When you imagine a career in music, what comes to mind?
Maybe you picture a singer onstage, an orchestra musician, or a music teacher. Those are certainly music careers. But for this article, we’re going to look everywhere except the stage.
Behind the scenes, the music world depends on thousands of people with very different skills. Some write computer code. Others design microphones, repair instruments, mix concerts, work with patients, record movie dialogue, build speakers, create sound effects, or study the science of hearing.
Some write computer code. Others design microphones, repair instruments, mix concerts, work with patients, record movie dialogue, build speakers, create sound effects, or study the science of hearing.
A love of music can lead in some surprising directions.
Recording and Music Production
Behind every recording is a collection of people combining musical knowledge with technical skills.
Recording engineers use microphones, audio interfaces, mixing consoles, and recording software to capture performances. Mixing engineers shape those recordings by adjusting levels, placement, equalization, effects, and other details. Finally, mastering engineers prepare completed recordings for release.
Music producers may have an even broader role. Depending on the project, they might help choose songs, shape arrangements, coach performances, create sounds, or guide the overall direction of a recording.
In addition, studios need technicians, editors, assistants, and other professionals to keep the entire process moving.
Live Sound and Concert Production
You don’t have to be performing to have an important job at a concert.
A front-of-house audio engineer controls what the audience hears. Meanwhile, a monitor engineer creates the mixes musicians hear onstage through speakers or in-ear monitors.
Audio technicians set up and operate microphones, speakers, cables, wireless systems, mixing consoles, and other equipment.
Beyond sound, there are lighting designers, stage technicians, production managers, and many other people working together to create a live event.
These professionals aren’t limited to concert venues, either. They also work in theaters, schools, churches, convention centers, sports arenas, festivals, and theme parks.
A/V and Event Technology
The broad field of A/V, or audiovisual technology, combines sound with video, lighting, projection, displays, streaming, and communications equipment.
An A/V technician might set up microphones and projectors for a conference one day and operate video screens at a large event the next.
In addition, some professionals specialize in system integration. They design and install systems that allow microphones, cameras, speakers, displays, computers, and control equipment to work together.
Modern A/V also overlaps heavily with computers and networking. As a result, it can be an interesting possibility for someone who enjoys both technology and sound.
Film, Television, Podcasts, and Broadcasting
Think about the last movie or television show you watched. Almost everything you heard required someone to record, create, edit, or mix it.
Production sound mixers capture dialogue during filming. Boom operators position microphones near actors while keeping them outside the camera frame.
Later, sound editors work with dialogue, music, ambience, and effects. Foley artists recreate everyday sounds such as footsteps, clothing movement, doors, or objects being handled. Eventually, other specialists bring all those pieces together into the final soundtrack.
Beyond film and television, radio, sports broadcasts, podcasts, and livestreams create even more careers involving microphones, recording, editing, mixing, and transmission technology.
Video Games and Interactive Audio
Video games add another possibility.
Unlike music in a movie, game audio may need to change according to what a player does. Music might become more intense during a battle or transition when a character enters a new location.
Game audio designers create and organize sounds for these interactive worlds. Audio programmers develop systems that determine how and when those sounds play.
Game composers may also work closely with programmers and sound designers to create music that responds to gameplay.
Together, these careers create a fascinating intersection of music, storytelling, technology, and computer programming.
Audio Software Engineering
What about all the software musicians and audio engineers use?
Someone has to build that, too.
Audio software engineers develop recording programs, synthesizers, effects, notation software, mobile apps, plug-ins, and other musical tools.
Their work can combine computer science, mathematics, acoustics, and digital signal processing, or DSP. For example, an engineer might create a virtual instrument, develop a new audio effect, improve noise reduction, or design software that recognizes musical pitches.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and machine learning are creating still more areas for research and development in audio technology.
For someone who loves both coding and music, the computer itself can become an instrument.
Audio Hardware Engineering
Other engineers build the physical technology musicians use.
Audio hardware engineers may help design microphones, headphones, speakers, amplifiers, effects pedals, synthesizers, mixing consoles, audio interfaces, wireless systems, or electronic instruments.
Electrical engineers might design circuits, while mechanical engineers could work on the physical construction of a speaker or microphone. Other specialists build and test prototypes.
Some engineers even develop entirely new musical instruments and controllers.
If you’ve ever wondered why a microphone captures sound or how a speaker turns an electrical signal back into something you can hear, audio engineering might be worth exploring.
Acoustics and the Science of Sound
Sometimes the technology isn’t the microphone or speaker. It’s the room itself.
Acoustical engineers and consultants study how sound behaves in physical spaces.
They may help design concert halls, recording studios, theaters, classrooms, offices, or other buildings. Their work can involve controlling echoes, reducing unwanted noise, and making speech or music easier to hear.
At the same time, acoustics extends well beyond music into architecture, transportation, manufacturing, and environmental noise.
It’s a field where physics, engineering, architecture, and music can all meet.
Music Therapy
For some people, music becomes a way to help others.
Music therapists are trained professionals who use music-based experiences to work toward individualized therapeutic goals. Depending on the people they serve, those goals can involve communication, movement, cognition, emotional expression, or social interaction.
Music therapists may work in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation programs, senior communities, mental health settings, and other facilities.
Technology can become part of this work, too. Adaptive instruments, specialized controllers, recording tools, tablets, and assistive technologies can make musical experiences accessible to people with a wide variety of needs and abilities.
In this way, music therapy can combine musical knowledge with fields such as healthcare, psychology, education, and human development.
Hearing, Audiology, and Accessibility
Music can even lead toward the science of hearing itself.
Audiologists specialize in hearing and balance. Researchers study how humans perceive sound, while engineers develop technologies that help people hear and communicate.
For example, their work can involve hearing aids, cochlear implant technology, assistive listening systems, audio accessibility tools, and other devices.
These careers can combine biology, psychology, acoustics, engineering, healthcare, and sound.
Musical Instrument Building and Repair
What if you love instruments almost as much as playing them?
Piano technicians tune, repair, and regulate pianos. Luthiers build and repair string instruments. Band and orchestra repair technicians maintain woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments.
Of course, electronic instruments require another set of skills. Technicians may work with digital pianos, synthesizers, amplifiers, effects pedals, MIDI equipment, and other electronics.
For someone fascinated by both music and taking things apart to see how they work, the workshop might be just as exciting as the stage.
Music Business and Arts Administration
Not every behind-the-scenes music career requires an engineering degree.
The music world also needs people who understand business, communication, organization, and marketing.
Music businesses employ artist managers, booking agents, publicists, marketers, event coordinators, venue managers, music publishers, licensing professionals, and arts administrators.
Record labels, orchestras, music schools, performing arts organizations, festivals, venues, and nonprofit organizations all need people to manage the business side of making music happen.
In fact, even skills such as writing, graphic design, photography, social media, accounting, and event planning can become part of a career connected to music.
Music Education Beyond the Classroom
Teaching music doesn’t always mean becoming a traditional school music teacher.
Private teachers and studio instructors work individually with students. Early childhood music specialists introduce young children to rhythm, singing, movement, and instruments. Community music programs bring instruction to people of different ages and backgrounds.
Beyond teaching lessons directly, other people develop music curricula, write educational materials, create instructional videos, design music-learning software, or work for companies that make educational products.
As a result, music education can overlap with publishing, technology, research, administration, and curriculum development.
Research and New Technology
Some music careers involve creating things that don’t exist yet.
Researchers study subjects such as human hearing, acoustics, music cognition, audio compression, spatial audio, accessibility, music information retrieval, and new ways for people to interact with computers.
Others develop technologies for virtual reality, immersive audio, electronic instruments, music education, or healthcare.
Ultimately, today’s experiment could become tomorrow’s instrument, recording tool, or listening technology.
Where Could Music Take You?
One of the wonderful things about studying music is that you don’t have to know the answer yet.
A musician who loves computers might discover audio programming. Someone fascinated by electronics could design synthesizers. A student who loves theater might discover live sound. Someone interested in healthcare might explore music therapy or audiology. A person who enjoys taking things apart might become an instrument technician.
Your other interests might include physics, gaming, filmmaking, psychology, business, computers, or something entirely different. None of those interests has to compete with your interest in music.
Instead, they might eventually become part of the same career.
So, as you’re learning an instrument, exploring music theory, experimenting with technology, or simply figuring out what parts of music interest you most, keep exploring.
There is a whole world of music careers beyond the stage.