Ancient Vegan wrote:How are you going to measure if people like it?
By the number of people who, being nice, say they like it?
Or by people putting down there hard earned cash?
How do you measure if it touches your soul? Sure it touches your soul you wrote it.
Lynard, I'm not sure that maybe you should just sell off ALL your gear and go retire somewhere. It really seems like you have lost the inspiration to make music.
Like PG says, you see heads nodding when you play a song. Or (in my case) I get messages/emails - out of the blue, total strangers - that say one song or another really affected them, or like one I got last week, from a woman whose boyfriend was listening to one of my songs over and over again.
'putting down there(sic) hard earned cash' - shows you're still looking at things like in the old (i.e. 20th century) days. People listen to music online now - streaming from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Youtube and a ton of other places. They can do it for free, and when the commercials come up, they can just skim over to their next free listening site. They're not buying CDs, or even downloads anymore - because they don't have to! And if they're under 30, and really want to have a song/album on a portable drive/stick/device, they know how to quickly record/download it for free, too.
The only people buying music (albums or downloads) these days are 'superfans' (fans who literally buy anything from an artist) and musicians and friends. So don't be judging the quality of songwriting by 'sales'.
The mindless team-written formula country/pop appeals to the masses who don't really care WHAT the music is, they just like it for the 'moment they are in' - whether it be in a large crowd at a concert or a dance club. 5 years from that 'moment' will they still be listening to that same music? NO! They'll be listening to the 'music of the moment' at that time. Is the 'earning potential' you're talking about, that ability to pack a club or concert venue? If that's your ideal, then hang up the guitar, because guitar rock/country/blues has been long dead that way. Yes, there are still people out playing it, but not for the big bucks that it once was. 'The Times They Are A-Changing' as some songwriter wrote 55 years ago!
As to songwriters - Nick Lowe - 'one hit wonder' - guessing you've listened to old classic rock/top 40 radio too long that you only know 'Cruel To Be Kind'. He's had a number of other songs on the radio, and wrote Elvis Costello's hit song "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding" too.