6 Music Industry Jobs: How Much Money You Can Make

This is a list of 6 music industry jobs along with brief job descriptions, as well as the estimated salary ranges. Whether you decide to work exclusively as a music artist or to also take on a music industry job, the choice is yours, we're here to give you as many options as possible!

1) Recording Engineer

Salary Range: $25,000 - $100,000+

A recording engineer (or audio engineer) captures sounds. This studio lab rat mixes, edits, works with digital audio and analog as needed, and much more. Imagine being in studio sessions all the time with producers and artists and helping them record some amazing music as well as editing it. 

2) Artist Manager

Salary Range: $50,000 - $1 Million+

The CEO of an Artist's team, the manager works with booking agencies, record labels, publishing companies, press, publishing companies, tour managers, press, marketing,  merch, etc to move the artist forward.

This is a very intensive job and you will literally have the careers of artists in your hands. This is for someone who is creative, a good deal maker, communicator, marketer, salesperson, and so on. 

3) Tour Manager

Salary Range: $500 - $5000+ per week

The tour manager is in charge of logistics on the road with a traveling DJ or Music Artist(s). The role includes travel, hospitality, logistics of the show itself, as well as coordinating with management, booking agents, tour venues, and more. It's as much a job as it is a lifestyle in many ways. 

 4) Booking Agent

Salary Range: $10,000 - $100,000+ Per Act

The booking agent runs a roster of touring artists, organizes shows and tour runs, works with venues and event promoters, in addition to the artist and management, of course. You can get into this career either by representing artists directly and building a roster from scratch or working in the lower ranks of an existing booking agency and work your way up.

5) Publicist 

$500 - $10,000 Per Client Per Month

Music PR Professionals represent a wide range of clients including music producers and artists, music tech companies, venues, ticketing companies, and more. They work on music releases, news announcements to the media, etc. Most recently these people have begun to "work the music" itself by pitching spotify playlists, organizing campaigns with influencers and Tik Tokers, and more. This role is evolving and a lot of fun. Many people also tell us it's a proper grind. 

6) Video Game Composer

$30,000 - $75,000+ per project

A video game composer scores the sound track to a video game including themes for each character. This is similar to what other types of music composers do for example composing trailers for movies, scoring movie soundtracks, etc. Except you're specific to the video game world. This is a great niche if you can ride out the times when you're not working. It can also be a part-time role in conjunction with everything else you're doing as a music producer or songwriter.

I hope this info helps you as you travel your music journey.

Denis Hiller, Label Manager, NoFace Records. Send your unsigned electronic music to [email protected]