Last year, we reported on the launch of a UK-based project by Shoobs chief strategy officer and Measure of Music founder Christine Osazuwa and her peers which aimed to bring more transparency to the topic of music industry salaries. The survey has, so far, gathered data from over 500 people. Now, we’re publishing her analysis, along with some selected data. 

You can read our guest post policy here.

Introduction

About eight months ago, me and two other women music executives (for anonymity’s sake, I’ll call them Rebecca and Vanessa) got together to have a real talk about the state of the music industry for executives. As a first step, we put together a salary transparency survey for execs – with a focus on the UK, but open to everyone to complete. Little did we know a wave of layoffs would follow shortly after that would make the precarious situation we’re in even more dire.

Given the wave of layoffs, at first thought, it could seem like conversations about salary transparency should fall to the wayside because securing a job takes priority over anything else. But I do believe that a conversation is still necessary because it won’t be like this forever. Yes, it seems bleak now, but things ebb and flow: corrections happen and corrections on those corrections happen, and things will swing from an employers’ market to an employees’ market yet again.

We hope people use the below data and analysis to start open conversations, about not just salary but also perks and priorities. We hope this is a guide to aid in negotiations, to set expectations and ultimately make better decisions regarding your career.

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Trade-offs

Outside of the obvious salary indicators, everything else often comes down to trade offs. Knowing what the trade-offs are with regards to salary and roles will make negotiations easier, but also can aid in the decision making process when pursuing a role.  Whether people know it or not, there are consistently two questions at play for any role:

1. What are you willing to give up for the job you want? 
2. What are the barriers in place for the salary you seek?

Here’s how those two questions played out in our data…

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What we learned

We opened up the spreadsheet of the data we received, and created an interactive visualization of all the data too, so that anyone can play around with it on their own.

To get some obvious learnings out of the way first: those with more experience make a higher median salary, as do those that manage more people (up to managing 100+ people – although reporting is sparse at that level). Those with higher titles also make more money, up until the president/C-level exec. (This discrepancy is due to larger companies being more likely to have VPs than smaller ones.) When controlling for those managing 25+ people, president/C-level execs do make more base salary than all other role levels.

Here are some of the more nuanced observations that we found by looking through the data:

The “sexiest” jobs aren’t the highest-paying

Obviously, everyone knows getting your first or even your next job in music isn’t always the easiest thing, but quite often that’s due to a supply and demand problem. 

If there’s an unlimited supply of job seekers willing to take a role, with limited roles available, there can be a race to the bottom with regards to salary. While it’s not always the case, it can be easy to pay low if there are people willing to take the low pay.

The most popular and classically “music industry” roles are therefore overall the lowest paid. The base salaries at major labels, indie labels, talent agencies, artist management companies and publishers all average £60K or below. 

So those seeking roles in these areas of the industry are not only competing with thousands of others, they’re competing for jobs with base salaries that average at or below the reported industry median.

Proximity to artists is costly

While we didn’t ask in the survey for the nature of respondents’ direct interaction with artists, based on the company type, you can see clear patterns. Roles that are likely to have the most interaction with artists – i.e. labels, publishers, agencies & talent management – pay a base salary 30% less than other roles (£52K compared to £68K).

This also echoes itself with scope. While it’s not always clear dividing lines, country-specific/domestic roles generally have the strongest relationships with artists as they are often the ‘day-to-days’ for an artist, such as their product managers, marketers, etc. 

In comparison, central/global roles are often more corporate. You’re much more likely to be creating decks, writing code, reviewing contracts or other more ‘business’ focused work rather than ‘creative’ focused work. Being globally-focused sees a 18% median average increase in base pay in comparison to domestic/country level roles.

Tech pays well. Even music tech.

Only three types of companies had a median salary exceeding £80K (approx. $100K) – and they were all tech. These include DSPs, ticketing, and non-DSP tech. The functionality of all these companies rely on technology and on scale. 

Scalability is generally why these companies can pay higher salaries. If 100 new events or artists came onto these platforms (such as SoundCloud or Ticketmaster for example), it would be unlikely new head count would be required to manage them –  in fact it likely wouldn’t be noticeable in their day-to-day operations at all. In comparison, if a label signed 100 new artists, they would need a significantly higher head count to accommodate them. 

The companies which are an interesting middle ground are distributors. They straddle the line between tech and the more traditional music industry. They have subscription models that lend themselves to scale, but also a reliance on increasing head count when they introduce things like artist services or other more artist-facing roles. The median salary of these companies reflects this balancing act: coming in between the tech companies and the labels – with a median base salary of 64K GBP.

Doing it on your own might pay well

With great risk, comes great reward. That’s what’s clear when it comes to those who are freelancers and consultants. They’re amongst the highest non-tech salaries – but also amongst the least-reported company type, possibly because many consult in addition to full-time roles.

Previously, the job security that full-time salaried roles offer was often what dissuaded people to go out on their own – but as perceived job security decreases, that opens up a lot more opportunity to make more money, and have greater control over your career. 

Being at a non-profit doesn’t pay that much less than many for-profit roles

While there is certainly a gap between non-profit and associated roles in comparison to the for-profit roles, the gap is smaller than you may think. The difference between nonprofits and the next-lowest roles (publishers and talent agencies) is less than £3K. So if you have a passion for giving back, it shouldn’t be ruled out as an option just because of the salary.

Being from any under-represented group doesn’t pay

I’m sure that it comes as no surprise to anyone that gender minorities and people of colour are paid, on average, less than their white and/or male counterparts. 

In fact, men make more money on average in their median base salary than people of colour and gender minorities make in their total compensation (including bonuses, outside work revenue and other primary role compensation, such as equity).

This shows up throughout the data in areas and roles that have previously shown to be indicators of higher compensation. Those from under-represented groups are less likely to be in senior roles, less likely to manage more than five people, less likely to be in central roles, less likely to receive a bonus or other primary role compensation (such as equity, points, etc.).

However, even when controlling for variations, they’re still underpaid even in similar roles. For example, racial minorities that are people-managers make a base salary of £15K less than their white counterparts, and gender-minority people-managers make £22K less than their male counterparts.

Exploring outside of gender and race, the pay gap between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ is £9K in base salary, and controlling for GBP reporting only (due to the nature of the term), there’s a pay gap of £3K for those from a working class background.

Another area not as frequently discussed when it comes to representation are people not working in major music markets. Those reporting in GBP (presumably also living in the UK) who report living outside of London make 15% less than their capital counterparts. Similarly, those reporting in USD and living in NY & LA have a median income 20% higher than people not living in those markets.

And of course, those reporting in USD make almost double in base salary than those reporting in EUR & GBP. While this is largely due to actual (and perceived) cost of living differences, those with fully-remote roles have a higher overall median base salary of £80K (though also much more likely to work in tech companies).

Part of the purpose of this survey was to give people an idea of what they could realistically ask for with similar experience at similar companies, so we hope this provides some guidelines with regards to salary negotiation. 

Very few people make external revenue

Only 21% of those that reported their income said they have income outside of their primary role. Of course, some roles prohibit outside work, and often – especially in the music industry – the demanding hours of a primarily role or outside responsibilities could make seeking additional sources of revenue difficult or impossible.

However, those that did have income outside of their role actually have a median base salary 3K lower than those without outside income. Therefore the question is: how many people with external income have it out of necessity? Those making external revenue bring in, on average, 6K annually. Having external revenue can soften the blow of a lay-off, and also lend itself to shifting to a full-time focus should the need or opportunity present itself. 

In addition, seeking projects outside of your primary job could open up opportunities for creativity, direct artist work, or other priorities you may not be getting in your primary role.

Perks can add monetary (and non-monetary) value

What you get from each company can differ widely. Receiving free services or physical items (things like free vinyl or concert tickets) and hybrid work were most common (over half of all responders said they had one or both of these perks). After that, all the other perks were much more uncommon.

Some perk observations by company type:

• Tech companies, distributors and marketing agencies were more likely to have fully-remote roles
• Major labels and publishers were most likely to have education/tuition assistance
• DSPs and Tech overwhelmingly have the best parental leave time
• DSPs, artist management and major labels are most likely to have a higher 401K/pension contribution
• Those working outside of major labels and publishers are more likely to have more than the country standard number of vacation days 

It’s important to consider these perks in conjunction to your salary as an exec. Again, thinking about the opening question about tradeoffs, if you’re planning to seek higher education, a lower salary to not take on student loan debt could be worth it, or more time with your newborn could be an almost priceless perk for a new parent.

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Conclusion

While much of this information isn’t new to many, and plenty of exceptions exist, we hope it’s a reminder for readers to think clearly about what you’re seeking, what your priorities are, and what trade-offs you’re willing to make. Though salary isn’t always the most important aspect of your career, it should still be a consideration, and recognizing opportunities to maximize it, while still being fulfilled, is an ideal position to be in. 

The survey is still available to complete here.

What’s Next?

We feel executives often lack the professional and personal support they need to prosper in their careers and we hope to help address that. We want to explore even more and identify tangible solutions to some of the issues that we know face music executives.

Things that we didn’t explore, that we hope to in the future, is number of hours worked, treatment of parents, the interview/hiring process in music, professional development, and much more.