Too true. If you believe in what you are selling, it comes across with confidence, sincerity, expertise and passion.
exactly. its like vanilla ice said. "be true to yourself or you aint being true to nobody". also, before front runner tries to convince his niece to take up a career in music he should also consider these wise words from mr. van winkle..."live your life for someone else, you aint living". in other words, she needs to find her own path and not do something because someone else wants them to...word to your mother.
Probably not the example OP or others want but look at Kanye West and what he's doing right now. Rather than releasing album and generating the 12-18% on the album sales like he did on the previous albums, he's delaying the album and putting on pretty much concerts masquerading as listening events. Sure the album could still be a work in progress but he's capitalizing on himself as an artist and a performer and raking in millions upon millions even before the album comes out. His partnership with GAP has his jackets selling out every single time. This is an extreme example of how musicians make money but, when it boils down to it, it's all about merchandise and shows like some have said before. Basically by putting on these listening events and selling merchandise at said events, he's guaranteed himself a eight figure payday even if his album sucks/flops. If it's a masterpiece like some (e.g. myself) is hoping that it will be, then he'll hit nine figure payday easily. Artists have pivoted towards this model for a while now..where they make more money touring...but, imo, a lot of the more established (e.g. older) artists are putting out mediocre albums as a way to justify going on tour to rake in the paydays. There's a demand for nostalgia and older music to be played.
Ice also said other things in his masterpiece, Cool As Ice And don't forget, if you want to get your lady hot, give her some Ice:
i actually own that movie. i bought it off ebay and its just a pirated VHS copy with photocopied cover. im pretty sure its never been released on DVD. i had a bad movie night at my house and invited a bunch of friends over to watch...it was a great time. that movie is hideously bad and weirdly hilarious. that 2nd video is super creepy in the me-too era. vanilla is a mid-20's touring musician who stalks this high school girl...he hangs outside her house watching her and sneaks into her room while she is sleeping and starts dripping an ice cube into her mouth. he steals her diary. beats up her high school boyfriend. he could have killed her with his little motorcycle stunt which scared her horse so bad that he threw her. and if you watch the video, as he is riding up on the fence there is clearly not a ramp there or anything with which to propel yourself off, but somehow in the next clip he is flying in the air over the fence on a motorcycle. i know vanilla was a world class motorcross racer, but this stunt just defies the laws of physics. ***fun fact - gweneth paltrow was the actress originally cast for this move, but her dad, who was a movie producer, would not let her do it. pops was smart!
its all fun and games till suge knight hangs you over the balcony of your hotel room by your ankles and threatens to drop you unless you sign over publishing rights to your biggest hit. another reason why frontrunner should not guide his niece into the music business.
My wife and I had a friend from high school that was in a pretty successful local band in South Texas. They always played pretty big local venues on the weekend. They did all the stuff you'd expect: sold CDs, T-Shirts, put their music on all the streaming websites, etc. He was able to make a "living" until he was ~35 years old. By then they had some kids and owned a home. They finally crunched the numbers and it just didn't make sense to do it anymore, so he folded the band and became a Real Estate agent. I think they mentioned he personally made maybe $30,000 a year to take home after all his expenses and he could pretty easily make much more than that as a sales agent. Another guy I knew from High School is in a band called Band of Heathens, and they are pretty successful. He does it full time and makes a pretty good living, I suppose.
@jo mama pretty much knocked it out of the park in this thread, but I'll give my 2 cents as well... Like him, I've been playing in bands for over 30 years now - always with the long term goal of being able to make enough money to quit my day job. Now that I'm married with a couple of kids and a mortgage, I've pretty much accepted the fact that this music thing, that I've pretty much dedicated my entire life to, will never be more than just a side hustle. And that's....okay. i paid my way through school by sidelining in a country band as well as a bunch of different jazz combos, etc. But when you're in college, $100 a gig may as well be $1,000 a gig. When I was in my 20's, I tried the original band thing. We recorded an album at Sugarhill, played all over Texas and Louisiana selling CDs out of our trunk, and even got a song featured on a A WWF show and an MTV reality show (something about a fraternity if I remember right). Of course, I didn't make a dime doing any of this, so I dropped out and auditioned for a cover band to try and actually make some money again. Been in that cover band now for over 20 years. Made pretty good money over the years with this band. Enough to actually hire a drum tech who sets up and tears down my gear before and after gigs, which is an absolute GODSEND. But COVID has been rough. Had a terrible year in 2020 and 2021 hasn't been much better so far. People just don't want to have big weddings or corporate events as much as they did pre-pandemic. Most of our gigs have been low-paying club gigs - the kind of gigs I wanted to get away from when I joined this band. My boys just turned 10 and they are both in School of Rock. One plays drums and the other plays guitar. I figured they needed a bass player to fill out the power trio, so my bass player was nice enough to give me one of his basses that he doesn't play anymore. We jammed Seven Nation Army and Once Step Closer last night. We are working our way up to Toxicity and Chop Suey (they love System of a Down) but the guitar has a weird drop-C tuning and the drum breaks in Toxicity are tough for a 10 year old. But we'll get there eventually. Funny thing is that since I got this bass, I've been practicing non-stop. Playing in a cover band that is such a well-oiled machine at this point is great....but I'm finding that it's not really scratching my creative itch anymore. Not a lot of room for improv in a band where everything is so scripted out. That's the thing about cover bands - you can make some good money, but after a while, it starts to feel like work. My goal now is to keep practicing the bass and get good enough to eventually join a band. Even if it's just a bunch of dads playing Nirvana covers in dive-bars and ice houses for $50 a night. It's like I'm starting my whole musical journey over again. And it feels really cool. Maybe it would help get me out of this musical rut I'm in. So yeah....long story short, it's REALLY HARD to make a living with music. I've been trying for 30 years to no avail. For every musician that pulls it off, there are 50 more weekend warriors who don't. But I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything in the world and I would highly recommend every kid out there learn to play an instrument and start a band. It's given me the best times of my life and a ton of life-long friends.
damn ima! having a drum tech is pretty baller! i would probably split my gig money with someone who was willing to transport, set up and tear down my drum kit. in my experience, some of my least favorite gigs ive ever done are weddings or private parties. you often deal with people who think its ok to treat musicians like s***. or youre on your 10 minute break b/t sets and the 12 year old flower girl comes out and yells at you for taking a break (thats happened). or people who dont really have a clue about the tech side, but theyre trying to tell you what to do. the last private party gig i did was at threadgills before it closed. this party had rented a room in the restaurant and hired my band. we were already playing as quietly as possible and the dude who hired us and was already being annoying with his micromanaging asked us to turn down more because people in the dining room could hear us and since they were not part of the party he didnt want them to be able to hear us. "since they are not paying, they should not get to enjoy the music!"
