As my daughter gets closer to graduating college, I admit I lose way more sleep than Id like to wondering what will happen after she graduates.
I have recently developed a “worst case scenario” that usually puts my mind at ease at least long enough for me to fall asleep. Lol
She is not in Jazz, but Pop /Rock. ( I find more in common with the Jazz world than the classical. )
That “worst case scenario” is actually not all that bad and probably pretty common among musicians.
Currently, she teaches private lessons in a studio. I assume she could easily double her students when she is not in school anymore, since she only keeps 10 hours open for lessons per week. She can also command higher pay (as set by the studio) after she has her degree.
She currently gets about 50-60 gigs per year. Most are in the summer because 1) opportunity (local festivals and summer events) and 2) it’s hard to gig when college takes up 50-60 hours a week of your time. Also, she is not yet 21 and her group has to turn down a lot of much higher paying gigs because she cannot legally be in the venues.
So we know how many contracts she has, how many she could have, and about how much the pay is…
Out comes the calculator and even estimating on the low side, I figure she can at least afford to move out! Success! Ha ha!
Actually, it is better pay than many of the colleges we visited are claiming their grads make, so I guess I can’t complain. I think most of us expect music careers to either be feast or famine (emphasis on famine). I worry most about lack of health insurance, but there will be a few years to figure that out. Our health plan does not cost any more with her on it so no problem to keep until 26.
Anyway, I think we’re all looking for some reassurance sometimes. And this isn’t a “my kids got a record deal and headed to LA” dream come true story. This is just a music kid hustling for gigs and teaching some lessons and not starving to death. Hopefully that will bring comfort to any of my fellow worry warts.
@compmom I have a lot of thoughts on family and women trying to make it in many careers but music seems especially cruel. Women have a much shorter timeframe for peak earnings and my daughter seems aware. I think it motivates her to do as much as she can NOW - even while still in school and being absolutely exhausted most of the time. We’ve discussed ways that her career will likely need to evolve as she ages. It’s not a fun ( or fair ) conversation to have and I’ll leave it at that. My D is a music business major with a couple of minors, so I do feel like that may help her transition into a “still in music but less performance” career if/when the time comes.