When someone is all excited to tell me "I made XX dollars!!", they play music for the wrong reason anyway. That is one baby step away from totally selling out.

I don't play any more for several reasons. The primary one is that I am not good enough. I am slightly less than an average player anymore after 15 years away from it. I used to sing well but those muscles weren't used in those 15 years and I lost it. I am still a very good, very accurate harmony singer, because you don't lose "ear". You lose physical skills, like singing, from lack of use. I don't play well enough to do a solo act to the point where I have done a couple of songwriter showcase nights but took "Band in a Phone" with me. People who can pull off solo night with their guitar or piano have my utmost respect. Honestly they do. But to play in a garage for a bunch of people who are only there because they decided to not go bowling that night.....

The point is to ask "WTF happened????" Have we all lowered expectations to the level where conformity is king and we play those awful Jimmy Buffet cliche songs just to get ANY gig?

I want SO BADLY to find one group of guys who want to give it one last try and write 12 solid songs, record them in a professional studio, get promo packets made, put on suits and go door to door to the major venues in a 3-4 state area (to start with) and try to hook some gigs that get real exposure. As long as there concerts, there will be a need for an opening act, a slot usually filled by a little known act trying to sell some CDs at the venue and maybe a t-shirt or two. However, when I try to recruit, money is always the first thing mentioned. Doesn't anybody understand the difference between the words "spending" and "investing"? You don't "spend" money on studio time to make a proper CD, you "invest" it. I know for me (once again - FOR ME - not forcing my opinion on you) I don't want to record in somebody's attic or basement. I want to record in a recording studio. With a producer and a professional engineer. I want the experience of isolation rooms and high end headphones. I have never done that and it's on my bucket list.

The clubs also need to learn the difference between "spend" and "invest". You don't SPEND money on entertainment. You INVEST money on entertainment that will draw people in to spend money in your bar instead of the one down the street. These cheap club owners have taken bands from the asset column and put them in the liability column.

What a sad place music is in now where 60 year old musicians, with so many years of experience and seasoning, are still in a place where they worry about a gig paying enough to cover the gas to get there and back.

I was in exactly 2 bands that had any kind of a following. The Motown band I was in had a core of 80-90 people who followed us religiously, and on any given night we'd see 50-60 of that group, including once when 60 of them rented a bus with a driver and surprised us in Erie PA, 80 miles from home. We started at 9, and at 9:10 they all filed in. They had rented motel rooms and everything to stay the weekend. Point is, they came to see US, not whoever happened to be playing. That's what is missing. Bands who offer something unique and good enough to follow. I can hear Brown Eyed Girl from EVERY band playing EVERY night. Why would I drive 50 miles to hear what I can hear on my corner?

But yes, time did change from the way it was in the 70s and 80s and we can't change it back, so it is what it is. A lot of bad bands out there getting work because they work cheap, and good ones are sitting at home.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.