This week’s “Take the Stage” covers a pretty personal question for those entering the music business—are you you in it for the love or the money? We raised the question to our artist community and got back some fairly insightful responses. Take a look and see what OurStage artists had to say about the topic:
Ren van den Berg
We would all like to be able to say we’re in it for the love—currency is a great motivator—if it’s money, food or small woodland animals.
Let’s face it, if you’re truly in it for the love you wouldn’t be reading this at the moment. You wouldn’t be scouring the Internet, poking and prodding the industry to get heard. You’d play a few gigs in your area to have a giggle. You’d make an EP, slap a hard copy between two bits of paper, then slip your CD sandwich in a plastic wallet and give it to a few buddies at work. If that is all you want to do, hat off to you. Go to college get a good job and keep it as a hobby.
On the other extreme, if money is your only motivator, go to college and get a real job. Ironically the music industry is the last place you’ll get the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle
So let’s be honest with ourselves, we want a career in the music industry to make money, inspire people and most of all because we f***ing love doing our thing. Why else would we invest in studio time, publishing and do everything we can to create a sweet product to sell. If you do these things and still think you’re only in it for the love, stop lying to yourself. You’ve made an investment you’d like to see returned.
- Ren van den Berg, Project Zer08
Adero Neely
I love to sing and will probably always love to sing. But it is a business for me. My father has sacrificed allot for me. I’ve been groomed like a major artist. I travel to concerts in limos and airplanes. I have met some of the top music industry professionals and have met with at least 16 labels. None of this came free. From producers, songwriters, voice coaches, dance coaches, choreographers and engineers to studio time and so on, there is a cost. My business is in the red until I blow up, build a huge fan base hold sellout concerts and move into a point that my investor sees a return on his investment. These are the underlying facts which form the foundation of my belief system. I am not being groomed to make money “for the love of money,” but rather, to get paid for performing a service that makes other people happy. This is good business and I plan to develop great business skills to help those who are less fortunate than I.
I believe 99.99% of all artist believe as I do. Artist make music for the love of it and not for the money. This includes reasons such as the love of creation, joy of giving and other personal reasons. I’m not saying most artist wouldn’t love to get paid for their art, but artist receiving royalties for their music only strengthens the artist belief that others have either connected with the artist on some level or given some joy to the listener.
Brian Stripling
So, I moved from Ft Worth, TX to Boston, MA in 1999 to start a band with some friends. Within a year we had written enough material for a record that we recorded and released in Jan 2001, and things started gaining momentum for us. We got to play live on College radio and a residency at a very popular club in Allston, Ma, and more and more gigs. Then Sept 11, 2001 came and went and left us in a daze. I played bass and made a lot of friends at the Berklee School of music, and spent a lot of time there working on projects with student, it was great. By 2004, I was homeless , and living in my car then my car got booted and towed. I’m still gigging to this day.
