Wouldn't you wanna make a living out of music?

The Lounge General Discussion
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I hopefully won’t repeat what others have already said so well. I’ll just chime in a bit with what I usually think about when considering success as an artist.

To me, part of the beauty of making art, any type, is being free to express yourself in whatever manner you choose. To not be accountable to a boss or client. To not worry about what will sell, be popular, etc. So to be independent and have a solid base to continue making your art in the manner you want, for as long as you want, is a powerful thing.

Agreed with earlier posters, “successful” means different things to different people. If I had to come up with a definition, tied to financial success, it would be FU money. If a musician has made FU money, they can make the music they want without listening to anyone’s input/notes/orders. Not dependent on sales to continue. Don’t have to do 24/7 promotion, marketing, social media, etc. Don’t have to schmooze with record industry types.

But it’s funny. Isn’t that kind of like the scene from Office Space? The characters are talking about what they would do if they had a million dollars.

Peter Gibbons: I’d relax, sit on my ass all day, I would do nothing.

Lawrence: Well you don’t need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Just take a look at my cousin, he’s broke, don’t do shit.

Both the millionaire musician and the hobbyist could both theoretically put out the music they want without worrying about financial repercussions. So, if independence is a definition of success for some, then there is more than one way to get there.

Instead of sitting around hoping to win the lottery of financial success and independence through music, I’d rather take the route of getting a solid, somewhat enjoyable and decent-paying job, make music in spare time, be frugal, save and invest like a mutha, figure out what amount you need to live a modest and secure lifestyle, retire early, and then do whatever whenever.

Example:

One more thing. I always get a lot of flack from people for espousing this perspective. It’s nowhere near as cool or glamorous as the starving artist approach. But… the starving artist approach has an expiration date. It might be attractive in your 20’s, maybe your 30’s. But try it in your 40’s, 50’s, or 60’s when your body starts to need more healthcare, or you’re tired of touring, or groupies don’t want anything to do with you after a show, or you can’t find a mate who is interested in someone they have to basically support financially. I know people like this. It’s getting harder and harder for them to coast by on being the cool musician.

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another oldie but goodie… just for good measure

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I said there are thousands of tracks released every DAY. Literally. In just house music. And I don’t mean every single Soundcloud demo, I mean stuff you can buy from Beatport, Junodownload, Bandcamp etc. It’s pretty much impossible to find all the gems hidden in there, especially with the horrible quality ratio of digital releases . Maybe if you’re a professional DJ and can spend 10 hours a day listening to clips. For a normal person it’s a daunting task.

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As one idiot who tried to follow the dream at the expense of all else in their youth, I can confirm that the starving artist/punk rock lifestyle gets old and stale pretty quick.

I’d also like to add that the longer you stick with it, the harder it is to do anything else.

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I studied music and and now make a living off of it. The music I make however is for facebook poker machine apps. This is not very artistically expressive obviously but I would still take it any day over going back to retail or hospitality.

The downside is im still getting used to managing my own time (2 years freelance) and without a boss breathing down my neck it’s very easy to spend entire days browsing videos of people playing synths. I think that is the catalyst of what you are talking about. People don’t do so well without structure in their lives self imposed or otherwise.

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Basic Income for Artists in Ireland

So i’m going to revive this thread because it seems to be the closest topic.

I see that the Irish government is setting up to pay some artists and cultural workers a basic income for the next three years. This is to help revive the arts that have been hurt by the pandemic, and includes musicians.

They took some ideas from a program that has been running in San Francisco.

If you live in Ireland are you thinking about taking part ? If you live somewhere else would you like to see this sort of program ? Or maybe you feel this isn’t needed.

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I’m gonna apply when it launches :partying_face: full-time painter here.
income is how would you say… inconsistent :joy:

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My fear with UBI is that it will condition you to submit to the state. Be interesting to see the T&C’s.

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It’s targeting 2000 people. Just the amount of buskers who used to play in Temple Bar was half of it :wink:

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This is the stuff of Orwellen nightmares. If you don’t know what i’m on about please buy a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 and read it.

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Aye. I know. Extra bonus payments for paying artistic homage to your supreme leaders.

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lol

The UBI promoted by technocrats ive heard had it substituting for all social services. The plans by Yang et al were not really considering persons on disability and their individual needs.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea but i do think some of the most corporate-friendly promoters are looking to “save money” and covertly destroy life-enabling services instead of benefiting society.

To the topic, I get paid to create (way less than i put in), but I don’t know how i could scale it differently to live off of in a way i’d feel comfortable with. Even with grant-writing!

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I am happy to keep music as a hobby. I am kinda-sorta doing something I love for a living (earned an MFA in creative writing and now teach essay writing and write web copy/blogs/articles). I jot things down now and again or make first drafts but I rarely feel like writing after grading essays and writing drivel on topics I’m not interested in for SEO points.

I also found out I’d actually rather teach essay writing than creative writing. At least at the places I teach, undergraduates only take creative writing as an “easy A elective” or just want to write thinly veiled fan fiction.

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Are you aware of how wealth disparity has skyrocketed in the last 50 years?

Parasites are those who especially profit of of the bodies of their serfs.

The growing sets of RVs and stationary vehicles amassing in the cities is not from personal vice or poor decisions, it’s because the lower class are extracted value from, pushing some to the lowest.

Back to the topic, I wonder i money was not a concern, how persons would be creative in more interesting ways.

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My guess: More down to earth people, tribes, communities and connectedness. But it would need time to form. We are so full of fear … kind of enslaved to consumerism.

I have a job where this is not of concern – thank god! I am already in that position where I need to figure out how to manage the vast amount of free time and it’s not too easy living in the “inbetween world”. So I figure this will be as difficult for other people as well. Finding real purpose etc.

Myself I wouldn’t wanna be dependant on my creativity to make money …although it would be nice to make a buck or two with it… I don’t see that happening in the near future though. I’m a bit too old already and have just started with making music (like two years ago).

So I won’t pressure myself in any way. Rather exploring how to get into the flow and try to do it on a regular basis, learning and practicing everyday – find the tools that work for me. Early stage… Trying to not compare myself too much.

If I made money one day, I wouldn’t wanna be depending on it.

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I can’t imagine it being possible to make a living out of (my) music on my terms. Respect to everyone who can make a living as an artist in any field in this day and age cos I just couldn’t do it. The amount of multi-tasking it would take to be able to not only write music but produce it, be your own publicist, be available to everyone all the time through social media… Not to mention you might have to make compromises in the music itself, in case your label insisted on some changes, for example.

So I rather have complete artistic freedom and limited time to actually make music. No pressure, no deadlines, no need to please anyone except myself. Of course I would absolutely love it if I could dedicate more time to music but not at the expense of turning my dearest hobby into a chore.

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Yea, I would say (and we are doing this) reduce everything that’s actually not making you happy and you spend money on from happening without getting stressed about it.

What do you really need for the life you want to live? Let it soak in and act. A basic but important one for us is leaving expensive city life for full-time living and going rural and integrate a slow lifestyle, we are both in our 40’s we have done the city thing a few decades over already, it’s done.

Dreams start now, later can wait. We always thought of doing this when we are 60, but why the F#%& wait for something you want now?

UPdated:

Personally I don’t want to make music for a living, I do want to have more time to do creative things and making music/sounds is one of them.

Only making electronic music is not going to cut it for most people without having another job, and that is good enough. If you want more, … expanding on the idea of music making and take it into other directions like teaching, workshops, gear demo’s, sales, community building around yourself and/or your work. Etc.

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Great art most often requires at least some level of suffering on the part of the artist.

It’s also pretty rare that great art results from tight deadlines and corporate oversight.

If you want to make a living from your art, you’re probably going to have to accept significant compromises, both artistic and material.

On the subject of basic income, I think it’s pretty much inevitable in the west unless we’re willing to accept massive unemployment (resulting in either huge state dependence, famine or worse) or the state creating millions of “jobs” to fill the void, which creates a whole set of different issues. Basically, we’ll eventually reach a point where not having a UBI will be by far the more expensive and difficult option. The problem is that piloting different forms of Basic Income within the current economic system rarely works, because we’re not really at the point either economically, socially or politically where UBI is considered a viable universal solution.

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To answer the OP’s question: No.

I already tuned a hobby into a day job once, and I lost all love for that hobby.
I’m nog going to let that happen to this one.

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