As some of you may know it's hard trying to make a living off music. Unless you're signed to a Major label and you’re a Mega star like Lady GaGa. Unfortunately most of us are not mega stars. But, we still keep working at it; we still keep moving forward to accomplish our dreams. After all, most of us musicians do it because we love it. I know I do! After reading many articles from accomplished, known and even famous bands, saying that they have no money, not even after playing sold out shows, and saying that they struggle to make ends meet and afford food, it kind of makes us think, “So why do we do it?” Well that was answered in my statement before. “Because we love it.” But, in order for us to keep doing what we are doing and what we want to do we need a good steady income. This can be done by getting an ordinary 8-hour a day/night job. That is all very well, but there are several problems with that.
1. Working 8 hours or more a day gives you far less time to write, create, record and perform.
2. Working a job you don’t like can have a heavy impact on your creativity and really make you feel down about yourself because you’re not doing what you really want to be doing.
3. If you play shows and do rehearsals they usually tend to be late in the evening and don’t finish until late at night. That affects your day job. So you’re not only too worn out to give 100% to your art but you are also jeopardizing your day job by being worn out, sleepy, late and just not doing a good job.
4. Let’s face it. The pay sucks! Unless you go for a high paying career type job. But that doesn’t work out because you want music to be your career.
5. Before you know it you’re old and looking back on your life wishing you had done something more. Wishing you had at least tried instead of giving up.
I wish I had started earlier in my life. I tried. But I was always forced in to working regular jobs and to forgetting about music because it’s not a “real job.” Looking back, the happiest times of my past were when I was creating and performing. The worst times were when I was working 8 to 12 hours a day and not having time for my music. For 5 years I ended up giving up music altogether because I was led to believe that it’s not a real job and no one ever makes it anyway. What an idiot I was! If only I had taken the chance and nurtured my career as a musician instead of listening to the negativity of others and following the crowd. But since moving to Los Angeles and being around, working with and performing with so many great musicians, I have come to realize that it’s never too late and you should never give up.
Back to the money.
Here is a short list of just some of the thing we as musicians need in order to do and keep doing what we love most, and to eventually make money and a living from it.
· Equipment. Have you seen how much a good guitar is nowadays?! And you need really good equipment to sound your best and to keep up with the competition! I’ve played shows with cheap instruments. Believe me, it doesn’t pay off! And the sound can be awful!
· Repairs. Stuff breaks! Even an expensive instrument breaks! And it can be quite costly to get fixed!
· Cables, picks, straps, strings. It all adds up! And things like strings need to be replaced pretty damn often! A good set of strings is around $17 - $20
· Transportation. If you’re a gigging musician you need to get around! Cars ain’t cheap to buy and run! Gas prices are going up all the time! This also adds up!
· Advertising. Sometimes it’s important to advertise a show with a flyer. Printing costs money! So does the paper!
· Website design and hosting. Monthly costs for hosting, yearly costs for domain names, design itself can be quite expensive unless you want a very amateurish website.
· Recording. This can be very expensive indeed! For people to enjoy your music you need a great recording! It also has to be mastered. All this can cost thousands.
· Session musicians. Unless you find musicians and form a great band, you will have to hire session musicians for shows and recording. This can be very expensive.
· Shows. Doing a show costs money! Some places are even pay-to-play. Most people are lucky to even break even from a show. I did a 3 song set at a songwriter round the other week. It ended up costing me! I wasn’t paid a dime. My wife paid to get in and I paid for the food and drink tab. Some places even require you to buy both! If you’re doing a larger type show, it costs to rent a building, club, or bar for the night. The lighting costs. Everything costs money!
· Touring. Lots to consider here. Gas, transportation, food, airfare, accommodation such as hotels, motels and B&B’s. And when you’re at a gig where you’re paying to play or they’re not paying, you’re career is paying to keep bars, hotels, and airlines in business.
· Let’s not forget distribution! Once you have that CD or song recorded you still have to get it out there to your fans! First of all you need to pay copyright on each song and pay a site like BMI for the publishing. After all you need to make sure it’s all legal and you have the full rights to your songs! Artwork. You need artwork for your CD. Otherwise it’s gonna look pretty boring and no one will want it! You can of course do al the art yourself. But there are still expenses to that. Once you have all your music and art ready for distribution you have to get it up on website such as iTunes and Amazon in order to sell it. This to is quite costly. And if you want hard copy CD’s that costs even more! Around $200 or more plus tax and shipping for 100 CD’s, depending where you get them printed.
· Home recording. A less costly way of recording. But this still of course costs money. You will need a good MAC and good recording equipment and software. The software alone can cost anything up to $1000 And we all know how expensive a good MAC can be! Good mic’s cost hundreds. There are a lot of things you need to buy in order to record professional sounding home recordings. But, that’s only if you have the space for a home studio…neighbors may not like the noise or it’s gonna cost more to build a soundproof room.
· Getting music into TV and Movies. If you don’t have the contacts yourself you will need to join a website such as Taxi.com. A one year membership costs $300 and for every song you submit you have to pay $5 depending on how many songs you submit over the year it can really add up! And there is still a small chance that your song(s) will even get picked after you have submitted them.
· Music Videos: a huge expense unless your wife produces them. ;-) But still you must pay for an editor or suffer long periods of time gone by if using a student, sometimes even several students, as it gets passed hand to hand.
So as you can see. It isn’t easy! And that is why so many people give up.
But I’m not one to give up! It’s 2011. A new year and a new start. Where there is a will there is a way!
They say in order to make money from music you have to give the people what they want. From the songs themselves, the artwork, the shows and even the interaction and look of the performer/band. But how does one really know what the people want? I can see that Rap and R&B is the “in thing” right now. I know there is no chance in hell I can or would do that. So what is there that people love that I can do? How can I make a great album that people will love, share and buy? How can I perform at sold out shows? This I need to know. I wanna entertain you and make you feel great! I wanna be worth every penny you spend on me. I wanna know my fans! I wanna know what you guys want! And I really need all your support. Whenever I post a new song or video, share it with all your friends. Because that really helps a lot. Suggest me to people that you think will like my music. Be constructive with me. Tell me what you want to hear on my album. What sound, what image what songs? I wanna know. I’m not only doing this for me I’m doing it for you! So help me do it right! For this is no easy ride. And being in a foreign country makes it even harder!
If you have managed to read all of this I thank you :)
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Love you all,
Byron
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Raining In Your Heart available on iTunes and AmazonMP3
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