Music artist (occupation)

A music artist is a person who composes, records, and releases music, often through a record label or independently. Working as a music artist requires long training, either in music school or through gaining experience and physical conditioning and practicing to maintain and improve musical skills.

Music artists often face intermittent periods of unemployment, long nights in the studio, and frequent travel to performance venues. They also typically must deal with income uncertainty due to competition for places in bands or performance venues. Though a risky profession, it is one of the most over-saturated occupations. While many musicians are only known within their city or region, some music artists, depending on public reception and appreciation of their work, go on to achieve celebrity status. Music artists sometimes live erratic, nomadic lifestyles.

Music artists are paid differently than most conventional occupations. Music artists are part of the entertainment field and the musicians union does set lowests wage rates plus what each instrument gets paid within a group to orchestra. They are like craftsmen of a trade contracted as any other self-employed career person. Contracts maybe for a year as part of an orchestra to a single concert or party performance. Instead of receiving a wage from a single employer, music artists have income streams—different avenues the music artists receive compensation through.

When a musician plays a live show, whether at a local pub or a stadium, they are paid for their performance. Musicians negotiate many different types of revenue-sharing arrangements with the venue, ranging from a normal flat fee to a non professional contracted percentage of ticket sales. Most professional musicians may choose to work full-time making a substantial income for each hours performance. Like actors in the entertainment field musicians have their own local workers union. The amount through negoitation increases once the musician becomes known for their professional talent playing their instrument(s) often winning national awards in the music recording industry.

Many instrumental musicians and singers also teach students or coach other up-and-coming professionals. Teaching may be done privately or through a music school, college or university or even online. This is a supplemental income source to a full-time professional musicians career in the music recording field.

Songwriters and publishers make most of their money from mechanical royalties. Mechanical royalties are the payment for the distributed copies.

At the end of each quarter (end of every March, June, September and December), songwriters and publishers receive a check from their record label for calculated mechanical royalties. Mechanical royalties were once the main revenue source for songwriters and publishers, but as record sales have decreased due to piracy and alternate distribution methods, this is no longer the case.

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