I was just doing a little googling for research material on, “professional career vs. hobby”. I found this interesting little blog that kind of explains the whole thing of what I’m talking about better than I can. This article here. Take a few minutes and read it if you would.

It explains that if you decide to take your hobby — whatever your hobby will be: a musician, artist (painter), photographer, film maker, etc.) — into a professional career… it might take the passion out of what you love doing. If you turn it into a professional career, it’ll seem like a chore instead of something passionate to do. It’ll make you feel like working a job. You could get a lot of stress by working all the time on your creativity and making lots of money off of it.

You can still make a living off of something you love doing just keep your original hobby separate. You want your original creativity of your hobby to be yours and when you make money off of it… that might create a distraction in life.

If I were to make a living off of something I love, it wouldn’t be music. I would rather make a living off of working on computers and doing office work. That’s the kind of job I would rather work for. I’ve had years of training on computers and taught myself how to use them over the years. I’ve also had years of office experience. I haven’t gotten a new office job yet ’cause they’re hard to get nowadays. I did have an office job in the past that I worked at for about 9 years, though.

As far as music goes, it’s just something I want to do. Music helps me get through life and it helped me what I am today. It makes me a happy person. Music is what helps keep me strong, confident and keeps me going in life. If I make money off of it or try to get big with it… I don’t know, it’ll just feel different. I don’t think I have what it takes for a professional “career” thing.

Some of you probably would want to see me take it to a “career” but honestly, I don’t care to. It’s why I’m always willing to play free gigs and just hand out my music for nothing. I just write songs for me, ya know?

This is not about “putting down someone’s way of life”… it’s about looking at reality.

I never cared to be a rock star. I never took myself seriously. I just want to make art with my music and enjoy it. That’s what it should be about the passion of it.

I used to want to be a rock star. In fact, that’s the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place ’cause I dreamed of becoming a famous rock god like most but as I got older, I started to realize that those dreams are never going to happen so I kept music as a hobby.

I wouldn’t want to make money off of songs that I have written — especially if I’m proud of my work. I don’t need record labels telling me how my songs should be or how they should be written. Your music doesn’t need to be a cash making machine. Just be proud, be happy, and that’s all you need!

Kev

Whenever one musician disagrees with any of my topics on local music, this certain person will shall be nameless at this time will mistakenly believe that the rest of the music scene will disagree with me too. It’s not always true. The responses toward my local music topics has always been a mixed bag. I’ve been told by a few that they agree with pretty much everything I say on here. The problem with the more established and successful musicians is that they all want to act like, “know it all’s”. They always want to act like the struggling and lesser known musicians know nothing about local music. Some of these guys will treat me like that I have done nothing in the local music scene which is why some of these guys feel that my local music discussions aren’t worth it. They would laugh at all the stuff that I say.

Sorry to say guys but I’ve had plenty of experience around the local music scene. Have been a part of the Capital Region’s music scene for a lot of years. I go way back to about ’95 or ’96. I’ve seen plenty of local band gigs, networked through a lot of musicians over the years, played a bunch of gigs of my own, a lot of different open mics, etc. So I know my stuff. I’ve seen what goes on at the shows and I’ve seen what goes on online through the musicians community. So I think I deserve to talk about local music in anyway I please.

The fact is that Albany is not appreciative for music at all. That’s the way I look at it. Musicians are some of the strangest and weirdest people I know. They’re crazy. It’s pretty much why I don’t associate with them much anymore.

I’ve learned over the years that you can’t impress all of them. If they don’t like how you act or if they don’t like your music, they won’t make you feel welcome. Sad but it is what it is. Don’t impress them all. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to impress yourself. You don’t have to change who you are just because people around the scene don’t like you. I’ve had too many musicians who I thought were supportive of me and thought was my friend but they just come and go. Again, you can’t impress everybody. Only focus on you and your music. I’ve had this attitude for years now and works for me just great!

Kev

To clarify my posts and discussions about whether you want to play music for the passion of it or to make money off of it, I think what I’m trying to discuss is the usual, “hobby vs. career” debates. You see, I look at music as a hobby. I never saw it as a professional career. There are some people out there that want to see me move forward in my music: play all kinds of gigs, get good opportunities playing the bigger stages, make lots of money, go to the next level, etc. However, I never really cared to get there at all. I just want to do what I love. Plain and simple. I don’t care to win a Battle of the Bands, opening for national acts or perform on huge festivals. All that stuff may seem nice but I’m not worried about getting there. It’s part of the reason why I don’t gig too much. I’m just the type of guy who doesn’t mind staying home, just writing songs… getting them out there for people to enjoy. If people don’t listen to my music at all, that’s fine.

I make music ’cause it’s what I love to do and what I was made for. Music is part of my life.

It’s just that musicians stopped seeing music as a hobby or just something passionate to do in life. There are too many out there who are pretty desperate in getting paid,  getting popularity or even trying to get fame. It used to be just a group of musicians to get together to show each others songs. Jam together just for the pure fun of it but nowadays everyone wants to get paid for playing music or to try and get famous.

Here is something to think about, just an observation between a hobbyist and a professional musician:

Hobbyist: “Here are some mp3’s for you all to download and enjoy. Let me know what you think of them.”

Professional musician: “Here’s our new album (on bandcamp/Itunes). Give our single a listen and if you like it, buy the album.”

Or

Hobbyist: “I think I’m gonna go to an open mic to play a few tunes.”

Professional musician: “I’d rather play a gig and get paid.”

You get the idea?

Another thing, when a musician wants to play music as a hobby and not as a career… it doesn’t mean that they suck. There ARE plenty of talented musicians out there who play their instruments amazingly well… they just don’t care to get big. They just play at home for fun. For example, if you look at youtube there are tons of excellent guitar players showing their stuff. There are talented young virtuosos and shredders in youtube… and they don’t even care about a big career. They just want to play for fun, ya know?

When musicians want to make a living for what they do, am I really putting down their way of life? No. I don’t see how I am. When the so called professional “career” musicians respond and become all defensive, you are actually putting down the people who just want to play music as a hobby. So watch what you say there. You’re not better than them.

If you want to make money, playing music… fine… go for it. If all you wanna do is get paid… it makes you look kind of desperate and greedy. You don’t really care about the fans or the music you play. All you care about is getting money in your pockets. You may have bills to pay and responsibilities but that’s what day jobs are for.

When I gig, I don’t really care to get paid gigging at all. I don’t have strict hourly rates. I don’t care to get paid $5, $10,  $15, or none at all. I just wanna be on that stage, performing. I don’t care about money when playing music. Period. End of story.

Kev

If I can think of more reasons why bands shouldn’t make people pay to listen to your music… here are several more reasons…

• It helps give you a lot more recognition and even more respect – A lot more people will respect you and support you if you give your music away for free. As long as people see that you’re not into this for the money at all, they’ll be willing to give you a listen and check you out.
• It’s nice to get honest feedback and critique of your music – This is one reason I do it. To get feedback from people. I can’t tell if my songs are good or not and I’m open for honest criticism. You’re not gonna get much of that if you have people pay first. It’s just a better way to get heard.
• You’re not gonna get rich & wealthy anyway – Lets be honest here. Do a lot of people really buy your music? I’m willing to bet no. I’m sure one or two people would buy your CD’s at the shows or buy your music online, but I’m pretty sure you don’t make a fortune off of it. That’s why it’s best to give it out for free since no one will buy your music anyway. I’m sure it’s possible that bands can make pretty good money off of their music but they are very likely pretty well-known and established bands who have been doing this for years.
• It’s a good idea to give back to the fans & your supporters – Fans reward you by going to your shows and supporting your music. Staying loyal to you. You should reward them in return by giving back to them. It helps keep your fanbase and make them happy. This is another reason why I do this.
• It’s a slap in the face of the music industry  –  If you’re not happy with the way the music industry run things — be it, either major or indie label — and you are disgusted by how they control things. Disgusted with their CD pricing and all that stuff… you can fight back against them by giving out your music for free. It might help change the way they look at the business side of things.
• You are competing against illegal downloads and possible early leaks – If you want to stop this stuff from happening giving away your music is just your way of fighting against piracy. If you don’t want people illegally downloading your album or leaking it early, it’s a good way to stop ’em.

I’m sure there’s a lot more but those are a few I can think of at the top of my head.

I remember in the old days when bands used to give out music all the time but unsigned music has changed over the years. These days, everybody is obsessed in getting paid for what they do. In my opinion, that’s not being passionate for music. Music should be something that you love doing and what you live for. It shouldn’t really be looked at as a “job” or a “career”. I always looked at music as a way of life. Money is all musicians think about.

Don’t get me wrong. I like making money but I’m not gonna make it by making music. There are still some musicians today that aren’t in it for the money and popularity but not as much as before. Everybody wants to make cash and gets lots of fans these days. If I ever get myself a band someday, I’m gonna make sure the musicians aren’t in it for the money and they just want to play for the love of it. That’s what music should be about. Not worrying about fame, money or popularity. Musicians wanting to play ’cause they want to rock out. People don’t see local music in that way anymore. They all see it as a “professional career” which is pretty sad, in my opinion.

Kev

This seems to be a new trend with unsigned bands these days. Whenever they release their new album the first site they will release the album on is at bandcamp. First of all, I think the site is pretty terrible to begin with. I hate the way it looks and the sound quality is very bad. I also hate the way bands price the albums on there too. It’s good that you can stream them and listen to them on there in it’s entirety but it’s the pricing options on there I don’t like. Secondly, another reason the site bothers me is that when you are about to release an album, don’t you want your music to be yours? Why would you release it on there first when you can just upload the album on your website?

When I get a new demo CD made… I will never release it at bandcamp or Itunes or any of that garbage. I’ll figure out a way to release my demo right here on this blog, and I’ll make the demo downloadable for free too.

Bandcamp is just a bad idea that musicians do and a huge mistake to release your albums on there first. Gone are the days when bands would exclusively release their albums on their official website. Bandcamp certainly has taken over the spotlight of CDBaby and I never liked that site either!

The only places I’ll upload my music are at sites such as Reverbnation, soundclick or soundcloud. I would upload them to youtube in audio video as well!

I just think unsigned bands & artists forcing people to buy their music online is just bad. I would never do it. I’ll talk a lot more about this tomorrow.

Kev