[jdietrich]

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat?

Recording an album in your bedroom is almost always a cop-out. It's a way of being able to tell yourself that you tried to have a career in music, without taking any real emotional risk or doing any real work. It's a way of "getting your music out there" that doesn't require the courage to stand up in front of a bar full of strangers and play it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Musicians with internet-based careers are still absolutely the exception rather than the rule, they're still a rare aberration.

If you want to be in a rock and roll band, then be in a rock and roll band. Don't buy yourself a bunch of recording equipment, buy a rusted-up old Econoline. Don't overdub your guitar tracks onto a drum machine, put up a flyer in your local music shop and find a drummer. Take whatever crappy gigs you can get and hustle like a mofo. At the very least, you'll end up with far better anecdotes.

[rdouble]

Actually his advice is a pretty good start and yours is terrible. You don't get to the $69 arena concerts or even the festival circuit by doing smaller gigs, you get there by having videos on YouTube that get popular. Small gigs at bars are a waste of time. Even at the small venues that aren't a complete waste of time you still need an Internet presence to get booked.

[bigdubs]

Very easy to say, "Work hard, don't take the easier path, it'll be more rewarding ultimately."

Much harder to actually do. The number of people picking up instruments and really learning how to play vs. cranking through a fruity loops tutorial so they can do minor alteration remixes isn't surprising.

Yes, this is good advice. Will anyone really follow it / see the wisdom in it? Debatable.

[jdietrich]

To quote the great Ronnie Coleman:

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but ain't nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weight."

[hukl]

Well you can definitely do all that stuff which I would file under my promote yourself and think for yourself section. But these days the labels got so desperate that the will only give out contracts that grant them shares of all revenues - even concerts, merchandise and all the other things. In the good old days you always had certain money streams which you could keep for yourself - thats pretty much over now.

[scarecrowbob]

This is excellent advice all around. As far as learning goes, a couple of bad gigs will teach you far more about music than months of jacking around with a computer.