I have thought about this quite a bit and I have reached the a debatable conclusion (debate..hence the purpose of this topic.
) that:
the Music industry is the most difficult industry in the world to be successful in financiallyWhy?
1) The early years are vital:
Learning to play an instrument and/or read music early in life gives a person that much-needed head start to have any hope in the industry in the future. A person who starts their music training later in life will generally have a much harder time keeping up with the industry as they did not have the luxary of learning music with the young, flexible mind of a child.
2) The initial costs are variable but the reoccurring costs are high:
musical instruments are Not cheap. Even a beginner trumpet, for example, will be at least $200 or so to be a worthwhile purchase. With luck, a cheaper, good-quality, used instrument can be found. Electronic keyboards, while cheaper (for basic models) than a piano, feel and play significantly different from an acoustic piano. The skills do transfer over but it takes time to get used to the difference.
Lessons can become very expensive, especially for a player who is attempting to achieve a high level of skill as lessons will continue for a long duration (years). Let's not forget university....bachelor of music, master of music, etc...more costs if one is going in that direction.
For those people interested in music production on a computer, the initial costs are high and the reoccurring costs are lower. The cheapest form of music to produce on a computer is techno/dance music. There is a large variety of free (or cheap) sortware for producing such genres (hence why there is so much of it out there. It's accessible to anyone). Techno music production typically requires a less powerful computer than orchestral music production. Orchestral production is the most expensive genre of music to produce on a computer, with high-end computers being an absolute MUST in order to load all of the orchestra's instruments/sounds into memory and play back in real-time. For a virtual orchestral package, expect to spend no less than $200. For high-quality audio, expect to spend a minimum of $500 to $1000...up to a cost of $12,000+...and that's just for the virtual orchestra. That doesn't count for the host program which is needed to actually *write* the music...this program will run at least another $200, ranging up to $1000+.
For those newbies on a budget, General MIDI is your friend. For $40 (or even less) a new composer can write music in any basic style (with the exception of cvery omplex techno, as effects required in this genre are not very attainable in General MIDI) using MIDI sounds to play back the music. The problem with this method is that the sound quality of the result is unsatisfactory to be useful in most situations and the resulting file canot be sold commercially (as you do not own the rights to the MIDI sounds in your music. You must produce or purchase your own sounds in order to sell your electronic music work).
The result is that in order to get one's name out there and start selling any original music, significant amounts of money must have already been spent.
3) A tiny percentage of people even make back the money they spent on getting started:
When adding up all of the costs of starting off the music industry, the total can easily be in the thousands of dollars, especially if one has upgraded to an medium-or-professional-level instrument or is producing orchestral music electronically.
4) A lot of people these days expect music to be very cheap (or even free)!
With the progression of the Internet, file sharing has become more and more popular, especially with movies and music. Artists need to adapt to this and find a way to make a profit with their work, despite the strong pressures to make music cheaper and cheaper...I attribute this partly to the fact that so much popular music all sounds the same but that's a different topic all together
5) getting your name out there.
There are a billion bands on Garageband.com and the like. How do you make yourself stand out? What makes you so special?
6) Fierce competition.
There are a LOT of composers and musicians out there fighting over very few jobs. Only the absolute best of the best have a chance. That's reality.
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Yes, there are cheap ways to get into music, of course! Here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head:
1) Buy a cheap wind instrument, such as a recorder, ocarina, etc. and learn on this. You can learn many important concepts of music on a simple instrument, such as reading music, rhythm, sight-reading, expression. etc.
2) Compose music by hand, on paper, or in a MIDI program such as
Noteworthy Composer. Minimal costs and a lot of opportunity for experience.
3) Find a second-hand instrument at a pawn shop or garage sale. While you're there, look for second-hand music books.
4) Look online for MIDI files. With software such as Noteworthy (look above) they can be converted into sheet music, for printing and playing on a live instrument. Free sheet music!
5) Guitar players: look for guitar tabs online. They're everywhere.
The problem is, none of these actually get you into the music *industry* directly.
(you can tell I'm bored when I start writing random long posts, LOL)
