You make a good point Eddie - I had no teachers in my immediate family - which I never really thought about that deeply...when I watch documentaries about bands, come to think they often do come from musical families. In fact - lots of careers are passed on through families, which makes a lot of sense.

I'm curious if you'd be willing to share your 'big boy' jobs...was the first degree in music ? You made it sound like the second was the backup plan.

Now I find it somewhat interesting that one of your realistic goals is to sell CD's from a practicality standpoint. It has to solely be about the connection. And the dream of somehow monetizing that hit song that everyone can relate to never really goes away...If a song is really, really good, have you thought about selling those songs to someone that might be able to more easily sell them ? Though I have literally zero knowledge in this area, I'm guessing that selling songs to someone famous is about as easy as getting your own name (or band's name) on the Billboard charts (or whatever they call them today).

I also would guess that - if you're trying to make some extra pocket money while enjoying the time you spend doing it - teaching might be the best bang for the buck. Since I live in NYC, if I wanted to do this (which I did at one time) - the population is dense enough that a good music teacher could find some students that would pay the going rate without too much problem - not so sure if that's true in lessly populated areas. Since you didn't mention anything about giving lessons - going to guess that making money in this way was never worth the time and potential ROI and personal satisfaction that writing originals and selling them was. In fact - when you do teach, the biggest market is obviously beginners, which can get pretty boring to a talented music maker.

Last edited by Joe V; 05/27/18 04:45 AM.