musician
Musicians perform a vocal or musical part that can be recorded or played for an audience. They have know-how and practice of one or many instruments or using their voice. The musician can also write and transcribe music.
musician musicians perform a vocal or musical part that can be recorded or played for an audience. They have know-how and practice of one or many instruments or using their voice. The musician can also write and transcribe music. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.45 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include legal environment in music, perform live, manage feedback, follow time cues, study roles from scripts.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £46,591 a year for Musicians (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 3415). ONS publishes this estimate without a precision measure. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only musician, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Fine Arts
- English Language
- Foreign Language
- Education and Training
- Communications and Media
- Customer and Personal Service
- Philosophy and Theology
- Administration and Management
What you'd actually do
- Perform before live audiences in concerts, recitals, educational presentations, and other social gatherings.
- Sing a cappella or with musical accompaniment.
- Interpret or modify music, applying knowledge of harmony, melody, rhythm, and voice production to individualize presentations and maintain audience interest.
- Specialize in playing a specific family of instruments or a particular type of music.
- Sing as a soloist or as a member of a vocal group.
- Observe choral leaders or prompters for cues or directions in vocal presentation.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does musician do?
Musicians perform a vocal or musical part that can be recorded or played for an audience. They have know-how and practice of one or many instruments or using their voice. The musician can also write and transcribe music.
What skills does musician need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include legal environment in music, perform live, manage feedback, follow time cues, study roles from scripts, organise a repertoire. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace musician?
Our AI-durability model gives musician a score of 0.45 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.