If you have offspring with a music degree, please will you tell me what career they are in now

[Upsamasiylazy]

Help needed for DC who will (hopefully) have a Music (performance) degree in a few months but has no idea what jobs to be looking for or, indeed, what area they want to work in. Realistically they feel the chances of playing their instrument professionally are slim - we’re talking pop rather than classical etc. Has no idea what field to be looking towards, advice from the Uni is to network and something will come along. Easier said than done. Is not in favour of more education but might be talked round if something really appeals. Doesn’t want to teach, do music therapy or anything like that. Would like something in ‘the industry’ but competition is fierce.

Anyway, I said I’d ask on here to see what any Mumsnetter’s kids have done with their degrees.

Thanks!

NC as outing.

My son did a similar degree at Salford ten years ago and went on to study a Masters in composing for film and TV at film school. He now co-owns a music sampling library business that's doing well and writes music for TV.

All of his friends at uni are now working in music to some extent though COVID did hit them hard. His best friend worked on cruise ships until COVID and now books musicians onto cruise ships. He was the bandleader and got to choose his band.

Where did your son study? What did previous students go on to do?

I don't have offspring with music degrees but I know some of DC's friends do.
One is in the army. Another in a retail management scheme. One works in a coffee shop and does a bit of performing but doesn't earn a living.

Those I know mostly teach, but they're more classical instruments.

I was chatting to a young classical music graduate at an event and he had enrolled in some sort of coding course to learn how to code.

I’ve a friend who did - worked on cruise ships for a long time, now teaches overseas

Again, not offspring. But one of my friends, with both a batchelor’s degree in music and masters degree in a music related subject, is a train driver.

Amongst people close to me with music degrees, one has a music performance degree and is now an account manager for one of the companies that sells licensing rights for music, so when a company wants to use a song for an advert for example. Another is a chef full time (not in restaurants) but teaches at a rock school at the weekend. Another is a music teacher primarily.

My brother has an English BA but a Masters in music composition. He is a music teacher in a secondary school and also is a form tutor for a Year 8 class. He also composes and performs in a couple of groups in his spare time though, he doesn't quite have the time to do as much serious composition as he'd like. He does enjoy the teaching though.

We also had a trainee at work (law firm) who had a BA in music and had done a law conversion course afterwards.

Not offspring. An ex-BF. He did a Masters after his undergrad music degree. He got into the media, starting out writing concert reviews for peanuts while still at Uni. He now writes, talks and presents on music for national press, BBC radio and some TV. He’s not exactly a household name, but well known and respected in those circles.

@Upsamasiylazy what instrument is it that your DC plays? I'm a recent music grad, and although a lot of friends weren't good enough to play 'professionally' (i.e. major orchestras, session work, glastonbury), the reality is that lots of them have been able to make a living from performing, for example, playing with function bands, in pit bands for musicals, playing for weddings. (They've sometimes combined this with a 'daytime' job while playing work builds up). They could also ask around friends on the same course and see if any them fancy teaming up to make a group for e.g. wedding gigs. The other route that a lot of friends have gone down is music admin, but this has tended to be more classical (and often London) based, for example interning with a major orchestra and then taking on an outreach role. Are they definitely set on not teaching? When faced with the prospect of an office job or teaching, I decided to try teaching and actually really enjoyed! Means you actually spend your day making/hearing music rather than staring at a computer screen...

Oh, and two friends. Both music teachers now. One in a private secondary school with a strong emphasis on music and he runs their orchestra, the other teaches music in special schools

DS graduated with a BMus in 2021. He wanted to go into music management or administration but realised during COVID how precarious a living that can be. Worked as a teaching assistant for a year then joined the civil service, currently an executive officer in private office.
Music is his love but as a hobby only. It's a well regarded degree though and opens many doors - I believe a high number of lawyers have music as their first degree.
Good luck to your DS.

Extended family member. Teaches music in deprived area schools where there is a special grant to introduce children to music. Plays keyboard in a band. Plays at weddings when couple arrive to hotel in the background. And others things l can't remember. Some private lessons l think.
So overall he loves all the jobs but it hasn't been possible to do one specific thing.

He is graduated about 5 years.

I have two acquaintances who did Music at degree level. They’re both solicitors.

Not a DC but a close friend and DP both did music related degrees. DP has an entirely unrelated corporate job now and music doesn't really play any part in his current hobbies or life.

Close friend persevered for several years post graduation, did a masters in music production and then did another degree (English literature), masters, PhD and went down the teaching and academic route, where they still are now. They still spend a lot of free time involving themselves in the musical community, just as a hobby - production, usually in some band or other and so on.

What A levels do they have? There are tons of tech grad schemes out there that aren’t specific about degree, they just require an aptitude for maths/logic. Then they could move into the music industry later with new skills in software or engineering.

My brother has a music degree. He is in a band and does gigs in the weekend. During the week he works (very) part time as a guitar tutor. He doesn't earn much I don't think.

None of my children but a close friend of one (she has gone into law).

My children's father did a music degree and is a music teacher and organist.

Friend ‘s DD has a music degree and now works as a civil servant in the Cabinet Office.
Son has several friends with music degrees some are in orchestras, some teach and one is a successful composer.

There are a lot of jobs in music which are not performing. Suggest he checks out Arts Professional Jobs or Arts Council Arts Jobs for an idea of what's out there.

My friend has a music degree and he composes music for film scores/tv shows/computer games.

People I know with music qualifications
One works as a primary teacher (although also has choir responsibility and plays music at assemblies, concerts etc)
One is a peripatetic music teacher (violin, cello and piano)
One did a music tech masters and works in an opticians (non grad level job)
One is a sound engineer for big name venues and festivals, and occasional session musician/touring musician including for bands and artists you've definitely heard of.

My husband has a music performance degree. He now works in a university as a photography technician 😅

Me - I'm the graduate!

So - first few years, in a specialist music shop that made the instruments we sold. After a couple of years slog I earned the best money of my career to date there, did a lot of international travel promoting with artists and trade fairs etc. I got to go to Russia, China, all of Europe, the States - I definitely miss the travel. It's a much maligned profession to work in retail, but we dealt with the very best pro musicians so it was quite an unusual environment and I'm proud of it.

I kind of believed in the 'art' of music and wanted to work more in outreach and charity aspect. So then I moved into managing events at a small charity arts venue and cut my pay by two thirds to do so (it did music, visual arts, classical, pop, loads of education work). This demanded all hours of my life (I'd kind of thought naively the bad pay would mean not too hard work and I'd look at doing a PhD on the side - that went out the window!). But I really absolutely loved the community of musicians and artists that work at events venues, and the charity environment sat better with me.

I did unfortunately see the volatility of live events there and got really spooked by redundancies as a fairly regular occurrence due to successive government funding cuts (and as I was getting a bit older this mattered more) so I'm now... training to be an accountant!!! I'm employed in a bigger arts events charity and want to work in charity finance going forward. It can be a bit boring but it's solid and I have regular hours without the weekends and evenings, and I'm still surrounded by musicians and artists. Within my accounts team my manager did a music degree, one did a history of art degree and one came straight out of college - so you really can do anything!