If music is your passion, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll explore 10 music careers that are rewarding in many different ways. No matter what kind of music you’re interested in making or listening to – from classical music and country music to hip hop and opera – there’s a career in the music industry for you!
How To Start A Music Career?
We’ll discuss how a music career can be done as a solo artist, with a band, as part of an orchestra or choir – even as a DJ! The possibilities are endless when it comes to how you can make money doing what you love. And if playing music isn’t enough for you…you can also use your music career as a way to make the world better by using it for social change.
Music Career Guide- Jobs in The Music Industry
1. Solo music career
A solo music career can be a very rewarding experience, wether you are a DJ, singer or musician. It can allow you to share your music with the world and make a name for yourself. It can also be a great way to connect with your fans and build a community of supporters.
One of the best things about a solo music career is you don’t have to share any of your fame or success with other band members. You get full creative control over everything, and all the money you make will be yours alone, but of cause if you have a manager you may have to split the revenue with him/her based on what you guys have agreed in the deal.
2. Band music career
It’s similar to solo music career, just that instead of going the path all by your own, you are now making a name out there as a band with a bunch of people who has the same vision in music as yours (they better do).
If you’re in a band, It’s a lot of hard work, regardless how passionated you are in music, beyond that there are a lot of others thing has to be taken care of, often times these things are non music related, such as dealing with different opinions, personalities of each members, the split of revenue from gigs and more.
Despite that, there are still a lot of fun in it, one of the best things about being in a band is that you get to share the experience with your friends. You also have someone to share the workload with, and you can count on them to help you out when things get tough. And of course, when you achieve success together, it’s that much sweeter.
3.Session Musicians
Being a session musician can be a great career choice if you love playing your instrument. You’ll get to work with different artists and help create new music. You’ll also have the opportunity to travel and see new places.
However, it can be difficult to find work as a session musician, so you’ll need to be proactive and network with other musicians, producers, event agents, etc. You should also be prepared to take on any gigs that come your way, even if they’re not in your preferred genre.
You can also be part of an orchestra who performs music together regularly, but it’s general quite difficult to get an opportunity like this in most countries, it’s not only you have to be good at your playing your instrument, you are also required to be exception great in sight reading music notation as well.
4. Music Educators
A music teacher who teaches students how to play music or improve their music skills. If you enjoy teaching students and wanna to have a relatively more stable source of income in music, teaching music might be for you!
Besides being good at your music instrument, you’ll also need to develop music teaching skills and find students to teach if you are not working under under any music schools. Then you’ll need to market yourself and your business so more people know about it!
If you are familiar or interested in video creating, you could also take a step further by creating your own online courses to sell them on some online course platforms, it could be a really great way to generate passive income in long run.
5. Career In Music Producing
A music production career can be done as a music producer who creates new songs for artists to perform publicly. You’ll need experience with various musical instruments, knowledge in music productions, dealing with musicians and also the ability to work within a budget that you get from your client.
Each music producer can be very different in term of the music approach and their strength, they could be coming from a background as a musician, music arranger, engineer or singers in the past. When they get the project from clients directly, they take on the role as a music producer to coordinate with different people he finds in different roles for this project to deliver the best final outcome.
If being able to make a passive income from music is one of your career goal, might as well try selling beats or stock music as well. Instead of hiring a music composer or producer, nowadays many video creators or production house would rather prefer to look for music they need from music marketplace like Audio jungles, Pond 5, etc.
Often times, rappers also like to buy beats from Beatstars, Airbit as well, there’s a big demand, if you like making hiphop beats, might as well give it a try.
Music productions can also involve any number of other jobs involving music such as audio engineer or musical instrument technician (this is not an exhaustive list). If you like working behind-the-scenes in the music industry, one of these roles could be the music career for you!
6. Music Agents
A music career can also be done as a music agent who finds new artists to perform music and markets them to music producers or even as a solo artist who perform their original music. If you want to be like David Geffen, making deals and have a career in the music business, this music industry career might be for you! You’ll need knowledge of various kinds of music, marketing skills, copyrights and connections within the industry.
7. Music composers
A music composer is a professional who writes and arranges music. Music composers may work in a variety of settings, such as film, television, or video game companies. They may also work as independent contractors.
The composer is responsible for developing an overall vision of the piece and communicating this to the performers as clearly as possible. While some composers collaborate with others, most composers work alone. They generally receive their musical direction from directors or producers on a film or TV set.
Composers are typically not required to be proficient performers. However, some composers do become involved in the orchestra, either as musicians playing instruments or conducting the efforts of other musicians. Some composers have begun their careers by being performers themselves. For example, John Williams was a conductor before he became a successful composer for films.
Most movie and television soundtracks are supervised by a music director. This position is often held by an experienced composer of film or television scores who can ensure that all musical elements of the soundtrack will blend together seamlessly.
As movies or TV shows get more modern, producers and directors tend to give composers less creative freedom than in the past. Many directors of recent films want composers to use synthesizers and sound libraries instead of orchestras. This is due in part because movies are competing with popular music for listeners’ attention, using orchestral music is less popular today and also the production cost would be much higher.
8.Song writers
If writing songs for artist is what your passion is, becoming a song writer could be an option too! But regardless how much I like about songwriting, I’m gonna start by saying this which the truth is that it can be hard to make a living as a songwriter. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but you’re gonna be prepared you are gonna be financially struggle for quite awhile if that’s the only thing you want to do.
Being able to create good songs is one thing, but being able to find them suitable homes is another matter. You will spend more time pitching your songs than you will writing them. If you are an amateur writer, publishing houses are most likely not your ideal home for your work. The public expects a certain calibre of writing from those publishers. However, there are other options available to you.
If you have had some works published and have been able to make a fan base for yourself, the publishers will be more interested in your new songs, as they will know that you can deliver what they need – sales. One way is to become a song plugger. A song plugger is someone who writes and pitches songs to major recording artists and producers in the hopes of having their works recorded and released by those artists.
If you choose not to become a song plugger, you can always try pitching your work yourself. Go out to as many gigs as possible (live concerts, especially those that are televised, like the Grammys® or The Tonight Show®), and introduce yourself to musicians, music producers or artist managers.
Let them know you write songs, sing them a little of your track, and leave business cards with them. Make sure you include any websites where people can hear samples of your work.
9. Music journalist/ Music blogger
Music journalist/bloggers who writes articles about music for magazines, websites or newspapers are often neglected and not many people talks about. If you want to write professionally about your favorite type of music, sharing the knowledge in music productions, or music business this could be the right music career for you!
You’ll need writing skills that people enjoy reading, awareness of the music trend, good at doing researches, and if you are running a website by your own, you may need to be constantly learning about the Google SEO in order to get your articles ranking on a higher position. You may also need to learn about social media marketing so you can promote your articles on the internet.
10.Music content creator
A music content creator is someone who makes a living by creating content related to music. This could include writing articles about music, creating videos about music, or even creating songs or albums themselves.
If you’re interested in becoming a music content creator, there are a few things you need to know. First, it’s important to have a strong understanding of the music industry. You need to know what’s going on in the world of music, and you need to be up-to-date on the latest trends. This will give you a foundation to build upon and allow you to create more valuable content.
Second, you need to know how to promote your work. This can include creating social media accounts for yourself and posting links to your music, or even sending out emails about new songs or albums. You need to be willing to put in hard work and promote whatever you’re making.
Third, you’ll need to be creative and good video editing skills if you want to create music related video contents. You can use free software such as iMovie to learn how to create effective videos, or you can spend money on purchasing video editing software like Apple’s Final Cut or Adobe Premiere Pro.
Lastly, you should also be good at writing and communicating your ideas. As a music content creator, you’ll be responsible for producing high-quality content that people will want to read or watch. If you’re interested in creating articles or videos, then you’ll want to hone those skills as best as possible.
If all this sounds interesting to you, then it might be worth exploring the options available for you. You should start by creating small projects, like short articles or videos about your favorite artists or songs. Then you can build from there and pursue a long-term career in music content creation.
What’s Next?
No matter what career path you choose, it’s important to remember that it takes hard work and dedication to make it in the music industry. So don’t give up if things get tough – keep pushing forward and eventually you’ll achieve your goals.
