This is a guest post by Addison Cash of Cashville Skyline.
For as long as I can remember, the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do was work in entertainment. I even studied music in college as a way to get closer to it. What I wasn’t aware of is the hundreds of music industry programs pumping out thousands of semi-desperate graduates into the already flooded job market every year.
A Leap of Faith
I moved to Nashville on a whim for an unpaid internship and eventually landed my first job as the marketing coordinator at a record label. My salary was a measly $25,000 per year with health insurance not kicking in until I reached six months of employment. Unfortunately, half of the marketing department was eliminated before I reached that point. This was a tough, but important, lesson to learn at 22 years old.
Moving Forward
After being laid off from my first entertainment industry job and going on several uninspired job interviews, I accepted a position with a temp agency specializing in entry-level positions at a variety of Nashville-based music business companies. I was lucky to land a temp-to-hire receptionist position for $10 per hour at my current company. It was a step down career-wise and financially from my previous gig, but I worked relentlessly, made myself invaluable, and was eventually hired as a full-time assistant with a starting salary of $28,000.
Accepting Reality
Even with the bump in salary to $28,000, I was actually earning less take home pay than my previous job due to an inferior benefits package – 50% of health insurance paid by the company, no dental insurance, and no 401(k). Additionally, I started frequently traveling and working long hours for the job, eliminating any possibility of picking up any type of side hustle.
My low starting salary experiences are not unique. The Berklee College of Music released a Music Salary Guide a couple of years ago, outlining what one could expect to earn in a variety of professions throughout the entertainment industry. Many positions start around just $20,000 per year.
There are several types of people either pursuing a career or working in the entertainment industry: recent graduates who are willing to do anything (including work for free) to get their foot in the door, young professionals struggling to make ends meet (many of whom quit the business after a few years), lifers, and the most talented people who become highly successful and earn a great living (top 5%).
The Lifestyle
I remember sitting in a large room on Music Row with a couple hundred other young entertainment industry professionals. We were participating in a question and answer session with one of Nashville’s most successful booking agents. Someone from the back of the crowd timidly asked for advice on how to achieve a work-life balance. The agent simply replied, “you don’t.”
Working in the entertainment industry is much more than a job; it’s a lifestyle. And that lifestyle certainly isn’t for everyone. When you’ve reached the point that you’re burnt out and exhausted from the low pay, lack of benefits, long hours, lack of sleep, unhealthy lifestyle, and sometimes unreasonable clients is precisely the moment you should get out. If not, you’re just making everyone else’s job more challenging.
Is It Worth It?
No one pursues a career in the entertainment industry to get rich. The most important benefit is building a career that you love. Other perks include free concert tickets, invitations to exclusive parties, access to amazing music before the general public, and unlimited opportunities to be creative. You’ll find some of the hardest working, most enterprising, and brilliant people working all over the business. There are innumerable opportunities to learn and never-ending reasons to continually work at being better. The moment you slack off, a younger, hungrier person is perpetually on standby to do your job for lower pay.
I was recently standing on the side of a stage, watching an unbelievably talented artist who is growing more quickly than even they realize, play their encore to a captivated crowd. Laughter is always a bit muffled and the mix isn’t quite meant for someone listening from backstage, but I acknowledged privately that I was experiencing a special moment in time – an intimate performance of a unique artist that was bound for unbelievable success. The truth is, I felt privileged to be playing even a small role in that artist’s rise to the top.
What about you? Would you pursue a career you’re passionate about even though the hours are long and the pay is low? Please leave a comment below.
Image credit: Addison Cash
Swap ‘entertainment’ for ‘media’ and that’s me. This is why I am leaving publishing, much as I have enjoyed the ride. Doing less work for more money is pretty appealing right now.
I feel you! What type of job are you considering moving to?
I have worked as a theatre professional for the past six years and it has simultaneously been the most incredible and most challenging experience of my life. I have seen the world and also been on the poverty line. Like you said, there is no balance. You basically sacrifice everything to make yourself available for those once in a lifetime opportunities when they come along.
Agreed, Stefanie! There are amazing moments, but also moments I need a good cry.
Addison, I loved that last part that you wrote about – when you were listening to that artist that’s about to hit it big. What a sweet sweet moment 🙂 When I was in college, I actually managed a hip hop crew (ahem, my husband and our friends LoL!) For a second, I thought about artist management as a career, until I sat down with someone who worked for CAA in LA – she was the dejected, “I hate the world” variety and it totally discouraged me from going this route. I don’t know where I would be now had I pursued it.
More power to you! Every job, no matter how much you love it, will have it’s bad moments. If you enjoy what you do and can find joy in it, you’re doing much better than most 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing, Anneli. Maybe The Frugal Weds is a good outlet to re-launch your husband’s hip hop career? It’s never too late! 🙂
I have been in the news business for 10 years. Not fully entertainment, but I can relate. I have enjoyed the ride. I do, however, think it’s time for a new chapter.
I will never fault anyone for chasing their dreams, even if it’s not financially beneficial to them.
I’m sure a career in the news business has been interesting, Mike. There are clearly a ton of parallels between our industries. Best of luck on your next chapter!
While I’m still “sort of” in the industry (video editor but I mostly work on corporate type videos), I did a stint as a movie trailer editor, and even though the pay was good, it STILL wasn’t worth it to me. It almost made me hate movies and I’ve always been a movie buff. I watch people in my industry burn out all the time. Crews that work on TV shows especially because it’s unbelievable long hours, then suddenly they have free time but it’s hard to play catch up with life. I need more daily balance in my life.
The burn out factor is definitely super high in anything entertainment related. I don’t envy those production jobs with day after day of incredibly long hours no matter how good the pay may be.
Wow! Very enlightening. It just shows how it’s either 0 or 100 in that business. I should not be surprised because my son took music production in college and could not get a job in that field after graduating because all they wanted to hire is interns to work for free. Thankfully someone took a chance on him in the software industry, saying well if he can do all the fancy computer audio music production stuff, he must be able to do other software related work. He has never looked back. Now he just does music production as a hobby. I think his biggest gig was doing the music for a show of Canadian-American Cree musician, Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Your son isn’t alone! Audio engineering is one of the hardest areas of the industry to be successful in. I’ve heard insane stories about working for free and without health insurance for months! Plus, there are way too many people in the market. It sounds like he made the right decision!
I’ve been trying to weight the pros and cons of trying to work in sports reporting/broadcasting and so far it looks like way more cons than pros. Maybe I’ll just feed my sports passion by starting a blog or podcast and get a job that can pay the bills and won’t take 20 years to climb my way up to a respectable position.
Sounds very difficult, Mark. Living with these sacrifices for most of your 20s and 30s definitely isn’t for everyone! I think it’s important to remind ourselves that our day jobs don’t define us.
I honestly probably wouldn’t pursue a job in an industry where the pay was super low and the hours long. I just looked through that music industry salary guide. It seems like a tough industry to make a living in, though it definitely is possible. I have some friends who make their full-time living in the music industry, though one of them transitioned to teaching audio and video production at a high school. He still has his side gigs, which I think is an ideal setup.
It’s not easy, DC. 75-80% of the kids I went to college with aren’t working in the business. It really just depends what your priorities are. Teaching sounds like a decent thing to eventually transition to.
I’m torn. I’m in a field I love. The pay isn’t anything to write home about, but in my area it’s pretty good for the field and the hours are kind of great. And I didn’t take out massive student loans to fund my degree. I know a lot of people that pursued graphic design because they love art and everyone told kids in my age group there would be so many jobs. Now they’re tens of thousands in debt to these art schools and only one of them has work: designing logos for corporations. They make good money, but hate their job. It’s a fine line to walk, I think. You’ve either got to have a lot of passion or accept that practicality may mean working in a cubicle.