After you do this meditation and read The Gift, you are going to get busy with a new plan: You are going to think of something as ambitious and creative as this $4.99 plan, with the caveats that 1) It is all going to be free; and 2) It's not going to be based on what other people can do for you, but how can this band be a vehicle for help and sowing goodness.
I mean playing any and all benefits, getting in touch with places like KEEN Chicago, who need bands to play parties for autistic kids and young adults, putting word out to these industry contacts you have amassed that you are that band that's game for whatever fundraising events that have. You are going to play acoustic at an old folks' home and do some children's birthday parties, a school fundraiser. Stop laser-focusing on your courtship of cool, moneyed fans or the "right people." Throw a treasure hunt that ends at your flash-mob style show in a parking garage. Connect with an organization like Intonation and have your whole band volunteer mentoring young musicians in underserved communities in lieu of a band practice. You must also help one person move using your band van, a gratitude to the universe that just floated you four G's for an album.
If you can write twelve new songs for pay, you can go into Bob Pollard productive mode for free. There is never a shortage of folks putting together benefit comps -- volunteer yourself. Make your Bandcamp page donation optional. Make buttons (they are cheap and have a high profit margin), and you are going to donate each dollar you make off of them to some cause that your band feels strongly about, and you can make a little sign for your merch table about it. Make a band zine with some mini comics in them, and sell them at cost at shows. Since you have all this fire and energy to do band stuff, here you go -- here is your opportunity to feel important, to stay busy, to know your band means something to people and to play a lot of shows.
Looking expectantly at the rest of the world to validate your interests, hobbies or art is a setup to feel bad, to brood and be jaded that you are not understood. You need to reprogram you relationship with money as a creative person, because the one you have is like a hex. You need to grow-up your success dream and stop this focus on how it'll make you feel better. Start figuring out how you can be useful and how to make your 73 friends proud, pass on their kindness and faith, rather than how you can just get more money from them. The term of this assignment is one year, after which time you can revisit the idea of for-profit band hood.
This is your chance to get free from this trap and, as you've wished, "make something out of nothing."
Best of luck, Fan
See also: -Ten Bands You Never Would Have Thought Used to Be Good -The Ten Biggest Concert Buzzkills: An Illustrated Guide -The 15 Most Ridiculous Band Promo Photos Ever -The Ten Worst Music Tattoos Ever
Follow RFT Music on Twitter or Facebook. But go with Twitter. Facebook blows.
