Yes,

I would say hopeless if your aim is to make a semi-decent living at it. 
Sure, there's the occassional exception (Fountains of Wayne?), but I'm sure 
99% of the current bands found in Not Lame's catalog have day jobs.

As for knowing the odds before you get into the game - I don't know. All 
I've ever done is write and play music that sounded good to me. I suppose I 
could've played metal or blues or country or whatever but that's not what I 
do....

And I'm not whining - quite the contrary. I have a happy, wonderful life and 
I still make music. I'm just glad I don't have to depend on it to pay the 
bills. It looks like my one live gig this year will be at IPO San Francisco 
and that will only cost me $1000 dollars or so. But I'm sure looking forward 
to it.

Bobby

> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 18:48:06 -0700
> From: "Bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net>
> To: <audities@smoe.org>
> Subject: Re: Doug Powell going, going gone...
> Message-ID: <026e01c5874c$ea22a350$f029fea9@533034B8A6DF4D9>
>
> Robert Sutliff wrote:
>
>> Quite frankly, the "music business" is a hopeless proposition
>> for someone who elects to play artful pop music. There is just
>> zero money in it.
>
> Hopeless? I don't think I agree 100%, though I empathize with
> your situation -- I wouldn't say that someone who elects to play
> artful pop music is putting themselves in a hopeless position, but
> you gotta know the odds before you get into the game, right?
>
> Bryan