To the guys whose entire careers are based on music …

[metropolis_4]

I’ve done it in the past, and I’m glad I’m not doing it anymore. I work with many people who are doing it and the main difference is that when we show up to a gig I’m there because I want to be, they’re there because they have to be (even if they also want to be there).

 

[la szum]

Pretty sure having a career in/with music is no different than any other career. People
are still people.

 

[la szum]

I’ve done it in the past, and I’m glad I’m not doing it anymore. I work with many people who are doing it and the main difference is that when we show up to a gig I’m there because I want to be, they’re there because they have to be (even if they also want to be there).

Oh man! It's weird, isn't it? Some of the most burnt out people I have met in life are
those who are working their passion. Literally! I wonder if we can care too much?

Or maybe Life is just hard and inherently challenging regardless of what we do?

I do know that when me and my friends were gigging the most, and at our most
seemingly successful (busy as F!), we had the most issues with our relationships
and avoiding conflict. We kind of imploded as a result (though we are all still
friends to this day and get together).

Some of my favourite moments gigging were just being a sideman, and filling a role
for someone else. I really loved that. I was in service of someone else's ego and ambitions
and if they were decent I had a blast. It was very liberating not caring and being SO
invested, if you know what I mean.

 

[la szum]

You could do the music thing down here. I have never made less than $100 for a night. I have had bands that I have been in where I was bringing all of the PA gear and dealing with everyrhing that comes with that and I was making $150 a night with some of those groups. The hard part is getting a band together with guys you can stand to be around and getting good. Then comes the booking of the gigs. I seem to find myself doing all of this stuff as well as being the music director in most bands I have been in. My plan is that the next one I get in I am not going to offer all of these things. I will offer to be a resource for someone else in the band to learn it and take it over.

That's the issue. $100/night is far less than what you could make in the 1980s and 1990s with far lower
of a cost of living.

The pay of live musicians has actually regressed in relation to cost of living and inflationary pressures
over the years. And not just a little.

In the 1990s you could gig and make $1500 for a 2 night weekend as a band easily, and then do lessons
Monday through Friday. You could thrive on that. Easily enough income to support a decent Coke habit.

Now the $$$ and reimbursement for services has really bad math. It just doesn't equate to anything remotely
feasible from an economic sense. Maybe that is why more and more are chasing clicks and likes more than
"gigs."

I am super grateful I was able to do what I did when I did it.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Pretty sure having a career in/with music is no different than any other career. People
are still people.

lulwut?

 

[la szum]

People in music, who make a career out of music---whether fully or partially---are no different than people who don't.

People are people. Wherever we go there we are.

 

[HotRats]

But I did spend 18 years in a relatively obscure band, but one that did have fans, and I played lots of shows to rooms full of people who loved what we did, and that was such an amazing thing to experience. I don't really care if it was 20, 30, 100, or 1000 people. It was great.

I would have loved to have that kind of experience but that never happened.

Moving to a big town in my late 20s basically cut all my music connections and I've never been able to find the right people to start somenthing like that. Loosing the connections is my only regret.
I tried to make original music there but couldn't find the right people. Tried twice but bands never lasted more than 2 years.
At some point I've surrendered and joined a cover band. Yep, a cover band.

My great friend, bass player in our band back in the late 90s, had and still the kind of experience you describe and I envy.
When in 2001 I moved to a big town and our band shut down, he found a new one, a good one, and they are still up an running.
Nothing big, just a well respected local band of now very good friends.

Now that I'm back here, 20+ years later, it's like starting over again and I'm not in my late 20s anymore.
We'll see what the future holds for me. We'll see.

 

[HomespunEffects]

People in music, who make a career out of music---whether fully or partially---are no different than people who don't.

People are people. Wherever we go there we are.

 

[JasonE]

That's the issue. $100/night is far less than what you could make in the 1980s and 1990s with far lower
of a cost of living.

The pay of live musicians has actually regressed in relation to cost of living and inflationary pressures
over the years. And not just a little.

In the 1990s you could gig and make $1500 for a 2 night weekend as a band easily, and then do lessons
Monday through Friday. You could thrive on that. Easily enough income to support a decent Coke habit.

Now the $$$ and reimbursement for services has really bad math. It just doesn't equate to anything remotely
feasible from an economic sense. Maybe that is why more and more are chasing clicks and likes more than
"gigs."

I am super grateful I was able to do what I did when I did it.

I 100% agree with you. This is what keeps me questioning if I want to do this cover band thing on the weekends. When I am the guy doing everything it isn't worth the money. I won't even load my gear up for less than $100 and I am getting to where I am questioning if I want to do that anymore. I don't need the money but I just can't get motivated to do it without getting paid. I put a lot of time and money into this and the venues just don't value that. They are stuck on this $100 per person in the band around here. It is tough to get them to go above that. You really have to draw a big crowd and sell a lot of beer to get paid more. I have done quite a few gigs in two different states and they are pretty much the same. Musicians haven't have a raise in decades.

I can say that I haven't made a lot more money being a sound guy either. And that requires me to drag a ton of equipment and set it all up and tear it down. I have to be the first guy there and am usually the last guy out because of the set up and tear down.

I have talked to a few guys that were in musicians unions and they made better money and got higher profile gigs. They were also guys that made their whole living playing.

 

[HomespunEffects]

That’s rough. Even my podunk town gives $200/person for a cover show.

 

[JasonE]

That’s rough. Even my podunk town gives $200/person for a cover show.

Sounds like I need to look at raising my rates if/when I get back out there. It could be later this year.

 

[jay mitchell]

I made a living playing from ca. 1976-1983. Prior to '76, I had day gigs - mostly as a car mechanic - and played one-nighters. My ambition had been to enable myself to stop being a mechanic and to rely on gigs for my entire income, and I was eventually successful at that.

Available gigs in those days included five- or six-night engagements in night clubs and hotel lounges, fraternity party one-nighters, and pickup gigs (aka "club dates") for society debuts, weddings, and corporate events. There were also a small number of studio dates, primarily recording commercial jingles. I had occasion to play gigs with older musicians who had major touring and recording credits - players whose skills were worlds beyond mine at the time - and those players were being paid not a cent more than I was. I was not sufficiently capable to play/sing solo gigs, which were by far the best-paying ones. A piano player who sang could command a healthy income by doing a happy hour single gig and then playing later that same evening in a club band. I knew and worked with a number of such musicians, and I envied them their income-producing abilities. Regardless, for much of my full-time tenure, I enjoyed myself.

The novelty began wearing thin towards the end, and I grew tired of scuffling to pay rent, bills, keep a vehicle running, etc. My motivation to improve my musical skills declined somewhat, and it became more difficult to make myself practice. I returned to school in 1981 and completed degrees in Physics (which I had begun earlier), while still playing gigs to pay tuition and bills. I consider myself fortunate: that would not be remotely possible in today's economy. I am also fortunate to have a number of interests/passions, several of which I've made a living doing at various times. My interests in music, audio, acoustics, electronics, computer programming, and fabrication all contributed to my career in loudspeaker R&D. Around 2006, I decided to revisit gigs. In 2009 and 2010, I played in a trio accompanying an elderly bluesman. We played 3-4 dates a week, mostly local to the DFW area, but some in OK casinos. When I left that band, I'd had enough of gigging. The money was no better than it had been in the 1970s - and I didn't particularly need it - and we had to load in and out every night, as opposed to once every few weeks. My hat's off to anyone who can generate a livable income from musical activites and not grow weary of doing what's required.

 

[bucephalus]

I was fortunate enough at a young age to play with people so much more talented than I that I knew the big dream was never going to happen.

That led to me very comfortably slipping into keeping it something I still find fun and earns me a little side hustle cash to boot.

 

[Dimiguitar]

I'm not an engineer or "properly educated" guitar player. My background is in analytic/moral philosophy.

But I've worked in the setting of a start up in pickup design for a while, supplemented by doing cover gigs.

Probably the biggest challenge with all that was consistency, though that applies to so many domains in today's society.