The gist of the conversation is that pretty much everyone, especially those working in music, always have such a relative, subjective idea of what it means to be “successful,” and the overarching constant seems to be that even people who are making a sustainable living at music, and who have a respectful following, and so on, still don’t see themselves as successful.

I think at this point it’s pretty clear that I am not successful as a musician; my releases do not pay for themselves, much less generating any considerable amount of income, it’s been a struggle to get even 150 subscribers on my YouTube channel, and even getting anyone to listen to my music to begin with is a struggle.

So, here are some ideas of what I think it would mean to be successful as a musician. This isn’t all-inclusive, nor does every criterion have to be met.

• The amount of income I get from my music would be sufficient as a living wage
• Any time I release something new, I have a fanbase that acquires it without prompting
• Any release pays for its own production costs within its first month of release
• I have enough fans that YouTube actively tries to retain my content rather than treating my channel as a liability
• Any release I put out gets visibility in the various streaming platforms' algorithms
• People approach me to express interest in hiring me
• Concert organizers approach me to express interest in me performing with them¹
• I am approached with offers for representation, either via an agent or a record label
• I have people trying to interpret my songs on their own, whether correctly or incorrectly, and reading their own meaning into them regardless

That said, there are a few criteria by which I can judge myself successful as a musician:

• I have had people I don’t otherwise know reach out to me saying how much some of my music meant to them at some point in their life
• I have had people I don’t otherwise know cover songs of mine (shout-out especially to Matches for her lovely cover/reinterpretation of Rhymes with Lucia)
• I have had people I don’t otherwise know tell me they are fans of my work

And that isn’t nothing.

1. Ignoring pay-for-play scams and other such predatory nonsense, of course. ↩