Every musician has heard that they need to "get a real job," from jokes on the internet to friends and even family. But should you listen to them? Depends.
Unless you’re lucky enough to be living with your folks or a very generous partner, you’re going to have rent and bills to pay and you’re not likely to be earning enough from music to cover those when you first start out. You need a job, even if it’s working for other bands on the road as a TM/doing merch/driving/FoH etc. outside of your own band’s schedules. In fact those things can really help you network and create great opportunities for your band in the future.
Bro, I've been binging on your videos. Actually the only reason I feel like getting a job is just to get some extra bucks for the ads. I have an album, just released it but I haven't really marketed it. I'll keep watching your vids and learning more about the subject because I really want to live from this. I gave up a lot of stuff (thank god) for this jajajaa
Here's a part of a interview with Devin Townsend when he talks about a similar thing 'failing efficently' ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bBW3rjyK8M8.html I like his, and your take on it. I'm honestly at a point where I feel like giving up music would be a far bigger sacrifice than having to give up some aspects of social life etc. Honestly until I started watching you and another youtuber Levi Clay I still thought making a living with music was this thing only one in a million were fortunate enough to do, I'm still a long way from making any money from it but I'm willing to work hard and make sacrifices to make it. Another thing that sticks with me is a quote from Bill Burr i.imgur.com/pxRl5le.jpg. Anyway, nice video :).
On another note you talk about your channel being the place for starving artists to learn how to make a living, I'm just curious as someone who's still trying to find a 'niche' or my specalised field or whatever you want to call it. Sometimes I think about some form of Video Tutorials, sometimes music journalism, sometimes transcription; and admittedly all these fields do end up linking together in one form or another. I was just curious how you found your voice as a content creator, was it something you naturally fell into or was it a result of market research etc etc? Sorry for bugging you, just curious on your input.
Thanks so much for sharing, Patrick! I've seen that Devin interview before, but that Bill Burr quote is new to me and I absolutely love it! I'm absolutely thrilled to hear that my content has in some way helped you realize that this dream isn't quite so impossible :) As for your question: I've always been a multi-faceted, DIY kinda musician. For years, I would go through these periods where I'd get burned out and stop making videos, because I was only focusing on guitar. Now, I LOVE guitar, but it's not the only thing I want to talk about here. I'm just as passionate about music marketing, audio engineering, psychology, and my own original music, so in this newest incarnation of my channel, I'm allowing time for all of it. It's just the only way I can sustain my creative process, is by allowing for all of my passions to be expressed equally. Not gonna lie, there was a hint of market research in that I happen to know the RU-vid algorithm favors channels who upload more frequently than once a week currently, but ultimately I just kind of realized that I needed to be true to all my different passions equally. You're not bugging me at all, man - please feel free to comment whenever you like :)
