After some modest attempts and a fair bit of research, I concluded that creating [EDIT: recorded] music for people to enjoy listening to is almost certainly a h

After some modest attempts and a fair bit of research, I concluded that creating [EDIT: recorded] music for people to enjoy listening to is almost certainly a horrible business plan. That does not mean that it's a horrible activity; with modern technology, it's relatively easy for, say, a software developer to masquerade as a musician and crank out great tracks. Getting sales, though, is challenging, and getting enough sales to pay normal living expenses is very challenging. A lot of potential "customers" seem to increasingly not wish to pay to listen to music at all, whether if it was made by J. Random Hacker or The Beatles. It seems more likely to be able to make money supplying production music: royalty-free tracks, custom music for productions, etc. But this isn't music create for the express purpose of people just listening to it; it's more utilitarian, something producers buy in the interest of creating another product altogether. This might be the same path that software is on: lots of great software is available free of charge. It's presently still quite possible to earn a living selling software directly to individual consumers, but the long-term money may be in selling software to companies who use it to produce something else, and custom software development where off-the-shelf programs don't do quite what is needed. In any case, I enjoy making music. I am open to opportunities to make money for doing so, but I expect to continue making music whether if I get paid or not.