Yes, it has to do with music, but your dream career has no more to do with it than any other musical job. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a daily job that you enjoy and making music as a hobby – that’s all that works for you and makes you happy.
If that’s the case, you really need to weigh the impact of forgoing “normal” job benefits, such as company-provided health insurance, and stable, predictable income. Consider whether your day job can negatively impact your musical goals, or if it can be balanced. This is the reality of most people, so you need to be completely honest with yourself, your ability to deal with the upheaval in the music industry, and how this decision might affect others who depend on you.
Here are some of the scenarios you will come across, as well as the tough questions you need to ask. If you don’t, you could be losing far more than you ever wanted to risk. You must decide how long you are willing to earn less than in a more traditional job.
The most obvious approach is to switch from a full-time job to a part-time job in order to maintain a stable income and increase your music income at the same time. If you’re not at the stage of making money with your music, your day job can fund it.
If/when you get to the point where your music career starts to take off, you may be advised to reduce your day job and focus more on music until you can quit your day job and make your music career work for you . However, most people don’t have an “exit strategy” planned and don’t anticipate when their music career will allow them to spend less time on their day jobs. When they finally got to this point, they realized they were stuck in their day job and couldn’t “gradually” get out of it.
They work 9 to 5, go to the gym, eat dinner and feel overwhelmed – they just don’t have the energy to focus on music. They have lofty goals to make a career in music, but they are not willing to put in the effort for it. Finding the time and energy to work on music is a difficult task, especially for those with demanding jobs and families to support.
If you want to make music while keeping a full-time job, I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is. If you just say to yourself, “Oh, someday I’d like to quit my job and devote myself to music full-time,” you’ll probably never get there. Whether it’s touring with an art project, releasing on your favourite labels, or working behind the scenes, you’d like to (at some point) give up your crushing 9-5 for a career in music.
Unfortunately, for many of you who work full-time, the decision to leave the safety and comfort of your day job and pursue a career in sound engineering can be a quantum leap. I work in the commercial music industry, so finding a job in the music industry is a little clearer to me than it is to some of you reading this.
I have seen so many musicians who have gone from day jobs to making a comfortable living with their music full time. If you decide to devote yourself to a full-time music career, at some point you will inevitably have to give up your main job completely. While this won’t be a problem for everyone, if you’re not motivated enough to keep working hard on your own, quitting your day job may not be for you. However, if you work part-time, you can devote more hours a day to your music career.
