Originally Posted by Martin Lide
Gentlemen, In all sincerity, there are exceptions on this site....but,

If you are on this site regularly and you are an amateur, or like me, have made some money in music...but over the course of a lifetime, not enough to even buy a new car....and if you don't have genuine call-up-on-the-phone contacts in the music industry who can truly and significantly monetize your music or get to people who can...then your chances of making enough money to be concerned with are negligible. From what I have read...even if you have a contact or two, payoffs are hard to make happen. Do music because it brings you pleasure. The odds are massively against any other payoffs.

Sorry for being a buzz kill, but "it is what it is."

Case in point: I spent hours of "in-the-moment" time developing a short audio-book around 7 songs, with Mike Z's help. I enjoyed the process and am very pleased with the outcome. I consider it the apex of my life's musical endeavors. The recordings were accepted by Itunes and Spotify through Distro-kid. Last time I checked, my earnings were 12 cents. No bitterness here. It was a lovely experience, but it is what it is.

CORRECTION: I just checked and my earnings have hit $1.52 as of this morning. What am I going to do with all that money?

Martin


I made 10 bucks on a song I wrote, I never cashed out and I cant even remember the name of the platform who has my money!

But in all seriousness, the vast majority of us dont try hard enough. If you were relying on making money off your release, you wouldnt be so passive you'd be out aggressively marketing, gigging, appearing, open micing,networking 24/7

The platforms and programs offered to diy musicians are nothing but gadgets to make us feel we're in the game. We're not, remember when soundclick used to make people feel they were somebody in the music business? It didnt take long for every single user to realize NOBODY goes there.

What do you think the chance is of some high school or college kid, or any age saying "oh man, i heard this great song on reverbnation, you HAVE to check it out. Or "I went to cdbaby yesterday and bought two great albums of a band that SOUNDS like the stones!"

They are either going to hear it through the hypeline somewhere major, or possibly catch the artist performing the song somewhere.

I always thought (and so do alot of people) that songwriters just write and send it off and poof, they have business. What I found was songwriters are ALSO, artists, performers, producers, they release their own albums, the teach music,give lessons.

Alot of times if you find a hit songwriter somewhere, chances are he has released several of his own albums already, and has a fan base. And i dont mean reverbnation fans.

First thing a songwriter needs to do is write great songs, then they have to approach songwriting like it MUST happen. You will starve without it.

It takes that kind of drive. The boss lived in an abandoned factory before he hit it big. Many stories of even pure songwriters are homeless and living under tressles trying to do something with their music. It's not going to happen placing the song in soundclick and posting a link here


Last edited by Fdemetrio; 12/07/19 12:10 PM.