How do i get started in the commercial music business?

How did you get started in the music business?

• I am a going into my Sophomore year of college, studying in clarinet performance. My goal is to make a living off of performing in ensembles and teaching lessons. My question is ...show more

• Answer:

  The feasibility of your making a decent living as you describe is SLIM - and getting slimmer in this economy. Those of us who HAVE been doing this for many years see a huge fall-off in business right now. My husband and I decided MANY years ago upon what we must do , if we were to be able to play chamber music as much as we wanted. We chose to become certified teachers. We are now both recently retired from LONG (over 33 years each) careers as public school choral directors. We have seen ENORMOUS swings in the music business over those years. I QUIT teaching more than once, to stay home, be a mom, teach TONS of lessons, and play chamber music. I returned to teaching when the phone rang with a good offer ( you afford to WAIT for the phone to ring then!) and would parcel out some of my students, knowing I could refill my private studio in a snap. THOSE days are gone, too. We played hundreds and hundreds of chamber music gigs - weddings, Viennese balls, parties, historic sites, etc. - but THOSE gigs are drying up, also. DO you see where I am going with this? The college that ANYONE attends is never going to tell you that you cannot SURVIVE on what they teach you - they don't call it an Ivory Tower for nothing! It is up to YOU to decide if you want to struggle and starve for some wonky ideal about being a True Artist (yeah, right) or find a way that you can live a decent life. Music education has paid for ANY instrument I want, a gorgeous house, lots of travel, health insurance, a pension - and I have NO worries. I can play as much as I want. I judge competitions. I am retired at age 59 - my husband had a deal, and went at age 54. We are very fine players, with excellent educations ALSO in our performance areas, beyond our necessary degrees in music ed. We have colleagues who made similar choices - engineering, computer science, medicine, etc. - so that they could BE the best musicians. This is like the old joke about the farmer who wins ten million dollars in the Lottery - "what are you going to do with all the money?" Well . . just keep farming until all the money is gone, I suppose." We have colleagues who have degrees ONLY in performance, and literally live from gig to gig. This is not a life. They are our age, in debt, no insurance, etc. They are hustling, and miserable, with no end in sight. I still have an incorporated business and DBA ( as well as 501c3 for NFP work) and play whenever. Right now, business stinks - not just for me, but for ALL of us. You might be the top clarinetist at Juilliard right now - yu did not say. If you WERE - then pursuing what you wish would STILL be hard - I know, I have students there now. If your preparation and location is another less, or anything BUT - then what you seek will be be near-impossible in this economy, no matter HOW good you are. Do not take this personally - how could it be - I do no know you, nor have ever heard you play, nor do I know anything about your education and current experience and connections. But the arts in America have never been an easy path, and this is a low point. STRONGLY consider how you are going to support yourself financially, so that you can continue to be a musician. As one of Steven Sondheim's characters said in SITPWG - Work is what you do for others; art is what you do for yourself". I wish you much luck - this is a heart-wrenching reality check and decision. I hope you take my advice as that of a colleague who has BEEN through this, and now also is going through it again with my son and DIL - who have chosen to follow our paths.