You have to wonder how anyone could think it is possible to make a living making music. Those at the top may as well have been born there – not because they didn’t have to work hard to get where they are, but because the number of artists who have ‘made it’ is so small that it may as well be limited to the winners of the PowerBall Lottery.

Pomplamoose is duo (Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn) making music and videos (I find it hard to imagine either one without the other) and doing the occasional tour. Last year (2014), Pomplamoose put together a 28 day tour around the US and then wrote up a summary of the accounting for the tour to illustrate how difficult it can be to make ends meet even for a relatively famous band (I admit that using the word ‘relatively’ could mean almost anything).

You can find Jack’s accounting of the tour and how their net loss of about $11,000 is just the price of doing business and building a fan base here. You can also check out Jack’s other project, Patreon, where normal people, like you and me, can be patrons of the arts.