I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
Unstarving Musician | He built his home studio on wedding gig income. Here's the model.
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Most independent musicians I talk to treat wedding and corporate gig work the same way: as the thing they do until the real career happens. The asterisk on the resume and compromise. Cory Wade has been a vocalist and band leader with Hank Lane Music in New York for eight years. The income from that work funded his home studio, piece by piece. It funds his original music. And somewhere along the way, he stopped calling it a day job. In Episode 350, Cory walked me through the mechanics of how this model actually works — what entry-level pays, what band leaders earn, how you get on a roster like Hank Lane's, and (more importantly) what keeps you on it. He also said something that gave me pause: the musicians who burn out in event work are the ones still chasing their Beyoncé moment. The ones who thrive treat the gig as service, not spotlight. He's come to see that as an artistic stance, not a concession. There's also a structural piece worth sitting with. Event work is seasonal — busy spring through fall, dead from January through March. Most independent musicians spend enormous energy trying to engineer creative time into their calendar. Cory's calendar does it for him. Liner Notes is where I turn conversations like this into something you can actually use. An upcoming edition I'm planning will pull the event entertainment income model into a working framework — how it's structured, what to expect at each stage, and how to use the seasonal calendar to your advantage. Free to subscribe at Robonzo.Substack.com. 🎧 Listen to Episode 350 with Cory Wade Peace, love and more cowbell, P.S. — Cory took an 8-9 year hiatus from releasing original music. He just dropped a new single called Tonic & Gin. When I asked what finally changed, his answer wasn't about the music being ready — it was about his sense of self being ready. He described the America's Next Top Model experience as giving him a public identity that didn't reflect who he actually was, and that it took years to stop letting external labels define the work. That stuck with me. ⎯ If you find value in this podcast, please consider a donation via our online tip jar – click, tip, done. Or visit UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor to learn about the many other ways of showing your support. Your support = love 💟 If you're a coffee or tea drinker, I know you're going to love this. I've immortalized my beloved cat Sparticus in an awesome coffee mug. Spartacus was a 15.5 pound tabby who Sami and I adopted in California. He traveled the South and North American continents with us and lived his last days with us in Querétaro, Mexico. This cup features one of my favorite pics ever of him. This mug design was originally a gift for Sami – now it's an homage to the most gentle cat we've ever known. Share this email and/or read it on the web Stay in touch! Feedback, comments, complaints? Reply to this email. I'd love to hear from you. 📭 Where to Listen to The Unstarving Musician Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts Click here to listen on Overcast Click here to listen on Spotify Click here to listen on YouTube Click here to listen on Pandora |
The Unstarving Musician
I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
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