[AnthonyNagid]

Something that I don't think is addressed enough is how a well practiced and versatile musician can make a living through their immediate community. It could still involve secondary income from the music industry as supplement to a healthy primary income provided by the synergy between them and their community. I can elaborate but I'll wait to see if anyone else finds this interesting.

[duderific]

> how a well practiced and versatile musician can make a living through their immediate community

There are so many barriers to this.

They need a venue at which to perform regularly, which helps somewhat to promote their performance. These are becoming few and far between. They are not likely to make much money for said performances (of course this depends on the size of the venue and the following they've managed to develop.)

Forgot about making any money selling recordings. People expect music to be free nowadays. The days of selling $10 cd's at your show are pretty much over. Maybe if you cater to an older crowd that isn't hip to the streaming/Youtube culture you can sell a few cd's here and there but certainly nowhere near enough to support yourself.

So... the "healthy primary income" you describe would be nearly impossible to achieve in today's environment. Most local musicians need to supplement their income working other jobs such as barista, Uber driver etc.

[AnthonyNagid]

please see my reply to nickknw below, I think some of that is relevant to what you just said and I'd be curious what you think of it.

[nickknw]

> healthy primary income provided by the synergy between them and their community

Definitely interested in this.

[AnthonyNagid]

As a pianist the key here would be musical versatility, there is a lot of work but it is spread across musical domains.

The musical skills might include reading literacy, proficiency in improvisational idioms and the ability to teach these things.

The more difficult realm might be establishing a working band of professionals, per individual the professional attitude would be worth more than sheer musical skill. Professionaly minded people working together can build skills that will eventually surpass what an individual can bring alone.

Networking is important, there's lots of ways to engage with your immediate community and it has always helped me to reach across as many professional aisles as I can. How many high functioning professional musicians do you think the average person knows? You should be one of them for the people close to you.

EDIT: I'd like to add venue versatility. Most discussion seems to be around entertainment venues but what about educational, accompaniment, theathrical, ceremonial, religious (I do not personally partake in this).

[duderific]

As something like a solo pianist, I would say you might be able to scratch out a living using all the various outlets you described -- teaching being primary among them as far as ways to generate income.