Originally Posted by jonescrusher
But how will you earn the money to buy the food/pay the taxes. Without owning what you create how can you make even a penny from it? How would you charge a high price for live perfomances without the label promotion in the first place? The starving musician thing is all very romantic but it starts to hurt the old noggin after a while.
can't tell if you are joking? i've been making money through music since I was 16 lol.
you don't only have to play your own music to make money do you. infact most people don't.
why not treat other things you could do which relate to music (sessions, producing, live sound, arranging, covers, management, branding) as your work? that way you can still release your music on your own terms. of course it depends how much hard work you're willing to put in. you only get back what you put in.
oh and why do you need a record company to do promotion lol?
if i add enough people on facebook I could probably arrange a gig in kiev (ukraine) and have 100 people turn up. that would still be enough money to cover the cost of fuel (if i was driving from bucharest for example).
you realise most of the "big" record companies now have under 200 staff. that is the big independents.
but you're right, it's just all a very romantic dream.