In my little world things have changed a lot since the 80s. Through the 60s and 70s we used to get good money for gigs. There were plenty of gigs to be had in clubs, pubs, balls, football club dos, weddings, woodshed dances. If you wanted you could play for 3 to 5 nights a week and even do more in the daytime. Making money albeit not making it big. I can recall on a number of occasions being undercut by bands “that have made it”. For me I was happy doing what I was, being big was not it.

Then in the 90s I changed where I lived. Doing a pub gig for peanuts and a guy walked in and said they could do the job at a far cheaper rate. My attitude was I made $300+ in my day job why play for less than $50 per night. So I did less.

Also along came drum machines, and various ways to do electronic backing (BIAB for example) so band gigs dried up and one musician with good backing does the job often better for less than a band.

The really sad thing from my perspective is even more are simply downloading karaoke files from the net. Or, worse yet a music video or recording of some type and singing over the top of the recording artist. These folk also have the hide to call themselves music artists.

These days I am retired. I was not going to do anything anymore. But, “pro muso ” asked could I cover for him in a nursing home. I did it and was offered more gigs. I do the odd one but these guys do these gigs for peanuts. They must be dead set keen to try and live like that.

I guess all that is fairly negative but one can still eke out a living and or enjoy a good future in music. My wife’s grandson is studying at a Conservatorium at the moment. He is a brilliant guitar player and I feel sure he’ll make it just fine.

My thoughts
Tony


Last edited by Teunis; 08/21/19 11:37 AM.
HP i7-4770 16GB 1TB SSD, Win 10 Home,
Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen, Launchkey 61, Maton CW80, Telecaster, Ovation Elite TX, Yamaha Pacifica 612
BB 2022(912) RB 2022(2), CakeWalk, Reaper 6, Audacity, Melodyne 5 Editor, Izotope Music Production Suite 4.1