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Making a Living from Music
Article by Tony Koretz http://www.koretzmusic.com/tony.html How many people are there out there who dream of making a living of their music I wonder? More than a handful I am sure.
Well, there's good news, and bad news I am afraid. The good news...it can be done, the bad news... it's damn hard! It can be especially difficult if you are a writer and performer of your own original music. Let's face it, how many venues are there around that are happy for you to play just original music, for say maybe an hour or two, and pay you enough to put food on your table and pay your bills? The answer is; not many. Sure you may get the odd gig like that, but they are generally too few to sustain you, unless you are a superstar.
Well you can sell CD's you say! True, but how many people do you know of who sell enough of them to keep their bank manager happy? What! You don't know anyone, you say! Hmm, a bit depressing isn't it. In actual fact, of course, there are those that do make their living like that, but for most of us in this industry we have to find other ways to supplement our addiction for writing and playing our own music, with other forms of income. And not necessarily by going out with a brief case to do a 9-5 job, or working shifts at a bar. Here are some ideas to consider.
How about teaching your instrument of choice to others? There are usually willing students to be found out there, and it can pay quite well. Or, one of the routes that you could possibly take is to record other people's music, if you are skilled in that area. This is an avenue I have taken. I figured that since I had accumulated years of experience recording my own, and my friends music, and gotten a pile of very good equipment over time, why not utilize this to make money, rather than have it all just sitting there when I'm not recording, and at the same time you can help others to fulfill their recording dreams too.
Just make sure you are competent to get first class results before you go advertising your services though.
Okay, now back to gigging. Well, if you are like me, and hate ringing up and hounding publicans, or dread making that visit to ask them if you can book a gig at their venue, more bad news is, that unless you can pay someone else to do it, it's a part of the deal I'm afraid. Now, if you've done this more than once or twice, you will know how notoriously unorganized and difficult this breed of humanity is to deal with. Sure, they say that they are going to ring you and confirm some dates with you when they have consulted their diary, or talked to their business partner , their pet dog or whatever. So you wait for that phone call, and nine times out of ten it never comes. Right!
Discouraged yet? Been there, done that. The good news is that this is pretty normal, and eventually if you remind them often enough, many of them will remember you and give you a gig eventually. Don't pester them, but periodically remind them that you haven't gone away. Once you have played there, if you are as good as you say you are, hopefully you will get to play there again. However, in my experience you need to keep finding new places to play, and this often means traveling quite large distances, and expanding your circuit. The other reality is that you will probably have to include a fair number of well known cover songs in your repertoire as well, as most venues won't be too happy to have you if nobody knows any of the material you are playing. So for me, my formula is about one original song to every four or five cover songs, and it works for me. It would be great to be able to drop the cover songs altogether, but at this stage I can't, or it would limit the number places I could play.
One of the trends that I have noticed when speaking to publicans in new Zealand, is that many of them are saying they are worried by the down turn in the numbers of people turning out to frequent their venues, and many are dropping their live entertainment quota, as they can't afford to pay musicians. This is a worrying trend for us, and if it continues, we could find it harder to get work in the future. The new no-smoking in public law, in this country, could hit hard particularly in winter too, and it remains to be seen how many people will be wanting to go outside to smoke on a frosty night. While it's great to have a smoke free atmosphere to play in, it's not going to be so good if there's nobody there to play to!
There are ways to sell your CDs should you have them, such as through the internet, shops etc, but don't forget to tell punters at your gigs that you are selling them, and have a supply on hand. You may have some other ideas to help supplement your gigging income that I haven't mentioned here, the main thing to remember is there is no such thing as a free lunch, and to survive you have to work hard. You can dream of being a rock star while you play in your bedroom, or you can get out there and work hard to make it a reality.
Copyright March 2005 - 2007
http://www.koretzmusic.com/tony.html http://www.cddvdnow.com http://www.indieartistsalliance.com
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