WARNING: The Music Money Sink

I've been writing music for a long time. In the beginning, I was just doing it for fun, a ditty here and there, for me own personal enjoyment, or for friends and family. If your family is like mine and music is an unusual talent, then they probably gush with praise that anything sounds even remotely decent.

After a while, I thought my music was *almost* good enough to be professional. And here is where the money sink begins...

I could write professional music if I had a scoring program.
I could make professional sounds if I had an orchestra on hand. Hmm.. That's not possible. Maybe if I could buy just a few (one!) professional instruments.
I could sound better if I hired a professional teacher.
I could record my awesome piece in a pro studio and sell it everywhere and I'll be rich!

Then reality sets in and you think maybe you're not the next Sting or Britney.
Nah, why waste the money, I'll mix and record it myself!

And so the sounds of many cash registers begin to play. You buy the instrument. Or worse, you don't think you're good enough to play pro yet, then you need something to play for you... MIDI to the rescue! But wait...MIDI doesn't play sound, you have to buy the sounds. So you buy a sound library. Then you need to buy a mixer. Gonna rap? You need a microphone. What? No sound? Hey, it needs a pre-amp. And all the while you're hearing about this thing we call mastering and so you need speakers. What! Basic speakers aren't good enough? What's a monitor? And on and on it goes.

If you've managed to get as far as making a CD without spending all your summer's earnings, then the real money hole begins. No one but your mom knows you have a CD. You need to promote it and play gigs. Hands come out of the woodwork to promote you or sign you or book and manage your tour, lawyers will help you manage your contracts for a fee...

This brings me to music fact #1:
It is easier to make money off a musician than as a musician. At every stage of your career, someone is waiting to take your money "to further your musical career".

A fellow blogger wrote about what was wrong with the industry, and I won't dispute the facts (
Whats Wrong with the Music Industry in One Long Sentence (annotated) )

But the real problem in this digital era is the music marketing and promotion sales and distribution business is hugely inefficient for the average musician.

Here are the people who can give a musician money if they choose:
Gig sponsors/restaurant and club owners
Fans
Advertisers using your music (radio and TV)
Film, and TV music directors
public radio

Here are some of the people who take a piece of every dollar you earn if you let them:
the government (taxes)
lawyers (contracts)
producers (mixing your CD)
labels (they help you sell, you give them what you earn)
promoters (radio, gig)
distributors (CD sales)
credit card companies (CD sales)
CD printers (making the CD)
promotional supplies (posters and the like)
managers (get you gigs for a %)
mastering houses (make your CD radio ready)
internet distributors (CD sales)
TV and radio advertisers

Got it? Put another way:
(Money coming in) - (music industry overhead) = (not a lot usually)

music make money sink