Breaking The Record

In the article "Jazz Economics, Audience Research" from NPR Jazz, Jared Jarenwattenananon discusses the fate of young artists seeking a career in the music world.

“Art exerts a powerful and mysterious pull, but it's not immune to economics. If being a jazz artist is so unsustainable, why don't more people weigh the cost-benefit analysis and quit? Why do people keep going into jazz performance studies at record levels, and apparently staying on the scene? An economist might tell you one of two things: the supply curve is high because artists are supplementing their performance income with other pursuits”

“I want to be a musician.”

“Why don’t you look at other options first, then we’ll see. You could be a doctor or a lawyer.”

“I want to be a jazz musician.”

“That’s not practical.”

http://www.princeton.edu
From the article: How Many People Participate
 in Arts and Cultural Activities

This is a common conversation between parents and students who want to play music for the rest of their lives. The words ‘I want to do jazz’ are far from music to the parents ears. Why? No matter how much  we want to convince ourselves otherwise, music isn’t the most economically stable job. You don’t have a steady source of income, there is no way to predict when your next job will be, and even if you go into music education, it doesn’t pay as well as being a neurosurgeon or something “practical”. 

Musicians advise young instrumentalists that if they love or can do anything other than music, do that. They say to only go into music if you couldn’t see yourself doing anything else. The truth of the matter is- being a jazz musician is unsustainable. If this is an undisputable fact, why do people so blatantly ignore every inch of rationality telling them to abandon their love and get a stable job?

Musicians are the most passionate people I know. They could have been scientists or psychiatrists but they chose to contribute to the world by sharing a love so strong that they wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. It’s risky and they’re hardly swimming in income but it doesn’t matter. They have to work other jobs to make up for the lack of consistency in the music field, but it doesn’t matter. Ask any musician you come across and they would say that it is well worth it. They are happier than perhaps any milti-millionaire because they are chasing their passion and to them that is all that matters.

Source:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2009/11/jazz_economics_audience_research_michel_camilo.html