How to Survive in the Music Industry in 2022 | Sustainability and Portfolio Careers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- Sustainability and Portfolio Careers
www.jonathancurtis.co.uk
In this video, I discuss the topic of sustainability within the music industry. Post pandemic, the world has changed, and many industries have changed with it. It is more important than ever for musicians to make their work sustainable. Understanding and creating a portfolio career, and considering the longer term aspects of each investment is a way in which this can be achieved.
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A very honest video. Thoughtful & incisive.
Thanks, good insights.
You’re welcome Nick. Thanks for the comment 🙏
❤brilliant advice! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻
You’re welcome 🙏
this is outstanding
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the kind comment.
As someone who has finally figured out, after 26 years, what I want to do with my life (become a full time drummer, with session work or otherwise) this is equal parts helpful and scary. My worry is that I don't have the money, or spac,e to setup a full recording area in my house; I barely have enough room to set up my drum kit in the garage. I also don't have many other things going for me to add to this portfolio as I'm purely a drummer, with nothing useful to write a book about, nor offer lessons to anyone as I, myself, am self-taught so I don't feel I'm qualified to teach anybody else. I suppose my question is: is it worth pursuing a career in drumming if that is the only thing I'm going to be doing to earn? As you mentioned, the old ways are dying/dead so I'm worried it won't be enough. Great video either way, and this channel definitely deserves more attention than it gets!
Hi Aron. Thanks for the comments. I'm glad you found the video both helpful and scary, because that is probably indicative of the scale of decisions you're making.
There are lots of things I could say about other skills, qualifications, teaching, and what you have to offer. The reality is, if you want to make a full time living doing nothing but playing the drums live and in the studio, and you do not have your own home studio and the provision to record yourself for clients, it will be extremely difficult. I don't want to say impossible, but it would be nearly impossible in the current climate.
Firstly, calculate how much you need to earn to survive. Let's say a single adult in the UK needs a bare minimum of £1000 per month just to survive, assuming the live alone in rented accommodation with no dependents. To earn that, you would require an average of ten jobs per month paying £100 each, whether that's live or session work.
For many professional musicians, ten £100 gigs a month is VERY good going, as that equates to just under three a week. That's the equivalent of playing for £100 every Friday and Saturday night of the year, with a third gig every other week. That is not going to happen unless you strike lucky a snag a spot in a very busy function band.
As for the session side of things, VERY few independent artists can afford to hire real drummers, let alone the studio time and engineering costs that go with it. Most that are looking for a real drummer would go to someone who can record at home to save money on the studio costs. As I say on my own website, if you want me to record drums for you, you only have to hire me, and not the studio and engineer as well: it's much cheaper for the client. The only people that are consistently hiring session players to record in professional studios are the big labels, and they have a small pool of regulars that you won't break into (and neither would I). So for somebody like me who actually has the studio and equipment and skills to record at home, ten sessions a YEAR is good going, let alone ten a month.
And then bear in mind that even if you managed to find a mix of ten £100 gigs and recording sessions a month every month, that is still only bringing you in a wage (before expenses) of £12000 a year, well below minimum wage.
I don't mean this to put you off - we all have to follow our dreams, but it is very, very difficult to survive in this industry solely on your instrument alone, especially if you can't or won't teach. I would suggest you consider some formal tuition with the goal of earning some qualifications of your own (I would be very happy to help you with this). You can then offer yourself as a teacher, which will allow you to bring in some good money, giving you the breathing room to find the gigs and see how you fare with the session work.
Feel free to follow this up further through my website. If you want to discuss it in person, you could book one of the online sessions and we use it as a talking session, otherwise pop me an email if you like.
Best of luck, whatever you decide to do.
Jonathan
@@JCurtisDrums Thanks for the in depth reply! I really appreciate the honesty of the situation, as hard as it is for me to hear haha. I'll definitely send you a more detailed email regarding my current situation and perhaps take you up on an online session at some point too. Cheers again!