Q: if i put in 5 or so years of work into learning singing and instruments (though not taking lessons) and i write songs then post them online could i plausibly achieve success to the point where music could give me a stable living (most likely from donations)? what would the percentage of achieving success through music be (for someone without much natural talent other than a naturally pretty okay singing voice)?
A: i have no idea. the only reason i considered doing the kind of thing i do was because i already knew for so long i was good at it, to the point where it was tearing me apart inside. and i was willing to go to the ends of the earth to make it happen. even having all the necessary talents, there is still an extreme amount of work you must do to publicize yourself, single handedly. it's something i would never imagine anyone doing, unless their life depended on it. i hope that doesn't sound too discouraging, please remember that if your life does depend on it, you're going to be able to do it just fine. if don't feel your life depends on it, you can still probably do just fine, it's just that your strategies are probably going to be quite different from mine