I m going to have to beg to differ with PRC. You don t want to live upstate if you re trying to play in a band in the city. Nothing is worse than that long haul home after a late night gig and if you get a last minute booking in town, you can t take it because you probably won t be able to get there in time from Upstate (you didn t say if you were planning to have a car or not).If you share an apartment in Brooklyn, depending on the neighbourhood and how many people you share with, you could probably cut it with 1000 to 1500 a month. You won t be making much money from your band and least not at first anyway so you re going to have to get a job and compared to other states, they tax you to death in NYC...Federal, State, City taxes, then if you have benefits that s another chunk out of your check.This brings me to something only musicians will know about. With a job and school, you re not going to be left with much time to make the calls and do the footwork needed to book your band. With the competition here, you have to dedicate a lot of time to it especially if no one has ever heard of you and you don t have a following yet. It s not impossible, but it s not easy either. You re going to need to find band members who are willing to help with this if you want to gig regularly or find someone else who is willing to do it for you and they usually want to be paid. (No clue how much, I ve always done my own booking).It s just a lot of stuff to think about.
Good luck with your band! Depending on where you want to live, Upstate is much more affordable with access to the city. 3k/month will get you set up in some place nice for a basic place!