I was fortunate enough to see a covers band on Saturday that had been together for over 20 years. It was a reunion gig so they have had breaks throughout that time. It made me think about what current bands will be doing in 20 years time.

It's safe to assume that most members of covers bands started out playing original music. They then make the transition to make some extra money, or carry on playing music without the hassle of writing new material/chasing gigs.

The music industry, certainly regionally is a difficult nut to crack. It seems that you have three options

1. Get a record deal and get paid to play original music.
2. Play in a covers/function band and get up to a couple hundred a weekend.
3. Perform your own original music, often for no more than petrol money.

Arguably, if you're doing it for the music then the money and fame doesn't matter. In reality it does, it costs money to be a musician, there's equipment, travel, rehearsal, recording and the hundreds of hours it takes to run a bands online presence. Unless you are already financially well off you need to be generating money to even be able to continue to do it.

The deciding factor is usually time. If you don't have the passion/love/stubbornness to carry on long after people have told you to quit you probably aren't going to make it (unless you got signed of your first single).

Any successful person will tell you that it's trial and error. It's true for other ventures too, be that technology (Steve Jobs) SEE VIDEO BELOW, Media (Gary Veynerchuk) or music (Anvil). If you keep going you well get there, or at least your significantly more likely to 'make it' if you don't quit.

I'm still in the trial and error phase but here's to hoping we're all going to get there.

Speak to you Friday,

Josh

(image found here.)