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RE: HOW CAN MUSICIANS QUIT THEIR DAY JOBS? (PHASE 1) - The most practical advice for your music career you'll hear this year!
The first thing about being a musician and living from music to me means to carefully think about quitting your daily job or whatever. If you quit, following things can happen (of course only if you are not believing in yourself, blablabla):
- You must make music now. So you might become a working musician, which means you will have to play gigs, write songs, etc. even if you have no inspiration, no peak emotions...
- Beeing a musician can become a "daily job" too. Once a dream, now it's normal.
- You can fail as a musician! (Of course not if you believe in yourself blablabla) The chances are not too bad that you won't be able to pay your bills.
- If you are not able to pay your bills chances are that you need money from others (state, banks, social system, your friends, family, etc.). Slowly this leads to you loosing self confidence.
- Some begin taking drugs (which is not uncommon for artists even if they are succesful) and ruin their complete life.
Carefully think about quitting your daily job, that is an honest advice. It is a great promise to fulfill your dreams as an artist just by believing in yourself. Don't oversee that the truth is different from your dream if you are not the one in a million.
Yes, indeed. I wouldn't advise anyone to just quit their 'day job' suddenly. That's not remotely the gist of this series of articles. I hope you read all of what this Phase 1 is advising.
They must plan.
They must precisely know what their financial budgeting is and be disciplined with it.
They must know what their music/music services/music-related products offers to the market/demographic that they most appeal to. Plus having a diverse range of products and services is essential (read my comments under Pechichimena's & Darrenclaxton's comments).
There is no promise and it's got nothing to do with 1 in a million at all. Not remotely.
You can be a music artist, a music teacher, a music engineer, a cover song music performer, a wedding musician, an online music tutorial course creator, a published songwriter, a steemit star, etc...
There are so many ways to earn a living from music, and most musicians shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, but ALL musicians can most definitely earn a living from music and eventually quit the day jobs they don't love.
And the transition doesn't take that long, but it requires great focus & self-discipline (otherwise stick to the day job).
I have friends who don't even have a great deal of talent earning a living from music. They aren't rock stars, but this series of articles isn't about becoming a pop or rock star, nor is it promising such things. They mix it up like Pechi above. They do a bit of teaching, a bit of gigging, etc.. It all adds up.
So yes, I agree with all of your points. The downfalls can be avoided and far easier than most think, but as you astutely say - you must believe in yourself 100%. Plus you must budget your finances and niche...
Thanks so much for your well-considered comments here, mate. Much appreciated.
:)
Really great comment and you are making things quite clear. You are focussing on the financial aspect in your article and I don't see my points on an opposite view. The amount of money per month that you suggest is even not that low and everyone has to really know that you will probably have to struggle even earning your income for your basic needs. The problem is that when it comes to making decisions they are made emotionally most likely, esp. for musicians and artists. So logical aspects like thoroughly calculating your finances don't play any role for some and some end up ruining their and (what is more unexcuseable) their families life. I don't want to speak against emotional decision in general because emotions can tell truth where even science and logic can't. But a high degree of awareness and disciplin is needed undoubtely and many are not thinking about that. That's why I wanted to add a list showing possible consequences of a badly chosen decision. Thanks for the conversation @nathankaye!