Even More Bonnie Hayes

From: Chris Frantz

Regarding Bonnie Hayes' email, allow me to quote Kurt Vonnegut:

"If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts.

I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.

Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.

Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.

Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward.

You will have created something."

"A Man Without a Country", 2005

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The responses to Bonnie's email seem pretty equally split between those who sympathize with the plight of struggling musicians, and those demanding they "stop whining" and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

This division doesn't surprise me one bit because these arguments simply echo our endless national argument where one side questions what kind of world will be left for our posterity and the other side yells about how hard they've worked, accuses everyone else of an entitlement complex, and demands they work harder and shut up.

But the arguments are no different, in this case, because the music industry is no different than every other industry in present day America: Less money in the coffers, more competition for the work, and no one can keep up with how technology is constantly changing all the rules. meanwhile, the fat cats suck the remaining profitability off the top and leave everyone else squabbling with one another over the scraps from their tables.

This is a working class issue, not just a musicians issue. And it's THE issue of our time.

But to all the sanctimonious writers warning everyone to quit complaining, I have a warning too: You may be scraping by on thrift and luck now, but you're not above the rest of your colleagues. In other words, it can happen to you too. And fundamental economic problems like this won't go away just because you convinced yourself that others misfortunes are merely a result of laziness.

Here's a news flash: everyone's working hard.

We're all in this together.

Jessica Bonanno

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The Beatles didn't waste their time & money on going to Berklee (or
any other music college) but instead played 7 days a week in crappy
smoke filled basement clubs for years.

B. Dutch Seyfarth

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Bruce Cockburn left Berklee after one term. jes sayin

a mea culpaws post

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I have to take issue with some of these email bashing this current generation of kids. I'm the technical manager for Interscope Studios and own Threshold Sound and Spin Move Records.
I employ and have employed young people for many years. I can tell you that this generation is hard working, considerate, passionate, and smart. The kids are all right in my world.

Peter A. Barker

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You don't have to move to NY or SF or Boston to make it. The guys in Rilo Kiley moved from LA to Omaha & started out on Saddle Creek, with Bright Eyes. And that scene in turn launched the Felice Brothers. And they might not be the biggest bands on earth, but all of those guys, & others, are making a living, & they're doing it their way &, in some cases, making some incredible music. Thanks to the internet, it's easier than ever to create your own "Laurel Canyon" anywhere in the country, you just have to find the right people & be willing to uproot yourself. That's how SF became SF in the 60's. No one moved out there because that's where you "make it." It's not where the industry was.

It's completely backwards... the industry should be pounding on the door of the artists, not the other way around. But most artists lack the confidence (or maybe it's the talent) to strike out on their own.

Jon Cole

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Bob,

I honestly think that musicians should never complain.
If you go to work and people clap you're fucking lucky.

Do covers gigs and get paid. Do functions, private parties and don't be a fucking snob about it.

Watch the episode of Louie where he meets Joan Rivers and she gives him a lecture about bitching and quitting.

Nick Hershman
London, UK

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when music is a calling, rent doesn't matter.
the shifting plates of business hardly matters,
not owning a car isn't even an issue.....food is boring...
you happily survive by your WITS...

to misquote jackson browne:

"when you know that you've a real reason somewhere, suddenly everything else is so much easier to bear"

mary cigarettes

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Bonnie I would tell those kids being a musician has always been a Feast or Famine gig. From the guys who jammed for kings of old to the cowboys rockin the honky-tonk, to the kid playing his local coffee shop it has never been about $. You play because you have too, it's part of you. If you stop playing you will seise to exist .
$ is a fringe benefit an if your lucky one day you'll be called to the Feast but odds are you will live a life of shitty jobs an famine.
You want to be a musician suck it up and roll the dice!

Kurt Ozdaglar

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Who wouldn't rather be a musician, or an artist, an actor, or a sports star? From the outside, these look like magical career choices, but it totally ignores the laws of supply and demand. If everyone wanted to make music, very few could make a living doing it. Nobody is owed a living in an overcrowded field. Get over it.

My older son is a pretty good musician. When he was a lot younger, I told him that he could either try to make a living in music, or he could choose a different career and love making music. Fortunately, he became a teacher and he still loves making mucic on the side.

Frank Wood

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What is Berklee good at?

Talking parents into believing that their kids will have a money making career if they just plunk down their $200K.

That's called marketing not music.

I've been a composer in NYC for 25 years and I can't tell you how many Berklee kids have sent me their god awful cookie cutter generic derivative demos.

Of course there are a few exceptions. But those with true talent/drive would have done well anywhere.

Berklee is a scam. Not everyone is meant to be a musician.

Michael Montes

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I gotta tell you Bob, speaking only from my personal experience, having played with Berklee grads and Guitar Institute grads and the like, I made much far more interesting music with dudes who were self taught. The highly trained players were so stiff and utterly soulless (tho flashy) whereas the untrained weren't reigned in by school rules.

$200Gs? Seriously? Bwahahaha!

Cheers,
Rick Saunders

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I only ever had one proper job in my life when I was 21 and I lasted 3 weeks...never had a regular wage since. I did nude modelling, bit part acting, worked as a relief roadsweeper, played any sort of music anywhere for forty quid and ate beans on toast for the best part of ten years....and then got a break.

Robin Millar

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We're slowing killing off the entrepreneurial class in this country (Chick Fil A? Obamacare? You didn't buld that!!!), kids are expecting easy street and insulation from reality. Reailty is as scary as it ever was.

My grandfather came here with shit in 1899 and couldn't speak a syllable of English. He had to change his name from the unpronounceable Italian to even begin to fit in. He was good with his hands and got a job working on the building of the Westinghouse bridge in Pittsburgh, extremely dangerous work then...guys falling into concrete pilings and that's all she wrote. No OSHA at all...

As a carpenter (no unions of course), he cut his fingers off with a circular saw. Kept on working.

Did he bitch that he wasn't getting a job out of a musician's mill?

No, he started his own company building houses and provided for my Nona, Mom and Uncle. That wasn't easy street either.

This country needs people like my Grandfather, not whiny weenies in Berklee trying to do stuff in music somehow, but not sure what or where, but hey it's great, check out my new jacket man, and look at these shoes...

If it doesn't matter enough to you to do it for free, than what the fuck are you doing it for??????

It's a trade school? I think these kids will eventually get it, and realize they were sold a bill of goods and maybe wasted a lot of time. Isn't Bonnie part of the problem, just trying to save herself, much like Jon Corzine or any number of evil corporate guys?

Where are our Frank Zappas? They're out there.

mvlang

P.S. Bob, you are concerned about Wall Street ripping the middle class off and selling lies...what about the musician mills?

It's just as bad.

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To: Patrick Donovan Mulroy

Hey asshole ! There's a fucking DEPRESSION going on. Over 8% unemployment for those who are still looking. Higher if you're an African American or a VETERAN.

Consider your young, ignorant ass LUCKY. But you do know about minimum wage. That's something.

I'm supposing you speak of "Mom and Dad" through experience. But I grew up without a dad. I'm sure there are those in YOUR generation who did, as well.

And Les Claypool couldn't find a job as a carpenter at much more than minimum wage in this economy.

Besides...who the fuck is Primus ?

Scott Sechman

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Bob, what I've noticed is that an awful lot of musicians, artists and other creative types from New York have moved here to Philadelphia, mostly to Fishtown and Kensington. Rent is cheap, eating out is cheap, lots of craft beer, a large and supportive music community with great venues, and NYC is a $10 bus ride away. WXPN, our well-known and influential college station, is aggressive about breaking local talent.

Honestly, I think some people are just in love with the idea of Living In New York. It's like living in a movie, and they think if they stay there, it'll all have a happy ending. At $1800 a month for a tiny place in Brooklyn, good luck with that.

Susan Madrak

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A drummer friend and I were frustrated with all these issues being discussed and decided to do something about it. We've been in bands for a few years, played bars, decent venues, small festivals, etc. But definitely no $ or major recognition.

So over the last year we've been dragging an upright piano and drum kit all around the Bay Area. We started playing on the streets for free, in winter, (with hand warmers!) and it has led to all kinds of gigs. We still play on the street often, but those initial gigs led to private parties, MLB baseball games, NPR recognition, and actual paid gigs. Our drummer quit his job a few months ago and has subsisted on playing gigs ever since. Granted, he does have some loans and grants for music school, but he makes more money playing music than in his previous jobs. His classmates can't believe how many gigs he plays. But they weren't handed to us. If you put yourself out there you never know what can happen.

http://music.clangnbang.com/

-Kirby Lee Hammel

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Bitch, bitch, bitch. I, like a thousand other working musicians who didn't have the support (financially or otherwise) to attend a school like Berklee, fund my lifestyle and original music the same way anyone with any ounce of talent or self-preservation does: i play in a cover band. Get the fuck over yourself and take responsibility for your life beyond your creative career. We all make sacrifices. Do you really think i want to play Brown Eyed Girl 3x a week? Hell no... But it's good practice and great money, and anyone can do it. I'm the Starbucks barista of the music industry-so what? I'm doing what i love, albeit with other people's music. If you're an aspiring painter, paint a house. If you're an aspiring architect, tuckpoint a building. It can only improve your skill set. Work for a living; it's really not that bad if you leave your ego at the door.

Ellie Maybe

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Bob, I love your blog and read it regularly. I would like to throw in my 45 cents. I have been married for 16 years, I have 3 kids that are not starving nor are they deprived of daddy time. My wife is satisfied and I pay my mortgage. I also happen to play and teach music full time without a degree and I am the sole bread winner in my family. I have known since I was 15 that the only thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life is drum. I decided 20 years ago to throw everything I had into one basket and practice my ass off so when the day came for me to get a gig, I would know what to do. The day I stopped playing video games was the day I started drumming. The only way I know to make it work is to keep practicing and keep hustling. The only thing that comes before drumming is my family. I keep them first and then spend the rest of my time working up gigs, practicing, teaching, and treating the people I work for/with like they are precious. You have to be a good person to make it work on the local scale, if you are a jerk, nobody calls. I know it is scary and daunting to think about trying to make it in this day and age, but it can be done. It is all about priorities and hard work.

Brandon Graves

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Bonnie's letter was a great conversation starter.

To those who don't think the situation is radically different than it was 25 years ago, to the detriment or our collective talent pool, I can only wonder if you have really looked at the numbers or actually talked with young musicians. Or, if you are a young musician, I wish you luck.

Most of us didn't learn half as much from school as we did from Little Richard. Where will the next Little Richard come from?

European orchestral music was largely payed for by kings. In the 20th century that role was played by labels etc. What's next? Nothing? Maybe music will go back to the essentially amateur pursuit it was before the 20th century. Maybe that's ok but it is and is going to be a major change affecting every once-marketable art.


Bruno Coon

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There is more opportunity now than there has ever been. More music genres. More clubs. More radio stations, terrestrial and internet... hell, you can make your own radio station, or stations, and post your own videos on a plethora of platforms. Volumes more content is being created than ever before! There was once only THREE TV channels... NOW, the demand for professional content to fill the tens of thousands of hours of television programming for the hundreds of channels is huge! And now for the first time in history.... EVERYONE has unlimited access to the public, to the world... from their bedroom. The tools to create content are nearly FREE! Charlie Chaplin became a legend using a fixed-lens hand-cranked camera... no sound. An HD camera at Best Buy is $250. Most of those incredible Motown hits from the 60s were recorded in a house on 4-track tape, now a digital recording studio comes with every Apple computer, along with your very own digital movie software. I can go on and on with the advantages this generation has... I would give anything to be 19 right now.

If you can't make success happen , you have no one to blame but yourself.

Frank A. Gagliano

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I read nearly every lefsetz email, but somehow missed Bonnie's.

Berklee grad, 1990 here. Damn proud of it. I worked my ass off while I was there. Incredible teaching staff. I wrote scores, played in jazz and rock combos, and practiced 6 to 8 hours every fricken day for 3 solid years. I finished early.

Amazing how much Berklee costs now. I had a partial scholarship, enough to make it possible to go. My parents could only help with boston living expenses, so I took student loans for the rest. Which, btw, at the end of my college career totaled a mere $12,000. I had them paid off in no time.

had a part time job too. Figured I'd rest when I was dead.

Upon graduation, i went into the world with not a shred of "placement help" from Berklee. I didn't need it. I was going to kick the world's ass on my own.

and I did.

But it took me working 10-14 hours a day, every day for the past 22 years. If I thought my schedule at Berklee was tough, that was cake compared to trying to break into the "real world" of music. I had no rich or famous relative inside the music biz to open doors... i was on my own.

I am most grateful to Berklee for my time there. Who I got to meet, the students I got to play with, the teachers I studied with, guest artists and concerts...

I use what I learned there every minute of every note I am a part of as a musician, producer, arranger or engineer.

if it bothers you how much Berklee costs, put together your own education and work your ass off.

You won't have the "Berklee" paper on the wall, but I'll let you in on a secret... people rarely hired me because of that paper. They hired me because i was 1. on time 2. highly skilled 3. not a pain in the ass to hang around with all day for weeks or months at a time.

That's what I look for when I hire people now. If you're late, i don't care how talented you are... go away. If you can't play or deliver the goods... go away. If you're an egomaniac, drug addict, personify a massive insecurity complex, or have the mental capacity of a 15 year old... go away.

it's amazing how many musicians and creative people can't meet the above standards.

Be great. Work your ass off. Look for opportunities everywhere. Never stop learning new skills. Move if you have to.

Most important... have fun, and you will attract many, many people to your art and craft.

you may stumble into the career of your dreams in the process.

Joe Hand
producer, writer, musician
www.joehand.com

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Uhhhh. Get fucked and get a job. I live in Nashville and I know plenty of kids here that work their asses off.

Isn't that called paying your dues?

Yeah it sucks to work and then try to be creative. However, because your busting your balls, your chops will get better and your songs will be smarter. I promise you. Now suck it up, bus your table, brew his coffee, and start kicking ass.

Jer Gregg

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Hey Bob,

I'm a musician from DC as well. This is advice is wrong. No musician wanting to be anything but a hobbyist should be playing in bars at all. I don't know what its like in other places, but in DC payment for playing in bars hasn't gone up since the 70s. There is a reason: NO ONE GIVES A SHIT. The bar owners don't care and the audience doesn't care. It's standard practice for venues to forbid bands from playing anywhere else within 30 miles for a month in exchange for a gig. The reason for this is they know that no one but your friends are going to come. If bars could make money off of a house band, they would have house bands, not DJs, and you could build an audience. They can't and you can't so don't do it. Don't spend your money and muscle on shelping expensive equipment around or moving to LA. Spend that money on Pro Tools, a Mac and a camera. The internet is the only place where an unknown (without an uncle in the business or a million dollars) can get an audience at all. Make a video a week, think of it as your gig. Do covers and originals.

Most important of all, interact with your audience. Think of it like your talking to fans after a show. We are a really small band, 2000 subscribers and over 200,000 plays on YouTube, and we were able to raise over $8000, via Kickstarter, to make a record and none of that money came from Mom and Dad. Here is an example of a conversation with one of our fans from Australia. In a casual message on facebook we told her we couldn't afford a new camera. She wrote this:

"Hard work deserves being rewarded. I have been very impressed with the effort you are putting into your career.

I am not rich, and I don't intend to be. I am comfortable and if my 'folly' is giving you guys help every once in a while... I see as rewarding!

I don't ever expect anything back long term out of you either. I see a life as 'being full of stories'. Basically this money I am giving you entitles me to tell my grandkids about the really cool band that I helped buy a camera for at the start of their career:)"

She then gave us an additional $500 to buy a new camera. This fan was out there for us. She was in Australia. GO FIND YOUR FANS, THEY AREN'T IN A BAR!!!!

Here is our latest video, it's a cover of Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" played only with stuff we found in our kitchen... sounds like The Neptunes. http://youtu.be/9dmuZmo8R4o

Tristan Shields

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These letters are a wealth of insight and information.

Quickly...
When I was 17 I got a gig playing w Genya Raven in NYC.
My dad (a butcher), knowing my passion wanted to send me to Berkley...
I was not the most intelligent teen, my answer was "dad, this is Rock & Roll.
I'm already playing w stars".(a gig in central park was being talked about, promises of a European tour etc).
After we did all her pre-production she fired us and hired NY session guys to do the album. (my first dues paying experience)
My dad had watched my love affair w music & my guitar from age 5, never had to push me to practice...
He had little money but would get it if I wanted to go. I didn't!
Ironically many years later while performing w legendary guitarist Dick Wagner, the Berklee grads were flooding NY and taking all the rock gigs in NY, while also doing all the session work, jingles, etc. while the rest of the NYC musicians were relegated to waiting tables, construction etc. Message here? I really don't know!
I never left music, I am a fairly successful indy promoter in NY, not wealthy, just paying my bills. That road taken after I fought for and got my two daughters in my divorce, and had to get off the road.
A decision that I have never regretted for a minute.
One of my girls is now my partner.
So my shows have become the song I would have been writing.
The artists I book, the experience I create for my guests, is my song.
I try to balance the art of the fest, with trying to bring in enough money to go on.
Sometimes the gods are with you, sometimes not!
This year I had Levon Helm booked as one of the Friday night headliners, his passing was a sad day for the music world.
Then sunday we faced the largest lightening storm in the NE in years. I had to clear the fest. Promoters reading this know how that turned out for me.
But you go on.
And after two marriages, being broke and flush, thousands of concerts, and more incredible experiences than any one man should have, I'm happy just to continue my journey, and will never be comfortable in any other world.
jim faith

Producer,
Great S Bay Music Fest

Chairman,
LI Music Hall of Fame

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Hey Bob,

I know I'm late to respond to Bonnie's email, but I wanted to chime in. I went to school for music, never really figured out how to make a living at it, got various day jobs to get by, including a few years at a record label, and finally decided to put all of my hard work into my own career and not somebody else's. I don't make a ton of money, but I'm living in Brooklyn and working all the time. I'm no rockstar, but if a rockstar called and needed me for a tour, I could get the job done.

Along the way, I started a website with another musician friend of mine. We wanted to focus on musician careers. We talked to our friends and colleagues about their careers, and while it's tough, a lot of people are doing it. You've got to be an outstanding player, obviously, and music schools can help you with that. The rest, though, is all about learning professional behavior and experience. Be really good and don't be an asshole.

Here's one of our articles that explains how it's possible to put together something that resembles a living as a musician:

http://www.musicianwages.com/how-to-actually-make-50000-a-year-as-a-musician/

As a side note, some Berklee students have actually told me that some of my articles are used in their classes, printed off the web and sold to them in photocopied packets! The irony.

- Cameron Mizell

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Interesting emails for sure.

The only thing, for me, that need be said is that being a musician is a calling. We are lucky to have one. Remember all the people along the way we meet who may not have one, who were distracted from their internal compass? Working hard is a given, luck is not. Life as a musician is not about the biz, it comes as a result of us, or other people helping - being impassioned about what they get from us - and those who can exploiting it/us. Music is still art. I naively still believe the old adage "do what you love and the money will follow." The universe is very supportive. Remember each time you/we put out to the world that you wanted to do this or that and how doors that once never existed, appeared and some even opened?

Create, dedicate and live your life. Rumors of ways to 'make it' are just that.

Peace,

Joseph Parsons

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Hi Bob,

I've been reading your stuff for quite some time, and while I don't always agree with your viewpoint I do appreciate you getting people thinking about the problems today's musicians and the overall 'biz' face. That being said, I don't see anything wrong with "working shit jobs to do their life calling their spare time" as Bonnie puts it. I come from the punk rock scene, where every guy has a day job. Believe it or not some even have good ones (I'm one of the lucky ones). I've known hundreds of punk rockers in hundreds of bands on every level, and with the exception of a handful (Green Day, NOFX, Blink-182, Bad Religion, Rise Against) it's a given that after every tour they go back to their day jobs until the next tour comes around. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. Nobody in the punk scene spends a lot of time bitching about it. If you're really making music from the heart and for the right reasons, then it shouldn't matter whether you're a hobbyist or earning your living at music... the music itself is the reward. I came across a great old Tom Waits TV interview today and I think he said it best - "I don't worry about achievement. I worry primarily about whether there are night clubs in heaven."

The guys in my band Margate and I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the subject, and we have a song called "Rock 'n Roll Reserve" which puts the modern day hobbyist musician in terms of being in the reserves - being called up for 8 days a month into weekend tours of active duty. The song has been a moderate hit in the world of punk rock, even currently getting some occasional spins on KROQ in LA, and oddly enough brought us to the attention of the small label we're now signed to. Since we got signed we made our first record we didn't have to pay for ourselves, toured Europe for a few weeks with NOFX, Less Than Jake and more... and kept our day jobs. Sure, we could all move in to one fleabag apartment and try to scrape by doing some teaching or odd jobs on the side, but we're in our mid 30's now and that's not the type of life any of us want at this age. And what's the point? Being a moderately successful musician and having a regular job are not mutually exclusive ideas.

One last note - I've known a lot of musicians who have turned to the cover band route to make a living making music. Many of them are successful, and I'm sure they're enjoying their day jobs more than the average barista or roofer. But for most as the years go by I can see their passion for music fade as playing their instrument just becomes what they do for a living rather than something they live to do.

Here's our DIY music video for the "Rock 'n Roll Reserve" tune... we made it for a few hundred bucks (which were left over from a kickstarter campaign we did for our previous EP, but that's another story) with some friends and had a great time doing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BQwElpozWo

The lyrics are below in case you want to check them out - they go by pretty quick. Thanks as always for raising a good debate.

Cheers,
Doug Mitchell & Margate

"Rock 'N Roll Reserve"
Lyrics by Alex Helbig
Music by Margate


We're in the Rock 'n Roll Reserve
Eight days a month is what I serve
No longer living for that dream, now I'm doing it just for me!
We're In The Rock 'n Roll Reserve!

I remember way back when, the dream was to get signed and then...
Become a band that changed the world
Toured the land and slept with all the girls
And topped all the charts and wrote all the songs that made the whole world sing but...

Life catches up with dreams fifteen years on down the line
Now working a job forty hours a week, trying to feel like I'm not doing time

This whole industry is upside down, trying to find a solid ground
A house, a wife and my bones ache
Believing that it's never too late
To pick up a guitar! To travel near and far!
And put the Rock in the Rock 'n Roll Reserve!
Eight days a month is what I serve
No longer living for that dream, now I'm doing it just for me!
We're In the Rock 'n Roll Reserve!

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Bob,

It's very interesting to me to hear people knock a school like Berklee. Why not knock USC or UCLA, or any other school known for being great, and also has that expensive price tag? Are they saying that every med student, football player or hell, even accountant leaving another school pays off their tuition in any reasonable amount of time? We all inherently treat college loans like a mortgage at this point. If you borrowed large sums of money to go to college, it doesn't go away quickly. How quickly depends on the student, whether or not they have that "entitled mentality" I hear people say so often. Some "entitled" students apply the hell out of themselves...

Berklee is my alma-mater and I'm happy to say so, even if I don't use it when introducing myself around town. It was a school run by musicians - sometimes that was great, sometimes it was laughable - and as a student, you had the opportunity to spend time with teachers who had spent a life around music. Some of them had great success, others had no success. Some had wild stories, others "ground-it-out". Some were even classically trained and laughed at the idea of becoming a rockstar. Most were still working outside of Berklee.

You also met other students, who (unless your ego got in the way) are the musicians that you would/should pursue your career with over the next decade or two. I can't tell you how many other students I still talk to today. If you don't take advantage of the student/teacher resources while you are there, you missed the boat. It's a place to learn and network.

Also, a 35% graduation rate is fitting for a school like this. The turnover rate in the dorms was quick. Many would come in thinking it was going to be a 24/7 rockstar party and would soon realize it wasn't just about banging on a guitar in a garage with others, while a cigarette was stuffed between your strings. Then they would be confronted with those not-at-all-rockstar stories of a gazillion hours practicing, getting signed and shelved, of having to give away your music until you had enough leverage, etc. and then they would just leave - mid-semester even. Of course there were some who were there because mommy and daddy paid for it, but for those who actually wanted to learn this was the perfect environment in which to do it. And one that you have to pay for. Who would you want to surround yourself with when you are learning?

And if you really do want to go there, practice enough to get damn scholarship. They offer those, you know.

Brad Crowell
www.amillionpiecesmusic.com

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I loved this email. If I look at all the successes in technology over the past few decades they didn't occur at Xerox PARC or Bell Labs. They occurred at Harvard and most importantly Stanford (http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html)

Why don't these kid have the opportunity to do this stuff at college? Why don't they spend 6 months writing and recording, with mentors and professors, and have Berkley issue a best of Berkeley compilation. Why don't Universities put out a tour of student bands? At least at the end of 4 years these kids will know whether they should ditch the instrument or not.

Great stuff used to happen at corporations. Now it happens at University because corporations can't lose money on something that might take 6 months. Incubation occurs in the University not at Xerox. Why not do the same for music. Berkley can even keep 20% of all furture artist revenues and publishing. There is no nuturing time. We have rapidly growing chicken and force feed cows and astro turf. Most people said a band wasn't a band until its 3rd album. If the "industry" won't nuture and let artist's develop, Berkely should.

Todd Lewis

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Hi, Bob...

Writing to you from my work email address, as I don't have the patience for long diatribes via my thumbs on the smartphone.

I'm surprised to find myself a little annoyed at the "stop whining and get a job" contingent that came out of the woodwork when you published Bonnie's email.

I work, have been working a day job of some sort for most of my professional career, and I've got something to pass along to those folks:

YOU ARE MISSING OPPORTUNITIES.

I've been a "professional" musician for most of the 20 or so years that I've lived in the Philadelphia area - mostly as a sideman/session and touring musician, but I don't see my plight as being that different from a songwriter/performing artist, where working a day job is concerned. It's a perpetual balancing act to try and put in the necessary hours to make sure your rent is paid and to maintain a presence in your musical community...and I'm here to tell you firsthand:

If you're working during the day, YOU ARE MISSING OPPORTUNITIES.

Sessions happen during the day. Writing appointments happen during the day. Meetings...phone calls...contact with booking agents, with tour managers, with other people who make things happen in this business (even on the lowest rungs of the food chain, where most of us reside) happen - yes, during the day. And if you're working during the day, YOU ARE MISSING OPPORTUNITIES.

I've lost count of the gigs I haven't gotten, of the sessions I wasn't able to do, of the tours I haven't been able to accept because of complications around a day job. And, after a while, you will find that people's perception of you will shift...maybe gradually, maybe less so. But you'll become, as I have, somewhat distanced from your community. Taken less seriously, and perhaps even dismissed, because people will either think that your commitment to your craft is lacking, or that you're just not in it for the long haul.

Maybe the "buck up and get a job" crowd sees this, maybe they don't - but it's a fact, it's reality, and you dismiss it at your peril.

I'm not complaining about my lot in life - I'm generally well-respected by my peers, I get to work a lot, and I've gotten to collaborate and play alongside some of my heroes. I've had a good run. But I have a lot of respect for people who've managed to find ways to keep their bills paid and do this without the distraction of a day gig. Sadly, they're fewer and farther between...which, if I remember correctly, was Bonnie's original point.

Keep up the good fight, Bob.

Tom Hampton
Philadelphia, PA

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It is disheartening to think about this, yet we are left to reflect on the fact that Van Gogh could not earn a living wage as an artist, Charles Ives, the great and innovative classical composer, for many years ran one of the most successful New York Life insurance agencies in the country...in the 20's and 30's. JJ Johnson, legendary world-famous jazz trombonist, worked for the post office for most of his adult life while also working, performing and recording as a world-class jazz artist. The incredible jazz singer Sheila Jordan, who recorded the seminal record Portraits of Sheila in 1960, kept her day gig in New York City as an executive assistant until into her early 60's. Our colleges and universities and art schools have always been full of remarkable artists (think dance, pottery, painting, theater arts, writers...not just music) who have found rewards in sharing the knowledge of their respective art while also finding what was difficult to find solely as an artist...enough money to earn a good living. At Berklee specifically there was the great clarinetist/saxophonist John LaPorta, arranger Herb Pomeroy, saxophonist Charlie Mariano...in the 60's and 70's, and arguably for many years the world's great jazz vibes player, Gary Burton, who is now or until recently, was President of Berklee. My good friend and well known modernist painter, the late Richard Merkin (illustrated for New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ...as well as having his work in the collections of many of the most famous museums in the country) taught at Rhode Island School of design for his entire professional life. Writer Henry Miller went to live in France. Julliard, Manhattan School of Music, Curtis Institute, Miami, have all had faculties for many years that are comprised of players, conductors and composers from the country's major symphonies. The music schools of Europe are and have been littered for decades with amazing musicians who have brought their skills and artistry to young minds in the environs of academia.

When I (we) was growing up our neighborhood and my friends dads, mostly, were auto mechanics, a home heating oil truck driver, a doctor who did house calls, a gas station operator who cleaned windshields and checked oil, a salesman (my dad), a school teacher...all economic spectrums in one neighborhood. Those days are and have been gone for many years. It is more expensive to live now, there is more disparity among economic classes, but many aspects of this argument are not new. If we distill this down we find that many artists, well-known or otherwise, have struggled for years to earn a living wage in societies (here and abroad) that did not look upon the arts in the same light as they viewed other aspects of capitalist society.

Feel free to share these thoughts.
Jimmy Masters

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Bob,

I always love reading your words. Very insightful and coming from your heart, seemingly with no agenda other than to make our world a better place. I thank you!

Re Ms Hayes letter,

A beautiful statement of a sad fact.

I have been a professional musician all my life and have done well. I grew up at a time when music was thriving and developed my craft mostly by learning from the older players I was blessed to work with. Recording, clubbing, playing in pit orchestras etc.

We all thought it would last forever but sequencers all but destroyed recording. Disc jockeys wiped out the jobbing scene (although they are suffering now because clients are just using their i-pods for their events), theatre work is diminishing because of tracks.

I see talented kids full of dreams coming out of music schools with nowhere to go. Recording is usually done on a freebie basis or on spec in a market that is saturated and defeated by free downloads.

Live gigs are either free, for peanuts, a portion of the door or just plain not paying.

It's not just the music business. Outsourcing and robots replacing people have brought people to their knees. The financial system is so top heavy - and becoming more so - , and the environment is becoming so stressed that one wonders if there is any hope.

I wonder if the concept put forth by the Zeitgeist movement - resource economy, no need for money, etc - is something that people should start pondering. Science and mechanization could serve us better if the bottom line wasn't based on obscene profiteering. Without the fearful wolf constantly at the door maybe creativity could blossom. Minds could grow. Life could be good. Potential could be realized without having to depend on support from some fat cat who only sees the dollar sign as a marker for success.

All the best to you and Ms Hayes.

Bill Bridges

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Hi Bob,

I started out writing songs and playing in garage bands in 1964 when I was 12 years old. I am now 60 years old, and 38 years later, I am finally having some success in music (not financially, though). I've put in at least 50,000 hours working on my songwriting (20 hrs/wk x 52 wks/yr x 48 yrs.)

I went to college for business, not music, so that I could get a job in the music business and get in a position to "sign" myself. I spent 4 years in college radio. I was at Woodstock, Fillmore East every weekend, coffee houses, blues clubs, etc.

After 100+ interviews with agents, managers, record labels, etc., I ended up in NJ at a "sounds a-like" mill - they had studio pros record note for note hits of the day and sold them on cassettes and 8-track. This was the armpit of the music business, but I was still paying my dues. I moved over to Sam Goody's as a management trainee to learn the retail music business - buying product, selling, merchandising, etc.

After a year, I went to Hong Kong for 2 years, writing/producing for local Asian bands in a state of the art studio. I had a hit song on the radio, and was on a local songwriting TV show in 1976.

By the time I was 24, I was in LA writing songs for Screen Gems., Back in NYC, I took songwriting courses, lyric writing courses, piano lessons, arranging lessons, etc. I was having songs recorded as disco tracks. The dollars earned couldn't pay my rent.

At 25, I got a sales job to support myself. I worked 10 hours a day, and spent every night and all weekends writing songs and recording demos in my $200/month studio apartment. I had no social life except for Sunday night song critique sessions with other songwriters.

At 35, I put music on hold to get married and raise a family. I still wrote late at night.

At 50, I became a piano tuner. Now 60, I tune for several top level recording studios in NYC. I am writing lyrics for beat tracks for some top producers, and have been in recording sessions for top acts, where as the oldest guy in the room, I was able to give input/advise/suggestions that were used in the final tracks, un-credited.

I'm "doing" music for the love of it. A track that I worked on (tuning the piano, co-producing) has just been released and is getting great reviews, radio play, streaming, etc. I'm not listed on the credits and I won't get paid (except for tuning the piano,) but that's okay - when I go to sleep at night, I am very, very happy.

Joe The Piano Tuner

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Hi Bob, thanks for sending these email replies through. I've been a professional musician for all of my working life, around 15 years to date.

But here's the thing, the majority of my income in that time has derived from private instrumental tuition (guitar) with gigs, book sales (I have 3 books) and album sales the "icing on the cake." These things are a bonus, a supplement to what you do, not the meat and potatoes. I recently bought my own home and I also have a family to support. So I'm not doing that bad, and in some ways I'm "successful" because I get to do what I love and at the end of the day, that's a great and rare gift to have.

The simple facts are that as a local gigging performer, you simply can't make enough coin to see you through the week, or the month. That's just how it is. Sure, if you can land a gig with a national touring artist, your income can skyrocket although that begs the question - how are you going to pay the bills when the tour winds up?

I recently made the switch into tertiary education and I see so many kids with stars in their eyes. I always make a point of asking them "what's the plan after you graduate from here - how are you going to make a living out of this?"

Most of them can't think further than the coming assessment task but I ask the question all the same. I strongly emphasise the teaching gig to them and make a point of stressing how difficult the industry is, that there are no free meal tickets, you have to create your own opportunities, any way that you can. It's really about being entrepreneurial in your work ethic, as much as it's about being good at what you do.

Cheers -

Bill Palmer

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Hi Bob -

Thanks for passing along the Bonnie Hayes e-mail. I graduated from Berklee 10 years ago and was faced with these same issues and concerns as her current students. Everything changed in the late 90s and there we all were hoping to simply stay afloat, degrees in hand. We knew things were in a serious state of flux, but we didn't exactly know just how bad it was.

The fact that the music industry was dying was the elephant in every Berklee classroom and recording studio and couldn't be and wouldn't be discussed by any of the staff. No one spoke of what was next after getting out of Berklee. We'd ask and all they told us were stories of when they got started in the 70s and how great it was to be alive and in the scene at the time. Fast forward 30 years and there we were, about to be released into a post-Napster, post-09/11, post home studio explosion world and yet there Berklee was, laughing all the way to the bank.

They have a dirty secret. They want 18 year old kids and parents to believe that they have the golden ticket. They want you to believe they are going to make your dreams come true. It's all bull shit. I never had my dreams (my realistic dreams anyway) set on being the next Beatles, but I did want to be a steady working professional. They get into your heads and toy with your emotions and when you're an 18 year old musician, that's all the armor you wear.

The fact of the matter is that Berklee is doing quite well. They have built a new campus in Spain AND are constructing a new, state of the art facility on Massachusetts Avenue across the street from the old 150 building. Not bad considering how horrible the music industry is doing. It makes me sick to my stomach every day.

I never expected to be given anything once I completed my degree at Berklee. I wanted to get out into the world, work hard, work my way up the proverbial ladder, and find a way to do the things I love to do while being able to survive in the world, putting a meal on my table every night and a roof over my head.

I worked hard and have managed to put a career together, but no thanks to Berklee. I read books. I met people. I did jobs I felt were below me knowing that it was just what I had to do to cut it. Berklee didn't help me and they aren't helping their kids now either. Ask any of the business students what they think of the Music Business program. It should be called "History of Music Business". If any of their staff had enough knowledge to teach kids how to work in the new music paradigm, don't you think they'd be out there doing it and making a fortune? They're not. They're teaching kids about radio programmers and having them do projects to put a band on the road with $1,000,000. What is this, 1986?

The recording program is just as bad being perpetually 5 years behind the curve. Everything is old from the gear right on down to the way they teach kids about how it's "really" done in the "biz". Kids STILL repeatedly talk about how they learn more from reading books not associated with the program than they did in most of their classes. You should get something from an education that expensive and the kids just aren't getting what they signed up for.

If I could tell current Berklee kids one thing or kids thinking about going I would say this: DON'T GO. Get out into the world and create and read and play and record and learn and do all the things you ever wanted to do because you have time on your side right now. You're young. You're hungry. You have a voice and you want it to be heard. You're not going to be heard sitting in a dorm room at an overpriced 4 year music camp where the mission is to simply attract new income, not turn out real musicians. Not anymore at least, but that's another discussion for another time. Berklee isn't going to get you a job or get you paid. You as a young musician, you're all about the desire and drive to make real, true music that speaks to a generation.

I'm 33 and still believe in song. I feel silly, but it's in me. What can I say?

Please don't publish my name if you want to post this.

Thanks for letting me vent Bob.

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Hey Bobby,

Love your stuff. Just thought I'd let you and your readers know that society is not just killing music it's killing all art including mine. I'm a painter. There were times like Renaissance Italy and turn of the century France where geniuses like me could make a living. But now I have the same forces conspiring against me as musicians do.

The consumer has completely devalued what I do. It used to be that people looked at paintings. Now they just hang them up and just have them hanging there in the background while their ADD selves go about doing other things like play video games go on Pinterest. And they think my stuff should be free! The same evil technology that hurts musicians is KILLING me. They can just download and print ANYTHING off the internet. Or if they have a friend who has one of my paintings they can just make copies. Dear God! If they can shut down Napster why isn't Shawn Kinko in jail!!!! And the technology has made it so that anybody can pick up a brush and paint. How is the consumer supposed to wade through all the garbage to find my masterpieces in one of those giant shows we book at the airport Holiday Inn?

I just can't afford to do this anymore. Everything costs so much. Remember when TV was free and the home phone was just a couple of bucks? Now those corporations are gauging me for over $300 a month!! Do you know how many "Dogs Playing Poker" I have to sell to make that! I know I could give up cable and my unlimited data plan, but have you ever tried to go a month without watching "Lingo" on the Game Show Network or tried driving around without being able to read Blake Shelton's latest tweet while you're stuck in traffic? Van Gogh would have cut off his ear first! (too soon?)

All of the old opportunities for making a living are gone. Back in the day, the church would have commissioned me to do some work because they appreciated art and wanted to support it. I contacted the Vatican and they said they finished decorating 400 years ago. Now what do I do? There also used to be rich people who would be patrons and sponsor great artists. But I've called everyone from the last two PowerBall winners to Scott Borchetta and nobody is willing to pony up. Damn 1%!!!!!!

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with Bonnie's letter and your and everyone else's take on these matters. I've had lots of advice like, "Use social media" "Paint because you love it" and "Take art lessons and practice because you suck" but I think I'm just going to give it up and maybe teach. And yet another genius will go unnoticed by the world....

Matthew O'Brien
Nashville

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When did the spelling of Berkley change?

Alberto Rivera


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