General Music Chat

Yod, I was in a band that did what you are talking about. We recorded an album in 1996. We played out 3 to 4 nights a week and rehearsed and wrote songs 2 more nights in that same week. The music consumed 5 to 6 days a week of our life's! We also worked day jobs and I had 2 teens and 1 toddler and a newborn!
The studio gave us a break on the recording time as they saw the talent and dedication! We did the necessary pre-production and had everything VERY organized! When the record was done we had spent roughly $12,500.00 and from that we had 1000 cd's and 500 cassette tapes! After doing this for a couple of years. doing EVERYTHING EXACTLY like it should be done with no success it TORE the band apart! I have been looking for a band with an inkling of the same talent that band had since 1998! I am SURE the other members of that group have as well! Needless to say original music has left a VERY bitter taste in my mouth! But that's okay! I am not going to stop doing what it is that I do!
Oh and I have GIVEN alot of those cd's away but I still have a BUTT load of cassette tapes. Some of the songs are on my site I believe they are songs 3 thru 12 there is another 4 songs from that album I took off along time ago because they were just too painfull to listen to, but that is very old water under a VERY old bridge and I am over it now so I will repost them again soon!

After doing this for a couple of years. doing EVERYTHING EXACTLY like it should be done with no success it TORE the band apart! I have been looking for a band with an inkling of the same talent that band had since 1998! I am SURE the other members of that group have as well! Needless to say original music has left a VERY bitter taste in my mouth! But that's okay! I am not going to stop doing what it is that I do!

Was the original music that bad?

There are no guarantees in life. I've done the same thing you described several times. Each was an expensive learning experience...mostly learned that you can't count on musicians for business partners, hence the solo thing though I would prefer a band.

The truth is that you need to be producing something new every 2 - 4 years and keep growing. It might be your 3rd CD before a lot of people take you seriously. Yes, it's a lot of money to invest but that is the price of doing business no matter what field you pursue. If you want to succeed bad enough, you'll find a way. I've seen it done so many times that there just isn't a good excuse not to.

You won't make a lot of money until you have a lot of merch. One CD says "I'm more serious than most garage bands, but only beginning". Two CDs says "we're committed to being professional" and three CDs says "we are successful and know what we're doing". Aerosmith had 3 albums out before radio began playing "Dream On" from their first album. Pantera had 3 indie albums before they signed the big deal. I could go on, but a record label looks for someone who knows how to make records and has a realistic idea of what it's going to take to succeed. You can wait and hope....or you can show everyone that you deserve to be taken seriously.

So back to the thread topic, this is what separates the bands who get paid from the ones who don't. A band might be the biggest draw in town but if they aren't touring with a record, the bar owner is never going to take them as seriously as the band who is, no matter who has more talent.

Yod, you be the judge go to my site. listen to the music and see if you here anything bad?

Yod, you be the judge go to my site. listen to the music and see if you here anything bad?

It was a rhetorical question because you said "original music left a bad taste in my mouth".


I was listening to your page while you were writing that. You have plenty of talent, bro! I hope that I'm not discouraging you or anyone else by setting goals that seem lofty. I certainly don't want to diminish what you or anyone else here does. I don't consider myself to be "better" than anyone here, just maybe a little more stubborn.

Most musicians are happy with playing their gig and having an outlet for their passion. Life is too short to turn what you love into work if doing that doesn't make you happy.

Was only giving the answer to the question posed by the thread. If we want to make (real) money in the music biz, we have to approach things differently than yer average garage band. That's all I'm trying to say.

Yod, I am glad it is working for you. Everyone has a little different approach to making music and it is good to hear success stories. My story is similar to J-Haley but much earlier.

I was going for the brass ring from 77-83 in two different bands. We played 10-20 original songs and filled out the gig with our own arrangements of cover tunes. I thought both bands had strong material and we played all over LA and Hollywood, all the frat houses, Gazzarri's, road trip to NorCal one year and crowds loved the shows and filled the rooms. It was a lot of fun for guys in our 20s. A few rough recordings of our live shows have turned up on the net from time to time.

We recorded with Enactron studios Hollywood and another LA mobile recording studio as well as doing our own demos on 4 track reels. No one bought the music in any significant numbers. Recording was a black hole for dead presidents for 5 years. It just never reached a point where our recorded music took off and that sucked the life out of two good bands.

Bottom line... I realized through this that I didn't enjoy songwriting and recording. Live music has always been my passion and now that is how I make music. We play gigs of our choosing and we determine the performance fee. We play songs we enjoy and often put our own arrangements on them to keep things interesting. We play very few clubs/bars because most of them can only pay $300-400 and cannot afford us. If they see us at a car show or street fair and ask us to play we will do it if the money is decent. We all have wives, lives, and day jobs that pay well so we don't need to make a living off music and touring is not an option at this point. Our gig money just keeps us in modern gear and covers our transportation costs. We play live music for joy which I suppose is a success in some small way.

Yod, I don't view your post as diminishing! Quite the contrary! You are a touring musician. I am not sure what your Genre is but I am sure you are probably good at it! Please continue to "Be You"

Something a fried of mine on FB posted. Interesting read on this topic. No, its not spam.


"Here's Dave Goldberg's wake-up call. If you're a musician and you're playing for less than $100 a gig, this is for you. Download it. Copy it. Hand it out. Plaster it anywhere musicians are... by jonathan_townes in value, compensation, and musicians"

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-C ... e:facebook

Something a fried of mine on FB posted. Interesting read on this topic. No, its not spam.


"Here's Dave Goldberg's wake-up call. If you're a musician and you're playing for less than $100 a gig, this is for you. Download it. Copy it. Hand it out. Plaster it anywhere musicians are... by jonathan_townes in value, compensation, and musicians"

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-C ... e:facebook

There is really only one way to stop the Club owner nonsense... Tell them all to f**k off when they present their silly demands...

Then, (this is the most important part) Open a club up in your town that budgets for having live entertainment and advertising, then beat the ever living crap out of the competition and stamp em out of business... That's really the only way its gonna change.. Destroy the old model and build a new one.

Of course tis is just my opinion...

Pretty good opinion Mr Dog, most people
don't have the balls to tell their cat to phuk
off, much less a real person.

Pretty good opinion Mr Dog, most people
don't have the balls to tell their cat to phuk
off, much less a real person.

LOL...to me, the hardest part is opening the new club...

I just met with a club owner Last night to secure a booking for my Song writing contest...Its official March 1, 2012 One night pilot to see how it goes. After I explained my position about fees,etc with the club owner, I successfully won him over and got him on board with my event. I got his full backing actually, and he's pretty excited about it.. (future potential) I also discovered that he has a "promotions" agent who handles all his bookings...and that guy was jacking up all those ridiculous fees... beforehand. That's not gonna be a problem now.

The lesson learned is we really should know up front who we are doing business with. The owner in this case was actually pretty reasonable and supportst the art scene, music scene, etc...