We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Solomon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I love making money from creative work. I knew when I was a teenager that music was my career path, and I’d like to share a many-layered story about earning a full-time living and other metaphorical “returns” throughout my career in music.

I made a point of going to music college – I felt like spending college years studying something I didn’t want a future in would be a waste of my time. I would encourage anyone attending college to spend those years studying something that they enjoy and actually want to do.

But there is something I wish I’d had a different perspective on.

I was offered a job in a touring band right out of college that would provide me with a full-time living made from music. Looking back, I took the offer for a few reasons. One was that everyone around me who I told about this opportunity said I SHOULD take it. I have a history of people pleasing, and I figured maybe everyone was right.

But the other reason has to do with my ego. In college, I was committed to my identity as a piano playing singer-songwriter. All the other singer-songwriting folks I knew got in their cars right after college and went on self-booked tours across the nation – on shoestring budgets, in small venues, in cars that barely drove – and upon landing wherever they may, they worked laborious restaurant and coffeehouse jobs. I was arrogant, and wasn’t willing to make money any other way than from music. So I took that touring gig that would immediately launch me into the arena of “professional musician”.

And it did. With now over 18 years of working in music under my belt, most of the income I make and have made comes through a fairly direct funnel from the work I do. Here’s what I mean – I do a performance or record a piano or vocal track, I get paid at least some kind of base pay for that very job. Albeit working in tip-heavy situations, such as the piano bars I play a lot of now, there can be a lot of fluctuation in how much money I end up with at the end of the gig. My income up to this point hasn’t depended on unpredictable residuals from album sales/streaming, and from a purely financial standpoint, you can see how this is beneficial. I’ve recently pulled myself out of a longstanding 5-figure credit card debt and still been able to pay rent, buy groceries, and even go on a vacation with the income I make from music.

So despite what I said about most of my income being a direct result of the work I do, here’s something I continue to learn in my 18+ year career as a musician – sometimes, even often, the return does not come DIRECTLY from where I’ve invested the effort. It also may not come immediately or predictably. Here’s an example – I did a Facebook livestream in early 2021, the last of my Virtual Piano Bars that I held during the pandemic. These were a way to for me to collect a little bit of income, since there hadn’t been any coming in due to canceled gigs. An entertainment director for a piano bar happened upon my livestream, and seeing and hearing me there was the catalyst for him inviting me to play his venue. My first gig there was a few months later, and that’s now a venue I perform at on a monthly basis. That final livestream – and it was the last of maybe 20 – ended up paying off in ways long term that I couldn’t have predicted.

When I quit the touring band I mentioned earlier, the first one that provided my full income, I had NO back up gigs and no back up plan (other than working part-time at Domino’s pizza!) to bring in money. But what happened is this – no longer being involved with that band allowed me to take other gigs I would have previously not been available for, and THOSE chance gigs and meetings ended up relaying into new touring gigs and other jobs. So ironically, quitting the band that provided my income paid off – because it made me available to new ways of bringing in income.

I did finally go on that tour – the self-booked one where I toured nationally as myself, the artist. And I’ll tell you how that paid off – after the tour, I returned to Nashville with a sense of confidence that was new to me. I had already lived and worked out of Nashville for maybe a decade, but when I returned from that tour, people really expressed an interest in how it went and what I was up to. It’s almost like taking that step to go on my own tour, the one I had arrogantly put off for years, provided me with something I could call my own that I hadn’t had prior. That first solo tour may not have paid off financially, but it did in other ways that proved important. I remember how proud I felt, and I wonder how the trajectory of my life and career would have been different if I had done that tour – the one that wasn’t a sure thing – earlier.
(And by the way, on my next solo tour I did make money!)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I usually label myself under the umbrella of “musician”. Most of the time I appear as a singing-pianist. I’ve done a lot of things that a working musician in Nashville has been a part of – I toured with bands (the biggest tour I’ve been on was a Toby Keith tour, where I performed with his daughter Krystal). I’ve worked as a studio musician (as both a keyboard player, vocalist, and string arranger). I’ve released albums and singles as myself. I’ve played on national TV (notably The Today Show), and have had songs of mine heard on national TV (MTV)!
There are many facets that make up a career – and a unique life – as a musician.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What I strive for in my creative journey has turned into a 360 degree experience – I now look at creative ventures and professional opportunities more holistically.

For years I’ve heard many people say there are 3 things that make up a great gig – 1) the music, 2) the “hang” (how it feels spending time with the other people on the gig), and 3) the money. If those three things are enjoyable, it makes for a gig worth doing! I agree with this, but at this point I go even deeper. I consider where the gig is and if the location will be enjoyable to spend time in; what kind of accommodations are going to be provided. What kind of people will I be engaging with and performing for? Is there a special food I should experience when I’m there?

These days, I am pretty attuned to moments when a situation begins to feel like an “obligation”. If I am engaged in a project or have an upcoming gig that feels like dead weight, that’s a sign for me that it may be time to move on from it.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

It was interesting when that meme went around during the pandemic rating the most essential to least essential jobs, and “artist” was voted dead last. For me to wax poetic about how offensive this is would hit on the exact reason why whoever voted in that poll voted that way – because placing importance on art and creativity (especially as a creative myself) is seen selfish, and self-absorbed. And yet – it was watching movies and shows, listening to music, and viewing other creative things online and on TV that comforted SO many people during that scary time.

I think how our society values music in particular diminished when the dollar amount basically got removed from it – streaming music is now the way of the world, it can be free, and therefore the residuals paid to songwriters and musicians is very low. That’s not news to anybody. But I feel the first thing society could do to best support artists is first become aware of how much art is actually everywhere in our lives. I think it becomes like a painting that hangs on the wall for years – you pass it so many times you don’t even realize it’s there.
And yet if there was suddenly NOTHING to watch on television, or every car ride was completely silent… it would be a shocking reality for many.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rachelplaysmusic.com
• Instagram: @RachelSoloMusic
• Facebook: @RachelSoloMusic
• Youtube: @RachelSoloMusic

Image Credits
Anna Haas/Anna Haas Creative J. Kevin Foltz Jim Halling Photography