PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Career in music

Hey,

Constanta is a beatuful place. I have not been there, but I assume there may be many tourist places near Old Town or the beach areas. There is the Muzeul de Istorie Națională și Arheologie near Old Town. If it is very busy, it could be a good place to play. I would start looking at these types of areas and see what goes on. You very well may meet some musicians there to talk to and perhaps sing with.
Where you really learn to play and sing is in public, on stage. The stage could be on a street corner or the biggest venue around. If you want this lifestyle, just do. Whatever it takes.

Cheers,

Billy

Would it be rude and selfish If I contact Costi Ioniță and ask him to be my producer?

Do you have something good to produce??

I sing melodies from the lyrics of american,british songs.
I Don't have yet my own song!

No one can tell you how to make it in the music business. Every single person who has made it did it by creating their own pathway. No two pathways are ever the same. Your journey isn't my journey. You can't get to where you want to go by following me or anyone else.

Being in the right place at the right time and being prepared for the occasion is the best advice I can offer.

If you sing but don't play a musical instrument, I'd suggest learning to play one. Being in one of the music centers puts you closer to the action but is no guarantee of success. There's a lot of really talented people in Nashville and LA playing for pocket change on the street hoping someone is going to recognize their talent and magically put them on a stage. Sadly, that is rarely ever the case.

Go make your own path and be ready when opportunity presents itself, because it doesn't linger and rarely comes back.

Choose your parents wisely. Being a nepo baby is the surest way to become a star.

I made the mistake of being sired by hard-working but heavies in the music industry parents. The result is, I'm a career musician, happy with it, but will never make Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen money.

OK - seriously.

You can make a living as a career musician. But, 99% of us will never become rich and famous. That doesn't me we can't live a happy life doing what we want to do though.

Hone your craft until you are better than most of your competitors, become a chameleon and learn to express yourself authentically in many different genres, learn marketing skills, research your local market and choose where to focus your main efforts and more.

I know a girl who sings to karaoke tracks. She is a good singer, has a nice PA set for small rooms, and gigs quite a lot. She targeted the country market and plays small venues and does pretty well. I know a guy in a wedding band who makes a good living putting up with bridezillas. I know another who refuses to play anything but "art music" and has a day job and gigs occasionally.

I'm a career musician who almost made the big time. Opened concerts for the stars of the day, and was courted by a record company who wanted to exploit us. When that failed, I went back to nightclubs, private parties, restaurants, retirement developments, hotels, or whoever needed a band. I am not living a life of luxury, but I'm making a living doing what I would do for free, the mortgage is paid off, and I'm not in debt. To me, a modest living doing what I love is better than a wage-slave job with a retirement package. But that's me, I'm in the minority.

There is more than one right way to do this, you need to find out what is right for you - what suits your talents - how hard you want to work at it - what to focus on - what your competition is - and so on.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Folks should not overlook a career in music using BIAB to fulfill supplying tracks to customers. Supplying tracks is quite a robust industry and BIAB is well-suited and equipped to be a workhorse for an entrepreneur trying to make it in the music industry.

There are three situations BIAB works extremely well for the home recording enthusiast customer.

1. Making tracks for an instrument an artist can't play.
2. Tracks for an instrument the artist can play but BIAB can play the instrument more commercially or competently.
3. Tracks for an instrument the artist can play competently but it's inconvenient to do so in some circumstances.

BIAB can perform for a person trying to make music a career in all three of the above situations by filling any of the three circumstances the client has encountered. The person trying to make a career in supplying tracks for customers need only to be competent in arranging and programming using the BIAB product. The person need not be a proficient musician, read notation, play multiple instruments or know how to chart tracks. BIAB fulfills those tasks.

With that in mind, I asked the following question to Chatgpt for general information about:


Charlie Asked: How much would I need to gross to earn a net of $3,000 per month?


ChatGPT said:
To determine how much you need to gross in order to take home $3,000 per month net, we need to consider your effective tax rate—which depends on your location, income bracket, and any deductions or withholdings (like federal, state, Social Security, and Medicare taxes in the U.S.).

Here’s a general approach:

Step-by-step Estimate (U.S. Based):
Let’s assume an effective tax rate of about 25%, which is a common average for middle-income earners in the U.S.

✅ You would need to gross approximately $4,000/month (or $48,000/year) to net $3,000/month with a 25% effective tax rate.
Want a More Accurate Estimate?



Charlie Asked:
are there online studios that provide commercial tracks home recording enthusiasts can purchase for their original songs?


ChatGPT replied:
Yes, there are several online studios and services that provide commercial-quality backing tracks (also called instrumental tracks or multitracks) for home recording enthusiasts to use with their original songs—either to add vocals or create their own arrangements. These services can range from licensing instrumentals to full custom production. Here are some of the top options:

🎧 1. SoundBetter (by Spotify)
What it is: A marketplace where you can hire professional producers, musicians, and engineers to create or provide tracks.

Best for: Custom commercial tracks or collaborations.

URL: soundbetter.com

🎼 2. BeatStars
What it is: A platform where producers sell beats and instrumentals, often with various licensing options (lease vs. exclusive).

Best for: Hip-hop, pop, R&B, and trap artists.

URL: beatstars.com

🎹 3. AIRGIGS
What it is: Hire session musicians, producers, or composers to create tracks or contribute to your song.

Best for: Fully produced tracks tailored to your song idea.

URL: airgigs.com

🎤 4. Karaoke Version – Custom Backing Tracks
What it is: Lets you buy multitrack instrumental versions of popular songs, but also offers a tool to customize each instrument.

Best for: Cover songs or experimenting with arrangements.

URL: karaoke-version.com

🎛 5. Fiverr (Music & Audio Section)
What it is: Freelance marketplace where you can find producers to create or provide original instrumentals.

Best for: Budget-friendly custom tracks across genres.

URL: fiverr.com

I've also attached a YouTube video of five local Nashville musicians that for part-time income, provide backing tracks to home recording enthusiasts.

***
Tracking Day 2017

A summary of the video is this group of five gets together once a month and usually records 10-12 songs (five tracks total) for customers and charging $100 per session player. Each song normally takes 10-15 minutes of recording time. The owner of the studio, who also charts the songs, receives an extra $50. That's a total of $550 per song when the video was published in 2017.

The video demonstrates that with using BIAB, a person can duplicate all of the services and quality these session players provide. BIAB can chart, supply five tracks of essentially any instrument and a WAV copy of each track provided to the customer. It's a matter of replacing live session musicians with BIAB tracks recorded by live session musicians playing real instruments.

The market is there. The demand is there. Good marketing and the skill and expertise to program and arrange songs in BIAB that provide advanced, complex arrangements created using BIAB as an audio generating tool is the key. Using $100 as the base charge per track, 40 tracks per month generates an income providing $3,000 net income. That's 8 songs per month.

BIAB is capable of creating first generation tracks where the algorithm is programmed to anticipate silence, instrument changes, intro's, outro's fade-in, fade-out, doubling, and solo's. BIAB can create melodies, have effects added, volume automation, can analyze audio for tempo mapping and chord detection. BIAB can print lead sheets, notation, and tab.

The bottom line is that for a person seeking a career in music, BIAB has the tools, techniques and features that someone can use BIAB to create quality backing tracks just like the musicians in the video and the producers, musicians and arrangers do on the above web-sites.

So If I insist on a producer to add me in a band would that be exploating?
I know what that word means but that's what Ruxandra Iliescu from the Blaxy Girls did with Costi Ioniță.
I found a Facebook group for people that need members and it's in Romania but it's not rock based!
They are searching for vocal solists!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/659555767522228/

I have thousands of BiaB tracks for sale here, for pennies per track.

https://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#fake

Most of them have optional music books available, so you can open the book, load the track, and play/sing along.

Note: They are MIDI tracks, but the BiaB 'robot' should suggest a Real Track. It's the only way to satisfy both MIDI and RT customers, because if I suggested a RT, BiaB would not recommend a MIDI.

In either case, you can change the style to whatever you want.

Why don't you post a recording of your voice somewhere so that people here can hear your voice, even without backing tracks, Youtube comes to mind, then people here can hear what you have to offer and give an honest opinion on what you have to offer as a full time potential career musician.

So far its what I tend to call it "Armchair talk" post your voice and let us know what its like.

@musiclover
Why don't you post a recording of your voice somewhere so that people here can hear your voice, even without backing tracks, Youtube comes to mind, then people here can hear what you have to offer and give an honest opinion on what you have to offer as a full time potential career musician.

. [/quote]

https://soundcloud.com/viorel-panturu/recording_188-mp3cut-net

Is this a bad idea that I placed my real name here?
If so sorry for that!

Had a listen Wolly and while I am no x factor judge I would suggest as others here have, that maybe you learn to play an instrument as well.

Many bands have a lead singer who fronts the band, that singer will usually have a great voice, and while other band members may sing too, their voices are passable nothing out of the ordinary.

Many people are like that can sing but voices are nothing out of the ordinary, I myself like to sing but no great voice either.

There are many ways to have a career in music eg DJ-ing, I suppose even being a roadie for a band, making enough money though to solely live and depend on it is another thing.

If you asked me what you should do, and its all up to you, I would say get a regular job to earn money to help pay your way, but at the same time, maybe learn an instrument, most people can, doesn't take any God given Talent, mainly practice, and enjoy your music to the fullest as a sideline.

Good luck Wolly.

More than voice, singing effectively needs control, and expression. If it were all voice, people like Dr. John, Stevie Nicks, John Lennon and so many others wouldn't have 'made it'.

I'm a multi instrumentalist who had to learn to sing. As bands downsized to make a living, I found myself in a duo http://www.s-cats.com with a very good singer. But she couldn't sing all the songs all night, and what if she got sick? I figured I'd learn to sing.

I started singing the easier songs, and worked up to more difficult ones. Since my duo partner is a far better singer than I'll ever be, she sings the hardest songs. But I play sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard synth, and make our own backing tracks. We both have different strong suits that complement each other.

Learning to sing for me, expression wasn't a problem, because I am a very expressive sax player, and it's similar. Breath support was OK because it's the same as a wind instrument. (Breathe with your diaphragm not your chest, keep your throat relaxed, and tighten the muscles of your abdomen as if you were expecting someone to punch you there, and so on).

The hardest part was control, to sing on pitch, off pitch intentionally for expressive devices, and so much more. It took a lot of singing to strengthen those muscles to the point where I could get them to do what I want. Without the control, the expression was not possible.

I know a few people around here who make a living singing to karaoke tracks. They sing in smaller venues, private parties, and so on, and seem to be able to support themselves. That's a possibility for you.

Whatever you choose, you need to sing a lot, every day, start slow, so you don't injure yourself, but end up singing for hours per day. Take at least enough lessons to learn breath control and how to breathe properly. If you don't, you can get nodules on your vocal cords and end up with a raspy voice like Ms. Nicks.

Practice, practice, practice. Sing along with recordings of successful singers. Notice the subtle things they do and mimic them. A few examples are phrasing; singing some notes ahead or behind the beat. Pitch deviations, including singing a note a bit flat and pulling it up to pitch, controlling speed and intensity of vibrato, changing the shape of your oral cavity to color the notes differently, and so on.

You also need to see what works in your area. Is country big? Classic rock? Anything else? Check out your competition, and see what they are doing. Watch the audience and see what is working and what isn't working so well. Learn from their successes and mistakes. How are they dressed and presenting themselves? Again, what works for your area and chosen genre.

I am a career musician. It's not easy, although I'm on stage only 3 or 4 hours per gig, I put in well over 40 hours per week working. It's my passion, so it doesn't seem like work. But it takes practice, constantly learning new songs, pushing my limits so I can sing more difficult songs, hitting the streets to promote myself and find new gigs.

Singing is one of the easiest things to do. It takes no work or skill at all. Singing well enough and singing for a living is a very difficult thing to do. It takes countless hours of practice, plenty of time to put in and good off-stage skills, too.

I probably put in 70 hours a week doing what I do, but because it's my passion, it doesn't seem like work, it's just involvement in my trade. I've had two 40 hours per week jobs in my life, and for me, I'd much rather do this. Of course, that's just me.

If you want to make a career doing music and nothing but music, dedicate yourself to it, put in the time. If you have the inborn talent and develop all the skills necessary to do it, you can make a living doing music and nothing but music.

And as others mentioned, it would help to learn a musical instrument, too.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

@musiclover
So that means I have a talent on music based on my MP3 file?

Yes we all have talent some more than others, Please take on board learning to play an instrument, then you can play along with people who have better or lesser voices than everyone else.

A few things I've learned about playing music for a living.

* There will always be people that play better than you, and others who play worse.

* Some people are great technicians, some artists, and it's best to be both. So practice your technical skills and develop your artistic sense

* Use what you've got. I read an interview with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. He said early on he realized he would never play as fast as Clapton and so many others, so he worked on playing melodically. IMO, it was a good decision, because I like his playing.

Playing music is not one skill. There are many different skills and we put them together. Work on them all, and use what you are the best at.