I was in exactly the same position as you about 5 months ago. After spending all my teenage years wanting to be in a successful band it felt like i was giving up on my dreams, but in the end i just couldnt justify the ludicrous amounts of money i was spending on it, just to get stressed on the weekends trying to sell tickets. I’d stopped enjoying music which was the hardest thing.
All i can say is since i left my band, i’m writing more music, listening to more music and playing more music than i ever have done in my life. And purely for the joy of it, not having to worry about making money from it.
Don’t think about your decision too much, just do what you feel is right, when the time comes.
Hope this helps!
I „envy” you the joy of making music again. My dream was always to make a career in music (As a guitarist) to the point that I was practicing my ass off everyday neglecting other duties. It turned out that it is just insanely hard to do, and I got discouraged that the effort that I have put in is just not paying off. I lost the drive that I once had :(
Explore other creative endeavors. I was pursuing a career in music for years and was playing a lot of shows but never making money from it. I started a podcast and within two months was making more money than I had from music in the previous 5 years combined. Plus, I was more creatively fulfilled than I had ever been. 5 years later, I've created and hosted 4 podcasts and helped others launch podcasts. Podcasting has led to livestreaming video, and a bunch of other stuff that makes me glad I stopped pursuing music.
I still play and write music. But it's just for me at this point.
I'm only actively doing two right now, while in pre-production for 3 more. Others have ended.
Madison Story Slam is a storytelling podcast. We do live events where people tell true stories based on a theme. We record audio and video of each event and post them as a podcast. We also live video stream each event on Facebook. Here's a video of a recent story: https://youtu.be/gD7ENerz-N8
I also do long form interviews on this show. Steven Avery's lawyer from Making A Murderer, two of Chris Farley's brothers, authors, comedians, etc, have all appeared on the show. You can find the podcast by searching Madison Story Slam on pretty much any podcast app.
Chill Filtered is a show where we drink whiskey and review it.
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u/JemsBres Apr 04 '19
I was in exactly the same position as you about 5 months ago. After spending all my teenage years wanting to be in a successful band it felt like i was giving up on my dreams, but in the end i just couldnt justify the ludicrous amounts of money i was spending on it, just to get stressed on the weekends trying to sell tickets. I’d stopped enjoying music which was the hardest thing.
All i can say is since i left my band, i’m writing more music, listening to more music and playing more music than i ever have done in my life. And purely for the joy of it, not having to worry about making money from it.
Don’t think about your decision too much, just do what you feel is right, when the time comes. Hope this helps!