My hobby outside of music/studio life is hockey... this is pretty clear once you get to know me. I love to talk about it and happy I'm surrounded by people who either share in the joy of adult rec sports or humor me by listening and asking... it is now (summer) playoffs after all!
I don't message (spam) people with Facebook invites about my games. I don't invite (spam) people to like my team(s) Facebook pages. I don't worry about how many Twitter followers my team(s) have so people take it seriously. I don't daydream about how to play for a living. I don't complain about how expensive it is. It's my hobby. It's for fun. I love it. If I was running my hockey career as a business (attempt at a form of income) though... it's considered a money pit. The topic came up recently, yet again, about bands and budgeting... and it got me thinking. Here's the quick math on how much I spent the last year to play hockey: Winter Team 1 - $600 Team 2 - $600 Team 3 - $400 Summer Team 1 - $500 Team 2 - $500 =========== TOTAL $2,600 *This is obviously excluding things like sticks, repairs, new gear, skate sharpenings, etc. It really does add up though! So easy math, over an entire year, I spent about $50/week ($2,600/52 weeks) on hockey, my hobby... which I love. Feel free to do the math on what entire teams cost... but think about how much money that $50/week could mean to a band of 3-5 people. People who apparently love their band. 3 X $2,600 = $7,800 4 X $2,600 = $10,400 5 X $2,600 = $13,000 Now if you're in a band for fun, this might comes as a bit of a shock, especially if you've never really sat down and figured out how much being in a band actually costs you, even just for fun... or more importantly, how much money $50/week could've raised for recording, touring, merch, etc, if you're somewhat serious and career minded. Something to keep in mind... if you're running your band as a business, this is money invested... not simply money spent... and these numbers are still quite low for career minded bands... plus it normally takes a few years to get things off the ground. There's a great book called The Indie Band Bible (written by Mark Makoway of Moist) which has this golden advice under a "band tax". The cost to be in the band. Bands cost money, businesses cost money, and you need money to get them rolling and keep them going. If you find a way to pool money in some way (in advance), you won't run into what I think is a common (amateur) mental roadblock of "we can't afford that"... without actually thinking more importantly (professionally) "is that worth it?" What do you spend your $50/week on? That's what your priorities are. ... and this gets factored in when negotiating budgets of any sort. ... and the same applies to how you spend your time as well. ... maybe some day I'll share with everyone how much I've invested in my business in order to turn making music into a living. It's pretty obvious that's where my priorities are if you look over my balance sheet... and I'm glad I wasn't afraid to run my business in the red the first few years. - Mike P.S. Huge 3-1 win the other night by the way. :-)
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Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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