I was born in a good era to be a musician. Children today are not that lucky.

When I was young, so was rock n roll. Anyone who was adequate could get a gig. Singles bars always hired bands 6 nights a week – playing records didn't draw a crowd. Every hotel, from a Holiday Inn on up, had a band playing 6 nights a week in the lounge. There were no karaoke nights, open mic nights, or sports bars. The extent of TV in bars was a local corner tavern with bar stools and perhaps one or two tables.

Except for two day jobs, when I was seeing what it was to be normal, I've made my living playing music. Even then, I played on the weekends.

Fortunately, I've managed to make a living doing music and nothing but music for the vast majority of my life. I never got rich, but I'm not poor either. And I have the luxury of making a living by doing what I would do for free if I didn't need the money. It's definitely more difficult for an 'unknown' to make a career as a pro musician these days.

The earlier times were better for creators, too.

In the early days of rock, you could self-promote yourself by bringing your 45RPM record to radio stations and convince (or bribe) DJs to play it often. Indie labels like Sun were the entry point.

...but time passed...

The big labels started buying up the small ones. Radio DJs no longer had the freedom to pick their own songs, it was done by the program director in the radio station. The bribes became bigger, and record labels hired promotion firms to take care of that. Self-promotion was dead, and the indies that didn't get bought up by the majors died.

I suppose in the early days of the Internet, a band could promote themselves, as there wasn't much competition. Now there is so much competition, extensive promotion is needed just to be noticed.

The labels are not as important, and Spotify, YouTube and others are where new music emerges. But with a zillion uploads per week, how will you be noticed? Word of mouth is good, but it's very slow.

Of course being a nepo baby or knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time has always helped. But that avenue isn't available to most of us.

Oh, I'd love to write a song that becomes a classic, recorded by dozens of others, and receive all that passive income, but that wasn't meant to be for me.

I can improvise a good solo, I can sing better than a lot of today's stars (don't need no stinking auto-tune), I'm a decent musical arranger, and I have played 7 instruments professionally. But I don't have the gift of poetry and metaphors to be a good songwriter.

Until the 60’s record producers discouraged artists from writing their own songs, because they already had a rich supply of songs from professional songwriters. Then band managers began to encourage their acts to write their own songs because they figured out that the real money was in writing and publishing royalties. It wasn’t until the rise of artists Like The Beach Boys, The Beatles and Bob Dylan that artists were expected to write their own songs.

Most stars depended on professional songwriters, from Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building, most of the stars, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Connie Francis, The Animals, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, Impressions, Temptations, Cookies, Crystals, Marvelettes, Tony Bennett, Bobby Vee, Frankie Avalon, Four Seasons, Brenda Lee, Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, The Drifters, The Coasters, Etta James, Dion DiMucci, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Shirelles, Ronettes, and the list goes on and on and on played music written by others.

Of course, there have always been famous folks who wrote and sang their own songs, but until the later 60s, they were definitely the minority. Smokey Robinson, Buddy Holly, and so on (no more long lists this post).

How to do it today?

There is more than one right answer.

For me, it's get on stage, pick up an instrument or start singing, and get into that place where there is no space, no time, no words, and no self. I just feel the music flowing through me, instead of from me, hear the contributions from other musician(s), and feel the energy from the crowd. It's pure bliss, and it's not only my livelihood, it's my drug.

For others, it's songwriting. Some both. Some are UTube stars. Spotify artists. Some like me full-time, others part-time. Some figure out how to get noticed, some get lucky.

Some create wonderful apps like Band-in-a-Box that help us enjoy our life of music.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks