OT: Are you involved in music full-time?

[dans]

Hey folks, I am about to quit my job, move back closer to my family and hometown friends (and further away from terror threats!) and take at least 4 months off to concentrate on my music writing, playing and recording. I have some good cash saved up so money isn't an issue for at least 6 months. In the end I might want to try to make more of a life out of music, rather than just a hobby--in other words, try to make a living doing it. I was just wondering, how many of you do this stuff full time? If so, any advice?

I have run my own business before so I'm pretty well versed at such endeavors and I have some decent music contacts in Boston, where I'm moving (I'm in NYC for another 6 weeks). I love recording, songwriting, playing and performing, and I'm wondering what opportunities are out there fully recognizing that I'll never get a $1,000,000 record deal. I'm willing to invest a fair amount of cash and 100% of my heart.

Thanks for any input!

[dkrz]

Go for it!

After quitting my "day job", I've been freelancing out of my studio at my house for almost two years now. I also freelance off premise at a major network. The money isn't super great quite yet , buts it's improving... The more I do, the more contacts I make thus expanding my networking. Once you get the proverbial "foot in the door" and you prove yourself as being able to do what you say you can do, all should fall into place.

The bottom line for me is that there just is nothing better than doing what you love, being home most of the time while doing it and earning some cash in the process.

...beats preparing veal stock, making soufflé's and coming up with the Specials of the Day... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Good luck!

dk

[Anthemmusic]

Hello!

I would definitely encourage you to follow your heart and do what you want to full-time.

I do want to comment on some things you said. You're totally off to a good start enjoying music and having a passion for it. However, having a good ear for music and the ability to perform and write is not the same as being an engineer/producer. Yes, it sure can lead to that if that's what you want, and is a great foundation. That's the way I got into this, and I've had a successful production company for three solid years and I've loved it! Before that, I was doing anything I could to get around success in production and engineering. I carefully watched, absorbed and practiced all I could, as well as reading lots of material.

Maybe you're already very experienced in all this.....if so - great! If not, consider the things you will need to know and be experienced in to have a successful studio/production facility. People will pay for quality and good customer service.

Yes, you can succeed on a local level in music production if the goods are there.

Hope this helps. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[stoogee]

You sound like me man. I've just taken 3 months off to focus on the tunes. Been spending the last few weeks getting my studio sorted out. Ive come from Cubase on the PC, thast what I used to use all the time. Now ive gone DIGI, getting the 002. I love it, and I love you guys, great support and good musical heads, not gearheads.

Im having teething problems tho, ie, my studio acoustics, and the mac crashing. But i'll get there. goin to go semi-pro in september where I'll be selling my producing skills and session playing, and doing demos for artists and stuff. Should be good.

Im from the UK. I'll post my site sometime soon.

Stoo

[stoogee]

not me man! music first hahaha!

StooG

[Integrator]

Wives/Girlfriends are in direct opposition of ProTools. In fact Digidesign was probably started by a bunch of single guys who got tired of editing drums on 2 inch tape.

I am pretty sure "Music Engineer" is actually a legal reason for divorce!

[nostatic]

Originally posted by Chris Coleman:
Doesn't sound like you guys are married...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">or have kids...

Luckily my 6 year old like to bang on dad's keyboard and record his own cds with sounds from the EXS24 sampler.

[Chris Coleman]

Originally posted by nostatic:
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Chris Coleman:
Doesn't sound like you guys are married...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">or have kids...
<hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yup - I'm double whammied (married & kid)
.
I make my living in post production and consider my music endeavors to be my (much more fun) second job (session musician, producer, tracking/mixing/mastering engineer, blah blah blah...)

The only problem is that I'm looking at Pro Tools 10 hours a day at my 9-to-5 gig, then I go home and look at it some more whilst doing my music shtuff...it gets to be a little much at times.

[H E A D W E R K ' N]

>> Wives/Girlfriends are in direct opposition of ProTools.

Does that mean they have to be deactived along with Energy Saver to get ProTools 6 to run on OSX properly? Digi didn't mention anything....

[nostatic]

depends...sometimes things you do for "fun" cease being fun when your living depends on them.