Making A Living Is The New Success

For more and more musicians, the idea of stardom seems to be further and further away. While some still see stars in their eyes, a great number have come to the realization that the goal is now a lot different, since just making a living in music can now be considered a success. I've written about this in a number of my books, but here's a passage from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age that illustrates the point.

"Musicians and artists will begin to see success in a different way as making a living replaces stardom as the big score. To some degree that was always true. Most musicians are only too happy making a living by playing music, but thanks to the excesses of Music 2.5, far too many felt that stardom was easily within their reach.  

This has changed as a new realism comes to pass.

• The realism that DIY [do it yourself] takes a lot of work and the rewards aren’t as great as in the heyday of the major labels. There’s not as much revenue in the recorded music industry pie to split as there was before.

• The realism that social networking has limitations just like traditional marketing, so traditional marketing and promotion can’t be completely abandoned. You still need both for effective branding and marketing.

• The realism that the touring market is not nearly the goldmine that it once was during better economic times. Fewer venues, less money and more competition makes gigging more difficult than ever. That being said, look for this to loosen up a bit as the economy rebounds.

• And the realism that some things in the music business never change. You still need talent, great songs, lots of hard work, and a little luck to make your mark."

Everyone wants to be successful, but that always doesn't mean making platinum records (they're so much harder to come by these days) and grossing (key word here) millions of dollars. Sometimes it's the simple things that make you feel like a success.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.