Music artists are one of the happiest careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, music artists rate their career happiness 4.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 2% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy music artists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Music producer | 4.3 | $34k |
| Lyricist | 4.3 | $26k |
| Singer | 4.3 | $7k |
| Music artist | 4.3 | $20k |
| Performer | 4.2 | $13k |
| Composer | 4.2 | $33k |
| Choreographer | 4.2 | $5k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are music artists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do music artists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as music artists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are music artist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are music artists making the best use of their abilities?
Are music artists happy with their salary?
Music artists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Music artists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked music artists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
265 music artists
20% of music artists rated their compensation 5 stars
13% of music artists rated their compensation 4 stars
17% of music artists rated their compensation 3 stars
20% of music artists rated their compensation 2 stars
29% of music artists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do music artists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, music artists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 4.2/5. Unlike many careers, music artists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become music artists.
We asked music artists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
4.2 out of 5 stars
278 music artists
55% of music artists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
27% of music artists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
11% of music artists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
4% of music artists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
4% of music artists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as music artists?
Music artists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.3/5. The majority of music artists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked music artists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.3 out of 5 stars
304 music artists
58% of music artists rated their career fit 5 stars
26% of music artists rated their career fit 4 stars
10% of music artists rated their career fit 3 stars
3% of music artists rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of music artists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a music artist’s work environment?
As a whole, music artists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 4.1/5. A solid majority of music artists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a music artist.
We asked music artists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
303 music artists
51% of music artists rated their work environment 5 stars
24% of music artists rated their work environment 4 stars
15% of music artists rated their work environment 3 stars
7% of music artists rated their work environment 2 stars
3% of music artists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are music artists making the best use of their abilities?
Former music artists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 4.1/5. Most music artists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a music artist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked music artists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
306 music artists
51% of music artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of music artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
14% of music artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
7% of music artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
3% of music artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars