What Music Are You Making??? Options

[b-hamcomposer]

Okay everybody, I admit I am one of the worst gearheads I know. I spend hours researching new equipement and software when I could be making music instead. After a recent gear blitz I have realized that I am better at research gear than sitting down to compose, as usually happens in certain cycles. Anyways, I'm interested in what music people are working on.

A. Do you do mostly recording, sequencing/composition, or sound design

B. Where are you on the hobbyist-professional line?

C. Do you make money from your music? How and how much?(optional) enough to pay for all the crap you buy?

D. What do you hope to do in the future?

I know this one has probably been done before but this is really what I'm wondering right now.

Eager to hear your responses,

Chris

[fictionmusic]

A; sequencing/composition mixed with sound design


B: Professional. Any ideas on how to get there?...find a video (film) production company to allay with. I originally was recommennded to a music consultant by an engineer who played drums in a band I was in. I studied orchestration and arranging, but also programmed synths and played jazz and grungey rock on guitar and bass. When the consultant knew I was versatile I started working on a few cues here and there. He liked my work ethic as much as anything else and I began working a lot. He recommended me to a video production company, and although I do work for other clients as well, by far the bulk of my work is for the video lads. They have a variety of different projects (TV and corporate) and I usually score them. (at one point I was doing all of them but almost killed myself trying to be all things to all people).
If you want film work these days I advise writing modern sounding songs with descriptive lyrics. Most of the film scoring work is handled by music supervisors who try to match the lyrics of contemporary pop stuff with the dramatic action. The old-fashioned orchestral score is becoming more and more rare (with some notable exceptions)


C: Yes I make money from my music. How much depends on a number of factors but I've ranged from $6000.00 one year to 1 little under 100,000.00 in others. All my gear is paid for and by composing, performing.

D: I peaked money-wise in 2000 but have decided to concentrate more on badly-paying classical stuff. (far more fulfilling) I have always written string quartets and symphonic stuff and recently have been having some moderate success at getting them staged. As well I write rockier stuff and have just started getting them placed on TV.

go to http://www.fictionmusic.tv to see what I mean.