Writing songs in The Sims 4 takes time, so it helps to know exactly what your Sim needs before they can start.
Your Sim needs to reach level 8 in an instrument to unlock the ability to write songs.
After finishing a song, your Sim can play it on any instrument they know how to play.
A song takes around 12 Sim hours to complete normally.
You don’t have to finish it in one go. If your Sim stops writing, the progress is saved on a sheet of music in their inventory. You can pick up the sheet later and continue writing the song.
The main thing you can do to write songs faster is level up your instrument skill as quickly as possible.
Have your Sim practice regularly, including on public lots where they can also earn tips.
Your Sim can practice their instrument on public lots to build their skill and potentially earn tips from other Sims.
Once your Sim is good enough, playing music in public can become a decent way to make some extra money.
Learning multiple instruments is useful if your Sim wants to make more money from music.
However, it’s usually easier to focus on one instrument at a time and get it to a high level before moving on to another.
Each instrument gives your Sim another opportunity to license music once they’ve reached the required skill level.
Mastering one instrument before moving on to another is generally the easiest approach.
Use a mod to speed up songwriting
If you’re playing with mods, you can significantly reduce the time needed to finish a song.
The Write Songs and Books Faster mod can reduce songwriting time to around 2 or 3 Sim hours, compared to the usual 12 hours.
How do you make money from writing songs?
Your Sim can make money from music by playing instruments in public and collecting tips, but licensing songs is the better option once it’s available.
At level 9 in an instrument, your Sim can license songs and earn royalties from them.
There are two important limitations: you can only license one song at a time, and a song stops generating royalties after about a week.
If your goal is to make money from songwriting, the important milestones are pretty straightforward:
get one instrument to level 8 to unlock songwriting
reach level 9 to unlock licensing
consider learning additional instruments if you want more licensing opportunities.