I am only an amateur musician and will probably never make a career out of music, but even so every now and then I find myself pondering this question.

Thinking about it from a business standpoint, in terms of costs and benefits, I often wonder if I dedicated all the countless hours I spent on music (around 20-30% of my waking hours) to something else would my life be better, worse, or pretty much the same...

Sometimes I view music almost like a sunk cost where I only keep at it because of all the time I invested in it in the past. Like I am somehow hoping to finally accomplish something that will make all those countless hours worth it.

 

after 25 years and the last 10 years spending ll my time on music i can safely say yeah it's fucked up and incredibly difficult at times, i'm still single, have 3 cats, suffer from depressions and heavy insomnia, always have a part of the month left at the end of my money and often ask myself why the hell i still do this and then i look out the window, see people walking their dog with their kids, going to work every day in the morning, coming home again and walking their dog again, every day. i'm glad that is not my life and happy to have made the choices i made to live the life i have, even if difficult and depressing. i've been places i would have never been able to go to and do things i would have never imagined. i'm glad i didnt 'choose life' and 'chose something else'

 

Music has given me more pleasure over the last 50 years than anything else i've done.
Its also the only thing thats always there for me when i need cheering up.
I didn't choose music, it chose me.

 

I sometimes think it's the worst decision I ever made. But the alternatives are even worse. Information in my profile explains the mess my career has been for about forty years.

 

Hey, that's my line....give it back!

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who wasn't given a choice

 

Music AS A PASTTIME, perhaps better than gaming, since you don't need to upgrade your PC every year.

 

Well Music as Hobby and a thing to do For Fun in my spare time is the best thing I can think of. It's so fun and satisfying and it's such a cool skill to have. But I wouldn't want my main source of income to be from music. Especially these days when there's so little money in music other than live shows. As a hobby and a spare time fun thing I couldn't hardly think of something better. It's so in depth and there's always something new to learn and its so interesting to me learning about sound and how it works. But I made the conscious decision to not try and make it my income source. I feel like then there's no pressure on me whatsoever to make anything that anyone besides me likes. I'm so glad I picked up the guitar all those years ago and now I've gotten to discover the whole world of sound and gear of the electronic world. Definitely completely glad I learned music. Now wherever I go I can pick up an instrument or a pair of sticks and usually get something musical to come out. It's just such a cool thing to be able to do. Not to mention all the cool little conversations I've gotten to have by streaming the production process and having cool random people come into the chat and talk with me. Out of all things I could invest time and thought and energy on in my free time I can hardly think of something better.

 

I chose music at age 18, as a main occupation, and spent a lot of money i won cleaning bathrooms, over the years, that without counting the time invested in it. Well, 6 months ago I reached 33 and, after a lot of nights overthinking this situation, with all the pain of my heart, I quit music.

Now that backup plan to study a career and then dedicate myself to music, does not sound that bad. I still think music is the best, and remains that bad habit of grabbing the guitar and visit Audiosex at times. But some people, like me, we are not made for that. I badly wish had known it at 18.

 

I am studying Medicine (5 years), but I discovered my passion for music production 6 years ago, and in my little free time I try to produce something. I have released some albums but I haven't got a big success with them yet. I could spent my free times studying to be even better at my career, but I would also not do what I love to do too.
So, since I couldn't dedicate entirely into the music I still don't give up, but at the same time I am not focusing completely in my career, so it's a problem I currently have.

 

It's too soon to say.

 

I knew at 14 I wanted to make records and I'm blessed to still have that same passion for music at 47. I have had success at every level and I have around 35,000 hours into my craft. I've met many great people from music and I would not change anything given the chance. I live life with passion and I have zero regrets as music is my voice to the world, without it I would never be heard.

 

i am 60 old, 2 childrens ( 28 & 18 ), i played with first analogue gear, first samplers, drums box....today is very cool to play and produce with DAWS & Pc or Mac, my first DAW Notator / Atari, the past of Logic, now i use Live, Melodyne and vst plugs.....great and full inspired!
Music in god for soul and life balance!

 

lotta old niggas in dis bih

 

more like a personal satisfaction rather than a life satisfaction

 

Interesting topic! Even though I make a living out of music for 17 years already, the amount of work that I put into it could definitely lead to a much financial satisfaction in other domains. Still, making a living out of music gave me invaluable skills in working with other people and now I know I could survive in any working environment. At this moment I am trying to switch my income revenue (even though I can't complain), so that I could make music production only for myself, not on other people's demand, so that I could enjoy it as much as I did when I started. Doing it for pure pleasure only (but still willing to put a lot of efforts into it) would be my best recommendation, though!

 

Music pursues me in a constant bombardment of sounds which surround me, and for some hidden reason not at all obvious to my conscious mind, begs that I participate and collude harmonically to the novelty of this random reality which I find myself. I the dreamer awaken in song to this, a dream within a dream only to realize that I am too a sound, infinately and always. Choice?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 2, 2017

This is me as well.

 

I did not choose music.

The music chose me !

 

I had no choice it was coursing through my veins since my first memory.

 

If you're not posing the question with ". . . as a profession" implied at the end, then we can talk. Yeah, "I didn't pursue music, it grabbed me by the fukin throat and forced to submit to its deranged caprices," might sound cliché, but it's nevertheless valid. I have NEVER had the idea of music as a money-making enterprise; such a notion is a recent innovation, thanks to the Internet and all the services and sites which put that idea in the forefront of musicians' minds, in trying to make money off musicians. Pursuing music as an artform drove my life into the ground, and not so much from financial expense but from its drain upon my time and intention. I quit for a long time, and then suddenly awoke surrounded by sample libraries and DAWs, and declared, "I shall, henceforth, ROCK AGAIN!" This time around, I find myself swimming in the same sewer with a multitude of talentless wannabes who want software to take care of music theory and lyrical content for them. Musicians (as it were) are now more coldly competitive than before, thanks to their atomization by social media and desperate rivalry for online ears. Since I myself tend to work alone, this shouldn't bother me nor seem ironic, but it's dismaying. Even someone who's making music with money-making involved will hit a wall, whereby if they're unable to do music at all for themselves, for its own sake, and for fun, is going to want to put a gun to their head, so one might section-off a part of it for personal enjoyment and self-expression.