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Pro or Amateur?

Ricochet

By Ricochet
in Epiphone Electrics


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Ricochet

Ricochet

Posted
Posted

Pro or Amateur? Do you make a living making music?

 

I was wondering how many of you guys are pro? That is, actually making a living making music, or are in the music-industry. So, not necessarily a pro guitarplayer, but producing, guitardealer, roady or whatever.

 

Semi-pro; you have the occasional gig, but keeping the job, or you are a student, other

 

Amateur; not making money with music

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Big Norm

Big Norm

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I would say I'm a semi-pro, because I have to work in something else during the week to live decently... but I'm earning money for giging with my band 20 to 30 times a year. I'm also giving guitar lessons to few beginner students. I can't certainly not qualified myself as a pro...I would eat peanut butter on crackers in my 1 and a half appartement if I would lived only on music. My steady job is paying myself a house, car and sometimes a good meal..Lollllll

My gigs are spoiling me with my studio and gears.

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antwhi2001

antwhi2001

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Semi.

 

Played in bands in pubs and clubs semi-pro off and on 1976 - 1984. Then spent many years just messing around at home with portastudio and other instruments. Got back into occasional stand-in gigs and regular open mic sessions a few years ago, now back in a rock 'n' blues covers band doing 3-4 gigs a month, mainly pubs paying about £200 a night.

 

http://highmileagerock.com/home

 

In between I play at open mic jam sessions most weeks.

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Dave

Dave

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When I was gigging with a cover band, I made an additional paycheck with the band playing weekends that almost doubled my income (20 years). I work as a service engineer with a multinational company (35 years). If I could have played for that much 5 nights a week, I would have made more as a musician than I made at my day job, provided that I could have burned the candle at both ends and survived. I've never been one who enjoyed playing until 1:00am and then being at work at 8:00. We did a two week stint at a local Ramada Inn once and I overslept one morning and didn't wake up untill 11:00am. Luckily, at that time, I was not monitored closely at my job and was able to cover and get to all my customers by the end of the day. If I had been forced to punch a time card, I would have been in trouble .

 

I think that there are lots of musicians that could have been pros, just as there are many people who could have been track stars, football and baseball pros, etc. Being in the right circle of friends and associates goes a long way toward stardom and success in any career.

 

My musical career allowed me to have many material things that I would likely not have had if it weren't for two incomes. We played somewhere between 75 and 100 gigs a year in the 70's and 80's. No one wanted to quit their day job and go touring, although if that was what we had decided to do, I think we could have been moderately successful. For every superstar band, there are hundreds, probably thousands of bands you never heard of who have regional success.

=D>

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Syrma

Syrma

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Posted

I'm a pro, but not with the guitar, I'm a classicaly trained singer, and work mainly in Cathedrals and churches. Have an actual salaried job, doesn't pay great, so have another job to help out a bit, but that's just part time, Earn about £20k a year singing I suppose...

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layboomo

layboomo

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Posted

Semi-retired-semi-pro-semi-roadie/sound/lighting/production who never strayed to far from music and sound industry. I did pro sound and lighting work for all of the "big" southern rock bands while living in Florida in the early 80's. I never got much further than bar/cover band stuff although I did make a living at it for while..... HATED the club/dance band scene to be honest and left that. I did play with some people who went on to tour on the highest levels. I was always in it for the fun not the money....still am.

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Notes_Norton

Notes_Norton

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I've been a pro most of my life.

 

I started playing in Junior High School and after about a year of playing, I got in a rock and roll band. We were terrible, but so was everybody else at the time. We booked a couple of dances in the gym. ... So there I was on stage, having fun playing music with my pals, and that girl who wouldn't look at me in English class was suddenly making eyes at me --- and at the end of the night they actually paid me money!!! I was hooked.

 

I've played in everything from those dances to cruise ships to 5 star hotels to warming up and/or backing up major stars of the day to bars/lounges to weddings to appearances on CBS, NBC, ABC and MTV to just about anywhere else a musician can play. A group I was in was almost famous, but negotiations between our lawyers and the record company broke down and that broke up the band. So close but so far away.

 

I was disappointed, so I took a few years off as a semi-pro, playing on the weekends and working as a CATV engineer during the week, but it didn't work out very well for me. The money was good, but I really hated that particular day gig. But it did teach me (1) not to be afraid of computers and (2) being a musician is not what I do, but it is what I am.

 

Currently, I'm playing in a duo with my wife, The Sophisticats doing one-nighters mostly at yacht clubs, country clubs, private clubs and parties. When I met her she was singing/playing in another group and we were each other's groupies. Then we decided to start a band toghether.

 

I also write aftermarket user style disks and fake disks for Band-in-a-Box in my company, Norton Music. I stumbled on this by accident. I bought BiaB many years ago when I had an Atari/ST computer. I bought BiaB to practice improvisation with, after all it can create most any chord progression in any key and I could experiment with the songs I was learning without involving the other band members.

 

When BiaB came out with the option for the end user to write styles, I decided to try, since I was dissatisfied with the styles in BiaB at the time - they were nice but leaned toward the amateur. I gave copies of my styles to my musician friends, and they all told me they liked my styles better than the BiaB styles, so I took out an ad in Electronics Musician magazine. Fast Forward to now and I've sold to over 100 different countries and I've been written up in various musician magazines.

 

But it isn't going to make me rich. For a small businessman the bank, insurance, webhost, shopping cart, credit card authorization company, credit card merchant's account, telephone company, government, and tons of other "silent partners" take more money than I keep. But that's OK, I'm having fun with it...

 

...Besides, I am a performer. One of the best parts of the day is when I'm on stage with the sax, guitar, flute, wind synth, or microphone in my hand, the music is happening, I'm playing, my wife still is making eyes at me, and the music seems to be flowing through me instead of from me. It just doesn't get much better than that.

 

I could be making more money with a day gig, but what does one spend his/her money on? Happy things (hopefully). So I have a happy job. Instead of saying "I have to go to work today", I say, "I get to go to work today!!!" and actually look forward to the gigs.

 

So there is my life story (so far)

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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skeeterb56

skeeterb56

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Semi-pro. 3-10 dates per month, mostly weekends fronting bands for over thirty years and the dream lives on. There's just nothing like playing and interacting with other musicians in a live setting. Someday it'll put me in the grave but the mortician won't have to work hard to make me look at peace.

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CodeMonk

CodeMonk

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Posted
Ex-pro. Semi-retired semi-pro.

 

 

Same here. More or less.

Been at the amateur status for awhile.

Haven't played for a living since the late 80's.

Quit playing for awhile (about 15 years), but got back into it about 5 - 6 years a go.

Actually, I have a gig this weekend playing with this other guy who does a solo electric/acoustic act.

I dunno if I'll get paid for it or not, I'm just doing it cause I enjoy it so much. As long as I get free drinks (Coke, Pepsi etc. no alcohol), that'll be payment enough for me.

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