If a working musician is really good... they'll have a ton of gigs or music performances in their lifetime, even thousands, especially when they're in their 20's, 30's and 40's and even up into their 50's or 60's, but they will also most likely be teaching students in some form. Whether it's at a school music dept., a College, or private lessons. There's a real possibility they'll also have a day job of some kind, say, bus driver, or website builder, or a computer graphics designer, or maybe on staff part time at a church playing every weekend.
If They're REALLY good and get lucky, they may be in a band that's touring and playing gigs in front of a lot of people and be fairly well paid for it, at least for awhile, but even those musicians have to find some sort of work when the Rock and Roll tour ends for the season and they're back home for 4 months.
Even those who get very lucky and land those coveted touring gigs where you're traveling all over the country (and out of the Country) those situations don't last forever...a player may have a touring job with a well known artist or band for maybe 4-6 years unless you're playing for the Rolling Stones, but even those touring situations end at some point...
Then the Band breaks up, or the artist that writes most of the songs gets a big head and breaks up the band and moves to Nashville or L.A. to be a rock star with no notice, and you are left floundering trying to find work...Or 2 members of the band can't get along and decide they want to do their own thing and so the band breaks up, and there goes the touring gigs with an almost steady paycheck coming in but not quite...
Most musicians don't reach that stage where they get hired by or help found a nationally known band that's doing arena rock gigs, and they'll most likely play thousands of gigs in local situations for several different bands in the same city. These high quality musicians will most assuredly have a teaching job of some sort, a private teaching studio, or some sort of day job as well as performing hundreds of gigs at corporate parties, weddings, clubs, bars, and social events such as summer in the park concerts locally every year.
Many of these musicians may have a steady church gig of some sort that pays them (If they're lucky) that they do after playing a couple late night shows locally in their town, and they will do this week in and week out for many years or even decades, while raising a family performing late night gigs until midnight or 1 am, then playing at church having to be there at 7:00 am (I did this for 20 years myself)
Even Bach had steady Church gigs...
If a musician is exceptionally good, they may make a partial living by playing on other people's records, or by running a recording studio themselves, where other artists pay them to use their recording studio. However, to do that you have to purchase a lot of very expensive professional recording equipment. and keep it updated constantly which is very costly...
In today's digital online virtual world some musicians make money uploading videos and their songs to streaming sites or huge video sites like YouTube. I myself do this and have hundreds of videos on YouTube...But these digital upload sites pay pennies, and I mean pennies for thousands of views or streams...
Some musicians land what's called a steady gig at a resort, restaurant, club, amusement park, or posh hotel where they'll stay employed for perhaps a few years and it will provide a decent living for that few years. But even those players may have to have a second job of some kind especially if they're married and have kids.
There are highly trained musicians that land long time gigs in symphonies or orchestras in the largest cities or for touring shows that come through big cities, but only the best of the best get hired for those big city symphony jobs and they are extremely competitive and not easy to land. Even those highly trained and world class symphony players may have to have a teaching gig or a private studio, or online private lessons to pay rent in expensive big cities like New York or Chicago.
Those who compose music for Movies and TV shows are well paid if they're for network TV shows or large scale Films otherwise the pay may be meager for second rate films.
The reason I'm telling you all this is because a lot of people have no idea how a musician makes a living, and there are some today who think musicians should just play music for free because they download and stream music all day for free or pennies, so why should I have to pay a band or musician anything?
Yes, I've talked to those types over the last 20 years, thankfully most people are not that clueless, but please remember this what I've typed here the next time you want a band or a musician for your company event, party, wedding or social gathering. Thanks.
I'm Just the sax player...
