Created In Partnership With Open Universities Australia
In an ideal world, musicians and artists would earn a living wage from their work. Often, the reality looks like multiple jobs, gig work, or leading a double life to pursue their dreams.
Between recording costs, touring expenses and unpredictable gig schedules, forging a sustainable music career isn’t easy. But there are ways to keep the dream alive.
For Brisbane-based electronic artist LÂLKA, building a career in music has meant developing skills beyond making and performing music, including marketing through promoting her own work. Guitarist and bassist India Raine has similarly combined her musical practice with podcast editing, record label operations and mentoring. Their experiences highlight the breadth of skills useful in the music industry and why developing them, whether through work, practice, or even further study, can open up new (and much-needed) career possibilities.
“Most independent artists I know all work “regular” jobs just to cover the costs of recording, mixing and mastering their music, paying for distribution and marketing, and then just scraping by once they’ve paid their session musicians and venue hires after a run of shows,” says India Raine. “Then you add on the cost of touring in Australia.”
With the large distances between cities, touring as an independent artist means long hours of travel between shows, with flights and fuel adding to the costs of building a music career.
As a result, many artists are working corporate day jobs to make ends meet. For LÂLKA, the skills she learnt while marketing her music led her to the corporate marketing career she uses to fund her art. “The day job (corporate) funds most of my art, because there is so little to be made from streaming and touring is getting prohibitively expensive,” LÂLKA says.
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“Just like I applied my creative skills to a corporate career, I’m able to apply the business insights I gained from working outside the music industry towards my own creative career. There are always transferable lessons to be learned.”
For some musicians, pairing learned experience with a degree or qualification could be a way to turn the skills they’ve developed creatively into a second career, without having to give up on music. Especially when you can make it work on your terms.
Open Universities Australia partners with Australia’s leading universities and offers access to thousands of online degrees, single subjects, and short courses, all in one place. This means that whether you gained an ATAR or not, there are multiple options available to help your creative career — many that require no entry requirements when applying.
You can even start small with a single subject that builds towards a degree further down the track, which means you don’t need to lock into any big decisions from day one. Open Universities Australia has a team of expert student advisors who offer free and unbiased advice to help you figure it all out, even if you don’t know where to begin. They’ll chat to you about your study goals and career outcomes to help you make an informed decision about the right course for your circumstances.
For some musicians, a degree or qualification can turn the skills they’ve developed creatively into a second career without having to give up music. For example, online study lets you learn flexibly while continuing to work, perform, and create. For someone already working in music, that could mean formalising an existing skill set, while for someone else it could be a chance to explore a completely different industry.
For India Raine, what “making it” as a musician has changed. Rather than chasing one traditional definition of success, the bassist wants to create a career that is financially sustainable while having a positive impact on the people around her.
“I believe now more than ever that ‘making it’ in music means making it work for you,” says India Raine. “To me, ‘making it’ would be being able to travel the world through playing shows and earn money each day while touring to still pay my bills, rent, and have savings. It also looks like making a positive impact on people who then also get out and play music, support the next generation of musicians and support their creative community.”
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It’s also important to remember that needing a supplementary job and income doesn’t mean you’re not a “real” artist. For LÂLKA, having the security of a day job gives her the freedom to self-release her own music.
“The challenges of working a full-time non-music job mean that I have to be very disciplined when it comes to making time for my art. I have made the conscious choice to not have children of my own so that I can spend whatever time I have outside of my day job focusing on my art.”
Ultimately, she sees the day job as part of what allows her to remain independent. “I see my day job as providing me with the funds I need to create art, and doing it this way means I’m not beholden to a record label controlling my output or owning my work.”
There’s no single route to making it as a musician. For some, that might mean turning music-adjacent skills into a second career; for others, it could mean studying something completely new while continuing to make music on the side.
Either way, building a sustainable career doesn’t have to mean giving up on the creative work you’re passionate about. It can mean finding new ways to build on your creative practice while developing the skills and opportunities that support it.
Your headstart into 2027 study starts with Open Universities Australia at open.edu.au
