Prog musicians juggling music career and work?

rogerthat wrote:   And musicians aren't asking for any government support to help them carry on their existence; all they want is to be paid for a work and I know that every full time corporate warrior lecturing musicians to be selfless would hate to be in a position where they can't get paid anything for their work.

But that's just it, a full time corporate warrior will not continue to work in a job or industry that isn't paying. I personally made the switch from finance to tech precisely because the route I was on in finance was not paying off DESPITE the fact that I much prefer finance to tech. 

Here's the harsh reality that musicians refuse to live up to - that the value of their labor is no less subject to supply and demand. And right now, there are WAYYYY too many musicians eager to give their services than music consumers are willing to consume. Art, or at least valuable art, is the product of a society deciding to "waste" scarce resources on something that has a value that exceeds the utilitarian. But today's advanced economies are capable of pumping out musicians like a Ford assembly line. In other words, being a musician and consuming music are really not that special anymore. And the economics prove it... 

And THAT is the hypocrisy.  If people were NOT enjoying the fruits of a musician's hard work and therefore didn't pay, that would be just fine and apt for your analogy.  This is like you get 12 hours of work out of an employee and then tell him you don't have to pay because you already downloaded his work or something.

It does seem weird to be talking about art in a similar way to a consumer product that requires advertising campaigns to stimulate demand, but I suppose if creating it is to contribute to funding your livelihood, one has little choice. Other than to do something else for profit, that is.

It's not "fear"

It's "reality". 

The reality of the situation is that musicians are being forced into box rooms, where I find myself now, surrounded by several thousand pounds worth of kit. At the moment, I'm thinking of putting a fretless bass line down to a drum track. The drum track is a "good but not brilliant" piece of software. I'm not a natural fretless bass player, I can hold my own, but - box bedroom, I can hardly plug an Ampeg SVT head and a couple of cabs in, not that I have them. 

So the bass is DI'd into the PC. The net result of this is going to be "average sounding" at best, and that's after a lot of messing about - hours, in fact. 

Studio work, in a bedroom, doesn't produce good results. Even if you're good, it produces average results as you lose the spontaneity of playing with other musicians. 

So let's say I ring one of three friends up who are professional bassists and say would you like a go on this ? The problem again, is spontaneity. Also, because no one will buy the music - or any music - I don't feel I can do so as I can't afford to pay them. I don't like asking freebies off friends.

Net result ? I know that in a couple of hours, I'm going to listen to what I played, go naaah and delete it. I have gigs and gigs of tracks I've deleted because I won't release crap. This is a facet of being a proper musician, you can hear all the mistakes, all the imperfections, and you should only release stuff you're truly happy with, whilst permanently striving to play better.