I have seen people for decades speak of "Luck". When a person lives long enough, they become equipped enough to work out that nearly every good fortune they had in their life was from making their own luck. This is not to say that everyone can make a living out of anything, far from it. Some people have also used the phrase "They were in the right place at the right time". Isn't that part of them making their own luck too?
If any person dedicates their life to honing and improving a specific set of talents, it stands to reason they become good at it. If their attitude is also good and they are reliable they have have just improved their odds of making a half-decent living in the discipline they developed their skills in.

Nobody wants to work with an asshole or an egomaniac because there are 100s of thousands of people who do not have those issues that can do the job just as well.

 

To hold and maintain the reins of power over centuries calloused hands, minds and curated genetics are passed down through necessity lest power be watered down and winnowed, leaching the stuff needed to maintain their elite power structure and weld ultimate supremacy over populations of billions over multiple generations. Ignorance is not a trait of the group nor is a lack of home grown intelligence.

 

DJ 's make more money than a composer , musician .

 

Plumbers make more than most musicians, composers and DJ's but not everyone wants to be a plumber. Shit, a garbage collector makes more than many musicians. In my country they make more than $5,000 a month. Many musicians do not make close to that from music, but many people do not want to collect garbage either.

 

As someone who has worked in the recording & music industry since the late 1980s, I can tell you this.... If there is money in the consumer's pocket, you can find a way to get a piece of it. That said, you have to ask yourself if:

a. Is there money in their pocket?
b. Is what you do considered important enough for them to part with said money?
c. Are you competing in a marketplace where there is a healthy balance of supply vs. demand?
d. Do you have access to the decision makers who will ideally award in your favor, or is that a closed circle that you don't have the right to have access to?
e. *IMPORTANT*. Are there more YouTubers trying to tell you things that make them money with eyeballs watching them, than there are actual people making a living doing the thing they are telling you about?

The reality is that all of the people that I work with, or have worked with, don't have YouTube channels. Why? Because they are too busy doing the actual work and other than interns, they have no interest in telling you how to compete with them. That's capitalism and it works just as well in the entertainment business as it does in any other business. The level of effort that most of them (including me) went through to get our first break, first gig, or even being an assistant on a gig, was monumental. You think some dude on YouTube is going to give the game away to you, so that you get some leap ahead? Nope. The truth is if you want to play in that game, you get on a plane, fly to Hollywood, spend 6 months building up some reputation of being able to do something (usually for free) while funding it working at Starbucks or whatever, and you keep your ear to the ground for opportunities. Then you build relationships, and eventually those relationships bear fruit. If you don't do that, then you won't make a living. If you register with some website that says they will promote you, they will take the lion's share of what you make.

The general pathway that used to work (and probably still does) is to find some student film maker at a college and do their score for free. Then do it again, and again, and again. Build up a demo reel of different genre's and then get on a plane and fly to where the decision makers are and do a shit ton of lunches, etc. showing your demo reel. Don't waste your money and time making some douchebag rich who says they are the shit and you should pay them to learn from them. You have to do. That's it. You just need the opportunity to do, and in our business that generally means doing unpaid work for a while until your opportunity comes that someone values what you are selling enough to pull out their wallet and pay you. Ideally once you get that going, then you build on it, and that's how careers are made.

 

Kinda, but not exactly. I did some meetings with a bunch of execs & producers from Netflix, Apple TV and some local Mexican TV stations a week or two ago. I didn't go there to sell my wares. I just looked in their eyes and asked them to tell me what their challenges were in achieving what they were trying to do (this is mainly for film makers). They told me that they routinely hire local composers to compose scores, and then send the work to Prague or somewhere cheap to have an orchestra play and have it recorded. I asked them about AI, and they rejected that because AI is not settled law. There is no way they could justify to their shareholders to get $100 mil to make a movie when they could be living with 20 years of lawsuits afterwards. So they don't use AI - they hate it to be honest.

Anyone who does use AI, is not a professional film company. Maybe some low grade production company might try that, but in truth those that have more to lose, can't afford the risk. There is still a lot of work in composing & scoring, but there certainly is downward price pressure in that market. Mainly due to globalization though, and that existed 20 years prior to COVID or any of the latest challenges. None of that has changed - you have to be perceived to be worth something to be able to ask for it. If you are not at that point of perception yet, then you either have to do work for free or heavily discounted in order to get your foot in the door.

They still make movies. They still make TV shows. They still need composers. If they slow down making entertainment, then they slow down the demand for below the line staff to make the movies. Composers are part of the crew. Yes, there is a reduction in the amount of productions being made right now, but it is not as significant as most say and for those of us who have been around the block in this world enough, we are used to good times & bad times. That's part of the entertainment business and you have to roll with it.

 

Reading your texts makes me feel like a complete ignorant.

 

Lacking knowledge is but an excuse for educating oneself and not in the least a slur.

 

I find professional sport a much more honest guage of talent than the music industry. It's a lot harder to fake it until you make it.

That said, there are an awful lot of talented people in the music industry.

.... and a billion wannabes.