Is it possible to make a living in your country as a Composer, Mixing Engineer or Producer?

Hi there, I am from a nice 3rd world country called Argentina, where is almost impossible to make a living as a Composer, Mixing Engineer and Producer.I believe that 1 person out 20 can achieve that.

I’ve been very lucky because I entered envato many years ago and with that and my regular job I was able to live the dream, for at least 3 years. But this last couple of years my country went downhills and Audiojungle sales too.

So I was wondering…

tl;dr Is it possible to make a living in your country as a Composer, Mixing Engineer or Producer?

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I’m from Indonesia and same as you, my main income is royalty free music markets.
It’s hard to make a living from music except doing post production things. Mixing engineer, producer, etc are not considered as main job here. People usually don’t want to pay enough for living except you are already established and well known musician.

My hometown minimum payment for any job was very low, around $120 a month. I better doing AJ than working 8-5 here. :stuck_out_tongue:

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That is a hard minimum wage. you need at least 6 times more to live here, $600 is the minimum . When things in your country are bad, the last thing that people want to do is expend money on entertainment or related stuff.
Thanks for the insight!

I’m sure that you still get more than that from AJ earnings :stuck_out_tongue:

But yeah with that minimum wage, you will need at least $1200 a month from AJ plus regular job wages to have a nice living there.

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I can totally relate to those numbers :slight_smile: It would be a perfect world, a place were music composers and engineers can get a fine job without having contacts or being the son or cousin of a recording study owner :sweat_smile:

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I´m from Spain, only deserve if you are this producer/composer… :rofl:

https://youtu.be/anzzNp8HlVQ

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:scream::crazy_face::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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JAJAJAJAAJAJAjaa

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jajajaja I Remember de Tengo un Tractor Amarillo!
How is it like over there? You know, Argentinos really like moving to España :wink:
But how is it for beatmakers, movie composers or just engineers? Looks tough

Enhorabuena, gracias por tu respuesta!

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I hope that tractor is out of fuel for years, please …: joy :: rofl:

Well, i live in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Here the market is small, maybe too much for my style of music, even not too much places to play live.
Except if you play on a Salsa band …
I know some people they can get a life with this, but not so much as fingers in my hands. And i’m been walking around this market for many years.

I got a friend, maybe a crazy friend, who opened a label some years ago.
Some of my bands are here and a lot of friends too. :slight_smile:
If somebody want to take a walk …
https://elhombrebalarecords.bandcamp.com/

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Thanks for the feedback :grin:

Thought it was a band (listened weeird) , now realized is a label
Checking it rn!

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With this label we released a “best of”. But i helped to record, play some instruments and other things with other bands

I really enjoyed to be in this band.

PD; I´m the bass player!

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I like it! Eraserhead :slight_smile:

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Lots of people make a living composing, mixing and/or producing music in every country. The question is how many in each country and how difficult is it to do so. I live in America, and it is EXTREMELY difficult to earn a living from this even if you have excellent skills. The average person has to do way more than just one thing in music to survive, and often at the low end of the scale. I would say perhaps 1 in 100,000 people who try succeed and their earnings are relatively low compared to someone with a more stable career choice.

This is because the cost of living here is very high compared to the income you can make from music. I live in a very expensive state here in the US. My monthly rent is higher than the yearly salary of most people in Eastern Europe who are not musicians and work regular jobs… and that doesn’t include my food, car, utilities, etc… Our salaries are a lot more here, but it doesn’t go as far.

One thing is for sure, and that is that income potential everywhere is decreasing because of market overload and the changing nature of the music business caused by the continuing rise of the internet. Watch this recent video from Christian Henson in the UK, another expensive country. He is one of the owners of sample library makers Spitfire Audio. Basically, it explains a serious issue that affects all of us in a negative way and could be devastating in the near future.

Here’s another one from American musician Rick Beato, who has had hit records as a songwriter. In December 2016, he had the same basic view on the industry’s decline.

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Wow man I read everything you said and felt that you was talking about my country! This globalization thing is for real. Thanks for your input, really valuable and complete. I will def check the videos, super interesting topic to me. Thanks for your time!

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Hey @MeGustaMusic! What are the odds!? I’m from Montevideo, un abrazo fraterno desde la otra orilla del charco.

Well, in Uruguay you can make it fairly well only from selling RFM (as long as you manage to have around 100 sales a month). We all know the markets go up and down so I also do some freelancing and other music/audio related gigs and make quite a decent living. Needless to say, my idea of happiness couldn’t be further from fancy cars and luxury trips, so that definitely makes things easier.

@Manriquedelara, your band rocks! :slight_smile:

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I quit the office day job with the plan to work full time on AJ. Guess what happened :smiley:

No, I didn’t go back to the office but I got part time projects so that I also have time to produce. Actually I’m supposed to be working on one of those part-time projects now and I’m just procrastinating here

image

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Botija querido, Uruguay nomas! Have many friends over there , traveled for work too (I tell you more on pm), love the country, with Montevideo we are prity similar, mostly with people from Bs As. imho

I wasn’t sure u could make a living from RFM in UR as it always seemed so expensive to me, I will pay more attention next time I am over there. Surely on September!
Thanks for jumping in the conversation. :grin:

That is a huge step on AJ adventures, the moment you quit your office job
Where are your from @ApolloSounds ?

Hahaha, hey chabón! :laughing: Yeah, cost of living here is pretty high indeed. Damn highest in South America, or so they say. You get used to it, I guess, hahaha. Many very dear friends in Baires too. And totally, a history and a whole culture in common.

Proud to have a rioplatense as an Elite author in the jungle!!! :grin:

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