Making it into the music business as an artist is tougher than you would expect from most of the other industries. The challenging path to becoming a successful stage performer is laid with many hurdles that seem too difficult to cross, and not everyone can make it.
While that is true, most people tend to forget that there is more to the music industry than just center stage performances. From a music therapist to a sound technician, there is an array of other laid-back career paths you can take as a musician. Some of these are discussed below.
Music Teacher
The easiest job you can do as a certified musician is to become a high-school or private music teacher. The greatest gift you can give to society is by sharing your acquired knowledge on a subject matter. And what better way to do this than to teach music to a bunch of students for a living?
You can give basic guitar or private piano lessons to middle-school kids or teach music theory to a fresher. You will be at complete liberty to choose the age group that you want to teach. Each age group has its own pros and cons so it really just depends on which age group you can handle better than the other.
To be able to get a job at a school or college, you would be required to have proper certifications as proof of your proficiency in music. The salary usually depends on how experienced you are, but a fair estimate would be between $30,000-$70,000 for a public school music teacher. As a private music instructor, you can decide on a tuition fee depending on the experience you have.
Music Therapist
Most of the people affiliated with music do not know who a music therapist is. A music therapist is a fantastic way of making your skills useful in easing people’s problems. A perfect blend of social work that you can make a good living out of.
The work of a music therapist involves using their music to aid patients in improving their mental, emotional and physical well-being by helping them relax through calming music. You can look for vacancies for music therapists in a hospital or a social organization that deals with patients who require soul calming therapy. You must have a bachelor’s degree in music therapy for you to take on this role.
Instrumentalist
Another great way to make it as a musician is to become an instrumentalist. To become a successful instrumentalist, you must have vast expertise in playing multiple instruments up to their absolute perfection. You need to be well-versed in music theory and know how to play different music genres.
As an instrumentalist, you can either join a band and play in live concerts or play at social events and gatherings as a freelance musician. If you’re talented and lucky enough, you may even break into the film industry and play instruments at reality shows or record your instrumental music for movies.
Sound Engineering Technician
The job of a sound engineering technician revolves around adjusting the sound system to produce sounds at optimum frequencies and maintain their quality. A sound engineering technician is needed at live concerts and theatres more often than for music recordings. They need to produce the desired effect and sound at the right instances during a live performance.
You also need to be able to work with different sound operating equipment such as digital and analog audio, microphones, compressors, and signal flow, to name a few. As an engineering technician, you must also be able to fix any technical problems should they arise.
With enough experience and expertise, you can even climb up the ladder to work as a lead sound technician in movie productions. Your role here would be to synchronize music and sound effect with the dialogues in the movie.
The job of a sound engineering technician isn’t easy. It requires advanced skills along with precision, determination, and utmost dedication that would render it possible for you to produce high-quality audio.
Artist/Band Manager
All the successful bands or artists you see all have behind them an often forgotten force that has pushed them into the limelight. An artist manager is a hand behind an artist’s success. They exist to expose the artist to multiple opportunities in the music business and connect and bring their music out to the world.
From organizing meetings between publishers to negotiating contracts with the producers, an artist manager has to go all out in making sure his artist runs on the top charts. To be able to make your artist known to the world through proper management and directing is what will decide your worth as an artist manager. Usually, the artist manager gets 10-15% of the artist’s income. For a super successful artist, you can even earn up to $10,000,000 per year!
Although becoming a successful music artist is difficult, it’s not impossible. If you’ve got what it takes, with your skills and talent, you can become the next Justin Bieber of the decade. However, if you aren’t set for a goal as high, you can easily make a considerably good income through the careers mentioned above. Remember, a music producer, composer, and songwriter is only as important to a good music video as is the singer.
