If you are a professional musician—that is, you’re being paid to write and perform music and can actually make a living from it—you’re part of an infinitesimal quintile of people who are able to do that… you are living the dream…

This, in fact, may be the only career you’ve ever known…you’ve never had a “real” job…maybe you’ve had a chance to see the world because of music…and if you love what you’re doing and the money works, you want this to go on forever…but it won’t…at some point, the music stops…

It might not be your fault…the music industry moves fast…one day you’ve got it all figured out, working from immediate deadline to immediate deadline and from gig to gig…and then everything stops…

Maybe it happens quickly…maybe it happens slowly then all at once…music changes…the industry changes…trends change…technology changes…and what you offer—what you can do—is no longer in demand…

It’s like captain Jean-Luc Picard has said: “you can do everything right and still lose…that’s not weakness…that’s life”…

So what’s next?...if you exit the world of music—be it voluntarily or by force—what do you do next?...

Maybe it’s best to study what some other musicians have done to transition from rock star to civilian life…this is a look at examples of life after music…

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