While things like the internet and affordable home recording have made it easier for good bands to get the music they make to the masses, it has also allowed really, really bad bands to do the same…and as we all know, there are way more bad bands than good. There are so many damn “bands” in any given style now that not even the most diehard of fans could try them all out. Bands are popping out of the woodwork with indecipherable vocals (and sometimes indecipherable music complete with indecipherable logo) with 17-word names and clogging up the damn internet. The same could be said for Power Metal bands, Prog Metal bands, Opeth clones, tattoo/piercing shops, bedroom “labels” and garage “studios”…they are literally everywhere. Suddenly, anyone with a badly written, 2-minute “song” and a MySpace page is a “band” complete with shirts, stickers and the indecipherable logo.

Someone once said having options was a good thing. But that person wasn’t wading through thousands of “bands” online all playing the same kind of music. How did all these bands even pop up so quickly and seemingly simultaneously? One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of these bands is there still seems to be this mentality of “we need to book shows to make money” or “we need t-shirts to sell to make money” or “this guy is going to record our demo for us so we can sell it and start making money”. They still think they can start a band in the garage, while still in high school, and parlay that into a job complete with cars, houses and health benefits. Then, when it doesn’t happen, they jump on the bandwagon of “man, downloading is killing our band…we can’t make any money selling our CD…” I know, I know…downloading is stealing. That’s not my point. My point is that any observant individual can point to several reasons why your “band” isn’t making money and I promise you downloading isn’t one of them.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a living playing music. It’s just not likely to happen. Ideally, I think an artist should be afforded the opportunity to make a living making music, if that’s what they choose to pursue. But, not everyone can make a living as an accountant or a plumber or an exterminator either if there’s too much competition and not enough money. Nobody in their right mind will look in the phone book, see 10 different pest control companies in their immediate area and say “I’m going to start an pest control company”…it’s just not a sound business decision (and yes, once you start using “band” and “money” in the same sentence, art has been overtaken by business). Especially if they’re just going to start an identical, run of the mill pest control company like the 10 that already exist (see the similarity?). A new band has to be the BEST it possibly can, not try to be like the 10 most popualr bands, or not bother because everyone else is happy with what they have already. Just in Metal alone, for every Opeth or Metallica, there are literally thousands of bands the world over wondering why the bucks aren’t rolling in. They wonder why they’re working so hard only to sell no CD’s and play to 17 people at the bowling alley. They wonder why their label, Mom’s Evil Basement Records, doesn’t front them “tour support”. Even cover bands are this way. When one cover band gets 8 shows a month, at $1500 a show playing Hair Band covers, within the month 8 more will appear out of thin air (with logo, t-shirts, stickers, etc) all competing for the same venues until they all get pissed and break up and wind up with a garage full of merch. There’s just no room.

It takes, IMO, an abnormally optimistic mindset to look at the internet, see the amount of labels & bands in the world and say “I’m going to start a band and make a living at it.” God bless the dreamers, and anyone with a dream has every right to, and should, peruse it. But there has to be a sense of reality as well. There are thousands of other bands playing the same style of music all reaching for the same cup…some of them aren’t going to even get close to it let alone be able to take a sip. And those who do manage to score a real label deal (by “real” in Metal, I mean Metal Blade, Century Media, Relapse, etc) and get a good sounding album and on a decent tour as part of a 5-band bill where they play at 4 in the afternoon on a Tuesday still wonder why they’re still being “paid” in pizza & beer. They, again, will resort to the same excuses as to why this is happening (usually starting with downloading, going on to their label, then the band(s) they’re opening for, and on down the line).

The sad fact is that being in a band doesn’t automatically earn someone the right to make a living at it any more than knowing how to fix a car earns you the right to make a living being a mechanic. Why are people with master’s degree’s waiting tables? Because there aren’t enough slots to be filled and not enough money to pay them all…and that’s the same reason there are guitarists working at Chik-Fil-A. Whether good or bad, there are too many musicians starting too many bands and recording for too many labels all aiming at the same target…that target is simply not big enough to hold all the darts being thrown at it. Music fans have limited time, limited attention and most of all limited money and there’s just not enough to go around.

So, if you’re in a band, good for you. Write songs, make demos, have fun at it. Live your dreams to your heart’s content. Play Poison covers for drunks at the local watering hole if you want. Have your buddy draw you an indecipherale logo while your girlfriend organizes the street team. Re-record your song 1000 times on GarageBand and add MySpace friends until your clicking finger bleeds. Just don’t go into it thinking that you somehow “deserve” to get paid for it…you’ll end up very disappointed.