The Omega Cluster
n00b
I think Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Pantera etc have all made music they love, for themselves. Yet they still treat it as a business..
Working for yourself is better than working a 9-5 in a shop imo.
I find the idealogy of "I write music for passion and if I try to make money out of it it somehow means I'm less passionate about it" just a completely different train fo thought to me. I'm not saying that is the mentality you have, as reading text online is so hard to convey a clear message.
So I won't assume. With maximum respect, I just see it as: I write music that I love, for myself, and I think that other people may like it enough to support me to continue to do so.
So I promote myself in order to allow people to know I exist so the option to support me is there.
I make decisions financially based on in vs out so that I can write off time and have the only expense as a free one if possible. (I say write off time because time won't stop, regardless of if I'm scratching my ass or recording music).
To be clear, NONE of this is supposed to come of as condescending or "holier than thou" etc, just my thoughts on it, I find discussions can turn real ugly with opposing views online due to lack of clarity in communication.
Cheers man!
-JP
Perhaps your goal in life is to become a self-sustaining musician, and I can respect that. However, my goal is not to become the next Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Pantera, etc. I have a degree in sciences and will probably make a career out of it, hopefully. Right now I see my music passion the same as a passion for collectibles, for art, for stamps, miniature trains, etc.: people will spend money on it and never see it again, but they do it because they love what it brings them. I love what making music brings me, and I don't expect to make money off of it. If I do, well, all the better! And if I ever become so popular that I can make a decent amount off of it, I might begin to consider it as a business.
Also, I'm not saying either that I'm better than you or anything for doing so. Or that you do passionless music because you treat it as a business. I'm pretty sure that Ed Sheeran, for lack of a better example, is truly passionate about his music, and it occurs that people like to listen to what he likes to create! Good for him. But that's not really the case for me, I have quite... peculiar tastes in music, and they're not what I can call popular. I know there are people out there liking what I make, but they're certainly not enough to make a living. If you have more popular tastes (maybe in the likes of Meshuggah or Gojira or whatever), then these two variables concord and work together for the benefit of all parts involved, and that's great! But for me, I'll stick to my dark and weird music that I do only for me and that is a siphon for money!