How "profitable" is it to work as a musician?

[evilB]

Thanks Ivan & Bellini. I had to re-work that post a few times as this is a subject close to my heart.

[SteveO]

Perhaps if you're out there Ivan, some record exec or a member of another aspiring band may scoop you up ?

As with everything else in life you need to find a balance. No job or career path is perfect there will be parts that are not to your liking as well as the other parts make it worthwhile. A career solely in music is not always a realistic goal not because you don't have the drive or the talent but because of the economics. Will there be enough gigs? Can you teach enough students? Do you have enough ensembles to keep playing regularly? Do you have enough connections to get the next gig? Will you schlep your own equipment to and from the gig? How well do you play under preassure? Can you work well and play well with others?

Where I live the predominant live music opportunities are for Country gigs. If I chose not to play country I would not have had more than a half dozen opportunites a year - obviously not a great way to pay sthe bills if I wanted to make music my living. So I took the gigs - Country, Jazz, Orchestral, Old-Time Dance, Dixieland, Marching Band, Pit Orchestra, Folk, Punk, Metal and more. I also taught students private lessons - which provided regular income when others did not. This did pay the bills but only just. I had a great time working full-time but it was not for me in the long run.

As you eluded to in your first post you WILL end up playing music that is not the most inspiring. You WILL play other people's music that you do not have a personal or artistic connection with. Does that mean you shouldn't learn from that playing opportunity? One of my mentors said to me "whatever you play, play it as well as you can and take something from it that will make you a better player for playing it" - he was talking about a performance situation but he also added that it could be for a learning or teaching situation as well. Follow your heart but not blindly - make sure you can eat and also look at yourself in the mirror and say yes I am doing what I want and need to do.

[Mrrusty1]

To me playing is a hobby that I love but it wont pay the bills so I wont quit the day job lol.. but in my spare time I play music that I love and that makes me happy ..

By profitable I might mean how fulfilling...
If you work some good couple of hours a day as an employee, teacher, etc but you've studied music professionally, how uplifting is it to work as a musician for someone whose music you find pretty boring, anodyne or even disgusting? Is it worth the effort? Does it teach you anything?
I've been slaving away at the job, at times feeling a tad frustrated 'cos I can't strike the balance at times (work/music) but now I've been working (playing) for a pop singer whose 1st album has just come out. Of course she's not well-known but she's playing alive pretty often. But I'm getting a bit fed up with it. Should I take the plunge and go on with this, that is, is this fruitful and I'm not aware of it, or should I use my free time to play music I like, record, play with my band etc etc?
Thanks in advance for the advice!