Less than 1% of people that learn an instrument or sing go on to be a commercially successful artist. Becoming rich and famous isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have an outstanding career in music. There are a huge range of career choices within the music industry, many of which don’t rely on your ability to play and read music. From working as an instrument technician or a studio engineer, to organising music tours. If you have a passion for bands, you could go into artist management, and if you’re an aspiring writer, you could consider music journalism. The career choices in music are extremely varied and interesting. You will certainly find that no two days are the same!
Music group coordinator
Playing music with other people or singing in a choir is great fun. Putting together music groups can actually be a good career choice and needs minimum investment as a business. All you need to do is organise a venue, work out the weekly subscription cost for attending the group and get advertising. If you’re running a group it helps to have basic knowledge of the instruments, but you don’t need to be a professional musician. You could look at taking some online ukulele lessons if you’re running a uke group. Lessons would help you learn to play different chords and notes. Running music groups is a very sociable way to earn a living and you can share your passion for music with others no matter what their ability.
Staff musician
Staff musicians are some of the hardest working musicians out there, but there are significant benefits to this career choice. There are a wide variety of organisations that employ staff musicians both on a permanent and seasonal basis. You could even get the opportunity to travel while doing what you love best - playing music. You might find yourself working on a cruise ship travelling in the Caribbean, or at a theme park. Many production houses employ staff musicians to play music for clients. The military also employs staff musicians, particularly brass players for their bands.
Music festival director
If you love music, but don’t necessarily play an instrument, you can still share your passion as a director of music festivals. Organising even a small local festival is a lot of work. Tasks include organising venues, sorting out marketing and advertising, managing ticket sales and dealing with the daily practicalities from catering to seating. A big part of the job is also finding the right musicians for a festival, negotiating fees and booking the acts. For big festivals you might be managing many employees, delegating tasks and finding the best people for the job.
You don’t have to be a recording artist to have a successful career in music. There are a wide variety of jobs where you can make a good living and enjoy sharing music with others.
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Note from GigsGuide's staff: this is a guest post by If you have great stories/experiences/best tips/dreams about music and travel you'd like to share with GigsGuide's friends, get in touch ;)
