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Posted by: Davidian Jul 28 2011, 11:16 AM

I was wondering: how many of you guys are getting paid for playing music? All of the teachers ofcourse for creating lessons. But what about others? And do you find that you enjoy playing music less when you are payed for it?

Posted by: Todd Simpson Jul 28 2011, 02:21 PM

Getting paid to do anything related to music is one of the greatest blessings in life IMHO. There are many ways to turn your passion for music in to a vocation. Teaching, as you mentioned, is just one way. Although, it's certainly a fun way Here are some ideas

1.)Try to break in to writing music for other media. Start small with anyone you know who makes short films. Offer to create music for free. This will give you practice and help you create your demo reel. Once you get to a certain point, you can take advantage of other opportunities that come along.

2.)Try to create music for Stock Music web sites. Many will take music from anywhere as long as they like it. It's a great way to sharpen your recording skils and earn some extra cash.

3.)Try to become a "Youtube Partner" make videos people want to see and if you drive enough traffic, youtube will split advertisment revenue for your channel with you.

4.)Sell you music through iTunes. With the arrival of cdbaby.com and other places, you can get your songs on the iTunes store. Promoting and selling them is another matter, but you can't sell what isn't there.

In short. there has never been a better time to be a musician IMHO, given all the technology and reach available to anyone with an internet connection. Rejoice and go make some money!

Todd

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 28 2011, 06:52 PM

If you compose and play music, and get payed, it's a win-win situation. You get to pay the bills, and in the same time advance, no matter what you play, as long as you keep your repertoire versatile.

Posted by: Azzaboi Jul 28 2011, 07:57 PM

How to make money for a few hours jam:
1) Go out and stand on the side of the street in the mid of the city
2) Carefully and slowly unpack your axe and a mini amp
3) Play a few notes and spend ages tuning
4) Leave your guitar hardcase open and put a sign "Poor student trying to fund for guitar lessons at GMC"
5) Play the most basic song poorly but look like your trying your hardest
6) Wait for the pitty lady to drop you a coin
7) Playing suddenly improves dramatically (the tease draws people in)
8) More people will then drop coins, each coin improve playing
9) Playing becomes hardcore and draws a huge crowd
10) Gather coins (50cx12, $1x47, $2x25, $5x4, $10x1 = a good days work?)
12) Run away before noise control asks for your autograph
(rinse and repeat)

Posted by: Sinisa Cekic Jul 28 2011, 09:59 PM

If you doing something in life, and even love the job, such as playing guitar, and yet you got paid for it .. whether there is greater happiness?!?
Something else much more important: the balance between love and money is a critical point. If money prevails - you failed as an artist !
Many times I refused well-paying jobs. Why? I don't want to play there where I can't find myself.

Posted by: MonkeyDAthos Jul 28 2011, 10:18 PM

ahahahahah

Posted by: Davidian Jul 29 2011, 12:32 PM

Let me get rid of some possible misunderstandings: It's not that I very much want to get payed for playing the guitar, or that I want to know how I can earn money by playing an instrument, but I recently learned about a motivational theory in one of my courses of psychology that I wanted to "test".
Sorry for my quite misleading first post

The theory is called: cognitive evaluation theory. It states that when you do something that is intrinsically rewarding (the task/thing itself is fun to do, like playing/creating music) and suddenly you get payed for it, so that it becomes extrinsically rewarding (you get something "outside of yourself" to do the task, instead of getting something "from yourself", for instance satisfaction of being able to play the guitar), it causes the intrinsic interest in the task itself to decline.
So, you like to play the guitar, you play a couple of hours every day, and suddenly you get payed for what you do, you lose interest in playing the guitar and start playing less.

I find this very interesting and wanted to know if anyone has had experience with this?

Sinisa already had a great thought about this

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 29 2011, 12:56 PM

I tend to agree.. there are different things I could be doing to make money from music, sure.. but do I want to do them enough to stray away from my main goals ? No

P.S. Just read your last post, Davidian.. it's an interesting question. If the process of creation/playing isn't actually altered/affected/contrived because of the money then I don't think it would have a negative effect. I only think it would have a negative effect if the money aspect dictated what you could or couldn't do with your music

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 29 2011, 01:41 PM

Well said!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Jul 29 2011, 03:14 PM

"So, you like to play the guitar, you play a couple of hours every day, and suddenly you get payed for what you do, you lose interest in playing the guitar and start playing less."


Hmm. That honestly seems to make very little sense to me. Getting paid to play causing a decrease in interest? I can safely say I have no experience with that at all. Every time I have gotten paid to play, it increased my interest professionally and artistically so, there's that.