How To Become A Professional Musician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a professional musician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dianna Campbell

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a professional musician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.67 an hour? That's $55,483 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 6,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a professional musician?

Dianna Campbell

Professor of music, Seminole State College of Florida

Be flexible as to your application of the degree. Be willing to start small for higher aspirations in the end. You may never be financially wealthy, but your life will be more precious for your pursuit of passion.

ScoreProfessional MusicianUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $55,483

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 5.46%

Black or African American 9.86%

Hispanic or Latino 12.94%

Unknown 5.08%

White 66.48%

Gender

female 17.75%

male 82.25%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.8

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a professional musician

Explore professional musician education requirements

Most common professional musician degrees

Bachelor's

66.5 %

Associate

11.3 %

Master's

9.6 %

Start to develop specific professional musician skills

Skills	Percentages
Live Performances	16.78%
Music Venues	7.34%
Music Theory	6.22%
Songwriting	5.77%
Keyboard	5.44%

Research professional musician duties and responsibilities

Accomplish placement in first group clarinet section.
Play drums, percussion keyboard instruments, tympani, and ethnic percussion.
use of rolland, yamaha, instruments, composing music.also taken courses on songwriting and acapella.also musis theory and philosphy.
Compose and write own original copyright music/tablature; release one EP and one full length LP (studio album).

Prepare your professional musician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your professional musician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a professional musician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable professional musician resume templates

Build a professional professional musician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your professional musician resume.

Apply for professional musician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a professional musician job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do professional musicians rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Professional musician reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2022

Pros

I have fun and I like to sing and playing guitar and see people and travel around the world

Cons

nothing at all love it

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2021