Make a living with (your) music

mimusic · Post by **mimusic** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:04 pm

Lately I've been wondering how people have evolved to the level where they could really make a living with their music.

Who is actually on this board doing music for a living and how did they evolve to that?
Did they learn it all by them self or did they do some training?

What about the courses given at SAE ? I was thinking of doing an Audio Engineer course there, has anybody an experience with SAE?

Cheers,

mimusic

dsat · Post by **dsat** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:16 pm

don't give up your day job...

the music biz is very insecure, you really need to be able to make a lot of money if you want to make it your living
not many people do, many artists who already have a firm reputation still have day jobs
releasing records is not a very lucrative business, unless you make commercial, poppy, crappy, trancy music for the masses

many producers started djing to earn money by doing gigs, because they no longer make enough money off their productions... it's not anymore like it used to be

10 years ago a club hit would sell 20.000 copies, now 3 to 5000
normal sales for a vinyl release is about 500 to 1500... and that's not much if you want to make a living out of this as an artist

it's better to study and have a degree first, at least you'll have a back-up when things don't turn out as expected, and this is usually the case
don't get your hopes up too much, still persevere but be real

mimusic · Post by **mimusic** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:24 pm

what about radio or studio work (or doing the sound for concerts), doing more engineering stuff then on the level of an artist?
or work in a record store as a part-time job?

cheers,

mimusic

dsat · Post by **dsat** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:45 pm

mimusic wrote:what about radio or studio work (or doing the sound for concerts), doing more engineering stuff then on the level of an artist?
or work in a record store as a part-time job?

cheers,

mimusic

sure you can do that, if you're very good sound engineer working in a famous studio, you can make some nice money, but that's not gonna happen overnight, it takes a lot of work, but it's nice job, but not many job opportunities though

working in a record store is also very nice, but not well paid, but interesting if you can combine with another job...

minimal house · Post by **minimal house** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 9:37 pm

Remember that your not marketing your skills or talents, your marketing your name. Unfortunately, Its all about who you know.

Nurse · Post by **Nurse** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:11 am

minimal house wrote:Remember that your not marketing your skills or talents, your marketing your name. Unfortunately, Its all about who you know.

It's true, marketing and who you know play a very big role in success. If you know the right people and market yourself well, you will succeed...but only if you make good product, in this case, music. They work hand in hand.

I am pushing myself to live off of my music. Well...gigs is what artists live off of actually. There is much less money involved with actual releases unfortunately.

dunkel · Post by **dunkel** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:45 pm

i disagree!!!

even if your best friends are keeping a major role in the indusrty it wont be much use to you if you're not creative enough.
i live off of music alone and i dont know anyone in the bussiness, that made me be more inovative and creative. my sound is special and therefore i make labels take interest in me. many of my friends are like that, we all make a well enough living without being famous or even well known, but we always try to bring somthing new and therefor we are conspicuous
bottom line: be very true to yourself - it WILL pay off

Jesse Somfay · Post by **Jesse Somfay** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:29 pm

If you know the right people and market yourself well, you will succeed...but only if you make good product, in this case, music. They work hand in hand.

dunkel wrote:
even if your best friends are keeping a major role in the indusrty it wont be much use to you if you're not creative enough.

I'm not saying that it's marketing only. You obviously have to be creative and very good at what you do to make a living off of it while always being true to yourself. However, it does help if your name is known.