u/ShoppingOk5210

I see a lot daily about musicians and their struggles, asking whether it's worth starting or taking up, whether its a profitable venture and I want to share some of my thoughts which I've been journaling about for the last few months and I hope will be of help.

First of all it's important to note that "making it" can mean a lot of things to a decent amount of people, but the overall consensus is being financially successful making music. Now I'm speaking from the UK, I don't know much about the US or elsewhere, but I do ask that you please, please, please cut yourself some slack! I see people getting really upset that they've been playing for years and it's just not making financial sense, and (again UK perspective), it's a whole lot to do with there not being a good infrastructure in place. If you look back in the 80's and 90's, there were tonnes of venues where you maybe didnt get "rich", but at least had a decent platform and scene to support you and that's less and less the case now. I read something crazy like 2/3 grassroots venues close because they can't sustain themselves, and they can't because people just don't go out anymore, and they don't because very few can. It can be fixed, but it requires individual change and a re-establishment of community spaces. I've seen this work In places Pan Pan in Birmingham and Spanners Arch in London, as well as The Yard in Manchester, but more can be done.

Now here's the tough love part. I see a lot of people on this sub seeking validation for what they do. Questions like "Can I", "Should I" etc. but you have to appreciate, the stranger who answers your question has had a completely different lived experience from you and I. Everyone is different, and that's what makes us as musicians wonderful! If we all wrote the same music, it would be boring as sin. If you're anyone like me, you spent a good portion of your childhood being made to feel you weren't good enough, or you didn't belong. Without getting too personal I was bullied a lot for being sensitive and so I was constantly trying to be part of "the gang" to have some social safety net. And it's really bloody hard to surpass that but you just have to. When you are in the process of actually jamming and getting into it, the whole point is to get lost in it and some of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded are because of that.

Finally, this is a big thing I'm trying to overcome. Don't take obstacles as an excuse to say "I didn't make it". Because I guarantee you even the artists who had it the easiest still had to overcome some adversity. You just have to believe that whatever purpose you've come on this Earth to do is going to be done, whether you stress and struggle or breeze through it or something in between. For example, I'm writing an experimental proggy concept album about a Homo Erectus getting lost in an interdimensional well! I've chosen the hardest path to stardom but at the end of the day, I'm doing it because I feel on a deep level it's my purpose to write it and that it will take me wherever I need to be.

I guess my point is, just go easy on yourself. Making music and making a career out of music are two different kettles of fish. I'm moving onto the latter as we speak, it ain't easy! But in a thousand years time when some alien picks up your radio frequencies in deep space, they'll be listening to your tunes and not any other metrics you achieved.