Here in Tallahassee, FL home of Florida State University, there are lots of college bands to work with and the great thing about the college town atmosphere is that there is a major turnover of people coming in and moving out every year... and the town is rapidly growing. So in that respect, business is never bad... and always getting better. There are plenty of full time studios in town doing well... and since Creed blew up, there have been more than a handful of local bands getting big label deals.
So each hear you have a new group of aspiring musicians coming into town... Jules, a guy like you could do really good in this town!
(and besides the college kids, theres lots of Gospel and Hip Hop gigs if you want em! though the Fact is that it's a bitch to get either group to pay up! NO MASTERS BEFORE FULL PAYMENT! I'm gonna tape that to my forehead! That's the South!)

Something to consider is, where you live is what you make of it... I know a few friends who ended up feeling like the just hated Tallahassee and had to get out, only to find out a year or so later how much they really miss it. It's a big town with a small town mentality. We have a great local music community here.

The other bonus about college towns in general is as a gigging musician, you can make decent $ every gig, and play more often in your home town. A typical bar band here in town rarely makes less than $500 and occasionally can make close to $2000 after expenses. That kind of money goes a lot further down here than it does in LA!!!

Housing prices out west are unreal!!! Here in TLH it's a bit different... priced in 2000... $83K for a 2200 sq foot home on 3/4 acre lot... 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a 3 room 600sq foot studio! 2 miles from Campus and Downtown. Sorry LA!!! I wish I could beam my crib over to Venice Bch!!! Scotty???

Jules, Rick,
Boston is my hometown, so it hurts me to say it, but what you say is true. There is no money in music there. There are just too many people who want to play and not enough who go out and listen. There are plenty of reasons to like the place, but steady work in music isn't one.
Jonah

Isnt Hawaii sort of a 'goof off' college location, you know, nice and sunny but not Yale or Harvard, somewhere you can get credits for tanning and scuba diving?

Are there RICH non academic / students with cash to burn on Hawaii? Young and dumb, that's the stuff of rock bands aint it?

As many of you know, we bailed on San Francisco a year and a half ago for pretty obvious reasons. Nashville is a lot like LA only without the film and post industry but half the cost of living. A lot of work gets done here plus there is a vibrant songwriters' scene that I find utterly inspiring. You can go out and hear stunningly great music several times a week for well under $10!

i agree about nashville(nashvegas)...a wonderful place where the craft of songwriting is still respected. nice studios, friendly people...its a much hipper place than most people expect with every type of music represented. and though the cost of living there has risen a lot, its still affordable compared to LA, SFO or NY.

besides...its impossible to find a decent peach cobbler here in LA...

i have been to nashville a couple times. its damn HOT HOT HOT. once, i left a day early just to get back to my cooler mountains east of you.

plus, im kinda trying to get OUT of the bible belt... instead of moving closer to the buckle of it. maybe if i had the right opportunity i would consider it but with the areas i work in... it seems more limited to JUST music there.

would you mind if i called you bob for a few minutes to pick your mind about SF? what i do really goes way past just doing music and i was curious if anything was left after the meltdown of the DOTbombs. im kinda suprised the market is STILL as through the roof as it is.

The mainland, bra...

Agreed, Hermosa is great, but it sure ain't cheap. Lotta bars but virtually no live music scene. A 30 min drive will get you there, though.

My wife and I had both moved across the country to SF specifically for the music scene, Ellen during the mid '60s and myself in 1972. When we visited Nashville for the first time a couple years ago, it came crashing home to us that SF no longer had the music scene we had gone there for and that we felt more at home here. We have a number of dear friends there still but most of our close friends involved in music have also left.