How hard is it to make it in the music industry?..

Seanf999

I don't know where to post this and it's probably been done to death but still..

So I'm wondering firstly, how hard is it to make it to make it in the music industry and secondly how to go about doing it..

I'm fully aware it's no cakewalk but I can't see myself doing anything else. I sing play guitar and write songs.
I've no interest in house/club music, I like john mayer, Ed sheeran and James bay style of music, that acoustic style..

How hard would it be to make a living as a musician? Not expecting to be rolling in it but atleast be keeping my head above water..

Any input?...

jimmii

Depends on how good you are, who you know and how lucky you are and then you need to put in a load of work.

It may seem appealing now but in 15 years time you might find you feel very different if you have a family and still only just keeping your head above water.

Seanf999

jimmii wrote: »

Depends on how good you are, who you know and how lucky you are and then you need to put in a load of work.

It may seem appealing now but in 15 years time you might find you feel very different if you have a family and still only just keeping your head above water.

Then again I'd want to atleast try, I mean I'd keep wondering what if..

Would it be worth going to BIMM? The music school in Dublin..
Is there anything I can do now? I'm 17 so I'm not going to college yet

jimmii

Seanf999 wrote: »

Then again I'd want to atleast try, I mean I'd keep wondering what if..

Would it be worth going to BIMM? The music school in Dublin..
Is there anything I can do now? I'm 17 so I'm not going to college yet

All you can really do is make yourself as accessible to the people that matter as possible make your music as widely available as possible and play in front of as many people are possible. In terms of courses you should basically be doing anything you can to learn more and get better so do whatever you can that you think will achieve that. At 17 you can give it a real good shot and if it doesn't work still have plenty of time to build yourself a regular life definitely a good time to go for it!

phater phagan

Seanf If you're good at it and passionate about it - go for it. You've probably heard the old joke: A guy with a violin case is looking for directions in NYC and he meets someone and asks him " How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" the man answers "Practice , practice practice!"

I would definitely investigate the music school angle - it can only be a positive thing and a good voice coach can make the world of difference between a good voice and a great one.

I played in groups years ago and gave it up because of pressure from my family and although I've made a decent living doing business stuff I have regretted it at times. Some of the people who were in the music business with me are still going strong and making a good living from it.

It's hard work thought and needs a committed mindset.

Best of luck to you.

Seanf999

[quote=" I would definitely investigate the music school angle - it can only be a positive thing and a good voice coach can make the world of difference between a good voice and a great one.

I played in groups years ago and gave it up because of pressure from my family and although I've made a decent living doing business stuff I have regretted it at times. Some of the people who were in the music business with me are still going strong and making a good living from it.

It's hard work thought and needs a committed mindset.

Best of luck to you.[/quote]

It's strange because I only sang in front of a non family member this year.. It was my music teacher and she basically gave out to me for hiding it for so long, she also 'made me' take up music and I found out I've synthesia..
I've played guitar for my school but I rarely sing in front of others.
But I've always wanted to do something in music..

Thanks all for the great input!

karaokeman

It sounds like you have the talent and passion for it, apart from that what you need is the dedication and you will be set.

I would say do whatever you can to make yourself known, play in your local, make youtube videos, busk in town, anything that puts your work out there.

And yes, there are no guarantees about whether or not you will "make it", but when you become proactive about writing, recording and performing and gain a decent (even a small) following it doesn't really matter.

There are plenty of musicians out there who wouldn't have a large following and make average wage from what they do, but they'd be happy regardless because once you love something it doesn't feel like a job.

If there are music teachers/courses in your area do consider them. One of the best things about education is that there's always more to learn, and the more knowledgeable you are the more ideas you can apply to your music.

Best of luck dude.

Seanf999

Thanks for the input, truth is I'd be happy (for now anyway, but nobody knows what the future holds) living solely from making music even if that is not a lot of money.. I've always had a huge interest in guitar.. so much so that it chews away at my interest in school, I realise the importance but I just find 101 things I'd rather be doing (100 of those being playing guitar 1 of those being sleeping)
I don't go to a very musical school, I'm the only lad who plays guitar in my year never mind sing, most of them tend to 'look down on it' so being involved with a lot of musical people is difficult..

Blisterman

In answer to your question about how difficult it is to make it in music, extremely. Out of 1000 people trying to make it in music, maybe 1 or 2 will make a decent living. There's a lot of highly respected, reasonably well known artists out there working second jobs between gigs.

I'm not saying this to discourage you. By all means give it a shot. You may regret not giving it a go for the rest of your life. I would recommend looking more in the engineering or production side of music, if you're looking for a course with career prospects.

Seanf999

Blisterman wrote: »

In answer to your question about how difficult it is to make it in music, extremely. Out of 1000 people trying to make it in music, maybe 1 or 2 will make a decent living. There's a lot of highly respected, reasonably well known artists out there working second jobs between gigs.

I'm not saying this to discourage you. By all means give it a shot. You may regret not giving it a go for the rest of your life. I would recommend looking more in the engineering or production side of music, if you're looking for a course with career prospects.

I have looked into those areas mentioned but I'm not a huge fan of the direction the music industry has taken in the field of production..
May sound stupid becoming an artist in that field but I plan on changing it.

My other option is open a record label that I do not have the capital so I like my 1/1000 or 1/500 chances!

Blisterman

What is it about the modern production industry you don't like?

It's all well and good wanting to change the music industry, but, as is the case in any industry, you still need to understand how things are done, and why they're done if you want to change them. Nobody walks straight into a job where they're in a position to radically change things. In any field, you'll start off working under other peoples rules using systems which have been long established.

Again, I'm not trying to be discouraging. I think a healthy level of idealism is good. I just think it's good to have a realistic understanding of what you're getting into.

Seanf999

Blisterman wrote: »

What is it about the modern production industry you don't like?

It's all well and good wanting to change the music industry, but, as is the case in any industry, you still need to understand how things are done, and why they're done if you want to change them. Nobody walks straight into a job where they're in a position to radically change things. In any field, you'll start off working under other peoples rules using systems which have been long established.

Again, I'm not trying to be discouraging. I think a healthy level of idealism is good. I just think it's good to have a realistic understanding of what you're getting into.

Particularly people merely being a face for someone else's songs and being a face for a machine (autotune processed music etc)
People who may as well not have a musical bone in their body but they look the part so they get the job.

Ok saying I want to change it in its entirety is a bit stupid when I'm not even in the industry as of yet but I'd like to change my statement to 'I want to change it for myself first' after/if I get in of course..

Blisterman

Singers being a pretty face for other people's songs is not at all a new phenomenon. Elvis and Frank Sinatra never wrote any songs.

But anyway, what you're describing is but a small percentage of music out there, although admittedly the most visible. There's plenty of other musicians out there who don't fit that description, though as I previously mentioned, very few of them make any money.

Anyway, the main reason I suggest looking at jobs in the creative industry is because it all helps, both in terms of connections, and also because it's all inter related. Knowing intimately how a studio works and how to get a recording to sound good, can only help make your music better.

Doesn't even have to be in music. I'm an architect, and I make music, draw, take photographs etc in my spare time, and I find that improving skills in any creative field, helps me in all the others. Because it all draws upon the same skills of composition, capturing a mood etc.

Anesthetize

Seanf999 wrote: »

I don't know where to post this and it's probably been done to death but still..

So I'm wondering firstly, how hard is it to make it to make it in the music industry and secondly how to go about doing it..

I'm fully aware it's no cakewalk but I can't see myself doing anything else. I sing play guitar and write songs.
I've no interest in house/club music, I like john mayer, Ed sheeran and James bay style of music, that acoustic style..

How hard would it be to make a living as a musician? Not expecting to be rolling in it but atleast be keeping my head above water..

Any input?...

Firstly understand the difference between the music industry and music the art form. The music industry is focused on making profit from music and will use any sore of coy marketing tactics to achieve maximum profit, even if it means telling you what to play, how to look and short-changing you. This will become a pain in the ass for you.

On the other hand you could just make the music that you want to make and not care what anybody tells you, or care if you make any money from it. Just doing it for your own satisfaction. Realistically you only have a 1/654660.33 chance of making some sort of living from music, so ask yourself do you want to make music for money or make music for your own enjoyment?

eviltimeban

It depends on how you define "making it". Most young bands / singers think that getting a record deal is "making it" but that's only the start of it. If you plan on being a millionaire then that might be slightly harder to achieve than simply getting enough money to live from making music.

There are, however, several steps you can take to help the process:

1. Get good
I'm not being facetious. You won't get anywhere unless you are good. Keep playing, keep writing, keep singing. Develop your voice. Get good at the guitar and good at singing (and develop a good understanding of how music works). The songs you are writing now aren't the songs you will be singing next year (most likely). I've written hundreds of songs and when I was writing the first 10 I thought I was a genius. The last 100 were going to send me into the stratosphere. Of course, now I realise that about 90% of them were sh*te (though I still think there's some good ones in there though). So keep going.

2. Get a gigging
Playing in a band is one option, but getting a backing band as a solo singer is another. It'll be harder to find guys / girls who want to back a soloist but if you can convince them you are good enough to back, you'll get better gigs and have more of a chance of being heard than if you do the singer / songwriter nights. I'd do some of them just for the experience of playing live but don't expect to be discovered at any of them. Try and get support slots with bigger bands, even if its two songs opening a set.

3. Get recording
Demo your music. Home recording equipment is easy to use and cheap nowadays. So record as much stuff as you can. You'll love the first things you record and in a year hate them. So don't send out your first demos to anyone (more on that in a minute). However, recording will give you vital experience and help you define your sound. You should listen to your own music continually. Record what you want to hear. Eventually you'll have some good recordings. You can get by with home recorded stuff, once its mixed and mastered professionally. Your "demo" should sound like something releasable. Then, when someone asks for some music, you'll have something decent to give them.

4. Get something unique
Why should someone buy your records and not mine? Why should they go to your gig and not mine? Why should that label put out your record and not mine? You need a unique selling point. Your gigging and recording experience will help you find what that might be. If you don't have a USP, you won't "make it". Most likely. :-)

5. Network & content
Go to gigs. Meet bands. Go on social networks. Push push push. You need to spend hours, days, months doing this. If you do this right, labels will find you. Help them by making good videos of good songs. Put stuff on Soundcloud and push push push; if you have thousands of plays, again, labels will find you. Ideally if you do this right you'll never have to send a demo out in your life - which by the way is a waste of time. I don't think any bands get signed from unsolicited demos - which for the most part are never heard.

As someone who has actually released music on labels, I've found that PR and promotion is the key. If you have an EP or single ready to release, pay a PR company to do some promotion for you. They'll get you on the radio, in magazines, talked about in blogs. Then, people will start showing up to your gigs. You can do a certain amount 100% independently, but to really break through you need to be on a label as they have the contacts, the pluggers, the PR people, the distribution networks, and big bands that you can support.

Then the hard work really starts.