I got an email from some friends who are composers. This email though was pointing out the continuing decline of album sales, and in regards to units sold asked the question if any one cares about the number sold and chart position. It gave a list of contemporary bands and their current releases sales numbers and chart positions and ultimately how pointless both numbers are.

Now its no suprise the big money is long gone, but there is still the chance of making a career from music if you have the right mindset. Like trying to be a rock star now is just stupid, trying to be an INDIE rock star is beyond stupid.

But composing and licensing your music seems to be a good path. Your not inhibited by age, commercial appeal (of the song or artist), you don't need to perform your work live, your "band" can be one person.
I feel this is a good venture and will continue to work at it.
A career could be made of it but I certainly don't expect to purchase my platinum plated personal jet with matching Ferrari.

One can dream though........

Don't deceive yourself, it's just as hard, if not more so. At least as a performer you can make money gigging.

Ahhh. Dreams. And a career from music is NOT dead!
Excuse the rambling, but let me make my point -- Life is a journey and NOT a destination (a favorite quote). I know from living 'the life I've lead so far' (I am a student of life at 60 but can pass for 40 years of age). In the 1970's I did the music thing as One St. Stephen (google it) but the 'road' thing didn't interest me at all. In the 1980's I painted and won some awards (as a magic realist) -- had my work in private galleries & national shows (even NYC !) but my interest burned out by the mid 1990's -- solitaire painting drove me nuts. The challenge of film making grabbed me again (as it did when I was a teen). Did a bunch of projects. Some okay, some that really sucked. But I had a lot of fun making stuff from script to scream. Still do. And I meet a lot of really good people in the process. The point of my rambling is this. Life is short, so do it for the enjoyment you can get and not for the glory (fame is fleeting?) and the money (prostitute yourself?). IF you are really 'great' at something and extremely lucky (for timing IS everything), fame and money will find you. Make 'something'. Make a 'lot of something'. Get it out there for people to see, hear or read. Don't talk about it, do it. Because when all is said and done, it is not the one with the most toys that wins, it is the one who lives the longest and happiest! We all end up as fertilizer anyway. Unless you believe in fairy tales... but that is a whole different rant. LOL.

The Internet is a double edged sword. On the one hand you can sell your album to the world without dealing with those dreaded traditional distributors, but on the other hand people are freely stealing music off of sites like PirateBay. To be a band nowadays you have to tour. That's where the money is made.
The techno music scene is interesting because you can be a one man band writing and performing.
Writing music for movies is an uphill battle because independent films have NO budget and there's a zillion musicians out there who are willing to write music for movies for next to nothing just to build their IMDB credit list. If you can't get in with the big budget Hollywood movies then you are spinning your wheels. There is NO career in indie film scoring.