PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Could You Live From Making Music?

The "To release a CD yourself or not." got me thinking about everyone's expectations about "making it" in the crazy entertainment world, of which music is a part of...

For all the decades I made my living from music, my average pay after taxes, gas, food, lodging when necessary...all the things that are needed to live on the road, I made slightly above the minimum wage rate of that time period. Some folks thought it was not worth that little bit, but I had no outstanding bills, always had a roof over my head, food on the table, and a reliable vehicle.

Being single during most of that time made it easy, but even today my lifestyle is one of simplicity, I just don't need or want all the trappings the "American Dream" says we need...

So, for me, I had made it. I was doing what I love and living a decent life..

So, what is YOUR definition of "making it"?

Enjoying what you do has great value.
Kudos!

Making it in music - Regular royalty checks with lots of zeros. LOL!

Making it in life - what rharv said.

I couldn't NOW, but I have in the past. That band worked ourselves to death to do it, but we did fine. That was at a point in life when I liked a week in Saginaw here, 4 days in Indy there, every now and then a week in Florida when the weather up north sucked. The suitcase didn't bother me then. 20 years later I try to leave my house as little as possible....

And to be honest, when music was my job, I burned out on it. Now that I can play for my own enjoyment, I find it more enjoyable. That was also after a break of 16 years, so.....

But on topic, no, I couldn't. Not at the skill level I am at these days.

Could You Live From Making Music? Me? Not a chance.

Quote:

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Everybody wants to pass as cats.
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different reasons for that"

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I'm not sure one is supposed to make a 'living' making music. Has it ever really been this way except for the very top echelon? How many paid court musicians existed in the baroque and classical eras? How many more troubadours were there at the time? I would say jcspro's definition works. I would say that's how it works for most persons that make a living in any of the arts; musicians, playwrights, authors, artists of any type.

It's hard work. But if you enjoy it, that's part of the whole choppin' wood and carrying water thing, isn't it?

I might not be able to live from "making music", but you can bet your backsides I can live "to" make music!

Later,

Plan B? Isn't that that band from Manchester? *ducks*

I think it is the way it has always been in "arts" -- 1% make all the money and 99% scrounge for what they can. Just too much supply in the old supply and demand equation.

Quote:

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We all want to be big stars,
but we don't know why
and we don't know how

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Make a living from music...never gonna happen for me. There's nothing that anyone would pay to hear when its just me, alone, at night sitting at a dimly lit keyboard. But, must admit, that music is what I'm living for....

Like Eddie and Rog I got burned out. In the mid 60’s to the early 70’s I was making more money playing music than I was working. When I finally got an offer to tour I had a wife, kid, mortgage and a good job so I turned it down.

After 40 years of wedding bands I called it quits. But thanks to an Atari computer with those funny looking 5 pin plugs in the back, a Korg DS-8, Dr. T’s sequencer and a little program called BiaB I kept music as a hobby. Now with DAWs and especially with BiaB I am playing what I want when I want. All I have to do is to please myself.

So no, today I could not make a living playing music. But music has and still does supplement my income very nicely.

For me plan B worked out the best!

Quote:

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But thanks to an Atari computer with those funny looking 5 pin plugs in the back, a Korg DS-8, Dr. T’s sequencer and a little program called BiaB I kept music as a hobby.

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Mario. And didn't we have some fun with those Atari and Amiga computers and good old Dr.T.
Looking back it was so basic, but at the time it was all new and exciting and the possibilities seemed endless. Now that we've got so much technology, I find it hard to raise the same level of enthusiasm for each new advance as I did back then.

Oh no! it's the "Glory Days" again. (But I do love that song.)

ROG.

I have been making a living doing music and nothing but music for most of my life, and I'm now at retirement age, but have no plans to retire. http://www.s-cats.com is my current duo. We do yacht clubs, country clubs, condominiums, private parties and other adult venues that want "baby-boomer" music. I have nothing against top40 but the young don't want to see a greying, balding, adult play their music.

I've never been burned out by it. I love playing music, I love the audience, I love my job -- being a musician is not what I do, it's what I am. I will continue to play music for as long as I am able, and hopefully that will be a long as I can fog a mirror.

I've played everything from bars where they passed the hat to huge concerts where I was in the warm-up band for the headliner and absolutely everything in between.

I was in a road band that almost "made it big" until the negotiations between Motown and our lawyers broke down. Right now I'm "making it small" in my duo with my wife. When I met her we were playing in two different bands, and when mine broke up, we decided to join forces.

There is an old saying that if you make a living doing something that you would do for free, you will never work a day in your life. Other than a couple of "day jobs" I've had while testing what the "real world" was like, I've never worked a day in my life.

Sure, others make a lot more money. But I pay the mortgage on a modest home in a good neighborhood, buy new cars (but drive them until they are dead), and have enough left over to take a vacation almost every year. I do without a lot of the luxury toys that others have, but I really don't mind that at all.

I also moonlight selling my style "disks" and fake "disks" for BiaB. It's not enough to make a living at, and perhaps if it were my full-time job instead of a part-time second job, I could. But life without live performance would not be as fulfilling for me. So the BiaB disks are mostly made during the summer slow gigging season here in Florida. But the fact that I play music for my living, and I play sax, vocals, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, keyboard synth, drums, and computer is a contributing factor as to why my aftermarket styles are so well received.

So the Band-in-a-Box aftermarket products will remain a sideline, not my main occupation. But this also helps me make my own backing tracks for my duo. This is a downsized world, and I'm afraid the opportunities for making a living in 5 to 7 piece band are extremely diminished, and don't appear to be improving. So making my own backing tracks allows me the flexibility of doing the arrangements, tempos, keys, and everything else the way I like them, not how someone else thinks they should be, and not "like the recording" as playing live is not like playing on the record. Two closely related but different skills.

And I blame TV for the decline of live music and the downsized musicians' world. At one time a person had to go out to hear and see quality music. The audio bandwidth on the Video signal was narrow and low-fidelity, there were only 3 or 4 TV channels, and the picture was bad. It was also free. Now we have 7.1 surround sound, huge hi-def screens and a cable subscription that can easily run a couple of hundred dollars per month (there goes the entertainment budget).

I was lucky to have grown up when every town had a few bands playing live, when every motel/hotel from a Holiday Inn on up had a live band, and when people came out of their housed to be entertained.

I'm not so sure that it is as easy to make a living now as it was then. I see HDTV, higher alcohol prices/taxes, increased DUI penalties, and numerous other factors competing with live music making the market smaller.

I suppose musicians can still make a living doing what we love, but I think a smaller percentage of the population will be able to do so.

Two things come into play here. First of all, define "living". You can "live" in your van on nothing, no utilities in your name, pay as you go cell phone, online access at the library only, sponging off a girlfriend or living with your parents forever, looking for people who will invite you to dinner once a week so you can have something other than cold food you make in your van.... or you can "live" in a home you own, drive a nice car, keep your gas and electric turned on.... just be responsible in general.

Second, does your area have enough places to play to keep you busy 22 dates per month?

Of course you CAN do it if you hustle and work hard. Sadly I know too many who play for $75 3 times a month and the rest of the month they drink or snort it all away. I also know many who are quite successful, though in a few cases I wonder how they'd do it without the spouse in the picture. I know of one single mom who COULD do it but she chooses to keep her daytime career in tandem with her music, but she works a lot and could make it happen if she only played music. She'd join one more band to do it, but she'd be fine.

(Edit to add: I know all these things to be true because I have done most of them....!!)

On a more serious note I guess it all depends on what you call a living.

Later,