A passion, a business, a poser, a hobby , or a career

Over the years, we have met a lot of musicians. We have learned a lot about those musicians. We have also observed many give up, crash and burn, and just plain not try. None of these things mean we think any less of you, but if you're a musician who wants to make it 'big' here are some things I have learned.

There are are many ways to play music.
1: As a passion. You love it. You will play to anyone for anything anywhere any time. This is the purest and most beautiful version that everyone needs, but also the easiest to get totally fucked. Because you love it so much, you are so much more willing to do it for anything. This reeks of desperation and record companies love this. (See my link to why we wont sign a record contract? http://www.negativland.com/albini.html ) Being a passionate artist has its benefits but be careful to remember that you're trying to make a living and if you're not, you're actually in the hobby category.  Passion is step one of many steps. If you're going to make a living, you have to learn how to be business oriented. This moves us on to...
2: As a businessman. This can mean many things but as I'm sure you can guess, business becomes a+#1 importance. This person will make a good living and probably be very successful....but may not always be very happy. If you lose sight of your love for the music it will be a long unhappy road with lots of money and sponsors, but no different than a desk job most days.
3: The Poser. You play music because you happen to have the talent but you're more concerned with getting drunk, the perks and partying than being a performer. Many artists have made a name for themselves being the fun party drunk musician but it wasn't until they moved into another category that people took them seriously... or they died. Harsh? Yes. It truly is. There is nothing wrong with drinking and having fun at your gigs, but when a venue pays you good money to entertain their crowd, they don't always love you doing it with your belligerence. Many will never say anything either because you have now spent your entire paycheck at their bar and liquor is cheap so that's a damn good deal on their end. This means free entertainment for them, and no income for you. Be careful with this one. It will suck you in and you will think you're living the rock star lifestyle, but in all reality you're living dangerously close to a cliff that will yank you over its edge before you realize its too late. And it ages you horrifically.  (He's only 68 years old!)

4: The hobby. You love playing music but have no idea or care to make money or work on your craft. Family and friends easily deter you from your slight goal with jobs, marriages, kids, and other things that will take precedence. This isn't bad. Its just your category. You don't perform regularly and as time goes on, living room practice becomes less and less.
5: A career.  You are a good mix between everyone. You understand that if you make 150$ at a gig and spend 150$ at a gig you made no money and that gig was pretty much free. If you're ok with that great. But you'll never be able to quit your day job. You understand that you are an entertainer and your crowd has to enjoy themselves or else why would the venue ask you back? Because you have talent? Talent doesn't make the venue money. Entertainment does. Shitty bands get paid all the time because they're entertaining. If someone comes to see you and is entertained they will stay longer than if you just sound good. Its the truth. If they wanted to listen to good music they can turn on their radio. You have to offer something better than what they can go find somewhere else for free and give them a reason to stay. You also understand that your relationships with the venues are important. if you're late, cancel all the time, bring rude rowdy friends, ask for freebies all the time, expect the world, or pretty much just act like a total dick, if you cant bring in so many people that the venue HAS to look past your bull shit, they wont. You practice because you want to AND have to, you write for the same reasons. You pay attention to your income, but you also understand that you should have some leeway to enjoy yourself or you'll get burned out. You live with in your means, and you keep track of your taxes. (if you don't, and you start making money and get audited good luck with that) And... most importantly, you love it. The day you stop loving it, Quit. I mean that. Don't play music for anyone but you. Don't worry about your stage set up or set list or if you have proper skills or if someone doesn't like you or if your song is about something controversial or if the band before you sucked or if the band after you sucks or if you should have worn something else or if you hit one bad note, or if you are tired, you're too skinny, you're too fat, your personal hygiene is bad (The used? lol ya. )
 you're not in the mood to be there, the legs of your pants got wet in a puddle, you have to pee, you coughed in the middle of a song. SHIT. Stop worrying. Play music. Play good music that you enjoy and feel it. How many times do I say on here. Feel what you're playing. It is really important to 99% of your crowds. Do what you feel you will be proud of doing not what you think everyone else wants you to do or what you think will make you famous. The harder you try to be famous the less likely you will be...unless you flash your crowd your boobs and buy them all shots every night or some stunts like that lol People will come for that lol.
All of these categories are not set in stone and you can become a new category if you want, but you can't move into one with out knowing which you are now.
I wish you all luck and hope you know that we never hope for bad to come to anyone. We may see it coming. Others will to. But we wish and hope and pray to see you all on the other side. For our sake AND yours. Good luck with your gigs this weekend. We love you all and are so grateful to know you. XOXO.