General Music Chat

well it really is relative isn't it,

my daughter is a vocal performance major out of BU
now works as music teacher and is paid regularly at various opera companies in NY as well as other classical venues.
her husband is finishing his doctorate in music at Rutgers,
I wouldn't say they are wealthy but they both make their living in music.
my wife's uncle is a has his PHD in music and has never held any other type of job. he is 84 now.


beyond that there is quite a bit of people making a great deal of money in music

but if you are talking about making a living in rock music that is 20 to 30 years past it's prime, well that will probably be pretty tough.

it really depends on what you are willing to do.

bingo. There are many ways to have a full-time rewarding career in music.

But no matter what era of music you look at in world history, the most successful ones were the ones creating new music. Seems like a no-brainer that writing (good) songs and creating fresh music is the key.

All my life I've heard this same crap about it can't be done. I chose not to listen to that. My attitude is "if it's humanly possible, I can do it". It's not easy or everyone would be doing it, and doesn't happen fast. We have to stay sucker-free in a world full of lollipops.

There aren't that many people constantly working to improve themselves. If you are one who does, you will eventually pull away from the crowd.

Anyone can succeed if they take an honest assesment of where they are, then make a plan to get where they want to be and stick with it. I'm just saying that "if" you want to be make money over the long-term as a working musician, you'll need a product to sell...and you'll need a new one every 2 or 3 years.

If you can do that, it doesn't matter what anyone in the industry thinks about your work. You are a success if you are producing.

So maybe you have never written a song you think is good enough to record? Nothing is stopping you.

A song is only an idea put to music. Good ideas make good songs. The passion I see in every one of you only needs to be channeled into words and then put to music.

Don't settle for cliche' and don't settle for mediocre. Come up with a good idea for a song. It doesn't have to be earth-shatteringly revolutionary....good is good enough.

Think of a clever way to say something that has already been said. Come up with something so goofy people can't help but laugh. Make them angry if you have to get their attention, but there are songs floating in the air just waiting to be written in a way that only you can do.

fisherman bob can channel all of his angst into words pretty well here. Why not put all those gripes into songs? Paper Dog and Christopher have some strong political opinions on extreme ends of the spectrum....how about protest songs or commentary on the current comic tragedy in the news today? Leonard can make anything funny.

Most of the rest of you seem like the usual topics would come easy....partying, rock n roll, fast cars, hard streets, whatever...

Believe or not, each of you has a perspective that is all your own but maybe you don't realize it yet? What seems "everyday normal" to you could be a fascinating perspective for someone else.

One thing is sure. It won't happen until you sit down with a pencil and paper. Keep working on that and before you know it, you'll have a catalogue and enough songs for a GREAT CD.

Then it's a matter of how to produce it, which is another field I would be happy to advise on, and there are probably many more here who can help. That takes a different kind of discipline but it's not impossible if you have a plan.

I am Rasta Superman!

YOD I understand passion in music as well as anyone.

What I like to see from folks like you is numbers, What exactly are you making? And on What?

What did it cost you to make your cd's? How much are you selling them for? How many have you sold?

I shared on here that i found a rapper guy to dub 3500 CDs for my band for a $1000 dollars, thats .29 cents a piece, no artwork just band name, our old myspace account printing on them. We initially were going to sell them for $5, didnt pan out so we wound up giving them away. We did sell a few but we wanted people the hear us to push them to gigs.

We had t-shirts made up they cost $3.95 apiece in the quanity we got. We sold them for $15 each, the only problem was I let a gal handle all of that and she wound up keeping a lot of the money for herself. Bad business on my part.

When I talk about bar gigs, I share what kind of money is realistic to expect from bars. In my area its anywhere from $200 to $400 per night, it is what it is. I try to share with people on here ideas to maybe make a little more than that.

This is a music site where I feel we should share what we are doing, and when I say that I like numbers to back it up.

Here ya go John:

I spent $1300 producing the five tracks on the new CD, plus another $1300 to get 1000 duplicated by Discmakers. We've sold some but given away far more; our goal is to increase the number of fans, not to make money in the short term. So CD's are loss leaders. I estimate that I've spent $40,000 producing the twenty-some (120+ songs) recordings I've done in the past 25 years. We don't make much doing gigs, anywhere from $50-200 is typical. The bottom line, don't do original music if you're goal is to make some side cash. Do it because you have to.

Jimmy, I just like to see in black and white what people are doing.

That wasnt aimed at you, I have a couple of your cds and know what youve put into them.

I just think its good to show the realitys of what can be made in monetary terms so some of the folks that are new and for whatever reason think they are going to make some real money out of it, they should just be aware of what they are up against.

The last few years my recording cost has been near zero, our bassist has his own studio and he does a great job, but actually there is some sort of cost in that, he just has been cool and donated that to our projects.

Ive got around $25,000 worth of sound, lighting equipment in a trailer so my little $150 a night doesnt really dent into the true cost, Im more of a hobby player, who wasnt satisfied jamming in the garage, I want to be in front of people.

Plus I just love doing it, thats my main motivation. Its not money, but I have found with a couple of my bandmates it takes a little money coming in to keep them in the situation. But, they love it too, so we are on the same page, and it works for us as a band.

but if you are talking about making a living in rock music that is 20 to 30 years past it's prime, well that will probably be pretty tough.

it really depends on what you are willing to do.

Well, and that's the thing - context. I wasn't trying to make an argument one way or the other for all music careers. It just seems to me that most of the people on this board are in the same boat. We're everyday people playing music and trying to have fun and make a few bucks doing it. I don't see session musicians or concert violinists or conductors here on BM. I see regular Joe musicians trying to have fun doing what they love.

Sure, there are different ways to make money as a musician.

But it's not so much "what you're willing to do" as what you are good at and what you CAN do. I mean, are you going to take up the violin with the idea to spend a career in music a a concert violinist?

We do what we're good at - what our gifts allow...

Good points John and Chris. Most of us are just working Joes and will most likely never make it big in music. But making it big does not define success; if you're happy with what you've done and continue to do, you've succeeded. Rock on boys!

LOL, I feel good at gigs when someone sends the band a bucket of beer!

Now thats priceless to me, that someone will spend thier hard earned dollars to buy us a round cause they like what we do, or when someone requests an original song that we wrote 20 years ago, and we are just a cover band!

You can change my last name to "Joe". (but I like those low key shows)

I like it when you do a greasy-ass show that gets you a little exasperated.
Then I start abusing the crowd a little, but not enough to get socked.

Case in point, I was at an open mic once and it was a sh*t hole.
I didn't even realize it was that bad because the lighting was dim and we came in late.

We did a tune and it sounded bad because? the place is dumpy and the sound guy was drunken, but I started to really let go after that.

The next tune was good, but I made a couple of remarks I shouldn't have.
The one was about this ladies' dress being tight. (I said something about her dress and Braille)

Next thing I know I had to talk turkey with her beau du jour and he wasn't amused at all.

I did what any self-respecting dude would have done, I apologized and bought the guy a beer. (afterwards we both laughed about how tight her dress was) lol

PS: I'd send ya a bucket of beer, JW. You guys deserve it..

Thanks Capt, I take that as the ultimate compliment!

Rock ON!

When I was in Vegas recently I noticed they don't sell beer by the bucket there! I was heart broken!

When I was in Vegas recently I noticed they don't sell beer by the bucket there! I was heart broken!

Gimme Back, Gimme Back My Buckets!

Why John, you got a "Saturday Night Special"?

No question - YOU define your own success! And you can define varying degrees of success if you like.

I play in a working band now. A band that does bar gigs 2-3 times a month, and then gets shots to open for bigger acts that come through our area, like when we opened for Hell's Belles a couple months ago, or when they (prior to my involvement) opened for Puddle of Mud this past summer in front of 3,000 people.

To me, that's "success" in a very modest form, and something that, quite frankly, after 15 years of playing I thought would never happen.

But it did.

I relish every chance I get to play in front of people and hear applause, and see the smiles on people's faces, and hear the comments between sets. I love playing with my brothers and really getting into it on stage. I love performing.

Do what you love. That's the first thing. Everything else follows from that..