Re: should musicians have a second job?

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 9:55 AM, Louie Angulo
<louie.angulo@googlemail.com> wrote:
> An interesting article
>
> 
>http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2011/01/dont-quit-your-second-day-job/?utm_source=DIYNews&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=011211
>
> any comments?


Yes. It was a very interesting article. I'm a happy subscriber to the
CD Baby DIY podcast where I think the author is quite active as well.

However, in one regard I think the article is rubbish. The main
question whether a musician should have a second job doesn't really
concern anyone else except for that particular musician himself. I
have personally tried both ways and experienced good and bad sides.
Setting up your life to depend all on musician generated income may
help to quickly make you a better performer, since you get a lot of
training in that field, but in the long run it may limit your options
for experimentation needed to develop whatever you do into something
new and different. So the choice for direction actually comes down to
your artistic ambitions too. A good compromise that I have gravitated
towards by time is to set up your life with a "second job" that is
related to, helps and benefits from your work as a musician. Drawback
on this strategy is of course that you are not free to pick the best
paid "second job" so you may have to work harder to get around. One
point here however might be that it will be fun to work harder if you
do fun work.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com
www.looproom.com internet music hub