Does anyone here make serious money from their music?

Lukesteele said:
Hi chuckduffy! Firstly, I Wasn't trying to put down cover bands. I know they are the only ones who can pull a paying gig regularly. I'd like to know where all the music buying public are! They sure don't inhabit homerecording forums right:? lol..Until we can figure out how to promote original music as good as the majors do..keep waitin on that $0.0001 streaming return k?
Click to expand...
no doubt ..... however, even the majors aren't doing very well. last year the no 2 top selling album in the US only sold a paltry 1.5 million.
Sure ..... you or I would be ecstatic but that's really nothing.

personally I think the public's connection to music has changed to where it's generally a background thing. I don't hear too often about young folks getting the latest album ..... sitting down and listening closely to every note while reading ever word on the sleeve.

I'm not saying it's better or worse ..... just different.
But it IS worse for those who want to make money selling their music. The public just doesn't seem as interested anymore.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm increasingly becoming more and more jaded about gigging. I'm starting to hate it. I love playing. I love playing music with my friends and bandmates. I hate packing up to go play a gig. Playing live in the garage in front of no one = awesome. Playing live out somewhere = dumb.
Click to expand...

This applies to playing the drums. I think guitar would be a nice change of pace.
 
Lt. Bob said:
no doubt ..... however, even the majors aren't doing very well. last year the no 2 top selling album in the US only sold a paltry 1.5 million.
Sure ..... you or I would be ecstatic but that's really nothing.

personally I think the public's connection to music has changed to where it's generally a background thing. I don't hear too often about young folks getting the latest album ..... sitting down and listening closely to every note while reading ever word on the sleeve.

I'm not saying it's better or worse ..... just different.
But it IS worse for those who want to make money selling their music. The public just doesn't seem as interested anymore.
Click to expand...

Back when we were kids, music was about the only creative outlet available. Today, it has to share the short attention span of a teenager with videos, video games, internet, video games, texting, video games, the internet again, video games, smartphone apps, texting again, video games, etc...

wanna make money?? Get your music in that list. Music itself ain't gonna cut it anymore.
 
Lukesteele said:
Hey cool 2nd MOUSE! Where do you find you sell your music mostly from? ITunes? Reverbnation? etc?
Click to expand...

Seems to be mostly juno download and bandcamp. I loathe itunes , and anything else apple do , so even though my music is on itunes , i dont advertise the links. Its only on there as part of a package.
 
Chili said:
Back when we were kids, music was about the only creative outlet available. Today, it has to share the short attention span of a teenager with videos, video games, internet, video games, texting, video games, the internet again, video games, smartphone apps, texting again, video games, etc...

wanna make money?? Get your music in that list. Music itself ain't gonna cut it anymore.
Click to expand...

^^^This^^^


I should know about this as I am part of the generation Chili is talking about. I'm immersed in their appreciation (or lack thereof) of music. I fear it will only get worse. People talk about the Beatles as if they will be the next Mozart or Beethoven. While there is some slight truth in that, I believe there is going to be a tremendous decline in the appreciation for the latter two composers, then soon the former. Seriously, out of the hundreds of kids I have talked to in high school, in college, and in social environments, not one has shown slight appreciation for classical music. And when I tell them that I do, I either get a look of surprise ("oooo! that's interesting") or of uninterest ("I respect your taste in music, but not for me!").
 
Chili said:
Back when we were kids, music was about the only creative outlet available. .
Click to expand...
yeah that's way true. You had music and sports and that was it.
Another thing that has changed is that back then you would have maybe 50 LP's. That was ALL you had.
So you would listen to them over and over and over ..... even the bad ones because that's all you had.
You'd know every note .... every click in the vinyl ...... every word on the sleeve .... even today when some songs finish I'll hear the 'next song' start in my head because you also knew the order of the songs on the LP.

That forms a different relationship with the music than having 10,000 songs on a iPod and rarely listening to any of them more than a few times.

Also music used to be a primary form of social commentary and even social movement. Now that role has been taken over by Facebook and Twitter and other social media.

Once again ..... not saying either way is better or worse but definitely different and it has absolutely affected the way people care about and consume ( or not) music in the marketplace.
 
Lt. Bob said:
You'd know every note .... every click in the vinyl ...... every word on the sleeve .... even today when some songs finish I'll hear the 'next song' start in my head because you also knew the order of the songs on the LP.
Click to expand...

In one way I'm very pleased to say I get that, even with todays technology.
In another way I guess it's a negative.

I remember getting my iphone and thinking how amazing it would be having all that music to hand.
A few years on and I still have the 12 albums that were in my car at the time and maybe a handful more.
David Bowie, Queen, Leonard cohen.....IDK, just stuff I've always loved.

In one way I envy these people who constantly absorb all kinds of new music and production, but in another way I really appreciate the music that I love.

I hate when shuffle gets turned on by mistake; Like you say, you know what's meant to be coming next.
I've used that idea to differentiate between perfect and relative pitch before btw. I bet most of us start the new track in our heads in the right key!
 
Steenamaroo said:
In one way I envy these people who constantly absorb all kinds of new music and production, but in another way I really appreciate the music that I love.
Click to expand...
I do think it has become a different sort of relationship.
I actually have a few college age friends that come by the house and listen to my stereo and play their music on it to hear a hi-res stereo which none of them have and have mostly not even heard.

They almost never play a song all the way thru.
Maybe a couple of verses and then they switch to something else. I just about can't get them to let me hear anything all the way thru.

And all of them tell me that the only time they really just let music play thru is when it's background music while they do something else.
I know there are exceptions but, in general, the current generation seems to see music as just another commodity or a possible way for them to be a star than as something to be super valuable to them for it's own sake.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I know there are exceptions but, in general, the current generation seems to see music as just another commodity or a possible way for them to be a star than as something to be super valuable to them for it's own sake.
Click to expand...

You're bang on. It makes me very grateful for the circle of friends that I have.

The kind of friends who will at some point in the night say, "Right, everyone STFU and listen to this dylan track" or whatever.

I'm not a massive Dylan fan - That's not the point, but the point is they will STFU and listen. :)
 
Steenamaroo said:
You're bang on. It makes me very grateful for the circle of friends that I have.

The kind of friends who will at some point in the night say, "Right, everyone STFU and listen to this dylan track" or whatever.

I'm not a massive Dylan fan - That's not the point, but the point is they will STFU and listen. :)
Click to expand...

It's not all doom and gloom fellas. There are still kids out there just as passionate about their music as I ever was. Some of the names have changed, some are the old standards.
 
chuckduffy said:
It's not all doom and gloom fellas. There are still kids out there just as passionate about their music as I ever was. Some of the names have changed, some are the old standards.
Click to expand...
sure there are ...... but the numbers are magnitudes lower.
That's why a top selling album might only sell a million copies.
That's a HUGE decline.
In terms of the market that still pays money, it's just not there.

And it's not only reflected in album sales but also in terms of the playback equipment. The last four or five years the vinyl and turntable market has been one of the only segments in audio that has sustained continuous growth.
On one hand that's kinda cool because, in general, people that are into it are usually at least aware of the concept of 'sound quality' which is what draws them to vinyl regardless of whether you agree with that or not.
At least they're thinking about things like sound quality.
But on the other hand that means that the group of people that really care about sound is small since vinyl is still a pretty small market compared to the days when artists might sell 60 million CDs/LPs.

And you guys will point to uncle whoever or that kid down the street that has a good stereo as to refute this but all of us tend to know unusually large numbers of musical leaning people. Not really the public at large.
As a piano tuner I went into LOTS of homes daily ....... pretty much NONE of them have a decent stereo. A Bose Wave radio is about as good as it gets.
I think in the last 15 years of tuning 800 pianos a year I saw exactly 3 actual stereos. The rest were horrid cheapo home theatre systems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top