Does anyone here make serious money from their music?

[miroslav]

or you can do what I do which is love playing music and not getting all serious about what I play exactly.
For me it's the doing of it and the creative process that takes place AS I'm improvising a solo or whatever.
I enjoy playing music and really think those guys that can only like playing a certain genre or certain songs are missing out .... but different strokes as they say.

Exactly.

No one is knocking playing for the love of playing, and nothing more.
That's quite cool, and lots of us musicians do it.
Heck, we're all certianly not playing/recording in our home studios just because someone is holding a possible record deal in front of us!

But going back to the OP about making serious money...and the comments about the band that wouldn't make any effort to grab the deal that was being offered....there is a point where people like that use the "artistic integrity" line as an excuse for other things.
Like I said (and I think you would agree)...where all playing basic R&R that's been done to death already, so there's no "artistic integrity" in that anyway.

 

[augustmonroe]

Earning a crust

From my perspective,and as a professional musician and writer since my teens in the 1950's.I have etched out quite a decent life style.Married with 4 children,I am now in my 72nd year,and still earning a crust as a session musician.Also writing music for various projects that crop up periodically.To be perfectly honest with you.To make a living in this game,and contrary to public opinion,you do need a modicum of talent that encompasses a rather large umbrella. Total belief in your own ability as a muso and writer Etc. and be 100% focused on what your working on at any given moment in time.......................If you need any advice on songwriting,and ideas about getting into the music business, please ask,and I will assist you to the best of my ability. My credentials are; I am signed,I have a publishing deal with a globally known publishing house,plus I am a professional session musician.Regards......A..

 

[RJMJ87]

I believe it's definitely possible to make a living as a recording artist and performer (am working on that now as we speak). It requires four things: very hard work, faith in yourself, persistence, and SERIOUS talent. Too many musicians think they're talented when they're really no more unique than the next guy, and too many musicians grumble and complain that they've done everything and get no breaks when they've only scratched the surface of things they can do. You have to be as objective as possible about your work and ask yourself constantly, Do I suck? Is this horrible? Not because you don't believe in yourself, but because you don't want to delude yourself like the crazies on American Idol. It is possible to believe the wrong thing, is what I'm saying, so make sure you really ARE good and if so, commit 100% to it and put the work in. Some people think their cr*p smells like roses just because it came from them, and some people feel too entitled and "artsy" to pay their dues. I've fallen a million times, and I've gotten back up a million times. You do that and have the talent to back it, and you WILL make it some day. I feel it's inevitable. : )

 

[bluzmannn]

6% success rate

After reading their site and their FAQ's, the way I see it, and this is just my opinion, a service like Taxi is no different than pay-for-play gigs. Money is made, but not by the artists. The promotion company makes the money. Taxi boasts a whopping 6% success rate. Wowee. Taxi gets paid, by you, whether you succeed or not, and there's a 94% chance you won't. They still made 100% of their money, while only 6% of their users even got a call back. Taxi has no skin in the game. No thanks.

The 6% success rate is average. There are a number of folks that do much much better than that, and conversely others wo do much worse.. There are people that make really good coin through Taxi contacts. The difference is how close the submissions come to what the buyers want. Factors like skill and talent play a big role. Its a vehicle, and its not easy, but if someone really really really wants to quit their day job and they ahve the raw chops and can learn, its a fit.

 

[jokerone]

That's Taxi's sign up fee. Then you pay again to submit songs. Then you sit and hope for a miracle.

I had someone from our music club talking to me about Taxi. He even gave me a monthly list of what they are looking for. I read a few of the testimonials that Taxi themselves were promoting and did the math for about an hour with a calculator based on what the Taxi Success stories claimed.
In a nutshell, the Taxi successful pump out a lot, and I mean a lot of giggles, songs, etc. (Hundreds ) and have them ready to go, and submit them when the spec sheets are posted. They get gigs, they get paid, and sometimes they get paid for years if its some background music for some TV show that airs in syndication.
However, if MONEY, and I mean MONEY is your only motivating factor, not fun, freedom, etc., you know all those things that you can’t calculate on a Texas Instruments calculator, then you are better off getting a minimum wage job and saving your money. I took the hours it would take to write, record, those hundreds of songs and jingles, not to mention the time it took to daydream them up, the expense of signing up for taxi, and the success ratio and what was being advertised as the payoff. The results, $7.50 an hour plus overtime for a 50 work week would be more lucrative. Not more rewarding, but it would make you more money, and this was by comparing the high end earners of what Taxi was promoting.
However I welcome everyone do their own research and math and see if you come up with a different conclusions.

 

[jokerone]

Well, I disagree with your disagreement of the disagreement, actually, Greg, for reasons unknown to us all.

My two cents for what its worth.

I understand nobody wants someone telling them how to do something. That’s why it’s called a job. My understanding of those up front contract payments are, the money spent, was paid back in record sales. Its not like you had to send a payment in every month for what was given to you up front. As long as you didn’t sign the John Fogerty deal from hell, then after the two albums and the completion of the contract, you were free to sign with whoever would have you. The original record company took whatever money from the sale of those first two albums if you were still underwater with them.

Now, as far as your artistic creativity. I completely understand. I get offers all the time to do photography work, I only do it for free, because the moment I start accepting money for it, the fun drains out of it. However if someone said ¼ of million for some photos. I would ask where, and how many do you want.

A guy named John Mellencamp was told by his manager/label to change his name to Johnny Cougar. He hated it. Well, look how that worked out for him. A complete disaster huh..


On the way to work today, my daughter was dismayed to find out that Bruno Mars was born Peter Gene Hernández. Oh the horror, that wasn’t a cool name.

“That’s the thing about money, it makes you do things you don’t want to do. “ -- hal holbrook, The film Wall Street.

 

[Greg Savage]

I've been making a good living from music for around 6 years. Most of my income comes from music licensing the rest is sound design.