<<<there are plenty of professional musicians on this
planet who can NOT make a living as a musician
without holding down a "day job" or somehow
working outside of their profession.>>>
Harplist Comment September 2005

What follows is a collection of my private musings with other musicians and a public internet posting [Harplist] on this topic as to why this view has currency. I was asked to make the thoughts available to others. Being in a musical partnership I find the initial train of thought leading to this discussion distressing and yet quite understandable. These musings are pertinent to anyone self employed. [To all of life really!]

+++

This is a self-sorting time.
Musicians are generally not pushed - they jump.

There are new ways of doing what you want to do if you so choose.

Yes there is a big pile at the bottom of the cliff.
But most chose to jump rather do some true soul searching to do otherwise.

I find that change comes very hard for me.
I impede myself out of fear.
It does get somewhat easier with awareness and persistence.
Fear becomes familiar but it is still fear.

+++

"You only have two enemies - fear and guilt"
"Conversations with God - Book 1'
Neale Donald Walsch

The most spiritual (non-religious) book I have ever read.

At one point I was diagnosed as a schizophrenic.
This is a disease of "too much future" in the mind.
The future full of fear.
The mind blows apart.
Watch out for too much "future-proofing" - a sure sign of fear.

Where as bi-polar is "too much past".
"If only I had done" set at an extreme level.
Guilt run amok.

To be in the "now or present" is to negate both fear and guilt.
The present is these aspects of self brought into being.
  1 creativity
  2 kindness
  3 love
  4 beauty
  5 expansion
  6 unlimited abundance
  7 receptivity

A state of being.
On my better days I get a taste.
Too often I share the future with my fears rather than being "present".

+++

Losing hope is "apathy" [my best guess].
No reaction or apathy is one way of dealing with fear.
Then one is not "present".
One is away.
Then one does not experience the potential for change through one's
own presence.
One does not experience the seven aspects of our selves.
Then one self-sorts.

+++

"Times are tough for pro musicians - Get a day job!"
Stephen Vardy - Harplist posting

Get a day job if you:
  -are risk adverse
  -cannot detail your costs for doing business
  -do not factor true and full travel costs in your quotes
  -compete on price
  -would rather do something else
  -rely on long commutes to your main gigging area
  -want long-term security
  -just want to play music

Hang in there if:
  -the risk is worth it emotionally and financially for the short to
    medium term
  -operate as a true business
  -factor all operating and depreciation costs in your pricing
  -offer maximum service, adaptability and availability
  -cannot think of doing something else as long you can do this
  -do what it takes to live in your main market area
  -increase your gigging possibilities through using various technologies
   [online, amplification, administration, communications]

I have been watching local musicians [not harpists] in our microcosm become marginalised over the last 7 years. Gigging has been squeezed. They have mostly adopted strategies of moving away to areas with low cost housing and using cheap energy to travel to their gigs. As the cost of housing rose they moved further out. Lately the move has been so far out that the only income option left was to tour. It was not economic to simply do local gigs given the relatively low or impossible returns for their time and travel.

Touring returns have been dropping too. There can be great distances between cities in Canada. The costs of travel and accommodation were rising at the same time as the audiences were fracturing and the necessary "spark plug" presenters were becoming fewer, more stressed and more selective. Many musicians survived by "winning the lottery" and getting travel grants. Makes for a poor long-term business model.

Touring relied heavily on CD sales for profitability. Note the change in this dynamic over the last 4 years.

So one by one "name" musicians have started to disappear. Those that have stayed locally appear to have stopped touring appreciably. We are the same. They have created new musical niches in the local market often outside of the classic "gig". There are a lot of baby-boomers out there that want to tap into their unexpressed musical side. The pros are finding advantageous ways of doing this. I am not simply talking about lessons here - more about choirs, workshops, courses and hands-on group work etc. I am sure that the lesson teachers will tell you that it is not easy making a go of it from lessons alone.

The recent price of gasoline has put paid to the touring musician for all to a select few who do it very very well.

+++

Here is another perspective from another "lifestyle" occupation. You do not do these vocations for the money! When I worked as a Beekeeping specialist in New Zealand it was easy to initially break up the industry into roughly these proportions.

50 Full time beekeepers 750+ hives
250 Part time beekeepers 50-250 hives
5000 hobby beekeepers usually 1-5 hives

Note the jump between Part and Full. When you had a day job you could only sustain so much outside work on the hives. So there was a big leap of faith to expand to full-time. Part-time seemed very profitable as the overheads were covered by the day job until one attempted to leap upwards which required a very large reinvestment. Then a real business sense was required.

In harder economic and cropping times the structure looked more like this after 5 years with lower yields

  43 Full-time - minus 15%
  175 Part-time - minus 30%
  3000 Hobby - minus 40%

The overall hive numbers did not change that much amongst the top two categories even though their owners disappeared. The hives consolidated within the remaining 43 full-timers. The hobby hives were generally abandoned and destroyed.

So what does this mean for beekeepers?
  -The biggest full-timers got bigger and more cost effective by the total
    restructuring of their businesses to suit changed conditions.
  -Some Full-timers simply were unwilling to change, wished to move on
    and sold out.
  -The undercapitalised [in good times] beekeepers disappeared.
  -Many Part-timers were marginalised as they could not respond well to
    change given their day job circumstances.
  -The flood of newbie wannabe beekeepers from the hobby sector dried
    up because there was obviously no pot of gold [pun intended] at the
    end of the dream.

It should be noted that NZ was experiencing climate change and dramatically increasing operating costs during this period. Oceanic climates started to notice dramatic climate change two decades ago. The more climatically stable continents are now starting to feel the same effects now.

+++

Back to the harping.

My thoughts on lessons learned todate:
  -Most pros who are willing to change how they do things will continue.
  -Those who are unwilling to change won't continue.
  -Given that day jobs are becoming more and more all-consuming the
    part-timers will become more marginalised.
  -I find the average wannabe musician [non-harping] is hanging in for
    months now rather than years.
  -Touring for concerts style of harpists are going to be very rare - they
    already are.
  -CD sales as income are severely in decline.
  -There overall may be fewer conventional gigs.
  -There will be proportionately even fewer musicians chasing those gigs.
  -Success is now inversely proportional to the amount of time spent
    travelling due to energy costs.

The future?? I do not know except:
  -Energy costs are going to generally trend upwards.
  -Gatherings/gigs will be more local and intimate in nature as jet/travel
    costs rise.
  -Fewer traveling musicians are going to come to your hometown outside
    of the ultra-huge markets.
  -There are many fresh opportunities arising as other musicians are
    becoming more marginalised by their day jobs.
  -People will still want live music in their life.
  -Recorded music will be digital without physical media.
  -Copyright is effectively unenforceable in any sustainable way in the
    online digital realm.
  -The pace of change is accelerating.
  -New pros can arise in these circumstances as others capitulate.
  -This scenario suits some harpists very well as the harp has a unique
    status and commands a premium fee.

This means new ways of presenting and doing musicianship.
  -Nothing is sacred other than your personal integrity.
  -It means valuing yourself.
  -It means responding to new opportunity.
  -There is a heap of opportunity where there is rapid change.
  -It means reinventing all your sacred cows.
  -It means sharing rather than competing.
  -It means networking.
  -It means new understandings of what advertising and being available
    actually means.
  -It means taking the time to observe.

This is not a TV show where the last survivor wins. In real life they will be the biggest loser. What is developing is an ecology of musicians with referring venues and event suppliers, a legion of well connected happy customers for word of mouth - all networked together to give every potential client live music if they so wish. This is not competing aka the dinosaurs, this is sharing and creating the best fit for every client's needs. There is a whole new mindset that is emerging. I believe it is coming through the increasing self-employment of women. Harpists will especially benefit from this sharing attitude.

I am very enthused about the future. I see others being quietly being enthused too. They are investing in themselves and their vocations. It is like surfing on the leading edge of the wave of change. None of us know where we will be in a year from now. And that is okay as the ride is fun in the now.

The best advice we have received in harping came from John Westling of Sandpiper Harps - "persist and don't go into debt". Add a dash of chutzpah and it is a fun ride.

For every one else
Get a day job.
And be secure.
Unless its not.