How realistic/sustainable is it to survive in the music industry

If by survive you mean make enough money then only hip hop and electronic artists can do so currently

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>>73452827
Youtube is a safe bet, if you can sustain a decent patreon with good rewards, and you are willing to work day in and day out for it.
I don't think you have the talent for that, though

>>73453106
:(

>>73453106
why is it so easy to say mean things to strangers over the internet?

>>73453231
That's not his point, don't be a baby
Name one non-hip hop or electronic act in the music industry that's been successful without signing to a label and isn't named Dan Barrett

Pretty sure the smartest thing to do is get a label that is honest and if that's hard hire lawyers to find one for you, and send them your demos

Sufjan never signed to a label, founded his own
He's one of the most famous musicians ever

>>73452827
just sign to an indie label

>>73453555
Chance the rapper

>>73453640
.......
hes hip hop

https://youtu.be/8ITMLbZRH0Y
https://youtu.be/qGY8auyDEhI

>>73453640
Ha

>>73453618
At this point indie labels are either useless or indistinguishable from major labels desu

>>73453600
Sufjan founded his own label in 1999. That's different than founding your own label in 2017. The landscape has changed and Bandcamp and Soundcloud have made it so that unless you either have the benefit of a label pushing you or you're REALLY good at marketing/spreading your music (hi Will) then you won't get anywhere

Write great music worth sharing, learn fun covers, get a van and play anywhere for anything. Print t-shirts and record an EP for the merch table, give some away. Might as well network in Facebook, YouTube, and Bandcamp too. Ever heard of Distrikid?
Enjoy what you do and others will too. If your brand catches on, then terrific. If it doesn't, you will still have built some precious memories.

>>73452827
If its good shill and promote on yt as much as you can

>>73453106
Not how music works retard he can't pump out a fucking album every week. + out of the 0.01% of people who make it on youtube doing music are musicians playing a "Crazy 20 string guitar" or playing a playing with one string lmao. If you want to be taken seriously youtube is defiantly not the place

You basically either:
Have to be insanely talented and make genuinely amazing, unoique music, and pick up plenty of critical acclaim (highly unlikely sorry)

Or be a brilliant marketer and work everyday to get your name out there
That's really all you can do now

>>73453600

Sufjen who

>>73452827
Just make like 5 albums on band camp and play a couple shows then "retire" and go back to a normal job, if they're good enough within three years hipsters will claim you hot shit and you'll get on all the "most underrated albums" lists, which is all that really matters

>>73454151
he wrote that song that goes "mommy died now I'm sad"
actually, he wrote 11 songs like that

Just be attractive and make music that indie girls will like and then you can be as big as the 1975
From there you can then go on to make the music you actually want to make since you will already have a fanbase

>>73452827
you could play local shows its just as fun and just do it as a hobby and not care about money

>>73454189

white people music is gay

>>73453600
He's not the only one; history is fucking full of bands starting their own labels and succeeding independently, even before it got fucking easier with the advent of the internet. The OP is just wildly ignorant of what he speaks.

>>73454857
he's talking about now you fuckhole. labels are basically completely irrelevant. it's all about your PR firm. if you have industry connections to the media channels music is consumed over, and can get your name in front of millions of eyeballs, you will become a famous musician.

of course, labels used to fund this type of marketing. in an internet age, however, your stock isn't your sales, but your views/clicks/fans etc.

chance is the archetype of the post-label industry landscape