So your a member of d2jsp and you spend time in Musicians chat.

My question is, do you make money from your art? as in you don't have to subsidise your pay check with a different job/income. Or have you had a long background in music? such as a European tour along with a band who has a record label.

This topic especially apply's to the long standing regular's of this topic, would love to know you guys a little better

This post was edited by dysgenics on Nov 2 2012 05:15pm

I'm just a shitty bedroom guitar player who plays for for fun and as a hobby/time-killer (when I actually have free time and I decide not to game).

As for my background, I picked up the guitar around nine years ago, because my brother (musically-oriented and who played piano) decided to pick it up and influenced me. Took classes with a private teacher for a year, but due to finding theory unappealing and just wanting to play the damn thing (I was 12, literally), I gave up on them and self-taught with ultimate-guitar and tabs.

As much as I LOVE music, I did not want to undertake a career into it for a handful or reasons; the first one being I prefer business (currently majoring in Finance).

With the help and tips of some websites, I decided to start filming myself covering solos/songs and uploading them to youtube.

Here I am, nine years later, still grabbing that guitar sometimes and giving it a go

Feel free to check my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Thomasuter

I'm playing in a band since 6 years.
We are doing shows and get paid, but this will never be enough for me to quit my current full-time job.

Honestly, i believe that if you are doing music for money, you are doing it for the wrong reason.
I've played with a few known bands such as Obscura, Watain, Ulcerate and a few others.

pretty much every single of the greatest compositions known to man was written in a rush to meet a deadline. Or the composer would not get paid and would be out of work. Money really motivated great work in this way.

Anyway, money is life at the moment and if your life is music then your money would emanate from it naturally as people want to damn pay you
Thats why my question was aimed more specifically at professionals or people with professional experience, with respect

This post was edited by dysgenics on Nov 3 2012 01:52am

I was fortunate enough to be able to tour most of the country with my old band, and playing fill-in guitar for a couple of a bands who were on a label. Stuff I will never forget, because I got to meet some awesome people, and it's something I had dreamed of doing since I was a kid.

Truthfully, unless you are playing mainstream music, there isn't much money in the music industry for full-time touring bands. We would make enough to where we could eat, and have extra to put back in case our van broke down, or something went wrong with our trailer. But other than that, it was a lot of sleeping in a van, parked in a Walmart parking lot, or crashing on someone's floor. I loved it, though.
As far as the signed bands I got to tour with go... They had a few perks, such as personal expenses (to an extent) would be refunded by the label at the end of the tour, and stuff like that. But still, very hard to keep the bills paid when you'd spend so much time on the road.

I quit touring in May of this year, because I wanted to go back to college, and I am getting married next month. Unless you know the right people, or play the trendy music.... There isn't enough money there to sustain a living.
But I agree with Kafir. If you're doing music specifically for money, then it isn't art at that point. It's just another 9-5 where you commute to work.

Great final line, thats sig worthy.

For me, I am much like Darkshade. Year of intro lessons in 2000, and then teacher left in summer of 2001, so I taught myself from then on and eventually started using my phone, poorly, to record me playing, sometimes poorly, various covers and such.

Your right, but there is so much for professional musicians, so a musician doesn't need to make money from his band & passions

But as you say, being on the road so much makes everything tough. I have been tempted to do what animals as leaders do, and start offering lessons on the road!



I remember your covers link me!!



Without meaning to sound like a complete ass... Guys, stop criticizing a lifestyle you have no idea about I do stuff by deadlines and as a real job from home. But my passion is all there. The fact that i get paid to do things does not mean I feel as tho my soul did not go into it. Furthermore structuring it and giving it times to do it simply means more gets done, much faster. I'm not just gonna do music when i "feel like it" in order to feel like im not selling out. I need to do this every day, striving to get better and better at it, whether getting paid or not. The fact that I structure myself gives me the opportunity to only do music in my life and not worry about a job.

Your talking about the point when you are not writing for yourself and what you love, you are writing for the fans tastes are and what you know the masses love. This is the point where art become corporate. This has nothing to do with time spent, attitude, or financial things behind the music at all!

I just left a band like this, but i still make more money than them and structure my life more professionally than them. Yet I am the one who hasn't sold out my values in music.

This post was edited by dysgenics on Nov 3 2012 03:38am

I'm not saying that there can't be a desire to make some sort of money off of what you do. Obviously when we left for tour, it was our intention to make money so that we wouldn't be stuck 2,000 miles away from home with no gas, and a busted van. With all due respect, I know all about that life style. I spent almost 6 years of my life after I graduated high school on a van, seeing new places every day. I've seen the business side of the music industry, and for the most part, it's incredibly corrupt. (not entirely, obviously) As far as making money. I met a band named PM Today, who despite several offers from labels, remained a DIY band. Because they did things in such a way that they were able to make more money doing things on their own, than what they label(s) were offering them. (which ultimately a couple of years later they ended up signing) but you're absolutely right, they still had passion for what they did.
i'm not saying that you can't write music, with the goal in mind to make some sort of money. after being a full-time touring musician, they money we made on the road helped us immensely. not only collectively as a band, but personally as well. What I AM saying, is that if one is writing music simply to make a buck.. That's where it stops becoming art, and turns into just another "get rich" scheme. because if you are only making music to ultimately make money, the passion shifts to money.

there is a line between doing what you love to make money, and just doing something to make money.

Although there was a slight hint of condescension in your reply, it is able to be overlooked due to the fact that you mentioned Animals As Leaders in your reply.

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=54842360&f=187

There's 3 covers on first page, then various pages in there's the odd cover here n there.

Also, regarding the discussion of making money only from mainstream thats bollocks. I see your logic, and commend your arguements, but my uncle is in a over 50's rock n roll cover band, reguarly gigging every other week and making £150~ every time. Thats from playing covers for pure enjoyment in a standard pub environment. No, thats not a full time living, but it is steady (low) income for playing what you are passionate about - so no, you don't have to be mainstream to make money from music - but yes, the big bucks are in the mainstream.



Exactly.

yeah I give some piano lessons, (just to 1 student, I dont have enough time to take more with my studies).
Once I'll have finished my studies I will of course take more students and work in a music school and probably give concerts and hope to have a nice career in music.
I'm not doing that for the money but by passion... and maybe fame and gratefulness a little ^^
I dont feel like doing anything else in my life, and if i'd do something else i'd regret it my whole life

This post was edited by unid_element59 on Nov 3 2012 04:50am