john

Saddly if you are now well known you may well have to support yourself by other means until such times as your songs are pulling in sufficient income to allow you a choice. You could diversify into doing music for other purposes, such as corporate music, TV and Film, advertising. Each are has it's competitors and it's idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately simply living as an artistic being is not seen as a vocation by the public just now. More something we are somehow meant to create in our spare time for the enjoyment of everyone else. Sad but true. To live as close to an full-time artistic life as possible we now need to be business men too. Or as Tom suggested, another means is needed to fund artistic pursuits, ie a job. Making a living as a musician / songwriter is still very possible, it just needs new tools and know-how, determination, and as few dependances as possible. Oh and a shed load of hard work. And a patient (if hungry) family. Not knowing where you are based I can't suggest much passed a lot of hard work. Have you ever registered your songs / yourself with professional bodies? Certainly the main stay for Songwriters is income from performance royalties, mechanical royalties (songwriter's share) and synch fees. If you or your songs aren't registered you get no money other than what you sell directly. In the UK, for example, venues, broadcasters etc pay money to PRS for the right to play music. That money is then divided up between their membership based on extimations.... however if you are registered for PRS and you inform them that you played x number of songs at the venue, then you get paid specific money from that specific venues' fees. Even when they paid you play! If you have a back catalog, and you are prepared to work it, then homework on anyone and everyone who would be interested in your material, including other artists perorfming a cover, is an absolute must. I hope some of that gives you some ideas.

Hi I was taking a look at Cakewalk Sonar Producer X2 and noticed that it no longer supports XP, Vista etc. it only supports Windows 7 and Windows 8. I've encountered lots of issues with win7 64-bit & Cakewalk Sonar Producer X1 and audio glitches, a bit better on XP. I'm a long time Cakewalk user (since version 2 of Cakewalk!) so I'm reluctant to change to a completely new platform unless I have to. I did use Cubase many moons ago (on my Atari ST lol), fair to say it has changed somewhat. I guess I have used most of the DAWs available at some point. So far I have yet to try budget/free DAWS and find the user interface that great. The point in this whole post is simple, I'd love to hear of your experiences with the soon to be released (now on pre-release sale to existing Sonar users) Sonar X2 on both Win7 and Win8. A great deal hangs on it for me! Cheers John

It sure is Jim. You really have to be prepared to do more than write songs. Now more than ever. Songwriters have really had to adjust to the changing musical landscape, more than any other role in the music industry. And it wasn't exactly easy before! Easier if you perform your own material. That said there are far more tools now available, and the flow of information has improved. Standing out from the crowd is the issue, and it's made writers and performers and managers raise their game in some ways. Yes it's an exercise in keeping up with trends and techniques, yes it involves understanding contracts, yes it involves online and offline work, and yes the various tasks are much improved with tools... but then it comes down to how effectively you use the tools, and how well you plan. Did I mention promotion? lol The list goes on. Three main issues I know many musicians struggle with are: stretching a limited budget to it's max knowing when to outsource and what clear music business understanding, giving them a clear direction There are certainly more ways for musicians to make money now, but at the same time much of where they did make money has been reduced. The secret is, and always has been, in using tools and knowledge effectively... I think much of the feeling of being lost at sea that many artists feel is simply that we are all far, far more aware of how much we still don't know on any subject! Facebook and other social media remains a great way to interact with fans, but it is too easy for artists to get sucked into wasting hours. All the more so when they only have a vague idea of what they should be doing to use those to help their music. My own music on the web is woefully short of the mark, as it's just not been my top priority for one reason or another. I have lots of songs languishing waiting for me to properly record them but I don't want to upload half assed work. Still I spend a lot of time helping others and still talk to a number of friends who are still actively making a very good living from their music. It's certainly something I intend to get back to as soon as I can so I am very much keeping up my contacts and my knowledge of what bands, labels and publishers (including "self-released" music set ups) are doing, and what works. It'll happen soon. I give the world fair warning! lol

hi Trevor. Welcome to Songstuff!

Welcome to Songstuff! I use Sonar Producer X1. Pretty good once you get passed the glitchy audio.

Colours - Donovan

Hey Chris, welcome to Songstuff!