jamieariss Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Hi im a student studying music and its now the time to make a desision on whether i will take it to a degree level or see sence and look for a different career path and just enjoy the wonders of music as a hobby Is it actually realistic to earn a sucure income from playing gigs and touring , (im not including teaching, setting up guitars ect.) im aware of the standards and effort required to be a succsesful musician too Any bass player with experience in the music industry, advice would be much appreciated. peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomBassmonkey Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 If you do a degree, make sure it's somewhere where the 3 years will be worth it for contacts and experience. As in most arts, qualifications mean bugger all. If you're going to leave with a degree and nothing more, do something else. If it's a place that could give you contacts to make a move into the music industry, it's worth it. I spent 4 years studying music at college and the small bits of work I get come from the shop I work at (which I just walked in and asked if they had a position) and a friend of a friend of a friend type thing. Neither have anything to do with college. I don't regret it though as I got a lot of experience from there and played a lot of music. I did leave the degree course though because I felt I wasn't getting anything out of it that I didn't already have. Maybe if I'd gone to a different college it would've been different though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutToPlayJazz Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 (edited) +1 on Tom's comments. A lot of contacts come through less prominent places like local music shops. As a for instance, pretty much all of the work I do now stemmed from dropping into the local music shop here and passing on my details when we moved here in 2004. It is possible, but harder for a bass player as a stand alone instrumentalist. I'm lucky in that I'm a classical/jazz musician (violin/viola/cello/double bass/electric bass/piano/classical guitar) and I sight read fluently as well. Teaching is also a lifesaver at times, as there aren't always gigs around. You may have a quiet month with no playing. What are you going to do then? So it's a mixed bag, really. It's possible to earn a very reasonable living. You're never going to be a rich man unless you hit the real big time (luck and contacts again!), but it's a very satisfying way to live as long as you can diversify. Rich. Edited March 21, 2010 by OutToPlayJazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_of_the_bass Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 You are a good player - the best thing to do would be to tout yourself around as much as is possible and make as many contacts as you can. Move to London etc - this towns' too small as you know!!! ATB! Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Music degrees vary in quality and opportunities offered, and very often rely on the student to "put in" to a return - it is not unusual to hear wildly different opinions of a music degree from different people who did that degree, even if they were studying in the same year. Personally I got a lot from my music degree; off the top of my head, contacts into musical theatre, exposure to a huge range of different musical genres, and the opportunity to gig in those; bucketloads of inspiration all round, and several years of tuition from a great double bass tutor and orchestration tutor. It also gave me the opportunity to join the university orchestra and play classical music for the first time. It was worth every penny and has certainly paid for itself. I'd say earning a relatively secure income is possible; certainly some musicians I know approach this asymptotically. Probably the most secure are those who teach regularly and perform in function bands with a busy diary booked often years in advance. If you take this approach it is possible to earn a very good living, but there are of course various levels of tradeoff between variety/income/security. Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynepunkdude Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 5 steps to making money from music 1. Buy an instrument 2. Learn to play 3. Join a band 4. ???? 5. Profit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 The Underpants Gnomes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynepunkdude Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 [quote name='endorka' post='781845' date='Mar 21 2010, 05:45 PM']The Underpants Gnomes? [/quote] They have a great business plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 My Dad was a pro drummer in the 60s & pretty much hated all the sessions he got to do. I on the other hand must have spent a fortune over the years playing exactly what I want at every stage of my life. At best I've walked away with £50 or £60 a night. I know a few session players like my Dad now & it saddens me that he hasn't played seriously since about 1965 and rarely even listens to music. I'm the opposite - there is always music on in our house and I play a lot. It will never clear my mortgage but it's a great escape from real life. I am sure there are many many happy people in the industry (I have 3 friends that do it professionally as teachers & one who runs a shop as well as sessions) but sometimes the fun gets lost along the way trying to "make it". I was doing just that and wound up at the age of 27 where I couldn't get a decent job because I'd spent a decade playing semi-pro & not looked beyond the goal of being succssful in music playing it EXACTLY my way. I'm not wishing to put you off but you need a strong business plan with very realistic goals and expectations. My let down was that I would never compromise on genre / style so I limited myself. I'd have rather done that than have made it playing stuff I hated it. If you don't mind what you play then it's simply not a problem. Good luck in whatever you do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 I'd start by thinking ahead to what you would like to have achieved by a certain age. Is standard of living important to you.?? what do you want from life etc etc .. Not an easy thing to know for some out of college, particularly in the artistic field. How much is a decent income pa..? Depending where you live, but say £30k sounds a start. There aren't too many pros I know who do that...and the ones I do know who may get close, have to WORK for it. They need a function band that earns around £200 a night each for 2 nights so that is most weekends taken care of..they need to teach and they need a few more gigs through the week to top it all off. AND they need to do that week-in week out for the whole year. It is fairly easy to earn decent money on a one-off basis a few times through sessions, gigs etc ..but it is putting it all together week-in week out and then some. And by the time you are 35...things aren't so easy anymore. Consider most of your contempories who might earn whatever from a day job ..and they might expect to do so for 40 years plus and even more now Brown has wrecked our pension industry. It would be hard to get close to that as a jobbing muso. You need to be very lucky and/or very talented and we all know that the industry is no respector of talent.. On the othe hand, it could be fun ...but expect to be poor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 It all depends on what you want out of life. Being a professional musician can be and often is hard work,especially if you want to work on a freelance basis. There will be times when you don't have a gig for a few weeks,in which case it's good to have some teaching to fall back on. Other times you will be dead busy,but may have to travel hundreds of miles over a couple of days. Some gigs will pay great,but you may need to take that £25 gig when times are slow. I know a load of people who went to Uni,who now have office jobs and are earning quite nicely and have a 'comfortable' routine of work,pub at weekend,holiday once a year. I may have a less consistent wage,but I've travelled all over the country as well as Europe and America,met some great people and basically had a lot of fun,all from playing music. Most of all,I'm happy and enjoying myself. I wouldn't want it any other way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vibrating G String Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='jamieariss' post='781374' date='Mar 21 2010, 02:00 AM']Hi im a student studying music and its now the time to make a desision on whether i will take it to a degree level or see sence and look for a different career path and just enjoy the wonders of music as a hobby Is it actually realistic to earn a sucure income from playing gigs and touring , (im not including teaching, setting up guitars ect.) im aware of the standards and effort required to be a succsesful musician too [/quote] Most talented musicians can't make a decent living off of performing. Those few that do are often playing in situations they don't like, lame music, kissing butt to big egos, living on a cruise ship or playing at an amusement park. Even those rarely make enough to have a family. It can be done but think of it more as making a living as an actor or in sports, it takes a lot of luck and it usually doesn't last for a full career. If you're not good at doing your own business and promo it's highly unlikely you'll have any success. If you love playing music now nothing can kill that faster than having to play for a job when you don't want to. I'd recommend keeping it as a hobby so it stays enjoyable and if you decide you're going to go for it make sure you can have something to fall back on if you find out you're not one of the lucky ones. Performers who do make it are often surprised that their dreams haven't become reality as touring gets dreary and thousands of people asking the same questions over and over can drive you nuts. Andy West of the Dixie Dregs gave up living off music and became an engineer. He says it's great not worrying about money and only doing music he truly enjoys without worrying about trying to sell it to pay for food and rent. That said there are dozens, even hundreds of musicians who make a living on music but it's hard work and you do need luck, hard work will not do it alone. That's what I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman69 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 (edited) [quote name='JTUK' post='781917' date='Mar 21 2010, 06:40 PM']Is standard of living important to you.??[/quote] Yea, its a no brainer.. get a day job, then enjoy playing. If you get paid its a bonus. Edited March 22, 2010 by Musicman69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisnameistaken Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='jamieariss' post='781374' date='Mar 21 2010, 09:00 AM']Is it actually realistic to earn a sucure income from playing gigs[/quote] "... yer bedda slur, da mustang da!" Worst-case scenario: Every weekend, for the rest of your miserable life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman69 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='thisnameistaken' post='782326' date='Mar 22 2010, 01:47 AM']"... yer bedda slur, da mustang da!" Worst-case scenario: Every weekend, for the rest of your miserable life.[/quote] HA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman69 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 But playing progressively worse kips of pubs, social clubs, anywhere that will have you.. Day job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 i was in a big band once with a load of students from cardiff uni and the royal welsh college... i got the gig over the bassists studying music there, and the connection was actually made through church! networking is key. uni is probably a good place to network, but i can't really see the advantage being that big doing music other than lots of extra practice time and maybe getting to know a few lecturers. I swear i've gotten more gigs from general conversation than I have from actual music related anectodes! one of my mates was doing a degree in music production and was actually advised by his tutors to just get on with recording an album whilst he was still young instead of carrying on with the course. I'd do a degree in something else and try to make it in music in your spare time. i probably would have risked not having a stable career and attempted to make it in music if i wasn't such a science geek! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='thisnameistaken' post='782326' date='Mar 22 2010, 01:47 AM']"... yer bedda slur, da mustang da!" Worst-case scenario: Every weekend, for the rest of your miserable life.[/quote] Having said that,I'd rather do that -amongst other things,of course-than an office job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisnameistaken Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='Doddy' post='782334' date='Mar 22 2010, 02:46 AM']Having said that,I'd rather do that -amongst other things,of course-than an office job.[/quote] Each to their own. I'm pretty tired of my current job right now but that's taken 10 years. I think 10 years of wedding bands would've driven me batty much quicker. I do respect people who make a living from playing though. I'm not jealous of some of the gigs they have to do, but I admire the commitment and even just the bravery to try to make it work. I never had world-beating chops so I didn't think I'd stand a chance, so I stuck to doing bands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 See my post above for my general position..........but here is another side to the story ..or another story. met a young guy out of music college on a jazz gig and was impressed straight away that he wanted to know EXACTLy about the money...so not idealistic at all and very business-like. Great player and also had something else about him and you could see he would be able to give it a fair crack. He was quickly into a function band that made very good money but it can be soul destroying going up and down the country for those gigs so he moved to London and started to get calls. He is touring now with some good names and must be doing ok...The money should be very good for the type of gigs he is getting but he always knew his worth and had a sound business head as well having the talent. Ditto, the best muso I ever played with..a drummer... he is getting quality work now and probably requires retainers to secure his services. So, if you want to back yourself, then do so, but I'd have a solid background to fall back on as doing the job you love can soon become just another job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodster Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='Doddy' post='781986' date='Mar 21 2010, 07:38 PM']It all depends on what you want out of life. I know a load of people who went to Uni,who now have office jobs and are earning quite nicely and have a 'comfortable' routine of work,pub at weekend,holiday once a year. I may have a less consistent wage,but I've travelled all over the country as well as Europe and America,met some great people and basically had a lot of fun,all from playing music. Most of all,I'm happy and enjoying myself. I wouldn't want it any other way. [/quote] Couldn't have put it better myself..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I think if you're wanting to earn decent money from playing then the best way is to forget the degree & find a bunch of able musicians & make sure at least one of you can write decent songs (taking a course in song writing & structure would be more beneficial) or be a tribute/functions band and play regularly. If you can find a good promoter & have a good band then you should be able to get regular gigs & build up a decent rep. If you're gonna go for a degree, do it in something you can fall back on incase you get fed up with the band/don't make anything/lose a hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Bajo Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I play with a Keyboard player and a drummer who both did music at uni. The drummer leaned towards the recording side and now has a decent job at a big school in the music and production dept. Its more orientated around engeneering but he loves it. The keyboard player is on a management scheme for graduates and he enjoys it. Nowadays many businesses just look at the degree grade rather than the actual subject so if music doesnt work out then theres always a regular job to fall back on, just make sure you get some office experience, prehaps get a part time job while your at uni. On the other hand I have another friend that plays in Tenerife as a house band and he is LOADED!!! though he is sick of playing Sweet Home Alabama for tourists and the work is seasonal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepurpleblob Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I got damn close to the point where I could have made a living (just) out of playing bass a few years back. I simply played in a very busy covers band that was getting "them high paying gigs". And I'm a rubbish bass player I'm not advocating that you don't go and do your music degree as any training, education etc. is almost always a good thing. What I maybe do think is that making money at *anything* is more an attitude of mind than skill and good fortune. You have to hustle.... you have to acquire a business head and look for the money making opportunities. There's plenty of ways to make a buck but you'll have to dedicate some time to that as well as your playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderbird13 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 [quote name='jamieariss' post='781374' date='Mar 21 2010, 09:00 AM']Hi [b]im[/b] a student studying music and its now the time to make a desision on [b]whether[/b] [b]i [/b]will take it to a degree level or see [b]sence [/b]and look for a different career path and just enjoy the wonders of music as a hobby Is it actually realistic to earn a [b]sucure[/b] income from playing gigs and touring , (im not including teaching, setting up guitars [b]ect.[/b]) [b]im [/b]aware of the standards and effort required to be a succsesful musician too Any bass player with experience in the music industry, advice would be much appreciated. peace[/quote] If music doesnt work out there is always proof reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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