I consider myself to be a "professional musician", though I make very little money from being such. Doing this has become, as Paul stated, a "glorified hobby" for me. Unforunately that was not always how I perceived it to be, and I had wished it would be more than just that. But the realities of life and the music business have set in over the years, and now we feel lucky just to be where we're at and to have accomplished all that we have. I've realised that in order to really make any sort of worthwhile career at playing music for a living, I'd have to either a.) play a very different kind of music, something more "commercial" per se, or b.) have gone about certain things in a very different way much earlier on in my life, when I unfortunately didn't know any better. Even alot of the "successful" bands out there who are living off of playing in metal bands aren't exactly rolling in the dough, and many of them are not making enough money to be able to set themselves up for the rest of their lives. All you have to do is watch VH1 and watch those "Where are they now?" programs to see how it works. Artists who were at one time all over the radio and television are now working in software companies or advertising agencies or something. Less than 1% of musicians truly make a career out of writing and playing music.
In addition to my regular job, I play with cover bands on the side. I'm not embarassed by that fact even if people want to think it's "unmetal" or some other silly bullshit. I enjoy playing all kinds of music and I think I'm fairly good at it, and I can make good money doing it. Would I prefer to be playing only my own material and making money doing that? Of course I would. But that's not the reality of this biz, sadly. And I'm no longer the adventurous 21 year old kid with a guitar and a dream, who'll live in a van, "eat dirt" and play every shitty gig given to me in the hopes that I'll "make it big" and be on MTV, just to have my band become uncool within five years, lose a member to drug addiction, and wind up in debt and playing festivals in podunk-land off of my former glories. Many people in the biz would like you to believe that it's "the way to go" if you want to "get big", but I'm a bit too old and wise for that scheme now. But if you're young and hungry, hell go for it, you've got alot less to lose then.
The metal world is definitely tough to make a living in......but make no mistake, even in the "mainstream" world, job security and making a real living are very rare. You've got a better chance being able to support yourself down the line if you have a good janitor job than having a top 40 hit. Some artists are smart enough and lucky enough to mine that into future gold, but it's much fewer and farther between than you might guess.
And with it being more difficult than ever to control things like illegal downloading and poor concert attendance figures, it's really a gamble trying to make a living in this business. Good luck to all you guys n gals out there trying to make your mark. As I said before, I'm just grateful for the opportunities we've been lucky enough to have and experience!
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