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🎨 Creative & Media
Music & Audio
Make or engineer music. Mostly self-built.
Entry earning
$25k
Gigging musician / intern
Senior tier earning
$250k+
Top 1%
Top earners in this field go well above this. Senior tier is a common landing point, not a ceiling.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook
Words with a dotted underline are industry terms. Hover or tap for a plain-English definition.
What the job actually looks like
Musicians and audio engineers either perform for a living (touring, studio sessions) or record and mix music for other artists, podcasts, games, and film. Most income is freelance and uneven.
Paths inside the field
Pick a branch to retrace the arc
Click any specialization. The timeline and salary curve above update to match.
The full arc
How this career unfolds
Gigging musician / intern
Working pro
Session / Touring / Producer
Top 1%
Extremely variable
Surprising fact
Audio engineers working in tech (game audio, podcasts, AR/VR) out-earn most touring musicians with far more stability.
Lifestyle & optionality
The day-to-day reality
Typical hours
Variable/wk
Moderate
Very high
Moderate
Moderate
Location is a gate
A full-time music career usually means relocating to a hub city. Genre matters: Nashville for country, LA for pop and film scoring, NYC for classical and jazz.
Where this is heading
10-year outlook
Projected job growth (2023 to 2033)
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
AI and automation risk
The job will exist but look fundamentally different in 10 years.
Tailwinds
- Live music and sync licensing still strong
Headwinds
- AI-generated music flooding stock/background markets
- Streaming payouts still minuscule
Real wages vs. inflation
Real earnings extremely variable; median flat to negative.
Two ways in
Education paths & payback
Standard route
Self-taught + gear
Total cost
$8.0k
Length
2 yrs
How we calculate it: total education cost ÷ (15% of first-year pay put toward paying it back).
Standard route
Berklee / conservatory
Total cost
$240k
Length
4 yrs
How we calculate it: total education cost ÷ (15% of first-year pay put toward paying it back).
The real cost will be different for you
The numbers above are medians from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The price you actually pay depends on financial aid, scholarships, family help, state residency, and which schools accept you. A "$250k" private university is often $60k to $120k after aid. A "cheap" community college can still be out of reach without a plan. Use these as a starting point, then get real quotes from the specific schools you're considering.
Location matters
How pay changes by metro
Pay differs by about 20-35% across the country. Cost of living often cancels most of it.
| Metro | Pay at Session / Touring / Producer |
|---|---|
San Francisco Bay Area, CA | $128k |
New York City, NY | $124k |
Seattle, WA | $116k |
Boston, MA | $112k |
Washington, DC | $111k |
Los Angeles, CA | $109k |
Denver, CO | $101k |
Chicago, IL | $99k |
Austin, TX | $98k |
Atlanta, GA | $93k |
Dallas–Fort Worth, TX | $92k |
Phoenix, AZ | $89k |
Nashville, TN | $87k |
Indianapolis, IN | $84k |
Rural / small metro | $74k |
How to read this: Pay is US median for Session / Touring / Producer scaled by BLS metro wage data. Cost of living index is C2ER (US avg = 100). A means that metro isn't just paid better. It's essentially required to work at the top of this field.
Start now
What you can do in high school
Classes & electives
- Art
- Graphic Design
- Photography
- Creative Writing
Things to try outside class
- Start building a portfolio. Projects matter more than grades here
- Post work publicly (Behance, Dribbble, Instagram, TikTok)
- Enter local or national art/writing competitions
- Freelance small gigs for friends, family, or local businesses
Read, listen, watch
The cheapest way to find out whether you actually like a field is to read what people in it read.
- 'Steal Like an Artist' by Austin Kleon and 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield
- 'Show Your Work' by Austin Kleon (how to build an audience while you learn)
- Creative Boom and It's Nice That (daily design / illustration)
- Design Matters with Debbie Millman (interviews with working creatives)
None of this is required. It's just the lowest-friction way to find out if you actually like this kind of work before you commit money or time.
Salary and progression source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (bls.gov/ooh). Figures are medians or typical ranges in today's dollars; real outcomes vary by employer, city, and specialty.