What UK musicians earn from music (not much)
NewsA census by the charity Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union finds that more than half of the musicians in a pioneering survey depend on other income sources to stay alive.
Of 6,000 musicians who took part in the survey, 70% had a university degree, 50% in music specifically.
The study finds that musicians in the UK earn on average £20,700 a year from music work. Some 43% earning less than £14,000 a year.
Many have heavy overheads – citing 30% of their outgoings for cost of equipment, 27% for transport, 18% for further training.
They should do a survey as to the average income of musicians by ethnicity. Reflecting the country’s woke values and ceaseless promotion of so called diversity, it will clearly turn out black musicians earn far more than the rest. Asian musicians right at the bottom due to so many of them.
you really think the UK is a woke country? really? the one that wants to stop the small boats?
Confidently predicting the results of an imaginary survey is the complete opposite of ‘observing’.
You seem so sure of yourself, especially in your deluded definition of “woke”. Care to put up some data to back up your baseless statement?
Oh really? What’s your definition of woke then?
In this modern world, it is easier to get granted a career if you happen to be black. Common knowledge. Because of all this wokeness.
sounds like you failed at a career and are mad about it
You don’t know what you’re talking about! https://blim.org.uk/report/
One of the benefits of the over supply of talent (evidence low rates of pay) is the obnoxious tend to get weeded out. Get much work, do you, “Observing”?
You’ll certainly be weeded out…unless you’re of a certain skin colour, in which case you’re here to stay and showered with praise.
The delusion is impressive…
I’m observing you are clearly deluded…get a grip.Nobody makes much money as music is seen as something with little value by our society and goverment.
No unless you’re of a certain ethnicity which I referred to in my initial comment. Because they are getting far more gigs and promotion compared to the rest of us. Due to ‘diversity and wokism’.
It’s ok everyone, I’m sure Observing was on here ten years ago complaining that musicians of colour get fewer gigs and paid less because of their skin colour. They’re only interested in things being fair for everyone. Right…??
You are…….so deluded. As one who participates in and attends a huge number of performances every year, I can assure you the number of white faces in the UK arts scene still disproportionately outweighs those belonging to BAME performers. So my hypothesis is this. You’re a sad little person, who is triggered by seeing anyone black on stage or doing something you seem to think you can do better. But actually, if you could do better, you’d be there instead of them. And because you: a) cannot accept this, and b) struggle to come up with any reasonable attempt at constructing an intelligent argument, you parrot GB news and Talk TV with all their devisive crap about ‘wokeness’. Well I’m sorry. But the fact is, you are objectively wrong. I welcome your attempt to correct me.
Peace out, and it’s my prayer for you that you wake up tomorrow with a little less hate and anger in you.
What’s delusional? The fact I turn on bbc proms on tv, and the majority of it features people of black ethnicity…presenters, commentators, performers, composers….one would think the history of classical music actually originated with black people. Now to me, that’s delusional.
And shove that Florence Price off my screen – awful, unimaginative music that’s seen the light of day purely because of the composer’s skin colour, not musical prowess. Shove her back into obscurity where she belongs.
What’s delusional is that when I turn on the BBC and the Proms, I see the opposite of what you see. I think your eyes need operating on.
And hey, if you really really think that your opinions on meritocracy are correct, how about you put your money where your mouth is and share a link on this thread with your music, and we’ll see just who belongs on the classical music stage.
My God…….you’re not delusional. You’re just a liar! Because you’re telling objective untruths. Then I’ve lost what little sympathy I had for you.
I have a friend who’s been working the same side-gig as the hatted guy in the photo! He recently bought himself a million-dollar home — for CASH!!!
So just how much are players in the top London orchestras paid? The LSO, LPO, RPO etc? How do those salaries compare to the American Big Five or places like Berlin, Vienna? Just wondering.
Top london orchestras aren’t even salaried, they get a daily rate of £200 approximately and their contracts stipulate that they can take on as many or as few of these as they wish beyond a certain minimum. I have it on good authority that the best paid job is for Covent Garden, where a principal player can earn about 60k a year. Otherwise, the symphonic groups get paid somewhere between 30-40k a year. You might think “well gee that’s a whole lot better than being a barista”, but in real terms their earnings are a bit less than this because they get paid per service rather than an annual salary (as you would in Europe). In Europe it varies, although most figures have it around the mid-50K euros per year.
In America however, base rate for the LA Philharmonic was last quoted at 160k per year, even after conversion this is significantly more, possibly triple the salary of a UK orchestral musician.
And we consider ourselves to be part of the elite…. what a sorry state of affairs.
£200? Speaking as a rank and file freelancer, it’s pretty rare we get that much. I couldn’t quote exact numbers to you but it’s well known in the industry that we are paid far less than our counterparts in Western Europe and an enormous amount less than the top US orchestras. We also have much less rehearsal time – I’m normally booked for between 3-12 hours rehearsal for a gig (sometimes none), whereas in the other countries I mentioned before they rehearse for the best part of week – this will of course mean a higher fee per project (not to mention less stress!)
I’ve done both the UK and American gigging systems and I can tell you that by comparison, the American one is far more favourable to the musicians for all of the points you mentioned. More rehearsal time on a single program per week means that by concert day there’s more security in the interpretation. I’ve played UK gigs where it felt extremely under-rehearsed and by extension, lacking in any kind of artistic vision. It was also the case once where with the same orchestra over here I played 3 late different late night programs over 3 consecutive days, at which point I just ended up collapsing on day 4 when we had to rehearse for the next patch. America is not a pleasant country to live in for many reasons, and the pay by comparison to cost of living is still meagre, but at the very least musicians there don’t get exhausted beyond functionality.
Im much happier in my office job now, playing on an amateur basis for fun.
Interesting question. To which the answer is: LSO, LPO, and RPO are all non-salary, freelance contracts. The rates are dictated by the ABO/MU Category 1 agreement. This can be found on the MU website. Covent Garden and the BBC CO/SO have salaries, the scale of which is available on their own separate MU agreement pages, all of which can be found with a quick Google. They don’t stack up against Europe and the US very well, it must be said.
However, I think this article refers to figures averaged out by the majority of musicians being freelancers, like myself, who have a far more variable income due to the nature of the current gig economy. Hope that helps.
As an active AFM member here in NY, I’ve been aware for years re the funding or lack of it in London orchestras. I’m amazed that so many UK posters on this website lack this knowledge.
Speaking as an American expat to the UK, I can attest to some reasons why this may be. The musicians themselves are unaware of the dire situation they’re in.
UK classical music institutions are only ever focussed on propping themselves up, and in so doing they both actively discourage their own musicians from looking for opportunities abroad, AND lock out outsiders from looking for opportunities within.
Speaking for myself, the invitations to audition for orchestras are disproportionately from Europe and North America, with UK orchestras turning around a 100% decline rate. More power to me, I suppose, when the orchestras I am invited to pay twice the rate of a London group and come with employment benefits.
To be paid so poorly as a musician and to still believe that your country is the greatest epicentre for work opportunities, the artistic management system here must have a hell of a chokehold on the industry. It’s really too bad, I listen to old LSO recordings and marvel at the sound and passion. Industry leaders need to step up and advocate for more, otherwise expect a brain drain of young talent to the continent and no more LSO.
You are not comparing like for like as non of the orchestras you mention are “ salaried” and not the best paid orchestral players in London.
As a non – musician, but one who has studied statistics and sampling, this short report didn’t explain anything about how the respondents were selected. I’ll skip the boring bits to say what screams out is the 50% with a music degree. If we were to look at successful musicians from the past, I’d find it difficult to believe that the members of the Arctic Monkeys, or, Oasis has university degrees in music. I suspect that contemporary examples of such bands would be the same. This sampling bias makes the headline a bit suspect.
“Musicians on our list who replied to our request are not paid very much” would be more accurate.
I get what you’re saying about how the respondents were chosen (I responded – from what I remember the MU sent out an email about it), but the point you’re making seems a bit contradictory. You seem to be suggesting that a music degree would somehow lead to one earning less money as a professional musician…? The bands you mention, whilst obviously huge earners, are obviously outliers statistically – most of us didn’t fall into Dane and fortune at an early age but instead have slogged our way through higher education and training programmes to get where we are, same as any other job I guess…