Musicians are often viewed through a romanticized lens: passionate creators, expressive performers, and soulful storytellers. In contrast, investors are stereotyped as calculating number-crunchers, tirelessly analyzing risk-to-reward ratios and economic trends. The divide between the two appears stark. But is it real?
In truth, the worlds of music and investing are far more compatible than they appear. In today’s economy, where musicians must be their own marketers, entrepreneurs, and financial planners, the ability to invest wisely is not a luxury but a necessity. And despite prevailing myths, musicians can absolutely learn about investing and may even have some natural advantages.
Ok, let’s talk about the financial realities of being a musician
Before discussing potential, we must acknowledge reality. Financial instability is a common thread in the lives of musicians worldwide.
According to a 2020 survey by the UK Musicians’ Union:
-
Over 87% of musicians lost income during the pandemic.
-
Only 8% had significant savings or retirement plans.
-
A majority reported living gig-to-gig, with limited access to employer-sponsored benefits like pensions or health insurance.
In the U.S., the Future of Music Coalition reported that professional musicians typically have multiple income streams: live performances, teaching, royalties, licensing, merchandise, and increasingly, digital platforms like Patreon or YouTube. However, this diversification often comes without structure or predictability, making long-term planning challenging.
But here lies an interesting paradox: musicians already engage in a form of financial diversification without calling it investing. The mental framework is already there.
Why Musicians Might Excel at Investing
Musicians spend years cultivating skills that map remarkably well to the demands of successful investing. Let’s explore how:
1. Pattern Recognition
Understanding harmonic progressions, rhythmic cycles, or musical motifs requires advanced pattern recognition. Similarly, investors track price trends, moving averages, macroeconomic indicators, and market cycles.
-
In music: a jazz pianist anticipates changes in a ii-V-I progression.
-
In investing: a trader anticipates market shifts using historical charts or Fibonacci retracements.
Neuroscience backs this up. A 2014 study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that trained musicians exhibit enhanced brain activity in regions associated with cognitive flexibility, working memory, and pattern integration.
2. Long-Term Discipline
Learning an instrument is a multi-year endeavor requiring discipline, delayed gratification, and thousands of hours of practice. These are the very principles behind long-term investing and wealth building.
-
Warren Buffett once said, “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” The same could be said for musical mastery.
3. Tolerance for Uncertainty and Risk
Improvisation, particularly in genres like jazz or experimental electronic music, requires on-the-spot decision-making in uncertain conditions. This parallels managing volatile market environments, where no outcome is guaranteed.
4. Creative Problem Solving
Good investing, especially entrepreneurial or alternative investing (real estate, startups, royalties), is rarely just number-crunching. It demands out-of-the-box thinking, just like composing a symphony or producing a new track.
Learning the Basics: The Musician’s Guide to Investing
Here’s a roadmap for how musicians can begin to treat investing not as a foreign language, but as a second instrument to master:
A. Start with Financial Literacy
Understanding the basics (cash flow, budgeting, and compound interest) is like learning music theory. Books like:
-
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
-
The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
are approachable for creative thinkers and emphasize long-term wealth over market timing.
B. Build an Emergency Fund and Clear Debt
Before investing aggressively, musicians should:
-
Save 3-6 months of living expenses in a high-yield savings account.
-
Pay down high-interest debt, especially credit cards.
C. Begin With Index Funds
Investing doesn’t require stock picking. Low-cost index funds (like VTI or S&P 500 ETFs) provide broad exposure and are easy to automate monthly.
Think of it like “layering tracks” into a DAW: set it, automate it, and let it build over time.
D. Open Retirement Accounts
-
U.S. Musicians: Consider IRAs, Solo 401(k)s, or Roth IRAs.
-
UK/Europe: ISAs, private pensions, or self-employed pension plans.
Even small monthly contributions can grow substantially over decades due to compound interest.
E. Alternative Investing: Royalties, IP, and Beyond
Musicians can go beyond stocks:
-
Music Royalty Platforms like Royalty Exchange allow musicians to buy or sell rights to existing catalogs.
-
NFTs and blockchain licensing tools offer a way to secure future digital revenue. But before diving into NFTs it is recommended to create a Binance personal account. Explore the basics first, only then advance to NFT topics and subjects.
-
Real estate or REITs can provide passive income and asset appreciation.
Real-World Case Studies
Jay-Z
Starting as a rapper, Jay-Z became a billionaire by investing in liquor (Ace of Spades), streaming (Tidal), and art. His famous line “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man” captures the ethos of financial evolution.
Dolly Parton
Parton retained ownership of her music publishing rights and invested in her theme park (Dollywood), turning her brand into a sustainable empire with multiple revenue sources.
Steve Albini (RIP 2024)
Though anti-capitalist in ideology, Albini maintained tight control over his studio and business operations, demonstrating a blend of ethical artistry and long-term financial planning.
Can Music Education Include Finance?
Music conservatories and art schools rarely teach financial literacy. This is a missed opportunity. Embedding basic investing courses in music programs would empower future artists to build lasting careers, not just musical legacies.
Some progressive programs, like Berklee College of Music and NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, have begun integrating music business and finance into their curricula, but it’s not yet standard practice.
By the way, some alternative ways of investing such as digital options can be seen as investment by some and like bets for others. Some musicians like that approach because it requires less fundamental analysis knowledge, but that is not always true. In order to get right the movement of an asset, it’s important to have a grasp on fundamentals. And a smart way to start is by putting broker money instead of yours. The quotex 30% deposit bonus (special conditions) is a nice starting point in this regard.
Time to Change the Tune
The myth that musicians can’t be good with money is not only false, it’s harmful. It encourages artists to outsource financial decisions or ignore them altogether, often leading to exploitation or poverty.
But musicians already possess many of the core skills needed for investing success:
-
Patience
-
Pattern recognition
-
Discipline
-
Risk management
-
Creative thinking
With the right mindset and resources, musicians can become sophisticated investors (composing not just melodies, but trading ideas). Because in the end, both music and investing are about understanding time, structure, and flow, and learning when to improvise 😉