Tips For Your Life As A Musician
Here you will find some useful tips to help you live your Life As A Musician. If you have a tip that could help other musicians, don’t hesitate to share it with us – just use the form below! Thanks!
Last updated: 24. January 2021
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As musicians, we (and other people) tend to forget that we work differently than other “ordinary” people. For example as a musician who plays live gigs you are free during the week and work on weekends which is just the opposite of how other people live. If you’re living alone that’s no problem but as soon as you start a relationship with somebody who’s not a musician you can get problems considering your lifestyle and working times. And if you do other additional things like recording and/or teaching during the week you practically don’t have any spare time to spend with your partner/spouse. You have to sort things like these out before the relationship becomes serious and the problems bigger.
I’ve done both and this is what I’ve learned:
If you got the talent and you’re ready to work hard to be a (working) musician then it is the best to put all your energy and time into it. No plan B! It is a tough journey but you just have to stick to it.
If you take the other path where you have a backup plan then you’re not putting all of your energy into plan A. You have to develop your plan B and maintain it, which takes some time end effort, too, so your progress as a musician will go much slower. This is a better way if you have a day job and make music as a hobby but to become a professional musician you simply have to invest everything to get everything…
Why should I do that? Because it is a business! You are a business! If you want to treat it like a hobby then maybe you should get a day job and do music as a hobby instead. Case closed. But if you want to make your living with making music then you should treat it like a business because it works the same way. Just replace the word “music” with the word “service” (making music = offering service) and then reconsider. And? I think you’ll agree with me that it’s a business…
For better or worse you’re pretty much on your own as a musician these days so it’s a very good idea to educate yourself not only as a musician but also as a entrepreneur so try to learn as much as you can about today’s music business – you’re gonna need it!
One thing is sure: as a professional musician you almost certainly won’t have a steady income so it’s always a good idea to save some money for the “dry” periods of time. What I personally like to do is divide my income into 3 equal parts but you can adjust your division accordingly. One third goes for my costs like taxes, pension funds, medical and social insurance, living costs, etc. The second third goes for new gear, gear repair and maintenance costs, spare parts, cables, sticks, strings, picks and other accessories, different updates and upgrades that are not free, etc. And I put the third third aside as a reserve or my backup for the hard times. In my 40+ years as a musician I’ve learned that one day I’m gonna need it – for sure, if I like it or not…
(Talking about hard times: I don’t know when are you reading this but I’m writing it in the middle of Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and at the moment practically all gigging musicians are out of work! All concerts, festivals and other live gigs were cancelled and nobody knows how long this situation is going to last!)
As a working musician you should – and you’ll probably have to – become very versatile as far as your musical activities are concerned. It has become very hard to earn your money with only one kind of gig. In addition to that if your gig is suddenly gone you’re practically unemployed! That’s why you should always find other things to do so you can have multiple sources of income if something goes wrong. If you are doing only live gigs maybe you should consider doing online courses or/and start your YouTube channel. If you are a music teacher maybe you should teach in person and online. If you have a homestudio or a portable studio you can record jingles or music for clients or even television and film. There are tons of options, you just have to find the ones that fit you best.
If you want in for the money – forget it! In today’s music world “to make it” means being able to make a living by being a musician and making music. Simple as that! If you want to earn the big bucks you should be in tech – they are the rockstars of today! But if you’re like me and you just love music, love to play and sing it, love to write, record, mix and perform it then – by all means – you should do it!!!