Musician

What musicians make

Read this one carefully. Job Bank reports about $32,867 as both the low and the median, which is the census floor figure it falls back on when there is not enough wage data. The honest picture: music income for most people is a pile of small payments, many musicians earn less than that from music alone, and the $75,000 end means a salaried orchestra chair or steady touring work.

What a gig actually pays

This is an estimate from typical Canadian gig rates, not a Job Bank figure. Union scale for recording and broadcast work pays better, which is why session players join the union.

The realistic top

Orchestra chairs are permanent jobs with benefits and are won by blind audition. There are only a few hundred of them in the whole country.

What it costs to get there

Private lessons from childhood

$30 to $80 an hour, for years. The real cost of this career

University music degree (4 years)

$6,000 to $12,000 a year in tuition

College music or performance diploma (2 years)

$4,000 to $8,000 a year

Instrument and gear

A few hundred dollars to tens of thousands, depending on the instrument

Roughly, all in

$500 to $70,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

No credential is required to work, so the low end is an instrument and nothing else, which is why the floor sits so low. The high end is a four year university music degree at 12,000 a year, serious gear, and years of private lessons at 30 to 80 an hour. A degree matters for orchestral playing, school and studio teaching and further study, and matters very little in popular music. The largest real cost is the years of lessons that usually begin in childhood, which sit outside any tuition figure.

No degree is required to work. A degree matters for orchestral playing, teaching jobs and further study, and matters very little in popular music.

Where music income actually comes from

• Live performance

  Bars, festivals, weddings, corporate events, theatre pit bands, church services.

• Teaching

  Private students or a music school. The steadiest income most musicians have.

• Session and recording work

  Playing on other people's records, advertisements and film scores.

• Royalties

  SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) collects and pays performance royalties when your music is played or streamed.

• Grants

  FACTOR (Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings), Canada Council and provincial arts councils fund recording and touring.

The path

No licence and no exam. Skill, repertoire and a network of people who call you.

1. 1

   Start early

   Age 6 to 14

   Serious players usually begin lessons well before high school. Classical and jazz paths in particular are hard to start late.

2. 2

   High school

   Grades 9 to 12

   Music every year, school ensembles, youth orchestra or a band. Play in front of people constantly.

3. 3

   Training

   0 to 4 years

   A university music degree, a college performance diploma, private study with a strong teacher, or the band-and-basement route. All of these produce working musicians.

4. 4

   Build a working life

   2 to 5 years

   Take every gig, teach, record with other people, get known as reliable. Reliability gets more calls than brilliance.

5. 5

   Specialize or diversify

   Ongoing

   Audition for orchestras, chase session work, build your own act, or combine teaching with performing. Most people do the last one.

High school courses that help

• Music

  Theory, ensemble and performance. Take it every year it is offered.

• Business

  You will be self-employed. Invoices, taxes and contracts are part of the job.

• English

  Grant applications, press material and lyrics.

• Computer studies

  Recording and producing yourself is now standard.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school

0 to 4 of formal study, plus years of practice before that

Admission

Audition for every performance program

Total tuition

$0 to $50,000

Paid while training?

Yes, most students gig and teach through school

No regulation, but there is a union

Anyone can perform for money. The Canadian Federation of Musicians, the Canadian wing of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians), represents musicians on recording, broadcast and orchestral work. It provides contracts, instrument and liability insurance, and help with work permits when you cross the border. It matters most if you do session, film or orchestra work.

Ways musicians make a living work

• Teaching

  Private students, school programs or a music academy. Predictable money that funds everything else.

• Multiple instruments

  Doubling on a second instrument gets you into shows a specialist cannot play.

• Reading music well

  Pit orchestras, session dates and church work all need fast, accurate sight reading.

• Producing and recording

  Making finished tracks yourself means you do not wait for a studio budget.

Nice-to-haves

• A driver's licence and a reliable car

  Gear moves, and gigs are rarely nearby.

• Grant writing

  FACTOR (Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings) and arts council money goes to people who can fill in the forms.

• Basic bookkeeping

  You are a small business. Track income and expenses from the first gig.

• Being easy to work with

  In every scene, the reliable player gets called more than the better player.

Streaming is not the income people think it is

Per-stream payments are tiny, and most of what a recording earns goes to whoever owns the recording. The money musicians actually see from a release comes through performance royalties collected by SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada), plus live shows and merchandise. Writing your own material matters here, because writers keep a share that performers do not.

A typical week

Teach six students on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Rehearse with a band Wednesday. Practise alone every morning, because the instrument does not wait. A recording session Thursday, a wedding Saturday afternoon and a bar gig that night, which means loading gear at 11pm and getting home at 2am. Sunday is a church service. Between all of it: chasing payments and booking the next month.

The honest trade-offs

Work life

Typical hours

Irregular, heavily evenings and weekends

Remote work

Partly, since session work and teaching are often done online now

Physical demand

Moderate, with a real risk of repetitive strain injury

Unionized

Sometimes, through the Canadian Federation of Musicians

Similar paths

• Music TeacherTeach piano, guitar, voice or strings one student at a time. Most music teachers work for themselves.
• ComposerWrite music for film, TV, games, ads and the concert stage. No licence, no gatekeeper, and very little money at the start.
• Sound EngineerRecord, mix and repair sound for music, film, games and live shows. One year of training, then years of ears.

One Canadian organization represents 185,000 music creators

SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) serves more than 185,000 songwriters, composers and publishers, licensing their music and paying out royalties when it is performed or streamed.

Orchestra jobs are won behind a screen

Professional orchestra auditions are usually blind: you play behind a curtain so the panel cannot see who you are. The practice spread after it was shown to change who got hired.

There is public money for making records

FACTOR (Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings) funds Canadian artists, labels and managers for recording, touring and marketing. Many albums you have heard from Canadian acts had a grant behind them.

The union exists because of border paperwork

The Canadian Federation of Musicians helps members with work permits and immigration for cross-border touring, along with instrument insurance and contracts for broadcast and recording work.