Music Industry Discussion

Simple. You need determination, talent and perserverance. There's a lot of stuff on this at Music Live UK entertainment agency website on their music industry blog.

Hey, this is a pretty good thread!

Define successful?

I like your first sentence, Dregonfly, but I'd change the last part so it read "Successful to me would be not just playing, but constantly creating entertaining (to ME, I'm playing for ME...) music with encouraging, HAPPY, musicians while being able to pay for my music expenses (equipment, strings, etc)."

I work a regular job for the living expenses!

while the music industry seems in shambles and making it definitely seems as difficult as i imagine making it in the film industry is, i believe it comes down to a number of things. the most important being that as a musician you must (should) have a true passion for music that helps push you through the difficulties you NEED to overcome. building on passion i'll say what everyone else already said but it comes down to knowing your genre/style of music and rolling with that. it's tough to follow a band that jumps genres unless you're The Beatles i would start small lol, develop a following and then give the people what they want to hear! rock on.

Q. What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?

about 60k per year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z3mdv6PSOA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z3mdv6PSOA

Check out this blog at www.fredericklivingston.com

I have a feeling that nep481281 IS Frederick Livingston!!

[quote="Dregonfly"]

Successful also brings along with it, positive feedback, people that go out of their way to make it to a show, paid gigs, and networking with more bands to jam or schedule gigs together. This networking gives the potential for bringing in guest musicians on a song or two. (I like it when I get to jam on my upright bass with an electric bassist, or a fiddle/violin.)

Dregonfly: I see the keyword "networking" and I remember session bassist (and Ibanez Artist Model) Gary Willis' quote:

"In order for most musicians to feel fulfilled they have to be doing 4 or 5 musical endeavors at once, so that if one drops out, they still feel fulfilled, for example:
1) play in a local giging band
2) recording for a friend's album
3) recording/composing their own music
4) teaching students
5) doing workshops or writing articles

It is not realistic to expect to be able to do all those in one band, so don't give up on the band because of it."

Well said, Gary.

I would say you need to get really clear on what your idea of "success" is. What are you trying to achieve and why?

The "why" is really worth thinking about because once you have that clear, the amount of ways you can achieve it will grow.

Have fun!