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We dont make enough money to afford an apartment.
I know pretty much half of the musicians in existence have a side job of some sort.
(Almost none of them owned property themselves.)
I do a bunch of other things, too Im always hustling for jobs.
I feel the opposite way about it.
What a limited view of reality.
Ive found that the discipline and schedule of having a job only helps the creative phases of my life.
Its like working out it fuels your day and gives you more energy.
Anything emo or metal is gonna make merch thats the way to make money.
For the majority of time making music, Ive lost money.
There are a few moments where Ive seen making music through a careerist lens, and I regret it.
I want to keep it as a sacred space to heal myself through.
I have friends who are famous rock stars who struggle financially.
Any other job makes more money than being in a band.
The industry structure is built against the artist.
Its not a lucrative dream.
I still consider it a total privilege and luxury to be an artist.
Its not something that makes me money.
But then that turns into a decade, or two decades, and youre paying your dues for life.
It never really turns into a grown-ups job.
But how do you unionize ducks?
Theyre hard to corral, if youve ever tried to corral ducks.
This is a shitty thing to say, but maybe musicians dont deserve to make a living.
Maybe it should be a hobby.
But Im not the one to decide.
It means something more than money.
But the financial reality of being in a band is … not awesome.
Financially, weve got nothing to lose.
My rent is $950 a month, so theres no wiggle room.
Some months were able to do $1,500 or very rarely $2,000, but its really hard.
It definitely makes you wish you were a trust-fund kid, but unfortunately none of us are.
If I didnt believe that doing this full-time was a potential reality, Id stop doing it.
On some level, I have to believe that.
For every other job I had, [making music] has been impossible.
Spending late nights playing music and trying to be creatively engaged doesnt lend itself to working a full-time job.
I didnt profit in any way last year.
I probably lost conservatively $15,000.
Ive been doing this since 2005, and the loss has grown every year.
Just when you think its gonna get better, it gets worse.
I still love making music, but I cant expect to make money from it.
Its never been a sustainable business.
This is like a really expensive hobby for me.
I go to their home, clean out their closets, and help them build a wardrobe.
It helps me to have perspective.
If youre just doing music, you could lose your sense of reality.
I had to downsize my life this past year.
I moved back home with my family just to take off the added stress of making rent in Nashville.
Its really good for me to have the support system I dont know how people do it without family.
If it doesnt, then I had fun living in a van for months at a time.
Theres such a high threshold you have to meet, though, and I have not met it yet.
That was a bad decision.
Weve always had a tacit understanding that we wouldnt gamble on the band with our money.
That said, we dont make money.
My royalty check last year from [rights-management organization] SoundExchange was, like, $14.
Any money weve ever taken home has come from weird one-off shows like private holiday parties.
The U.K. is probably the worst-paying market in the world, so breaking even there is all but impossible.
I was a talent buyer and ticketing manager.
Its hard to be creative when youre always on the road and tired.
I havent lost money [on music yet] because Im trying to be strategic about it.
Im in hustler mode.
I make $60 or $70 a day playing a show.
Im their web-content manager.
But they dont pay me very well, and I dont work full-time for them.
I do have benefits, though.
It could be a lot worse.
After a few years, we were able to break even.
Making art is really expensive, especially to get it to the expected standard of music nowadays.
Its impossible to make money.
The band revolves around school schedules.
We do 25 to 30 days of touring a year at max.
Thats the most we could pull off.
Now that were a real band, the money has changed somewhat.
But its not a lucrative lifestyle.
Holmes:Im a senior director of operations at ADP, which is primarily known for payroll.
Ive worked there for 13 years.
Im squeezing this stuff in on weekends and using vacation time, which is hard.
Which I totally get.
Its impossible almost unheard of to be a middle-class musician.
Thats why most bands are full of young people.
Bands dont make money.
People would be shocked if they saw the balance sheets.
Even when you get high guarantees, theres so much overhead.
But having a financially stable career is not why you make music.
That has roughly subsidized my music and given me enough money to put out a record every year.
Next month Im gonna go on tour, which is usually chill with my job.
Theres a lot of shame around being a musician.
This culture is all about whatever really pays the bills.
Its fucked, but thats how its been.
Ive never had a savings account.
Any money Ive had has gone toward music.
I have a go at keep it as cheap as possible.
For tour, I go into a little bit of debt on my credit card.
My label helps a little bit, but I still get hit.
By the time you think youre stable, you spend a bunch of money on making another record.
I couldnt tell you how much Ive spent, its just been constant.
I did that for four years.
The financial aspect of being a musician is as fantasized as much as every other aspect.
Everyone says, Oh, you must have a bunch of likes on Instagram and youre playing a festival!
You must be happy, rich, and getting laid.
Very often, none of those are true.
Financially, having a day job was a necessity because I have student debt, like most human Americans.
The biggest downside is that I cant tour for more than a weekend.
I dont think of myself as a professional musician at all; I look at it as a hobby.
I dont make nearly enough money off of it to sustain myself and my family.
My biggest paydays are from when people sample our music or use it commercially.
On the road, maybe we make $150 a night each.
Weve never made a ton of money touring.
Eli Kasan, the GotobedsSide hustle:art director
Im an art director at IDL in Pittsburgh.
Weve been able to buy a van, fund our merch.
Once it was an expensive hobby, now it pays a little but we definitely jam econo.
We dont stay in hotels, drink free, eat free.
If we have any extra money, it heads straight through our bellies and into the urinal.
Weve paid ourselves once after a tour $100 each.
Truthfully, theres more money in the bands bank account right now than in my personal bank account.
Most musicians within my realm are members of the working class.
One of our friends in Daughters couldnt go on tour because of his day job.
Most musicians invest their own money into making something happen.
Weve been performing for five years, and in the first three we lost a considerable amount of money.
We lose money every time we tour.
Luckily, weve been able to make a little bit of money from publishing.
I mightve made about $15,000 in the last year on that, which is just getting by.
Im lucky enough to have health insurance through [the U.K.s National Health Service].
CC HoneymoonSide hustles:Carpentry, the service industry
Im a carpenter.
Ive been doing it on and off for ten years now.
My dad was a carpenter, so I worked with him from age 14 on.
I was lucky to learn a trade through him.
When I started making music, I worked in cafes and restaurants.
I got back into carpentry because I wanted to be self-employed, which has its benefits.
I dont have to ask anyone to take off to go tour.
But financially, its tough.
But Ive come to learn that you cant force creativity.
After paying 1,000 pounds for rent and 500 pounds for a workshop, it gets me down a bit.
I can see myself sticking it out a couple of years, though.
Thats why I dont feel music owes me anything.
Its a passion I make sacrifices for.
If I didnt want to spend that money on it, I wouldnt.
