It's a Great Gig... Career Options in Music

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It’s something we all entertain at some point or another. Either as a passing flight of fancy when we’re a teenager, or we never really lose the passion for it, but a career in music could be over for you as soon as you realise you cannot stretch that little finger far enough to make that full F7 barre chord. But is it all over for your music career? Hardly. There are so many options for those that have the passion, you just need to think about your skills and harness them to your abilities. Here are some options for you.

Be A Music Writer

If writing and literature is a passion you got through hearing about Morrissey talking about Oscar Wilde too much, then you can always put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and write about music. It can be a tough gig, especially as the amount of music publications are decreasing rapidly, but the amount of music blogs and websites are increasing, so you can definitely find a way in by either volunteering at smaller websites to get more work in your portfolio. As for every budding writer, you can find it a hard slog, and for those in any creative profession, I say the trick is to make your own work. In this case, make your own music website. It’s a big task, and you may need to learn about things you never even thought about before (I don’t know many writers that are skilled in building websites and vice versa). But the value in creating your own work will mean that you are increasing your opportunities, people will want to work with you (not just you with them), you are sharpening your own skills, and you are finding a bit more meaning to life. Keep ahead of the curve, and spend every waking moment you can living and breathing music. Be sure to go to current concerts and soak up all the information you can about each scene. It’s a great gig if you have the passion.

Run A Record Label

Likewise, if your passion for music isn’t just skin deep and you are frustrated at the amount of talent that is being passed over in your local area, you might want to start thinking about setting up your own record label. It isn’t as easy as that of course, but a lot of people who set up their own record labels did it out of an urge to bring certain music to the masses. Labels like Factory or Rough Trade brought a huge amount of great music to the wider public knowledge that would likely have been left to rot. Running a record label is a lot of hard graft, from the number crunching of the accounts to the physical gluing of vinyl packaging, and everything in between. The late nights traveling to a small club or dealing with an artistic temperament, there are challenges in every facet of this job. But if you love music, it won't feel like work at all!