I've noticed this in the several starts I had, your character starts off with all stats at 1, while any band-mates you hire having their's start in the 'teens.

My idea (a simple-ish one) would be to implement different 'starts', something to spice up the beginning of the game, a few examples might be:

A) Local Legend (20+ stats, small fan-base to start but less $$$), kind've an 'medium' mode, less cash means you have to work with less to start, BUT you don't have your own character's stats dragging down the rest of the band at the start. You have a reputation around town as being a pretty chill guy good with what you do, but you don't ask for much at your gigs, before deciding to try and hit it big.

B) 0 to Rock Hero (The absolute rock-bottom), start with a full band (randomly generated), but you have no cash, no fans. You're just a bunch've small town chumps looking to do what you love, rock out and have a good time.

C) Default (What you start with now or later), Plain-jane, start with what you start with now.


The other is perhaps either letting rehearsals (sic?) Take place at your house for less improvement, or let recording studios give more experience on each run at the studio. As it stands, my last save I had a band that was nearly all in the 80s-100s stat-wise but were only getting 3-4 improvement on their skill with a song.

It can eat up alot of cash at the start get going to rehearsals, so practicing in your garage (Garage bands are a thing, after all) would make sense.