Anyone here who prefers making music as hobby even if you have possibility to turn semi-pro or pro? why?

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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^ He says there should be some televised shows with Rick Dees and Dick Clark, likely on the web. Will see if I can find them, though this is all I know of at present. Mostly it’s only there because some of the other members (of that band) are still trying to make a go of it in one form or another.

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I completely regret taking my well-meaning parents advice to get a day job some 30 years ago. I should have never had a doubt in my abilities because now I'm in a couple bands with actual professional musicians and I work in a studio with a real professional producer with gold and platinum records on the walls. Sure, dealing with bandmates and promoters and industry people can suck. But after 30+ years as a working stiff including the last 20+ years in a job I don't hate (but it's not music), I've found people in "normal life" are no less prone to being sketchy and unreliable and the reward for taking this path has led to obligations before any type of security. Lesson learned: Normal life blows, follow your passion, there are always opportunities to get paid doing what you love if you look beyond just standing in the spotlight in front of thousands of adoring fans. ;)
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pekbro wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 6:55 am*Still the way to go is to be a famous rock star. I am reminded of that every time I talk to Dave Murray. He has two multi-million dollar homes where I work, across the street from each other.
Who's Dave Murray? Seems you don't even need to be famous to do OK.
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BONES wrote: Tue May 21, 2019 1:59 am [quote=pekbro post_id=7404432 time=<a href="tel:1558248902">1558248902</a> user_id=240527]*Still the way to go is to be a famous rock star. I am reminded of that every time I talk to Dave Murray. He has two multi-million dollar homes where I work, across the street from each other.
Who's Dave Murray? Seems you don't even need to be famous to do OK.
[/quote]

Granted, Dave himself isn’t all that famous, but you’ve definitely heard of his band. Gah, kids today.

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OK, definitely heard of them. Interestingly, though, despite being 60 years old I had to look up their discography to see if I knew any of their songs. Run to the Hills is the only one I recognise, apart from a cover of Skyhook's Women in Uniform. All those 70s metal bands are just a jumble to me, apart from Deep Purple and a couple of Led Zeppelin songs.

Anyway, it is always going to depend on what you consider to be a professional career in music. I know a couple of people who wrote jingles and did OK out of it but I don't consider that as anything other than prostituting yourself just to make money. I helped one of the guys work on something once and I derived zero pleasure from the experience (but I did earn a grand for a day or two's work). I declined further offers.

That leads me to my own situation, which is simply that there is no profession within the music industry that I would want to take on. Bands I have supported who do it full-time can't afford even the modest life I have and the constant grind of touring and recording seems to get to them over time. Trying to make it doing a more popular kind of music or as a session player would be as soulless and unrewarding for me as flipping burgers.

Other people I know who do it full-time end up being very mercenary and not having many friends. They charge for remixes, because they have to if they want to eat, and other bands who aren't full-time get resentful. It puts them in a difficult position that most people don't seem to appreciate so, again, I wouldn't want to be one of those guys.

The music I make is very important to me, the process of making it is not something I particularly enjoy so taking a job in a studio or in someone else's band is not something that has ever interested me. Ultimately, I feel like I never had any option other than to do it as a hobby, albeit an all-consuming hobby at times, for the simple reason that I know that what I do could never sustain me in any kind of enjoyable lifestyle. There was a time in the 1980s when it may have been possible but it would only have lasted a few years and then I'd have had to go and get a proper job anyway.
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bmanic wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 12:52 pm
pekbro wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 8:27 am My friend and co-worker, a drummer for 45 years
That is some ridiculously tight drumming right there!! Any more clips where he is drumming? Any other genres?
Ok here's Gerry again with Willie Bobo... Pretty bad ass, I never saw this stuff before. Gerry's
not really a computer guy, he wouldn't be able to find this on his own :D

https://youtu.be/nNW0deaAh9Q?list=RDG-cES_kz9Sk

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dasen wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 4:24 pm Anyone here who prefers making music as hobby even if you have possibility to turn semi-pro or pro? why?
Nah. Getting more popular allows my music to reach more people.

On the contrary, spending evenings alone in the studio is not that great if you don't see the fruits of your labor. I need a success to stay motivated and have an excuse for all these hours years wasted.

Plus, if I ever was able to make a significant money with it, I could spend more time just making music instead of regular job. Still, that's unlikely as software development is light job and it's well-paid :shrug:
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Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

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dasen wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 4:24 pm Anyone here who prefers making music as hobby even if you have possibility to turn semi-pro or pro? why?
I've been quite lucky with music as a job. I got my first paid composing gig when I was still a teenager, and later this year, I'll be working on some music for what will easily be the biggest video game I've ever worked on and I'm presently working on a second indie-game soundtrack off and on. I haven't been able to earn a completely steady living with it, but I dare say — I've been fortunate enough to make more money with it than many ever see, and I'm not even thirty.

That being said, I have a lot different outlook on life in general than I did when I was 20 or so. Back then, music was all I cared about. I remember I was so sure after I finished my first paid project that this was all I wanted; to write music.

However, as the years went by, many projects (a lot of them failed even if they were paid) came and went. The worst, where I came to realize film scoring just wasn't for me, was when I got offered a small-time indie film and slogged through; god, I hated it so much. I remember going through gaps of no music work, and working whatever crappy job paid the bills that I could get, and sinking into this deep depression when long periods of no music gigs came. It was impossible to keep a girl around for very long that way, because (especially as you get older) being a musician stops mattering if you don't have stability. That added to the depression.

Then one summer, when I went with some friends to a medieval faire, I met these folk musicians. I just sat there listening to this group; this guy playing a hurdy gurdy, another with a frame drum, this woman singing and playing all kinds of wind instruments, and then I noticed all these people around me who were just into it. Some complete strangers dancing together, etc. and I just realized that I liked this better than being locked away in a darkened studio, writing music for (ultimately) soulless companies who view me as just another link in the chain, fairly near the bottom of priorities. I'd rather play with a band like this, just for fun, then get paid to play for a bar full of drunk people who are mostly just there for the drinks.

Don't get me wrong, I still do enjoy composing for games; I think it probably is ultimately the most suitable career for me in the long haul, but now I see music primarily as a cultural, social-bonding thing. I think that's what it was always ultimately meant to be. Now, I'm careful in who I choose to work with. The guys I'm working with on my newest projects have let me, in the contracts, keep 100% of the rights to the music, I'm not on a stupid-tight deadline, and it feels more like I'm just writing music that we both happen to like. I don't try to be a "jack of all trades" anymore and subjugate myself to genres and stuff that I just hate; screw trying to please everyone.

TL;DR? I'm 1000x happier just writing what I like and connecting with other people via music IRL than locking myself away in a studio for hours at a time or seedy clubs for coin. If that's all that it ever ultimately amounts to, I think I can live with that. And you know something else? Since I stopped worrying about it so damn much, it seems like the professional side of it works out better too.

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because i would wind up strangling someone with my bare hands right before i broke postal. the people in this industry are the fakest shit that ever existed on this planet and getting faker every day.

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They can be but it doesn't have to be like that. Our label is run by our manager, who is a close friend I have known for more than 20 years. The label bends over backwards for us and doesn't care whether or not we make them any money. They have their cash cows who allow them to indulge other artists like us. Obviously we aren't full-time, and neither are they, but the cash cows are and they can still reach a big audience through a small label with good distribution contracts.
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