I'm a semi-pro musician. Although the pay rates haven't been great, every bar/club/venue I know of that has live music pays to book bands/musicians to perform. Unless it's a "coffee house" type thing where anyone can just get up and perform.
I and many of my fellow not-signed-with-a-big-label musicians/bands give away recordings (CDs and free downloads). We live in the reality of today where recordings are only promotional tools, not an end product themselves.
Strat
I think I can count the number of times I've gotten paid to play in public on one hand. I sold some CDs to close friends, and then gave the rest I had away at most events. But I guess it's different in that I started the game knowing a) I could record my own music and b) that I was never going to become a millionaire this way.
Work without a vision is slavery, Vision without work is a pipe dream, But vision with work is the hope of the world.