Well, it did shock me!

I read this online from

https://om.co/2023/05/27/the-number-of-songs-uploaded-every-day-will-shock-you/#:~:text=That's%20120%2C000%20new%20tracks%20every,that%20tracks%20music%20industry%20data.

"Did you know that 10.08 million new tracks were uploaded to online music streaming services in the first three months of 2023? That’s 120,000 new tracks every day, according to estimates from Nashville-based Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data."

I have no idea how accurate this number is, but I do know a massive amount of AI-generated music is being released. Luminate has an address in LA at
5670 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Nashville based? Perhaps they have an office there also.
It at least seems to be a legit data company.

We are fortunate here on the user showcase that ten people may have responded to one of the songs we posted early this morning. By the end of the day, 119,999 other songs got posted to the likes of SoundCloud and all the rest...lol

Having others listen to one of our songs in this sea of sound must be a little like floating around in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to be discovered by a passing ship...lol

Billy

I read something very similar. Assuming that 99% of those are between crap to good on the scale.... That leaves 1% that are well written and top quality works of musical art. That is 1000 outstanding songs across all genres. That's still some pretty tough competition in the business.

But no one ever won the marathon by sitting on the bench.

And in that ocean we are pleased on Spotify to now average 1000+ plays a month. That number is minuscule compared to many other “small time” artists but, hey, at least we know folks beyond family and friends like what we do. Our plays come primarily from placement on several popular Spotify “member playlists.” The winning lotto ticket is placement on one of Spotify’s Editorial Playlists. That will get you tens if not hundreds of thousands of streams. And to Billy’s point those upload numbers hugely reduce the chance of placement on an Editorial Playlist. Spotify must have an army of curators to handle that. There are 80,000,000 songs on Spotify. Our ocean

That's the new problem with getting your original music heard.

It used to be you sent demos to the gatekeepers (record labels) and 99% got rejected there.

Now, nobody gets rejected, but there are zillions of others out there. How do you get yours noticed? Discovered? Found?

In the past, if you didn't get rejected by the label, the record company did the promotion (and took the price out of your royalties). So in today's world, you must do your own promotion, or hire someone to do it for you.

Doing your own promotion is definitely time-consuming, and takes away from the available hours you could spend creating and polishing new music. If you don't have a lot of money, hiring a promotion company is out of the question.

If you started early enough, before so many others were on the 'net, you could have built up a following. Great if you did!

Today, you can still build up that following, of course it's a slow way to go, but the problem is getting noticed by the people who might like your music in the first place.

I'm glad I chose to be a performer, rather than a creator. I'm still gigging 15-20 times a month, and have been for most of my adult life.

I'd like to be a creator too, but to tell the truth, I stink as a songwriter. All the lyrics I write seem too trite and hackneyed. I'm good and arranging, creating BiaB styles, making backing tracks, singing, and playing saxophone, wind synth, bass, drums, guitar, flute, and keyboard synths. It's a good way to make a living.

Good luck to those trying to break into it, and congratulations to Janice and Bud for making your mark.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

I am not "shocked" by the difficulty of having your original music acquired by anyone. That has always been difficult. It is certainly possible, as in the case of Janice, Bud, and thousands of others. Music is everywhere, and none of it is for free.

There are people buying music every day of the week.

What is shocking are the total numbers. I guess with the world population approaching eight billion, that should not be surprising.

There are all sorts of strange questions to ask. How much electricity is consumed in producing the 80,000,000 songs Bud alluded to?...lol

How many of the 80,000,000 were produced by AI, BIAB, for hire studios, both pro and otherwise?

Other stuff I read

"As of 2022, there are approximately 82 million songs according to Spotify, 200 million songs according to Gracenote, and between 97 million to 230 million according to Google."

I guess in the scheme of things, 80 million is not so much. Even if it costs $10 each to produce, that is less than a billion dollars. Even if it is 100 billion. One hundred billion is not a material amount of money basses on the five trillion that gets spent every day worldwide.

The implications of eight billion people are mind-boggling. Three hundred sixty-nine million gallons of gasoline are used only in the United States every day! That is about 1.5 billion dollars spent per day!

We be using up some stuff...lol

Billy

We all know what the two most prominate topics/content on the World Wide Web are! Music is certainly number two on that list, so these numbers are no surprize.

I agree with Bob. Be a performer rather than a creator.

I still make a little money from my CD, and I was well established at the very beginning of the public Internet (having written websites for myself, a college and two libraries that were all the first in the region) but I could not see making any kind of living now as a composer. I have a friend who leads a big band just north of New York City. He has amazing, well-known players, and writes fabulous music for them. Without his day teaching/prof work, someone like that could not exist.

Even as a performer, it’s tough to sell new music. Would a jazz festival take a chance on me, or would they rather hire famous blues and rock bands from the 70s? When I could have made music for a living, I looked at colleagues and decided not to. Music for me, even at a pro level, is just fun now. I’d rather write music for students or a community big band or orchestra, than attend one of those so-called jazz festivals.

BIAB has been with me through half of my six decades performing. Definitely the better half.

I also wonder about the characteristics of what makes songs popular or "hits" in this modern music environment.

I attribute a lot of it has to do with the arrangements and production aspects of songs. When I think of a song like "Billie Jean"... Was it made a super hit song simply because Michael Jackson recorded and showcased it? Probably so, but that song arrangement has been analyzed in several UTube videos, especially the focus on the bass line arrangement.

When you have skilled musicians, arrangers, producers working on a song, how much does that increase the odds of the song becoming a hit? Let's say 50% better odds. Then add a star performer to sing/play it? I'm thinking that combo would raise the odds to 80%+ of being a major hit.

So of those hundreds of thousands of songs uploaded to the Internet which may never get played or heard by more than a few souls, there may well be hundred of future hits in the making if the right team of arrangers, producers, and performers are given a mission to do so.

I envision some TV program that has such a team of experts taking a random song from the web (or selectively submitted) and given the task of enhancing that song and giving the song some mass market exposure. Would be fun to see if songs can be transformed into hits with the "right" pieces and parts working on it.

With that in mind check this out. Will the videos have an impact?

Glad that works for you indeed! Then there’s the old adage that all things are contextual. I played in bands for many years along with Janice for several years. We played large festivals, clubs, businesses, etc. But I hugely more enjoy music production (now and then) as, I suppose, it seems less transient. And Janice and I both were working full time in the mental health field during the bulk of our gigging years before retiring in ‘99. Three nights in a club or a weekend festival took its toll. Even after retirement we both enjoyed recording or playing in the living room more than gigs. I had recorded since the mid 60’s so the advent of digital home studios and BiaB introduced us to a thoroughly enjoyable world. Even if we are but a speck in that ocean of creators.

Bud

For context, remember that every inner city kid with a laptop who knows how to make an 8 bar loop in a minor key and recite badly written, angry, racist, sexist poetry is a "creator" and a "producer". Those are all considered in that total of uploads. I'll never leave that "old school" camp of opinion that if you aren't on the mainstream radio in my car that you aren't a prime time player and I don't consider you to be viable. And by that definition, I am less than gum on the bottom of the shoes of the viable players.

I want to tour. On the big bus. I want to play. In bigger rooms. Like 2500-3000 seat rooms. I have had that opportunity 3 times in my life, but it wasn't "me". It was the bands I happened to be a side player in.

The last time was in 2020. And now that I have finally conceded that due to age and physical condition, that would be the last time it could happen. As bad as Herbstock beat me up, and that was just that one time, I now admit defeat.

To me, THIS is a gig. (The Akron Civic Theater.) Anything less than this is just pretending that I am good enough. I am not about to lower myself to playing garbage music in front of people who wouldn't know good if they sat in it. It took me years to admit that I washed out in music. My music will never be on Spotify, iTunes, or any of them. It's not good enough. I'M not good enough. And I'd rather not pretend.

I am confused.



Did you mean YOU would rather be a performer? Because that second part of the quote is 180 opposed.

Your band, at least what I hear on your CD, should get calls to be at least band 2 of a 5 band card, if not 3. You are not rookies and you play a genre that will always be popular.

Hi Eddie. That might be caused by the snip. But to be clearer, I do perform now, but I enjoy writing more. I was always the headliner when I played, mostly because I played for educational purposes and got grant funding. The rest of the band grew old and grumpy after 32 years together.

Any concerts or recording that I do now is to enhance other people's performances. While they pay me nicely, I could not recommend anyone go into the music business now doing what I do.

I thought I read it right...

Anymore, I would personally rather write the next killer tune and live on what comes to my mailbox than schlep gear around. I will likely take my dream of hearing ONE of my songs performed by someone real to the grave with me. Like many (if not most) players my age I was dead set on being the band that made people forget The Beatles. I wrote and wrote and wrote REALLY bad songs just waiting to turn out ONE good one.

And I'm still waiting.

But I could take all of those really crappy songs and upload them somewhere and delude myself into thinking I am real.

Much like I could still think I am a handsome studly lady killer dude!!

I hear you, Eddie. Except maybe for the lady killer part.

My guitarist was on hold with Verizon one day. He heard a guitar soloing during the on-hold music. He thought, that cat is pretty good. Then he thought, that cat copped some of my licks! Then he realized, that's me!

It was my CD playing.

Mailbox Money!!

I still like playing live in a situation where I know the players and the music we are playing. It is becoming more difficult by the month due to old age and health issues.

Going to a studio to record something with people you like is still a lot of fun.

I am certainly not going to move anything heavy. There are plenty of young guys to move all those heavy guitar amps around. Many of us have stopped playing through the likes of Fender Twins unless they were provided by a backline company or were in the studio.

I decided a very long time ago that I wanted to make money a lot more than I wanted to play music. I also knew I was not willing to put in the time and effort to be a competent musician. Making a good living gave me to resources to indulge in the music world.

I have sold a few musical creations I, along with some really good musicians, created. But, none of that was ever a material amount of money.

It is a good thing that some here have been able to make some money and get some recognition for their efforts. I like listening to Matt and to Bud and Janice. I hope they make a zillion dollars.

I can not imagine trying to live on what someone just out of a major music school is generally paid in today's world.

There was a time in the United States when the average person could survive on what they made playing in a club. That is almost impossible to do now.

A skilled musician playing in a symphony earns somewhere in the range of 30K to 80k. That is not a very well-paying job at a time when cheap new houses cost 300K.

To get back to the thread, my surprise is just with the volume of music being produced. The numbers are huge.

Billy

Yes, as you said, the numbers are huge. Most interesting. And with AI, the numbers will only get larger and make it more difficult to stand out.

Even more, Billy. From the infrawebz...

How much do The Cleveland Orchestra employees earn on average?

The Cleveland Orchestra pays an average salary of $147,514 and salaries range from a low of $126,019 to a high of $170,231. Individual salaries will, of course, vary depending on the job, department, location, as well as the individual skills and education of each employee.

Not a bad way to make a Bach!

But they also have a waiting Liszt.

(One more? Okay!)

Wouldn't it be great to Ravel in that kind fame?

(Bonus round.) I'd get my Rachmanins-off every performance!

I am glad to hear that, Eddie. 150K should be the minimum wage. The skill needed to play in The Cleveland Orchestra requires a substantial amount of work and education. They deserve all they can get.

The good thing about living in Cleveland is a good bit lower median new house prices from realtor.com. 130K for a new house?

Many of us here on this forum are old enough that all these uploads don't affect us much.

I feel for the kids coming up who will have a substantially more difficult time pursuing making music for a living. These young people are doing what they can to beat to odds. They use stuff like TicTok to get exposure, and some get known on youtube.

These guys just work really hard at it. The year before the pandemic, a band of three young guys was doing well around Miami playing live gigs. All could sing very well, and all played drums, bass, keyboards, and guitar and switched off in the shows. I sat in with them from time to time. I never had any interest in the money, but they made six or seven hundred just in tips regularly, plus what they got paid.
Yes, of course, they had day jobs, except for the drummer, who played in several bands. The drummer was a bit older and had played professionally all his life. He had all the contacts he needed to stay busy. Well...enough of this, Eddie, see you in the funny papers...lol

Billy

My friend at work's son plays the cello. Mainly as a tool to get into college on a music scholarship. His tutor/instructor is one of if not the top cellist in the state of Florida. She has to work a "day" job to live and she plays in 2 Orchestra's, 1 for the ballet and 1 that is just straight concert music. Ridiculous.

Wow! Sounds like she needs to move to Cleveland.

This is sad, sad, sad. Her music should provide her a comfortable 6 figure income.

It's not hard to project into the future where music schools, music instructors and muscians fade into near extinction. This could take just a century or less.

The hope is that the coming generations will see much value in humans learning, creating and playing music.

Some of you know that while I've always been a professional musician, my day job was a comp. sci. prof and then dean of academic affairs at a junior college. In the late 90s we created what I thought was an innovative program for a one-year degree, a certificate in music performance. It was designed to help kids, some who were disadvantaged musically or financially, to get a year to hone skills at lower cost and be better prepared to enter a music school. The program was very popular and successful. Twenty-five years later, I could not in good conscience create such a program.

We have evidence of bone flutes dating back 40,000 years. I assume there was not much competition in those days, but who knows?

Perhaps paleolithic “flute playing Willie” was also complaining about how little food he was given for his musical talents…lol

I imagine Willie got tired of his lot in life and headed on down the Silk Road, where he encountered new and strange instruments with strings and cone-shaped objects that made frightening loud sounds.

Willie also quickly figured out he had to at least pretend to adhere to the religions of the day.

Historically, religions have promoted the use of music, and for a while, Willie found work in Hinduism. Some of us here on the forum are paid by the church to this day to play.


We don’t have much to go on from this early period of music. There are a lot of passages about music written in the Rigveda but no music has survived
.
Willie was not the only musician on the journey to the future. Ling Lun was ordered by Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, to invent the bamboo flute to imitate the songs of the Fenghuang birds.

Further on down the road, there was an increase in trade, and Willie hitched a ride on an elephant, and down the Silk Road, he went!

Willie had a bunch of kids, and by the time he died, they had taken off for parts unknown, spreading the word of the new wave of music.

Well, here we are in 2023, wondering what the future of musical sound will be and if they are going to feed us. The poets have a rather dim view of the future.

By Mr. Bobby D

"Well, he hands you a nickel, and he hands you a dime
And he asks you with a grin, if you're havin' a good time"

"The lamppost stands with folded arms, its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail, though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall with a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden."

Because most of us are driven to play music, music will be around for as long as this pale blue dot we live on exist.

We may get paid, we may be forced to pay to play, we may have to hide underground, we may be forced to record on x-ray film but we will continue to play music. Our voice may be tiny and weak but we try our best to be listened to.

Engineers at JPL's mission control initiated a signal telling the NASA's Deep Space Network to send the song into space. For the first time ever, NASA beamed a song - The Beatles' "Across the Universe" - directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4.

Billy

LOL, yep, sounds like the pay is much better. Maybe she doesn't like snow?

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 ♫

To expound a bit more .... from my POV.....

I agree that the old days were quite different for musicians and writers than today's world.

I got out of the service in 75 and hung around Jacksonville, NC while I was going to school to learn something useful. I ended up in a couple of different bands during that time. During those years in Jville, it seemed like there was more work for bands then there were bands. Rock clubs, dance clubs, top 40 joints, disco clubs, and country music nightclubs. There were a multitude of civilian clubs and an entire military nightclub system, all of which used live bands. I recall several times, playing over 21 nights straight without leaving town. And of course there were more clubs in the surrounding towns and cities and the beach towns. If you weren't playing in a band and you were reasonably talented and or had a PA system it was because you didn't want to play. Just in town at one point there was maybe 12 bands working at least the weekends. Players would quit one band and be in another in a day or two or less. It was like musical chairs with the bands at times. In one band we were starting from scratch, the bass player said at the first practice.... I have a club that wants us as soon as we can do a full night show. That was the reality of that area in the 70s and 80s. Some people booked shows and didn't have a band but would then put out the word and hire players to do the show. I remember joining one band on a simple invite to come "bring your guitar to the club and set in and jam" The weekend ended with money in my pocket and a job with the band.

Now... I think there's like one or two clubs that use bands, a lot of coffee house kinda places with single or duo's.... and the military club system stopped using live bands altogether many years back. They figured out that bands don't equate to beer sales with Marines. You don't have to encourage a Marine to buy a beer. Who knew, right?

My last band gig was a house band gig that lasted two and a half years. Mid 80s if I remember correctly. Packed house every weekend. Same place, same crowd, every weekend. That was fun and the money wasn't bad and we didn't have to tear down and travel home at 4am. Wed rehearsal, Fri & Sat, play the gig. Occasional weekend off so we could have a life.... another band would be hired for those weekends. When that was fixing to crash and burn.... I saw the impending signs that I'd seen before..... I started putting my studio together.

On the professional concert/radio/TV & Film music level.... The days of low hanging fruit are long gone. Getting music to an artist is nearly impossible unless you happen to hang out with them, write with them, or know someone in their circle of friends. Same thing applies to placing music in film and TV. No easy paths exist anymore. The bar is so high that many songs simply don't cut it on the quality of either the writing or the production values or both. Everything is so narrowly focused and the quality required is unreal. A guitar part that someone thought should have been done in another way, an edit that is barely audible, a click, or the style is not quite dead center, is reason for "sorry, we can't use that" . And even when you do get the cut.... it's literally just pennies or at best a couple of dollars for the use. Getting past the keepers of the gates is the hard part.

Anyway...... my 2 cents worth

the western music world may be approaching some level of satiety with respect to melody and lyrics.

Over the last 100 years (my arbitrary timeline) many great melodies have been created.
Many great lyrics have been written.


Often new songs sound much like many other songs we already know.
Some so much that one person takes another to court regarding the idea.

Dare I say there's a lot of derivative melodies.

Certainly there's a lot of worn out cliche's continually used in music (cue steve goodman's "never even call me by my name" penned some 50 years ago) lyrics.

The original singer/songwriter of today is climbing a very steep slope. Not only are there seemingly many more of them out there, it seems as if a lot of the best material has already been taken.

Not saying all of it. Just saying its hard work to get anywhere playing music, let alone stuff you write/compose.

As a regularly gigging musician (covers), I tip my hat to those getting traction with their orginal music.

"On the professional concert/radio/TV & Film music level"

Gatekeepers! You either are one, you know one, or you most likely will not get through the gate. I am speaking here mainly about large studios like Universal.

People who buy products and services are in business to make a profit. They buy first from their long-time suppliers, who consistently produce the results they are looking for at a price they are willing to live with.

Even if you produce a better product at a lower price, getting the gatekeeper to notice you is hard, if not nearly impossible.

There are other cultural issues that define what "supplier" is suitable. That is not a subject I am willing to comment on in a public forum. That is PM material.

On a more local level, when trying to move up, there are very unpleasant questions a band has to answer. Is your vocalist an A-list quality singer? Can your guitar player play almost anything note for note? Are your original songs actually great? Can you travel around on a tour bus without killing each other? If not, you must consider that you don't have what it takes to compete with the best, most famous bands out there because they "are" your competition.

There is music, and there is the music business. Music is fun, and the business is brutal.

Billy

While I was in the Navy I had a couple of bands that I played with. Out in Idaho, we were called the Idaho Spud Machine (Gloria Estefan already Had the Miami Sound Machine!) Any way we played in a little Quonset hut bar out near Atomic City. It was the only place out there and was on the way home from work. Many people stopped there on their way home. We were good and made some money. Not you could live on it money but it was fine. As military bands go, we all transferred away in time. When I got to Virginia late 80's early 90's got another band going. We were a country band as that new wave of country artists were hitting it big. Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Brooks and Dunn and many more. So we got steady work on weekends mostly. Again it was not making a living type money, but it was steady extra money. Of course, we were all on a ship so we did have to go to sea, which would put a damper on the playing. We had a couple of civilian guys in the band, bass and drums, so they had to find other work while we went to sea.

Most places have single, or duo acts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, afternoons and evenings. There are 2 or 3 places here in town that have full bands several nights still. And we have a big park that does live shows on Friday nights with bars, food trucks all that. These bands do quite well. All cover bands.

You can find places to play and get paid for it. If that is what you want. You need to have a good act and sound and in most cases be non-intrusive as you are really just background.

etcjoe[size:14pt][/size]

Send me your phone number to planobillyfl@gmail.com

My phone died and I lost your number.

Billy

As the live music industry withered away in the 1980s, the then future Mrs. Notes and I were in a 5-piece band.

Two things were happening:

1) Club owners were paying less for bands, because there were more bands needing work than places that used bands. By then DJs, Sports Bars, Comedy Clubs, Open Mic Nights and so on were filling places where bands formerly gigged.

2) Personnel problems further withered our income. In one year, two members quit and we ended up out of work for 3 months while we found and trained new musicians.

Knowing that as a rule, smaller groups make more money per musician than each musician in a larger group, we decided to form a duo.

I bought a Teac A3440 4 track 15” reel to reel deck. Since I play sax, flute, guitar, bass, drums, and some keys, I could make my own backing tracks. This was very new at the time. So I recorded everything but the parts we wanted to play live, mixed to cassette and got gigs.

We got a 3 week with options gig on a Carnival cruise ship. Carnival liked us because our lounge generated all-time record-breaking revenue. We weren't that good yet, but we figured out what the cruise ship was lacking and focused on that. The 3 week options ended up 3 years on the ships, and we gave notice to take care of Mrs. Notes' ailing mother.

By the time we got off the ships, we were well seasoned and as good or better than any duo in South Florida, where we live.

On the ships, we collected requests, and learned the songs that got requested most frequently. We still do that.

Also MIDI came around, so we redid everything with MIDI as we learned new tunes.

We haven't been out of work since, except during the COVID drought.

We had a house gig in a club for 12.5 years, the plague came, the club got sold, and the new owners wanted to pare down to single acts. So we went to a competitor, he hired us on our reputation, and we've been there a year and a half now. He says we have the gig for as long as he owns the resort.

Yes, it's a business.

We are employed because we take the business side seriously.

1) We learn what the public wants to hear. Songs requested frequently or by a regular customer get learned.

2) We are pleasant and easy to get along with. The bartenders, wait staff, management, and owners like us as people.

3) We go over and above what the club hired us for. Crowd having a good time and it's break time? Skip the break. Our shift is over, and the audience wants more? If no one is following us, we play long.

4) We put ourselves in the proverbial shoes of the person who hired us, and make our decisions with that in mind. In a commercial club, anything that we can do to make the club more money is a go. For private parties, anything we can do to make the guests tell the host/hostess they had a great time is a go.

5) We don't do set lists, but read the crowd, play what they need, when they need it, even thought they don't know when they need it.

Besides the business end (above) Mrs. Notes and I really enjoy singing and playing. It's the most fun we can have with our clothes on.

We are very good at what we do, the backing tracks are great. Mrs. Notes is a fantastic singer and she plays guitar and synth. I'm an excellent sax/wind synth player and decent at singing, guitar, and flute on stage, and because I also play bass, drums, and keys, I can make our own backing tracks, in our key, and our arrangement.

I don't know what works for the zillions of songs uploaded that can make you an overnight star, but I do know what it takes to keep working, and as that changes, we adapt to the changes.

Mrs. Notes and I have been in this duo for 38 years now. I tell the audience, “The only band who has been together longer than is, is the Rolling Stones.” After a pause, I'll add, “And we still have all the original members.”

If making a living doing music and nothing but music is the dream, we are living the dream.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

You forgot to boast about how you are the best band in the universe and how you play 15-20 gigs per month... And cruises. Let's not forget how you play cruises.

Do you have all this flexing in a text file somewhere, because almost every post you make contains all of the same "look at us and how great we are" items. All that's missing is that you went to high school with Bob Dylan, as we used to see once a week at least...

More and more I am happy that you didn't come to Herbstock.

I came here for the stats update and ended up finding, yet again, elaborate C.V.s in narrative/memoir/revisionist history form.
It's no one's fault...threads go off topic more often than not.

Perhaps there could be a "sticky" section in which we all post out "brag book" and can link to that rather than ...oh, that's not the point is it?

I remember when I was one of those that wrote, played, performed, made & posted music that went nowhere.
I enjoyed doing it.
I still do.

After reading Eddie's comment, I'm kinda' glad I didn't come to "Herbstock" either.