What do you think the future has in store for working musicians?

[Tupac]

Will their job get valued more because less people are learning how to play, or will they get devalued because of lack of demand?

[NWB]

Neither.

They'll be replaced by samplers/sequencers.

[maxrathburn]

yeah...i would see less people playing instruments and more music coming from computers. With exceptions of course...hopefully nothing gets too bad.

[Richland123]

What do you think the future has in store for working musicians?

Unemployment

Seriously, the live music scene is in bad shape no matter what type of music somebody is performing.

[kevteop]

You have to be really good to make a living from it now. And you have to teach.

[mjac28]

I disagree music is also very visual and watching real musicians perform with their instruments is part of the magic. I remember back in the 70's when disco was supposed to kill Rock and Roll and again in the 80's with nuwave and electronic music was taking over as long as each of us has a bass in our hands real music is here to stay and real musicians will be working .

[boristhespider9]

Being a "working musician" has NEVER been a great way to earn a living unless you are a real rock (or other genre) star or a legit theater/pit/union player.

I think there are more kids than ever playing instruments now and the teaching tools are so much better than they were before. Interest in live music is not going away.

Nostalgia about the good ole' days of working musicians does not have a real factual basis. And, if anything, the culprit is the increased cost of living and everything else, not that the "big cash flow" from being a gigging musician has dried up.

[DeathFromBelow]

Originally Posted by NWB

Neither.

They'll be replaced by samplers/sequencers.

Originally Posted by maxrathburn

yeah...i would see less people playing instruments and more music coming from computers. With exceptions of course...hopefully nothing gets too bad.

This is pretty much what people said when synths were introduced in what, the sixties (not to mention the eighties when synths became both affordable and smaller)?
Walk in to a music store some fifty years later and basses, guitars and drums still outnumber synths by a large margin.
I'm not worried.

[topo morto]

Back to the good old days where everyone was musical and you'd all get round in a circle after a day's work with friends and family. "Daddy sang bass..."

[DagoMaino]

There will always be a place for live performance musicianship. I think this generation will likely be the death of some of the "rockstar" appeal to playing, but it might be a good thing if some of the false pretenses thin out the overwhelming pool of half-hearted players and "hack" bands.

Each generation will also bring with it the evolution of general music tastes. Jazz and classical will always have a niche, but the next generation will likely be less attached, especially with school programs being cut... But I think we will see a lot of innovative technology and technique come from the next generation as well because of the ability to explore infinite musical stylings via the web...

Like all evolution: some good, some bad, some different....

[NWB]

Originally Posted by DeathFromBelow

This is pretty much what people said when synths were introduced in what, the sixties (not to mention the eighties when synths became both affordable and smaller)?
Walk in to a music store some fifty years later and basses, guitars and drums still outnumber synths by a large margin.
I'm not worried.

Except that samples now sound so similar to those basses, drums, and guitars that you'd be hard-presed to tell the difference on a recording. Lots of technology advances since the 80's.

[DeathFromBelow]

Originally Posted by NWB

Except that samples now sound so similar to those basses, drums, and guitars that you'd be hard-presed to tell the difference on a recording. Lots of technology advances since the 80's.

Yep, no doubt but I'm still not worried.
Live Music won't disappear in any of our lifetimes , atleast if you look outside of pop-music wich I have no interest in anyway.
Of that I'm certain.

[BryanM]

When I was applying to colleges I auditioned at Duquesne University here in Pittsburgh for jazz guitar. The department head asked what aspect of music I was most interested in and I told him performance. He next asked what my other passions and potential majors were and I told him I was very into mathematics. His response was to leave his office and go over to the mathematics department head even though I passed the audition because if he accepted me I'd be paying $140,000 for an education that can be overshadowed by the press of a button. I'm not saying he was right and I didn't end up going to Duquesne but I did go to school for mathematics and I make a lot more than any friends I know who went to school for music, plus I still do get to perform just as much as them and probably know nearly as much if not more about theory, performance and composition.

[ArtechnikA]

If you go by what's on TV, 'Live Music' means a singing contest.

When I was growing up (cue crotchety-voice curmudgeon saying 'In My Day...') we had Leonard Bernstein conducting the symphony, Ed Sullivan with the flavor of the day, Ted Mack's Amateur Hour and more under the guise of 'variety' programming.

We try to get out to see live music when we can but It's Really Expensive! (IIRC, B.B. King was $75 a seat. There's a jazz festival every year with lower pricing - and an hour drive time each way... At most of the shows we attend the crowd starts at 40.

Maybe the teeny pop stars are filling stadiums but I don't see many kids at live-music venues. Those I see are usually looking bored and texting...

For the most part, the people I'd pay to see are in their 60's or older. They won't be around forever. Who is replacing them? And who will be paying to see the replacements?

I have no answers...

[Slough Feg Bass]

I dunno about where you people live, but in the SF Bay Area, there is a LOT of live music going on.

Only thing I can say is that many things are still the same, i.e., you have to work HARD to make a living playing music, and you have to practice and have a show.

One thing I see kids are NOT doing these days, is putting on a show. they just stand there and play their music, with no facial expressions, very little interaction with the crowds, no visuals. People want to be entertained, and if the songs are there, the playing is done well, and you can make them see & hear the music, then playing live will be and OK way to make a living.

the downfall is, once you start, you can't stop, or the cash flow stops. But then again, it's been like that in this business since the beginning!

[kdogg]

Originally Posted by BryanM

When I was applying to colleges I auditioned at Duquesne University here in Pittsburgh for jazz guitar. The department head asked what aspect of music I was most interested in and I told him performance. He next asked what my other passions and potential majors were and I told him I was very into mathematics. His response was to leave his office and go over to the mathematics department head even though I passed the audition because if he accepted me I'd be paying $140,000 for an education that can be overshadowed by the press of a button.

That, or maybe the audition didn't go as well as you thought?

[ArtechnikA]

Originally Posted by Slough Feg Bass

I dunno about where you people live, but in the SF Bay Area, there is a LOT of live music going on.

You are correct - I don't live there.
Been there a lot of times tho.
For the future, one thing San Francisco has going for it that a LOT of other places don't is decent public transportation. Fewer and fewer young people have any interest in driving anywhere.

There is some public transportation in Philadelphia (my nearest 'big city') but I've never used it, because it just hasn't been an option for any place I've needed to go from where I am. There is decent live music in Philadeplhia, especially jazz. But unlike San Francisco, Philly streets were laid out 350 years ago, and many are barely wide enough for two horse-drawn carriages. Nevermind parking, in the event you're bringing your carriage in from the suburbs. And downtown Philly frankly makes me nervous although I've not yet had any bad experiences there. Generally it is a place to avoid, IMO. We've been to some local acoustic shows that have been underwhelming. And you're not getting tomorrow's generation into bars today...

[DaDrew2112]

As the amount of musicians increases, so will the amount of competition. The future is bright for the 1% most talented/hardworking. It's bleak for the rest.

[ArtechnikA]

Originally Posted by DaDrew2112

As the amount of musicians increases, so will the amount of competition. The future is bright for the 1% most talented/hardworking. It's bleak for the rest.

It's the same with a lot of fields. There's probably 1000 PGA 'golf pro's.' Maybe 10 make a living on the tournament tour. (that 1%). I've heard it said that golf is arguably harder than brain surgery, because you can actually learn brain surgery...

And race drivers. And other professional athletes - all of which I lump together because they are nominally professions we pay to see perform.

Theoretically, as the number of musicians increase, so does the size of the audience pool.

Which raises an important distinction in the context of the original question: If you are a musician, is it important to you to actually make a living performing live music before a paying crowd? Or could you re-cast success as making a living making music sold on the Internet via Amazon, iTunes, or some other online music distribution mechanism?

There are several notable "bands" that were never really bands at all - they were musical artists that sold records (e.g. Steely Dan, Boston, Alan Parsons Project...)

It used to take a huge capitalization to record and distribute records. Now they can be recorded, mixed, and mastered on PC's and uploaded to the Cloud for commercial distribution. You may never sell out the Hollywood Bowl but you might make a living... And if you do get radio airplay, there's a small but fairly regular income stream.

[Lee H]

I think at some point there will be a rebound, for live music. As previously mentioned, the end of rock has been predicted numerous times... yet on earlier this week, my daughter's school music program had their spring concert. There was a sixth grade student who had written a little "diddy" for the band, and an eighth grade student who performed two original songs, singing and playing acoustic guitar.
These are the same kids listening to music that comes from computers, but adding traditional instruments. I think the electronic music can be just another layer in what the future of music has in store for us