Finishing high school.. Should study music?

markjabari wrote: Hi wandering what would you do.. I am finishing high school.. currently as the things go I will probably pass the IB but I like music & have some experience making music.. as thing are in music business what do you think I should do?? Study a normal carrier..& Have music as a hobby or dedicate to music

i'd say, if you want the reality, it's very hard to live as full time musician, hence almost impossible, unless you want to bet spending 10-15 years with an uncertain circumstances which I think is pretty reckless and can cost you your future.

Let me tell you a few reasons :

1. Musician lives from the royalty, concert, merchandises, etc, where if you really want to play music that you like (which I assume is metal-based), you have to admit that today, everyone is downloading MP3 which can be obtained freely in the internet. Idealistic people will buy your music, but how many ? 1.000 people ? 2.000 people ?
remember, successful band that can sell million of copies have to spend at least 5-10 years to reach that, and how many is successful ? among Big Four of thrash metal, there are actually more than 5.000 competitors, so you can count up your odds there.

this is a niche market and metal community is harsh, means that if you play something that they don't like, you'll be bashed off until you cry and don't want to play music again. I'm not kidding about this, pop/alternative rock community is far more forgiven and probably you'll survive if you go that path, but ..

2. being a pop musician, your fate is clearly decided on the major label's marketing strategy. If they see you as a potential money maker then chance you'll be promoted heavily and you'll get a lot of money from that, but even if you have a lot of money, you'll be under heavy pressure and contract which at some point, you'll reach a deadlock where if your time is up, label won't release your album, but since you're under contract, you can't release any album after your contract expired, so think about it, if you can make money in the first two-three years, but you're under 10 years contract, what will you do in 7 years of time ?

3. Musician is like doctor or IT guy, where each day you have to keep learning since many competitors will do the same and release a much better music from you, and this is very hard, unlike other jobs where with a limited amount of knowledge, you're learning by experiences, and not by textbook or academical knowledge.

4. Being in a band means that you have to deal with several personalities, you have to face the fact that cooperating with 4 or 5 guys every day is not an easy task, no wonder so many bands broke up after only an album or two, and finding another guy to fill in the chemical in your band is very hard.

I can list a lot of other things but that's enough for you to consider.
What I'm saying is, if you have passion for music, that's great, but consider that as your second job, means that you have to study at college to work a real job for a real money, and then, if you want to start a band later, or release an album by your own, that'd be no problem.

Hope this helps :)

Triceratopsoil wrote: Well at my university the first year isn't specialized yet, just "general," but I'll probably be going into electrical next year

I went through a 3 year Electronics Engineering Technology diploma program at a local college, and transferred to a university for 2 years to get an Electrical Engineering degree.  Glad I got it, but damn the job market is rough now .


Edited by Stooge - 22 Jan 2011 at 5:19pm

Well at my university the first year isn't specialized yet, just "general," but I'll probably be going into electrical next year

I very, very nearly went into music, but decided having money would be a better way to support a musical hobby, so I'm studying engineering right now

Don�t kid yourself Jeff. Don�t do it for the money. Especially after the collapse of the record industry it�s very hard to make money on playing music. And when I say money, I mean just enough money to get by. It�s not many musicians, who actually earn enough money on their art that you can call them wealthy. I heard Lemmy say once that he wasn�t exactly wealthy just because he was famous.

^Yep that�s what I said. Crazy youthful behaviour. I actually did something like that in a London hotel once.

UMUR wrote: *****************, Ladies ( well there was only one in my case

If you want to be able to support yourself and a possible family, study for a normal working career. It's way more safe. But if you have a burning passion for music which exceeds for example the will to eat every day, go for music. You might not make any real money, but you might have a ton of fun.