around it. Once the core idea was right the rest was easy.”
The Hardest Part of Making Music Built to Fade Into the Background
Ask Tim Schaufert what’s hardest about being an independent artist, and the answer isn’t about money or burnout. It’s about attention.
“Building a social media presence,” he says. “I built my career on music that people love to put on in the background, on social media that’s a tough sell. When everything is about capturing and holding attention, promoting downtempo music becomes a challenge.”
He’s made himself a promise about it. “I swore myself that I will make social media work in 2026 and that I will not give up until I figured it out,” he says. “I’ve had a bunch of frustrating days and after trying out so many formats that failed it’s hard to come up with new ones to try. But I made a promise to myself so I’m still in the game.”
The traditional alternative hasn’t worked either. “Playlist pitching on Spotify has gone way downhill for me,” he says. “They’ve been filling their downtempo playlists with fake artists so there’s little room for pitches.” His catalog, he says, is mostly carried by algorithms – and beyond that, “I’ve done barely any marketing and 0 paid marketing in my life.”
What’s carried his music instead is something he never engineered at all: other people’s videos.
He Heard His Music Under Drone Footage Before He Owned a Drone
One creator memory has stayed with him longer than the others.
“It was an early drone video, when drones weren’t as common as they are now,” he says. “Seeing someone fly over beautiful nature that is so important in my life and using my music underneath felt amazing.”
The moment stuck with him long enough that he eventually closed the loop himself. “Recently I bought my own drone, so now I can combine that myself!”
It’s a small story, but it’s the kind that tends to stay with him – watching his music attach itself to someone else’s footage of the world, in a way he had nothing to do with.
(Creators: “Once Moved Too Slow (feat. Yosie)” is available to license on Thematic.)
The Channel That Captures Exactly What His Music Is About
More recently, one creator’s use of his music has meant the most to him: Pelo B.
“Recently Pelo B has used my music a lot and it’s awesome to see my music in a context of someone’s daily life in a totally different area from the one I grew up in,” he says. “I usually live in one country for a year and then move onto the next one. Seeing the different ways people live and think is super interesting to me and helps me not solidify too much into doing the same thing over and over again.”
Asked what makes Pelo B’s videos work so well with his music, his answer is simple. “Just document their life. That’s what my music is all about, real situations and being open to the world.”
It’s the same song that found its way into that early drone footage – still landing in new places, years later.
From 1.5 Million Streams to 5 Million
Tim Schaufert has been on Thematic long enough that he can’t pinpoint how he found it. “To be totally honest I don’t remember,” he says. “I’ve been with Thematic since their early days so it’s been too long.”
What he can track is the result.
“My monthly streams around the time of joining Thematic were around 1.5 million, now I’m sitting at about 5 million,” he says. “Seeing different people use my music in all kinds of different contexts and life situations is broader than I imagine when I’m making the song.”
The messages that come with that growth have a consistent quality. “They are always positive, which is the great thing about music that I didn’t anticipate,” he says. “No one ever messages me while saying something bad, it’s always positive, so I know that I bring something positive into the world with my job. That’s a big satisfaction.”
Not every release gets that response right away, though – and one of his biggest lessons came from a song he almost didn’t put out at all.
The Song He Almost Didn’t Release
Releasing music, for Tim Schaufert, stopped being tied to outcomes a long time ago. “Honestly it’s the best feeling,” he says, of putting out a song he’s proud of without knowing whether anyone will hear it. “I’ve been releasing music for so long that if I’m proud of the song I’m proud of the song, despite how the numbers turn out.” He can name a song from last year that flopped and still likes it. “That’s just how taste works,” he says.
What took him longer to learn is the opposite lesson – that his own judgment isn’t always the right measure either. “The audience dictates what good and what’s not,” he says. “I almost didn’t release my now most successful song because I didn’t like it that much. I asked my girlfriend, she also didn’t like it that much. But I had a free release slot so I uploaded it anyways and I wouldn’t have the career I do if it wasn’t for that.”
His takeaway is direct: “Release a lot, don’t censor away your songs just because you’re worried it might not land.”
The Promise He Tells Other Artists to Make
For artists who feel stuck, ignored, or unsure if any of it is working, Tim Schaufert doesn’t offer reassurance so much as a recalibration.
“Getting your music good enough to cut through the market is REALLY hard. Getting good at marketing is REALLY hard,” he says. “You need to realize this beforehand and make a promise to keep going. If 10 rejections throw you off your career path you’re just going to waste time. Accept that you’ll struggle a lot and if you love music enough, if you want it bad enough you’ll push through it.”
On control – a common hesitation for artists weighing platforms like Thematic – his answer comes from a decade of doing things his own way. “I don’t do any label releases anymore because I want 100% control over my music,” he says. “Control has always paid off over my long career and Thematic takes none of that away.”
It’s the same promise he made himself about social media, applied to everything else: figure it out, and don’t quit before you do.
Get Your Music Heard by 1M+ Creators
Tim Schaufert’s catalog wasn’t built around a marketing plan. It was built around a sound, refined over a decade of moving from country to country, that turned out to fit other people’s lives better than any pitch could have.
Thematic connects independent artists with a community of 1M+ creators across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and more. Your music, in real videos, reaching real listeners – the ones who find you in the middle of their own life and go looking for more.
Listen to Friends Of
Spotify: Tim Schaufert on Spotify
YouTube: youtube.com/@tim_schaufert
Instagram: @tim_schaufert
Bandcamp: timschaufert.bandcamp.com
Apple Music: Tim Schaufert on Apple Music
Thematic profile: Tim Schaufert on Thematic
✨ Creators: Tim’s full catalog is available to license free at the link above.
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