Post it for free if you want it heard. :-P

To be "successful", a word that is open to interpretation, in the "music business" these days does not require any real talent one only needs to be prepared to prostitute (I am not talking in any form of the sexual sense of the word) ones self.
 
Real and amateur musicians make music because they love music.

Considering how crappy music made today sounds I wouldn't buy anything out there that I don't already have and have paid for. 
 
Soul is missing in what I heard on TV etc
 
Nowadays when I want to listen to  music  I come here! Check out the posts of the musicians, composers, songwriters, and drummers on the forums. The music here is incredible 
 

is it possible that now everyone has Sonar et al,the market has been saturated with viable recordings to the point of overload.
it used to be the cost of a decent studio or producer that determined output but now I hear GarageBand mixes that are viable.
I used to make a living out of demos for booking agents-with the advent of a ZoomHd and a GO PRO that work has dried up.
thank god I worked my arse off when I was young and can afford to retire,reluctantly.
maybe the industry should take note of other retailers and provide a premium product at a premium price as most of the free(ie:stolen) music justs sounds like crap to me.
I have said this before but the younger people I deal with just don`t see illegal downloading as theft and I think that's the industries fault for not protecting their market-
as Dub said
"the music industry that does not fit into a natural progression in a capitalistic society."
if music is just another retail product it has been poorly merchandised-you get what you pay for and I have yet to buy a 99c mp3.....
just my say

once again,well said Dub.
I am seriously considering selling most of the studio and converting it into a craft brewery as the water is pure and local organic ingredients are excellent and the market is booming.
gone are the days of trying to get one band out and another in and rehearsals are paying the bills,just.
it was great while it lasted but sometimes you just have to move on.
I have been working on my solo album for 20 years now and once its finished there will some very cheap gear going.
someone gave away a soundcard here recently,which was very cool and considering what I will get for most of it we could maybe establish a bank of unwanted gear for those of us not so fortunate?
cheers

exactly T-we will only print 50 copies of our new ep-some for posterity but mostly for friends of the band.
But,i wouldn`t object to going bacterial on the net and promoting a line of RockSox or whatever.
cheers

daryl1968
personally, I do what I do to be creative and spread the love - art for art's sake I say.
 
If you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong profession

true that-I`ve only ever covered costs-playing back a master and watching people realise their dream is priceless.
cheers 

daryl1968
personally, I do what I do to be creative and spread the love - art for art's sake I say.
 
 

Who is Art? Has he played on some of the songs we did or does he just listen to them?

Our local DJ"s take on the music industry today.

Rock Ramblings: Should music be free?

Morally, we’ve decided that stealing music is wrong, but our actions online tell a different story entirely. I once heard a musician described as “someone who loads $5,000 worth of gear into a $500 car to drive to a gig to make $50.” So why are we stealing from these noble professionals?
The introduction of the MP3 format opened a files-sharing floodgate. I recall spending upwards of $30 for a single CD in the late ’90s. Then suddenly, if you could hear it, you could steal it. Despite copyrighting safeguards, threats, and fines, the public continues to illegally download music because they can.
Does that mean that deep down we don’t believe that artists should be compensated for their work? Not at all, but consider this; when an artist paints a beautiful painting, do they get paid every time somebody enjoys it? Hardly! Typically the artist is long dead before their talents are appreciated, at which point a single painting sells for more money than the artist made in his entire lifetime.
So why then are we simultaneously angry that songwriters aren’t getting paid but we’re still unwilling to pay them? Perhaps the outrage stems from the fact that somebody is always making money from the music and we feel that more of it should go directly to the artist. Whether it’s an agent, a manager, a record company, a radio station or a streaming service, somebody is always willing to capitalize on a successful artist’s music. Music makes you feel. Feelings govern buying decisions. And we hate to see giant conglomerates and corporations succeeding on the backs of hard-working artists.
The reality is, the job of “musician” isn’t a high paying one. It’s really more of a crapshoot than a job. If you are lucky enough to succeed, it usually means someone else will make a lot of money on your music. You have to do it because you love it. It’s an industry destined to weed out the people who are in it for the wrong reasons.
Layne Mitchell is on the air 11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays on Rock 105.3 FM and http://www.rock1053.ca.

Schafe
 I once heard a musician described as “someone who loads $5,000 worth of gear into a $500 car to drive to a gig to make $50.” 

Should be the definition in the dictionary.
 
Given that, in 2015 a songwriter is someone who buys a $3,000+ home recording set-up, and spends $30 a month on a website/internet promotions in order to make .00003 cents per stream.
 
Everybody know, or should know, that there is no money in this. So, why do we do it anyway? The love of expression, which I can argue is more valuable than money, at the end of the day/week/life.
 
Unless, of course, you are the 1 player out of 10 million that make it to the NBA. Unless you are young, more marketable than talented, and do what you are told. Then different logic applies.
 
I wonder if any of this is helping the OP?
 
cheers,
-Tom

Is funny you should mention that name... I only caught a short clip of him in a video about lip synching showing him yacking his guts out on stage in the middle of a concert (that people paid real money for). Very sad to see such a thing, but his "character" is forever set in stone for me.

Everything changes, and if you can't change with it or adapt to it you will not succeed in it. This is true in every business, not just the music business.
 
I'm in the security installation & servicing business. Been here 23 years. When I first started, I could sell a good system at a reasonable price and make a nice profit. Along came the mass marketers and started giving the systems away to get the monthly monitoring income. I either had to play the game by their rules or find a way around their rules to survive. I moved my focus to the commercial markets where they were not giving away the free systems.
 
In the music business.... it's very similar. Free or cheap music is available a-la-cart from many online retailers and also streaming. The royalties to the musicians and writers is a meager tip of the hat for all it amounts to. A millions streaming plays might net you a couple hundred bucks? What's up with that?
 
The so called big artists have to rely on concert ticket sales and merchandising at the concerts.  Getting into that level of the business is extremely hard. However, local musicians who are willing to do the hard work and not give up, can build a local following and make a decent living playing the clubs and selling their CD's and other merchandise to their fans at the events and clubs they play.
 
Pompalmoose is one band that I can think of who has done this quite successfully up to this point. 
 
It's a full time job though. And requires hard work and dedication..... you have to be writing, recording, producing, booking, marketing, selling, performing, traveling, keeping the website updated, and so many more things, and doing them all well, and at the same time.
 
While times and circumstances have changed, working hard to achieve something has not. Garth Brooks, Dave Mason, Bruce Springsteen and so many others didn't get where they are by complaining about how bad things were in the business and how they might get screwed.... they went out and played the cheap gigs, the free gigs, the sucky gigs, and knocked on door after door after door, until someone somewhere finally agreed to listen..... and the rest, as they say,  is history.  I'll bet they learned lots of marketing skills, how to negotiate better rates, and how to merchandise along the way.
 
Go and carve out your piece of the pie.