Taking your music stuff full-time

DFRNT · Post by **DFRNT** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:42 pm

At what point do producers or DJs decide to take things full-time if at all?

Is it something people work towards?

How many producers are still students?

Just been thinking about it recently, and wondered what people's view were?

Is it worth going for? Who currently does it? Do you make enough cash to live AND save a bit?

Discuss...

shamwow · Post by **shamwow** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:44 pm

You obviously need to generate enough to be comfortable.

Most people quit when they start earning the same as their job.

timmyyabas · Post by **timmyyabas** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:52 pm

when you can get enuff dj bookings to make a living. producing won't put food on the table, not with so many ppl 'infringing your copyright'.

DFRNT · Post by **DFRNT** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:54 pm

Yeah, seems like it's either a good amount of DJing to pay the bills, or a wide vareity of things, like labels, distro, publishing, promo, artist management, etc etc to cover costs.

shamwow · Post by **shamwow** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:02 pm

For me, I made the switch over when I started getting told off at work when arranging re-pressings.

setspeed · Post by **setspeed** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:41 pm

Alex-C wrote:Yeah, seems like it's either a good amount of DJing to pay the bills, or a wide vareity of things, like labels, distro, publishing, promo, artist management, etc etc to cover costs.

yeah personally i went full time when i saw that my music earnings, gigs, releases and stuff were all on a fairly quick upwards curve. i had just had to take a few days off work to do some gigs in China, and was spending every night working til 1am on stuff for deadlines - remixes, shit like that - and then getting up at 7 for work.

i wasn't really making enough money to live off from music - in fact i was making about 1/3 of my day job, but i thought i was all set and if things carried on getting bigger at the same rate then in a couple more months i would be ok. a couple of skint months and then i'd be getting by.

turns out i had hit a plateau. that was 2 years ago and i'm still broke. really wish i had held onto the day job until i was definitely making enough to live off!

intoccabile · Post by **intoccabile** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:44 pm

Interesting thread !

P.S. : Don't quit your day job.

somejerk · Post by **somejerk** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:53 pm

diversify yourself as a musician/dj/artist and live in an area that you can actually make money entertaining, working in a studio, etc.

hustle hustle hustle.

♫♪♫ · Post by **♫♪♫** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:58 pm

Full-time musicians eat like kings.

evil madmen · Post by **evil madmen** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:42 pm

somejerk wrote:diversify yourself as a musician/dj/artist and live in an area that you can actually make money entertaining, working in a studio, etc.

hustle hustle hustle.

This is what im hoping to do. Im going to school for graphic design, hopefully Ill learn some coding as well so I can build websites. I figure that DJing (and maybe producing, it will take me awhile to make anything worthwhile) and designing will mesh together nicely as long as im in the right place. Monsta is a pretty good example, I think Jeekoos does design stuff for dubfront too.

DFRNT · Post by **DFRNT** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:43 pm

This all sounds more or less as I expected.

Diversification is most likely the key - but don't be fooled. Jack of all trades could be master of none - and if you can't concentrate on something to be very good at - I'd say you might end up making very little from everything instead of lots from one thing.

Hard to tell really. I doubt I'll be making "the jump" yet - but maybe the alternative is to look for a full-time job within the industry, instead of going it effectively self employed.

Maybe hooking up with a company that works in music is a compromise, giving you enough time to work the music thing, while also making connections through your day job etc.

THoughts?

somejerk · Post by **somejerk** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:59 pm

one of my crew is a full time jazz drummer. he's also a ridiculous dj. he makes his money mostly drumming. my other friend is hustling and djing, and the drummer friend and the other friend are now getting bookings playing commercial/shitty music so that they can play the music they love the rest of a time.

it's a trade off. find your balance and go for it. especially if you're young, before you have bills, children, hating ass wife/husband.

louissmusic · Post by **louissmusic** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:11 pm

I would really love to make a career out of producing. At the moment i make loads of tunes most of them are still unfinished but i end up making tunes almost everyday. Ive got a small saturday job on the go to save for some monitors and audio interface and would like to know how i would go about starting getting tunes out there. Anyone care to share some info?

lowerthanlower · Post by **lowerthanlower** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:15 pm

Evil Madmen wrote:
somejerk wrote:diversify yourself as a musician/dj/artist and live in an area that you can actually make money entertaining, working in a studio, etc.

hustle hustle hustle.
This is what im hoping to do. Im going to school for graphic design, hopefully Ill learn some coding as well so I can build websites. I figure that DJing (and maybe producing, it will take me awhile to make anything worthwhile) and designing will mesh together nicely as long as im in the right place. Monsta is a pretty good example, I think Jeekoos does design stuff for dubfront too.

Same here, I study illustration and graphic design and hope to pursue that along with producing. Ideally, il go on to study music production after my last year at university.Im not sure why really, maybe it will help build contacts with similiar interests.
Everyone says london is the place to go.... is it though? if everyones going.....

collige · Post by **collige** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:16 pm

Autopilot wrote:Full-time musicians eat like kings.

I eat like that anyway.

spire · Post by **spire** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:04 pm

collige wrote:I eat like that anyway.

looks like youre ahead of the game then.

kingcannibal · Post by **kingcannibal** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:31 pm

If i was younger and slumming it with my mates sharing a flat i'd probably have quit work by now. I've got a mortgage to pay and debts to clear so its difficult.
There is money to be made out there, although its difficult to earn enough out of just doing what YOU want to do - so you'd have to set aside time each day to do studio sessions, commercial remix work, tracks for publishers etc... Of course that all takes time and in effect becomes your 'job'.

Pada · Post by **Pada** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:37 pm

Shamwow wrote:For me, I made the switch over when I started getting told off at work when arranging re-pressings.

What label do you run??

stormtrace · Post by **stormtrace** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:39 pm

It's not really a choice you make...

Once you have started earning enough from music to live off then you can quit your job. I wouldn't do it before hand and hope to be ok... Not that I'm a pro though!

intoccabile · Post by **intoccabile** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:41 pm

^^^^

Exactly... it's all about giving it ALL you've got while keeping your job and if it happens it happens !

Taking your music stuff full-time

Taking your music stuff full-time

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