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I'm 24 years old, currently living in Texas, and looking to find success as a singer. I consider myself very talented, and though I'm quite young, I feel as if time is running out for me and I have to start making moves. I've been in and out of school and holding down steady jobs, since I was 18, but that's not enough anymore. So I'm really interested in hearing how far I can expect to get in Chicago for a career in the R&B/soul music industry.
I love Texas, but there's not a whole lot going on here, unless you're in the country, rap, or gospel genres. People tell me to go to Atlanta, but I just know that market is saturated with everyone looking to be the next big thing, and I'm not interested in being a part of that mix. Ideally, I would like to be in New York, but the COL is too extreme for me. Chicago is surprisingly affordable, and I'd love the experience of living there. I visited once before and liked it a lot.
I know this isn't really a music message board, so I'm not sure how many helpful answers I'll get, but I just thought I'd put this question out there to see if I might get any valuable info.
Any and all advice is appreciated.
We are living in the age of the internet. Go back 15 years and there is no way (plausible) that I would be talking to you or even 99% of the people living in Chicago. But here in the present I am making my thoughts known to an untold amount of people.
Unless you are some sort of "method" musician (think of method actors, Daniel Day Lewis comes to mind) then there is no reason for you to move from where you are. Do you think 15 years ago anyone would have known who Psy is? Would People in NYC, LA, Atlanta, etc. have even had heard of K-Pop?
The internet made that possible.
The internet made an absolutely horrible song like "Friday" something millions of people have heard. And that was horrible... not even remotely good!
I would *like* to tell you that you should move to Chicago to get your career off the ground (into orbit?) but that is not the case in 2012.
You could live in Frog Suck, Arkansas and be "discovered"... via the internet.
My honest advice is to go to Austin. The University of Texas is there. Use it to your full advantage.
Take advantage of the college kids looking for "experience".
Find some theater majors and use them in a video(s). Have English/Lit majors write a video(s). Have Communications majors shoot and edit your video(s). Those same people could record STUDIO QUALITY tracks for you as part of their course work.
That stuff is free, or dirt cheap (I know because I did it).
My thoughts. Direct Message me if you want to know more.
Well, that would be "the catch". The bottom line is, in Texas, if a nice, spacious, 2BR apartment, on a well-managed property in a good neighborhood for $700/mo exists, finding it would be like striking gold. In the big cities anyway.
Nice, spacious, well-managed, and good neighborhood, are also all subjective and relative terms
Quote:
Originally Posted by Switchin Lanes
But if you're saying this can be done in parts of Chicago, then I believe you. I don't need to live like a king, but I would like to be comfortable.
It can be done in Chicago by many people's standards of "comfortable," but it sounds to me like yours are higher than mine, and certainly higher than those of most 20-something working musicians I've known. If you can't find something that meets your standards for $700 in Texas (not counting Austin), you're probably not going to find it for under $1200-1500 in Chicago. That's my best rough guess based on having lived in both places.
I would not come to Chicago (or Austin, or Brooklyn, or really any remotely hip city) expecting to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle as a new-to-the-area working musician unless you have a good-paying day job or a trust fund. Usually the idea of being a 24-year-old musician, artist, comedian, or actor trying to make it in the city devoting themselves to their art is that they live in a "crummy" small place (or with a few roommates in a loft) in an edgy up-and-coming neighborhood. That's how it has been for people I've known, anyway.
Just glancing at those listings, about half of them appear to be in smaller towns/suburbs
You didn't say where in Texas, so I just picked one of the major metro areas. Most people I've known in the DFW metro live in smaller towns/suburbs even though they say they live "in Dallas". Urban gentrification hasn't reached the stage there that it has in Chicago and on the coasts.
Nice, spacious, well-managed, and good neighborhood, are also all subjective and relative terms
It can be done in Chicago by many people's standards of "comfortable," but it sounds to me like yours are higher than mine, and certainly higher than those of most 20-something working musicians I've known. If you can't find something that meets your standards for $700 in Texas (not counting Austin), you're probably not going to find it for under $1200-1500 in Chicago. That's my best rough guess based on having lived in both places.
I would not come to Chicago (or Austin, or Brooklyn, or really any remotely hip city) expecting to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle as a new-to-the-area working musician unless you have a good-paying day job or a trust fund. Usually the idea of being a 24-year-old musician, artist, comedian, or actor trying to make it in the city devoting themselves to their art is that they live in a "crummy" small place (or with a few roommates in a loft) in an edgy up-and-coming neighborhood. That's how it has been for people I've known, anyway.
I grew up working class. I would hardly say that my standards or what I'm used to exceeds that of the average person, unless it suddenly became the norm for people to be okay living in an apartment that was falling apart. There have been times where I didn't have a bed, slept in my car, and even on the street, so I'm certainly not spoiled.
If all of Texas is supposed to be dirt cheap, then I guess the properties around here didn't get the memo. But if you don't believe me, you're more than welcome to come down and take a look at this "luxury" 1BR bachelor pad that I'm paying $664/mo for (not including electricity).
Chicago is an older and more urban city, so of course I'm not expecting things to be shiny and new.
We are living in the age of the internet. Go back 15 years and there is no way (plausible) that I would be talking to you or even 99% of the people living in Chicago. But here in the present I am making my thoughts known to an untold amount of people.
Unless you are some sort of "method" musician (think of method actors, Daniel Day Lewis comes to mind) then there is no reason for you to move from where you are. Do you think 15 years ago anyone would have known who Psy is? Would People in NYC, LA, Atlanta, etc. have even had heard of K-Pop?
The internet made that possible.
The internet made an absolutely horrible song like "Friday" something millions of people have heard. And that was horrible... not even remotely good!
I would *like* to tell you that you should move to Chicago to get your career off the ground (into orbit?) but that is not the case in 2012.
You could live in Frog Suck, Arkansas and be "discovered"... via the internet.
My honest advice is to go to Austin. The University of Texas is there. Use it to your full advantage.
Take advantage of the college kids looking for "experience".
Find some theater majors and use them in a video(s). Have English/Lit majors write a video(s). Have Communications majors shoot and edit your video(s). Those same people could record STUDIO QUALITY tracks for you as part of their course work.
That stuff is free, or dirt cheap (I know because I did it).
My thoughts. Direct Message me if you want to know more.
I guess you could call me a bit of a method artists. I'm mostly stuck on the old-fashioned way of doing things, though some might say it's pointless.
As I explained to the other guy, I doubt Austin is the right place for an R&B artist. Houston and Dallas both have much larger black music scenes, but not as vibrant or concentrated as Chicago's seems to be.
I can't speak about Texas, but in Chicago there's no "catch." The issue is that someone asks a broad question - "Can I find an apartment for $700?" And everyone immediately thinks about the absolute best, most-expensive neighborhoods in town, and says "No, of course not." But of course there are neighborhoods that are not the hottest, not the hippest, not close to dozens of bars for staggering home from, but are still safe, and close to transportation.
Exactly, and even so...most people don't realize that even in some of the hottest neighborhoods in Chicago, you CAN find apartments for "cheap" and they are not terrible nor are they out of the ordinary. My girlfriend rents a place in Lakeview right near Broadway and TONS of restaurants and bars for $750/month including utilities (or most of them). It's a decently nice place too. I looked at places a little north of her, like this really nice place was $2100 for a 3 bedroom there. Very spacious, great condition, wood floors throughout the entire place...it was one street over from Sheridan and Broadway. She found a bunch of studios 2 blocks from Wrigley Field for under $750/month too. My ex girlfriend used to rent a studio in Lincoln Park right off Clark near a bunch of bars/restaurants/etc for under $800/month too. I know there's condos in Uptown and Edgewater for under $600/month too. Irving Park? My gf's friend rented a 3 bedroom out for $1500 total with a HUGE kitchen and HUGE living room, including hard wood floors. It was kind of ridiculous.
I honestly think that people who think that every apartment is $1200+ for a 1 bedroom in Chicago even in the hot neighborhoods (non downtown, even though there's some cheap studios in old Gold Coast buildings for under $800/month) need to get out more and look around. And yeah, totally outside of the hot neighborhoods you can easily find cheap stuff. As you said the area isn't happening, but it's still near public transit. I think people need to expand their bubbles.
Chicago is an older and more urban city, so of course I'm not expecting things to be shiny and new.
There are a ton of shiny and new things here. Visit downtown or walk around some of the neighborhoods like Wicker Park or Lakeview. You'll see brand new mixed in with the old. However, at your price range you will not find shiny and new most likely. You might find a decent place, but definitely not brand new.
I guess you could call me a bit of a method artists. I'm mostly stuck on the old-fashioned way of doing things, though some might say it's pointless.
As I explained to the other guy, I doubt Austin is the right place for an R&B artist. Houston and Dallas both have much larger black music scenes, but not as vibrant or concentrated as Chicago's seems to be.
Getting discovered on the internet is still hard. Again, it's a lot of luck. Now, your luck increases I think, but there's TONS of people who exist online with their music. It's not as easy as people make it out to be.
The entire business can be a crapshoot. It's all luck. I told you that I was a musician trying to do that stuff, working with people, and I have friends who were also signed and toured. I was also involved in radio for awhile. Again, complete and utter luck. I can't tell you how many songs in history got popular because a DJ decided to play so and so song and a group of people were listening at the right time. It's all BS. The record label sends a station an album and has a few songs they have to choose from to play, nothing else. There's a reason why some artists' best stuff isn't even well known - because the label completely ignores some songs and nobody ever plays it due to an agreement they all have and obligation to play a song from the label's list.
If all of Texas is supposed to be dirt cheap, then I guess the properties around here didn't get the memo. But if you don't believe me, you're more than welcome to come down and take a look at this "luxury" 1BR bachelor pad that I'm paying $664/mo for (not including electricity).
You've still yet to tell us where in Texas. I had a 1BR in the Austin area (though not Austin proper) for less than that, and some of the places I looked at were even less than the one I chose. And of course, the Austin area is more expensive than the rest of Texas. In rural Texas and West Texas I've known people who have had mortgages on ranch houses with an acre or two of land for about that price. If you don't say where in Texas, I have no choice but to generalize to the whole state.
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