THIS.
i was a bit more lucky about losing love, but in general it’s like that.
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I’ve been a full time musician for many, many years. It’s got it’s ups and downs for sure, but I feel blessed. Most of what I earn a living from is pretty mainstream, so my hobby is experimental/electronic music. I’ve made a few bucks from it, but not enough to live on.
My way of trying to have it both ways 
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I suspect it depends on hobby
as an 80s kid (when home computers were a really exciting time), I was fanatical about programming - and decided to take as a career, and (mainly) loved it… I will say, I did ‘manage’ this a bit, by taking on more technical/interesting projects - rather than coding ‘business solutions’.
of course, there are times when professional work is not quite what you want to do , but I could usually find a challenge in it that kept me happy/interested.
though , I admit, I did little heavy coding in my free time… kind of just wanted to be away from a computer after work.
added bonus, it let me retire early, and I found when I retired my passion was still there.
now I have the years of experience from professional background, but have time to work on my own personal passion projects - just like when I was a kid 
I don’t know if it could be like that with music or not (for those, unlike me!, who are talented enough!),
perhaps … and I suspect the sacrifices are similar, you do professional work to pay the bills - but within that try to pick what interests and motivates.
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UBI - crumbs to keep the peasants from revolting.
An easy win for authority, as old as the hills, give or promise free stuff, profit from servitude and loyalty.
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well, i turned my passion about everything Linux-related to system (and later cloud) administration as my daily job.
eventually anything Linux-related became something that i know well, it keeps me interested and even entertained quite often, but in general it does not make my brain produce dopamine anymore.
also, i stopped building exclusive Linux systems because my motivation tapered off, and moved to mainstream distros that just work. it’s is very good for my music activities, since my spare time is limited – but i remember how exciting it was.
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Easy pickings with todays propaganda consumers.
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True, for me! I hate bosses, all of them. Getting married helped me a bunch though, aka loving the boss does wonders. 
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…in most cases, make ur living as an artist, is also nothing but a job…
and even such a dream job, well, has also those fairly common moments of struggle, worries, stress, burnout, pressure, failures…u name it…
never trust the hype…always follow ur dreams…it’s an ordinary ratrace and a full blown shitshow for everbody, from time to time…
end of all days, it’s never about getting rich…it’s always about getting happy…
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I think there’s a difference between artist and craftsman and that these two things can be conflated. Doing music for hire is being a craftsman. You don’t have to like the things you make, only take pride in that the things you make are done well. Meanwhile being an artist is very personal.
So yes, I’d like to make money doing music, but only in a craftsman sense. I’d never survive if I was doing my own personal works for any kind of steady income simply because I don’t even have anything to say half the time when it comes to musical expression.
Then again, some folks literally make the same expression of ‘I just like this sound’ and do really well for themselves. So maybe I could do that, but I also know I’m so exploratory I wouldn’t get burned out doing that, I’d get bored and sabotage it all because if I’m making music for me, it’s going to be art and I don’t see the point of being a craftsman for ‘fans’ and the ‘audience’. That’s not any kind of connection in my opinion.
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Not for me. A lot of reasons but here are a few:
- IMHO long term fame/viral short term fame can be very unhealthy (some do well so grain of salt of course)
- Music is not work for me. Now it would be!
- When you see plenty of forum posts like “I can’t make music anymore and I don’t know why”… well it happens to all of us and if that is also tied to your ability to pay bills… OOOF!
- Going to random open mics will now turn into a small venue about you instead of being able to have fun with other musicians and just jam
- You have to do shows. All the time. Streaming doesn’t cut it. See the Spotify thread.
Now some random thoughts 
A lot of things that you enjoy get destroyed when you do them for work.
Programming for example. There will always be outliers to this rule but it is pretty general in my experience. I loved programming. Went to go learn it for real. Did it for work. It became boring and felt like punching in and out every day. Moved to management and now I enjoy programming outside of work again.
Passion projects can be a different story but music is a never ending grind. A lot of stars churn out music all the time to get sales. With the current environment you can’t just sell 1 million CDs like you used to.
This doesn’t apply to everyone of course!
Passive income, sure. Primary income source, no way.
EDIT:
I realize for a good chunk this would be a dream come true and enable a different life. I respect that and I don’t mean to deter those hopes and dreams! Just be aware of the work needed and keep at it 
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Freedom is getting out of the rat race and the surveillance state as much as possible.
I’ve cultivated a way to semi do this right now… it’s work in progress… If I needed to, I’d even go as far to join groups buying land, becoming self-sufficient and living in non-static houses.
The gov of course is going to make it more difficult as they don’t want people out of the system… but where there is a will there is a way
Rather than becoming part of the machine, look for a way out as best you can IMO.
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both my father and uncle are painters
both are quite good and have some people who actually love their work and collect their paintings
…both are penniless for some time and live under the limit we call poverty.
they had their good times at some point, but wasnt long or enough, or even because of art. they did other jobs that were actually profitable
now most of the tinm they cant even put a brush into paint, coz… u know… “no inspiration!”
i wouldnt wanna be in their shoes
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I don’t think you can do anything you enjoy for work. Anyone who says they love their job is suffering from some form of Stockholm syndrome.
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No because making a living out of music is shit, it’s not a good job. Either you’ll have to be some sort of a jack-of-all-trades type of “musician” playing the social media game while also offering classes etc. so basically most of what you’re doing is not being a musician, but being a teacher, a media worker, a youtube personality, a streamer etc.
Or, you could be a touring musician, which means you’re constantly on the road and the pandemic would have royally fucked you over. Or maybe a session musician? You get to play, sure but it’s long hours for relatively low pay.
Honestly all of those sound quite bad, I’ll much rather take my comfy day job to pay the bills and spend all of my free time on music. As a professional musician in my late 30s, I’d probably be poor and stressed out.
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Definitely not. I’d rather do part time jobs here and there to get by and insulate my creative endeavours from money as much as I can.
Maybe some people can combine these things in a satisfying way but not me.
I’d rather lose money making music than make money from it.
Some years ago I made a living for a while from playing music and I’ve never felt so miserable about it.
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It seems like some people are unfulfilled unless they are werking. Me, I can’t understand that. I’d prefer to be retired and just play golf, snowboard, surf, hike….enjoy stuff. Not grind away each day.
Unfortunately being broke and having no job does not allow me to enjoy much of anything.
If anyone feels like tossing 2.5 mill my way so I could enjoy the rest of the days I have left, I’d be very appreciative.
Re: music, I played golf with one of Babyface’s engineers. When I found out what he did, I was all stoked and mentioned that was something I’d really be interested in learning/doing. His answer was hilarious. He told me if I want to learn to hate music, do his job. He said he deals with so much garbage music that he wanted to kill himself. Hahaha.
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musical nihilism in all of its glory
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Yeah I’ve always thought the system more or less breaks people, if you are able to work hard enough to retire early and live a hobby life you also probably lost the ability to actually enjoy doing anything but gaining net worth. I probably should strap down and get a “real” job with benefits and such but I really am afraid I would stop making music if I do. Instead I just continue to work fringe jobs that are generally good at giving artists free time.
I know for me…if I had the funds to take me till death…I wouldn’t need anything more than that.
its not coming with you when yer dead. I just enjoy enjoying what I like to do outdoors.
example…if I had a SHITLOAD of cash…I would upgrade my car. but that would be a WRX to an STi. that’s it. Id get out of my apt, and get a little house. 2br if possible. and just stay in shape.
thats all id like to do. I don’t want to continue amassing money. I would like enough to not werk and feel good about not werking. I dont get the people that need more money, more money. but having enough to retire is CONSIDERABLY better than not having enough money to pay for rent. 
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At risk of sounding like a naive idealist, so many of the problems mentioned here are the byproduct of our godawful capitalist reality.
I remember reading an article talking about declining income for writers, and there was one novelist, who I guess had come up in the 60s or 70s, who was bemoaning the fact that he could no longer afford the second flat in central London that he used as a studio.
Like, that was normal/achievable for a certain era of somewhat-successful writers. And now ‘success’ for writers and musicians is more like ‘I might be able to go from full time to part time in my main job’.
Or an interview I heard with some guys who used to be in Arthur Russell’s band, saying how you could do one or two bar shifts a week and afford a loft apartment in New York, and spend the rest of the week making music and partying.
I think it’s important to bear in mind how utterly dismal a situation we’re living through in terms of the demands made on us for work and income - the cost of living compared to just a few decades ago is just ridiculous.
And that’s happening at the same time as a massive monetary devaluation of the arts - a monetary devaluation ironically taking place at the same time as a massive cultural increase in value. People access more art/entertainment than ever before, yet somehow 99% of artists are getting paid less and less (and no, I don’t think this is a simple case of ‘people aren’t willing to pay’ - people plough billions annually into art/entertainment, but in whose hands does it end up?)
I think it’s abnormal to expect any human, let alone an artist, to be ‘productive’ to the level that industrialism has taught us is ‘normal’, and I don’t think artists should be straining to produce an album per year or whatever metric. How many great albums or books or whatever did any of ‘the greats’ make in a lifetime?
It’s all just so sordid and shitty right now.
So I guess a reframing might be ‘I’d want to live in a world where making a living from music wasn’t such an insane prospect’, like where our needs could be met more easily and the arts were given a monetary value closer to their cultural value.
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