Matthew Lasar’s long Ars Technica feature, “Have we lost 41 percent of our musicians? Depends on how you (the RIAA) count” does an excellent job of digging into RIAA CEO Cary Sherman’s claim that the number of working musicians in the USA has declined by 41 percent. After checking the RIAA’s math, Lasar finds a gigantic discrepancy between the figures they cite and the conclusions they reach. But then Lasar delves further into the underlying sources, as well as government and industry stats, and finds that basically, the number of musicians working in America may have slightly declined, but is also projected to rise.
It is worth ending this cautionary tale with a review of the BLS’s own occupational handbook projection for musician/singer employment in the near future. Note that the handbook cites a much higher employment figure for both trades in 2010 than mentioned in the above tables: about 176,200 musicians and singers. That’s because it comes from the Bureau’s National Employment Matrix, I was told, which adds additional data sources.
Employment for musicians and singers is expected to grow by ten percent over the decade—”about as fast as the average for all occupations,” the government notes:
The number of people attending musical performances, such as orchestra, opera, and rock concerts, is expected to increase from 2010 to 2020. As a result, more musicians and singers will be needed to play at these performances.
There will be additional demand for musicians to serve as session musicians and backup artists for recordings and to go on tour. Singers will be needed to sing backup and to make recordings for commercials, films, and television.
Have we lost 41 percent of our musicians? Depends on how you (the RIAA) count