You're right. Playing live-4 night is a wash...$150.00. My serious income comes from production of business related, broadcast quality video. My advantage is the quality of the tracks. Even the higher paying live jobs are business related...a reception for a foreign dignitary....the president of a foreign firm I do work for, etc.
If I did music only, I'd probably not have a weight issue, I'd be starving to death.
What I try to tell everyone is that there is a lot of work today, it's just drastically different from the past. Literally every YouTube posting, TV show and radio broadcast has an audio track.
And that's good for some of us...really good!
Russ