Music

Your music degree opens doors to careers in education, performance, and production. As a secondary school teacher, your work is centered on pedagogy; you’ll spend your days running choir rehearsals, grading student performances, and communicating with parents. On the performance and creation path, you’ll likely start by building a portfolio. This could mean gigging with a band at local venues, playing weddings, or composing scores for student films. Over time, this freelance hustle can lead to more stable work, like a chair in an orchestra or a role as a music director for a theater company.

While some roles like postsecondary teaching are growing slightly, others like K-12 teaching and sound engineering face headwinds. Artificial intelligence is also a significant factor. For composers, AI is fundamentally reshaping the field by automating orchestration and score generation, placing a premium on your high-level creative direction. Across most music careers, AI will handle routine tasks, changing what you do day-to-day. The most resilient path is teaching, where the core work of mentoring and inspiring students remains a uniquely human skill.

You may also want to evaluate Music against Craft & Folk Art, Dance, and Film & Photography on salary and long-run job outlook.