I work full time as a web developer, and I've previously worked as a software developer. However I do have a degree in music composition, though the way the world is now this degree is pretty useless when it comes to jobs - it is getting harder to find decent paying jobs as HR people love to throw out unqualified candidates, even though I have nearly 5 years experience.
I make a decent living, but after 8 hours a day in front of the computer screen, plus socializing with my girlfriend, it leaves very little time left for music. Right now I'm also doing work on the side to help pay off some credit card debt, so really there's no time for music left at all. It sucks - music is my passion but I'm forced into something I don't really care about that much just to pay the bills. It could be worse, it isn't manual labour, but it's still a drag.
I think a big part of it depends where you live as well, Vancouver is a very cool city, but it's a place where you have to work your ass off to have any sort of decent standard of living as housing and car insurance is so expensive. This means the buzzy areas for music and art are in more affordable cities, in Canada I've heard Regina talked about a lot as "the new music capital" for it's arts programs and cheap rehearsal space, and in the US I've heard a few things happening in Detroit where you can live incredibly cheaply there. How appealing those places are in general is another matter entirely though.
Last edited by metropeak (Aug 16, 2013 11:18 pm)