Thank you gentlemen, for your detailed and thought-provoking comments. First, I'm greatly appreciative of your kind words re. the music.
As to how to go about generating income from music, this is clearly an ongoing battle we all face. As a performer, I've always based my decisions on whether or not to pursue something (be it a performance, recording, outreach initiative, etc.) on the 3 C's: cash, career (an important contact, visibility opportunity, etc.), community (charitable benefit, feel good experience, etc.). For me to be willing to do something, it had to check off at least 2 of the 3 boxes.
Now, as a composer, I feel I continue to write music and don't get to check off even one of the boxes. There's never any cash (actually there's the negative cash effect as I must pay for all the hardware/software/webhosting, etc. in order to simply write music and put it out there). There's been no career boosting opportunities, even after having music performed by professional symphonies and chamber musicians (that always want the music for free). And even community outreach initiatives via schools always leads to one-off opportunities with no momentum-building to speak of.
However, in spite of all this, I remain an optimist at heart. My wife and I literally gave up two six figure careers at the exact same time 4 years ago to pursue music full time...we relocated from one end of Canada to another, downsized our lifestyle, and went to work learning how to use virtual instruments while organizing concerts, teaching lessons, and a variety of other mundane activities to earn some income. 4 years on, we're expecting our first child next month, and while the prospect of 2 musicians providing for a little one is frightening at best, we're confident we'll make it work.
I calculated that I'd need to sell 40 tracks to buy one package of diapers. I'm only 40 track sales away from my first package of diapers :) lol
Anyway, to all of you that enjoy writing music as much as I do, I applaud your creative spirit and will to contribute your art to our apathetic world. It does brighten someone's day, and this forum alone shows that there will always be a select group of people that understand the worth and importance of the work we all do.
All the best,
Dave