Did you ever want to be a professional in the music biz ?

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grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
Well, did you ?
How does home recording and all that is contained within it compare with how you thought it would be ?
 
I have a nephew deep in the biz, opened up for a Metallica, Aerosmith, played with the surviving members of the Doors, so I mean really in the biz. After having a little taste of what that looked like, I would have to say a flat out no. It is one of the nastiest, meanest, cut throat businesses I have ever witnessed. (Maybe worse on Wall Street, but I doubt it).

If any one on here is aspiring to be in the business and has even a remote sensitivity to some of the banter on this site, you need to stay out of the music business. It will chew you up and spit you out.

What I am doing is just fine. Making a few songs, letting my creative side run, learn some things about sound and sound engineering. Better than fishing in my mind.
 
No. Never thought I would want that. Close as Im willing to come is play live once in a large venue, a goal I still have LOL. I mean Id like to experience that scene, but once would be enough for me...
 
I was a Symphony Orchestra and Freelance Union Hall Trombonist so I didn't have to drive long distances as most of the work was local (Circuses, Ice Shows, Broadway Shows, Big Name Entertainers, Big Band, Recording Work, Brass Ensemble work etc.).
If I did travel it was on a chartered bus and that was primarily for Orchestra Concert Tours and out of the area Big Band work.
As I was relocated due to a "Real-Job" my Home Recording Studio has replaced that part of my life.
 
I'd love to be able to do music stuff for a living. It's something I put a lot of thought into earlier in life. I ended up doing something else for a career but I enjoy music as a hobby when I have the time for it.

I have no problems eating.
 
Road life in a cover band wasn't all I thought it would be. I prefer the comforts of home recording.
 
I got into the production side of the live music biz and never looked back. :thumbs up:
 
No. I'm happy to have been on the professional side of the audio industry but, after the small amount of dabbling round the edges of the music business I realised it wasn't for me. Big egos, small money and too much spilled beer and cigarette smoke for my liking. TV was better for paying the bills and theatre better to have fun with.
 
I am a professional in the music biz.

I would say it's worked out fairly well.

Yes, I don't have a lot of money but when I was young and didn't realize that money might be good all I wanted was to be the best I could be on my axes.
And you can't be your best unless you play ALL the time and you can't play ALL the time unless that's your job.

I play at a very high level and am still improving so at least that's one life goal I'm reaching ....... that's pretty cool.

Financially it's a tough road but I do ok there too so life is good.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I am a professional in the music biz.

I would say it's worked out fairly well.

Yes, I don't have a lot of money but when I was young and didn't realize that money might be good all I wanted was to be the best I could be on my axes.
And you can't be your best unless you play ALL the time and you can't play ALL the time unless that's your job.

I play at a very high level and am still improving so at least that's one life goal I'm reaching ....... that's pretty cool.

Financially it's a tough road but I do ok there too so life is good.
Click to expand...


No matter what, at the end of one's life all that can be measured for success of a life is regret, not anything else. Do I regret I did do this, didn't do that, etc. The everything else hangs of that.
 
grimtraveller said:
Did you ever want to be a professional in the music biz ?
Click to expand...

There's so many ways to be a "professional" in music/audio...that it's more than a single generic/global question.
A receptionist at a record company is "in the biz"....just like a roadie can say he's "in the biz". :D

What part of the "music biz?"

I can say that when I use to play out in bands and clubs full-time for a few years, I was a "professional" musician, but no, that type of "biz" wasn't really interesting to me, and I quickly found it actually to be a grind (I'm sure some people love it).
I've known many musicians in bands that played and played, and it was the same old, same old stuff, night after night...which wasn't/isn't satisfying to me on any creative level, so I got out of that "biz".

When I worked in A/V and TV production for a couple of years, I guess that was also a profession, but that to wasn't interesting enough, even though I was doing audio for video and what have you....so I got out of that "biz" too.

Apart from the whole "I wanna be a Rock Star" phase that we all experience in our youth, and can seem like the primary goal for being in the "music biz"....I was, and still am, mostly interested in songwriting, along with recording.
Making it as a songwriter is a very long road with no guarantees. You can't just start out as a paid beginner songwriter. The Brill Building days are long gone. So unlike some other music professions....there's much more to it than just "doing it". You can write all your life and never make a nickle off of a single song.
Likewise, the recording side of things is equally as unsure, though you have a tiny bit more control over your destiny. I mean, like gigging locally, you can set up shop and do the local band recording thing, and yeah, you can call it a profession....but while I've dabbled with that, there's also a down side, and it doesn't appeal to me as much as it may to some people. If I was going to have a recording "b iz"...it would have to be on a slightly bigger scale to appeal to me as a biz.

So yeah...I mostly want to sell some music, absolutley...but I know what a long-shot that is, so I realized a long time ago that by having a well paid day gig, I can indulge my songwriting and even create a fantastic recording environment, both which I can use well into the future without any downside, and it can fulfill my creative desires, and maybe one of these days I'll sell some music and then I can say that I'm really "in the music biz". :)
 
OK...just wasn't sure.
I mean....you could be giving bass lessons for $20/hour or selling guitar strings in a music shop and call that part of the "music biz"...but I don't believe that's what most people would think of when considering the term "music biz"...
...which is why I asked. :)
 
A band playing at a hotel lounge are professional's in the music biz.

Getting in the biz is easy, getting out or being super successful is another story .
 
I think that anyone who ever picked up a guitar saw themselves in lights and smoke at one point, or they wouldn't have picked it up. Reality quickly sets in, though and we find ourselves looking at other options. I spent 25 years playing in bars and lounges and high schools and even for a few college functions. I've had piano recitals and jazz competitions that I won. I honestly thought I had what it took, but just didn't get the right breaks. But I would never accept that regret plays any part of my remembrances. I've loved all that I've accomplished. I've had fun and not had to look back. Even though I'm just tooling around writing my own originals and some soundtracks to sing and play along with now as I go on in a completely frustrating, dead-end job, I don't worry about what could have/might have been if I had X'd. My life has led me to where it is, and it's all been part of God's plan for my life. No regrets there!
A friend of mine (who is 18) tried out for American Idol this season. Got his audition, got his golden ticket and then got his paperwork in 8 minutes late and could not take his place in Hollywood. Regrets? Yes, I assume he has them. Will he dwell on the regret? Hopefully not. He has too much talent to be knocked out that way. We tell him to focus on the next curve that life will bring him and not try to see around the one behind him as he travels forward. Keeps you from wrecking!
 
I have played guitar in cover bands for over 30 years and recently branched out in to a jazz quartet and a duo but it has always been on a 'semi-professional' basis. In other words I earn money from it but have a full time job as well. The full time job pays the bills and has the pension attached. The money from music goes on more gear and luxuries. I am lucky that I don't rely on it and if I stopped gigging tomorrow, it would not be an issue.

This way I go out to play because I want to and not because I have to. I accept that I will only ever be an 'OK' player as I just don't have the time to be able to put in 3 or 4 hours practice per day, but I am OK with this.
 
When I started to play drums back in the 60s - there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to be a "professional" (although at that time, I think the process was more along the lines of - that was all I wanted to do - so I had to make a living doing it - vs. a specific goal to be "professional")

I was a full time musician for 7 years (in the late 60s-early 70s) although for the most part I did not act like a professional - and have been "semi-professional" ever since. In my case, I was doing regional tours with bands and then for a short while a freelance musician doing the Vegas/Reno/Tahoe scene. - But as someone else suggested, there are many ways to try to earn a living in the music industry.

I did not enjoy being a "full time musician" the traveling was a grind (we're talking a van nt a tour bus), the pay was lousy, the gisg often sucked and the drinks/drugs almost killed me (probably would have killed me if I stayed out there). I came off the road, got a job and played locally - although for a long time I still played 4-6 nights per week

Once I decided to be a "semi-pro" (which to me means, music is not my only source of income) I was much happier (although it still took many years to shake the booze/drums demons out of my soul). A "semi-pro" can be more selective about which musical situations should be pursued (don't have to take every stinking gig just to survive) - and there is a certain comfrot to sleeping in your own bed every night!
 
My two cents...

Started taking guitar lessons and playing when I was 10, and did it because I wanted to have a rock n roll band. Yeah, I must have thought of it as what I wanted to do for a living. 'Course, didn't happen that way- I've been a "professional" musician from time to time (actually for a whole year, once- I think I even put "Musician" in the "Profession" box of my tax return that year) but most of the time, I was something else. I was also an actor for about as much of my life (concurrently, sometimes) and I'd say I'd have liked to be either IF they had provided me a good income, say $50,000 a year, consistently. Yeah, right, THAT never happened.

I once told my son, who IS a full-time music-industry professional (owns his own pro but not-yet wildly sucessful recording/rehearsal studio) that there were lots of guys who would love to have his job. Rather drolly, he said, "Ah, it's not as glamorous as it appears."
 
I have been professional, several times. Both as a musician and a sound engineer.

The down side is:

that you never know where the next dollar is coming from
You often end up playing music that you are not really into (but that actually helps your playing)
As a sound engineer live, you end up doing long hours in sometimes less than great places, mixing less than great bands, lugging heavy gear.
In the studio, working with bands that you would not take home to tea, recording endless cover band demos (same songs) booking anything that will pay the bills.

The up side,
When you play a great gig with a great band.
Mix a great gig at a great venue with a great band playing
Record a fantastic song with real talent playing the music.
Doing what you like best, Music.

I loved every minute of it really, even the bad parts, now at my age now I realise that I need a steady income, so the music side is part time, my advice to young players and sound engineers, just do it, you only live once.

Alan.
 
Xdrummer said:
I did not enjoy being a "full time musician" the traveling was a grind (we're talking a van nt a tour bus), the pay was lousy, the gisg often sucked and the drinks/drugs almost killed me (probably would have killed me if I stayed out there).
Click to expand...
Xdrummer said:
it still took many years to shake the booze/drums demons out of my soul
Click to expand...
Was that a freudian slip, a kind of fast shuffle in 6/8 time ? :D
 
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