What are the (academic and professional) qualifications and/or experience required to enter the profession?
Some may argue that little experience is needed to be a singer/songwriter, if you have the talent then you can be successful. This is seen through artists such as Lewis Capaldi, who had no prior qualifications when becoming a singer/songwriter. “None in particular – passion, experience and dedication is more important, although musical knowledge and performance skills could be beneficial.” (BBC Bitesize, n.d.). Many artists in the music industry make their careers from nothing, you don’t necessarily need to spend time and money on a university degree if you have the networking skills and the talent to go far. However, for some traditional songwriting or composing careers, especially in the classical field, you may have to enter a degree. “You could do this at a university or a conservatoire. You’ll usually specialise in one main instrument and study a second instrument. Some music degrees focus more on music theory than performance, so research the courses carefully to make sure they’re right for you.” (National Careers Service, n.d.) Meaning that degrees can prove themselves useful in more traditional roles, however for the profession I am researching of a singer/songwriter one can create a career with little academic or professional qualifications.
What knowledge, skills and personal qualities/attributes are needed for success within the profession?
To be a singer/songwriter you need to have knowledge of areas such as lyrics and structure to help you create the song. Skills for this may include, a good basis of music theory knowledge and being able to collaborate well with other writers. “Learning music theory: This isn’t essential for becoming a songwriter, but it can help you to better understand the language of music and how to better communicate your ideas through song. Co-writing songs: You may have to do this at some point in your career, and it can be quite a different process to doing it all yourself. It’s a good idea to find some other songwriters and buddy up to learn from each other as you both develop this skill.” (BBC Maestro, 2023) This allows you to enter studio sessions with other writers and instrumentalists and create a song, whether that be for yourself or for another artist. Personal attributes such as approachability and friendliness are also key in this career, these soft skills help you network with other people in the industry, such as producers and session musicians that can help you create your track, which sets up your career. “It is also important to build music industry connections through networking to create opportunities and to build a team of business partners, such as a manager and a publisher.” (UK Music, n.d.). These networking skills can help boost your career as it builds the team of people around you, which can then help you get a record label and launch yourself as an artist in the industry.
What are the duties and responsibilities of the profession – what does a typical day’s work involve?
For a singer/songwriter a day can consist of a range of activities such as touring, writing or studio sessions. Touring will involve playing gigs for audiences and playing live music. It could involve writing songs for yourself or other people or spending days in the studio creating tracks. Which can all help aid your career in the long run. You may “write lyrics as well as music, be involved in live performances or recordings of your music and promoting it using different channels, such as social media and work with other music writers, artists and producers on a composition.” (Planit, n.d.). Promoting your music is also a key aspect of some days, you may be asked to attend interviews or simply post on social media to advertise it and get the word out about your songs. This can all help boost your career as a singer/songwriter because you are actively creating, promoting, and playing live music, which can help you reach a wider audience and therefore sell out bigger tour venues, receive more music streams and get tracks into the charts, helping you make more money and have more success.
What are the main financial and legal issues that impact on this profession?
One of the main legal issues that impact on the profession of a songwriter is copyright issues. Copyright can cause problems within the industry, especially for singer/songwriters. This could be due to “Derivative Works: The authority to produce new works (such as covers or remixes) that are based on the original.” (Coyle, 2024) If these copyrights do not exist then songwriters may not get the revenue or credit that they should have in the remixes. This can decrease their income, and impact their own lives as well as their careers, potentially leading to mental health problems due to the stress it may cause. Financial issues such as closure of workplaces due to COVID has meant that singer/songwriters now struggle to find work and venues to use for concerts. “Without a truly remote, quarantine-friendly or and socially distant alternative for live music, many people – from artists to promoters to venue employees- lost a significant portion, if not all of their income for more than a year” (Gomez Sarmiento, 2025). Meaning that singer/songwriters would struggle to keep their careers afloat both during COVID and post-COVID, because the venues and places they’d rely on to give them money would no longer exist. This would’ve derailed artists careers during COVID, putting them on hold until everything was up and running again. Album release cycles may have been disrupted and found hard to get back on track if they had released more music during the few years the pandemic existed for.
What would the potential marketing and promotional aspects of this profession look like?
A major promotional aspect of a career as a singer/songwriter is having a PR on your team, this role means they “build a musicians media profile, bringing their clients to the attention of relevant, receptive broadcasters and journalists for worthwhile coverage” (Musicians Union, 2024). This will allow artists to get opportunities such as interviews which can help expose them to more people due to the media coverage they receive. This can cause more opportunities to arise which means that their career will progress further. Singer/songwriters would also need to showcase their music, you can do this through yourself and work with venue owners and promoters. “Make the promoter aware of your online profiles and pages and ask them to use the details in promotion relating to the show.” (Musicians Union, 2024) This can boost your following as an artist due to the links provided with the show, and persuade the public to attend the show, therefore boosting your income with the tickets people buy. Another potential marketing/promotional aspect of the profession would be building a strong social media presence/fanbase. Social media has become a very popular way to advertise and promote yourself as an artist in recent years. Many artists have found their feet in the industry through apps such as TikTok which have boosted their following and fanbase, allowing artists to reach out to team members like producers and managers and make the music the fans want to hear. “Choose a few social platforms that resonate with you, and tailor your content to each one. Post content sparingly but consistently, stretching it out so you’re promoting your music without being overly self-promotional. Most importantly, engage authentically with your commenters and followers, to build lasting connections” (Kater, 2025) Making connections with followers is an important step in creating your social media presence as a singer/songwriter because it shows you care about the fans and therefore gives you a positive image as an artist, possibly leading to more opportunities to boost your career.
What are the intellectual and personal challenges presented by the profession and how might these be dealt with?
Intellectual challenges are dealt with by singer/songwriters nearly every day. One of the challenges they may face is lack of industry knowledge, especially if they haven’t gone through University and have instead built their career using a device such as social media. “Some aspiring artists might be easily put off by all the lingo and the amount of paperwork and due diligence that’s involved in many aspects of being a professional musician” (Walfish, 2024). New singer/songwriters that have not gone through traditional routes of entering the industry may find this daunting, as well as any legalities they are not familiar with, such as copyright that is previously mentioned in this essay. This could easily deter them from entering a career in the music industry since they may feel out of their depth, and maybe slightly lost in the industry. This issue can be dealt with by the artist educating themselves on things they don’t understand. “It’s worth taking the time to explore resources, talk to other artists or music business professionals to gain insight, or even work with a legal advisor who specialises in music-related deals.” (Walfish, 2024). By simply researching how the issues work, you can gain knowledge and insight into the problems you may be facing and figure out how to navigate them, without having to give up your career due to feeling daunted by the lack of knowledge some singer/songwriters may have. Personal challenges that singer/songwriters may face could include mental health. Artists my be overworked or receive hate online which can negatively impact their mental health. Musicians such as Chappell Roan are evidence of this since she dropped her manager last year for overworking her. “This comes after the Pink Pony Club artist split with her previous manager – State of the Art’s Nick Bobetsky – last November following her multiple Grammy nominations” (Feldman 2025). Meaning that artists do consistently struggle with their mental health in the industry, and often may find it hard to stop and take a break to help it. “Songwriters and composers often face pressure to constantly produce new material, meet deadlines, and achieve commercial success, which can contribute to stress, anxiety and burnout.” (Artist Services, n.d.). Due to this common theme of stress, it can cause artists to suffer lots of anxiety. This could create a writers block, preventing them from creating new material that the media demands, and sometimes halting their career, maybe even tarnishing it forever. It is important that artists learn to take breaks between projects to live their lives normally, rather than constantly trying to create new material, no matter how big the pressure may feel.
What career-progression/development opportunities are available within the profession?
Singer/songwriters main development opportunities are building their careers. Building a fanbase, creating a large discography, touring often and making sure you have a good management and publishing team are ideal for the career. This can be done through applying for funding when you are a new artist, helping you to book studio sessions to release music which can then progress your career. The PRS Foundation offer the “PPL Momentum Fund, offers grants of up to £15k for artists to break through to the next level of their careers” (Launchpad, n.d.). Grants such as these can help artists afford to tour and therefore put their name out into the industry. This can then lead to the development of a team such as managers and publishing, which can help organise events and put your music further out into the world. Developing your career even further as an artist. “From a vocal coach to cowriters, to producers, mentors, strategists, management, marketing team and possibly a label or your own admin team – finding people that believe in you and your music is key.” (Cole, 2022). Building your team is clearly an essential part of developing your career as a singer/songwriter, it is essential that these people are behind you because they will help your career grow from strength to strength, without them it is much harder to be noticed by the industry if you’re trying to make it independently. As with a team of people behind you, who believe in the music you’re making, you may also find yourself more inspired because you have people who believe in you, taking your career further. However, this isn’t to say that making it as an independent artist isn’t possible, it just requires much more work.
References
Artist services. (n.d.) Songwriters, Composers and Optimum Mental health https://artistservicestherapy.com/songwriterscomposers-2 [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
BBC Bitesize. (n.d.) How to become a singer-songwriter: Lewis Capaldi’s story https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvmcmfr [Accessed 3rd Nov 2025]
BBC Maestro. (2023) How to start a songwriting career https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/starting-songwriting-career [Accessed 3rd Nov 2025]
Cole, C. (2022) The 11 Pillars of Artist Development Every Emerging Music Artist Should Know https://caricole.com/the-11-pillars-of-artist-development-every-emerging-music-artist-should-know/ [Accessed 5th nov 2025]
Feldman, S. (2025) Chappell Roan’s New Management Revealed After Public Split From Team. Tag24. 29 April. https://www.tag24.com/entertainment/celebrities/chappell-roan/chappell-roans-new-management-revealed-after-public-split-from-team-3381623 [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
Gomez Sarmiento, I. (2025) How the pandemic changed music https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5321053/covid-five-years-later-how-the-pandemic-changed-music [Accessed 4th Nov 2025]
Kater, J. (2025) 7 top marketing strategies for musicians [Blog Post] Bandzoogle. 24 April. https://bandzoogle.com/blog/7-top-marketing-strategies-for-musicians [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
Lawdit Music. (2024) A brief overview of the legal problems you might encounter https://www.lawditmusic.co.uk/a-quick-guide-to-the-legal-issues-you-may-face/ [Accessed 4th Nov 2025]
Musicians Union. (2024) When to hire a Music PR Company https://musiciansunion.org.uk/career-development/career-guides/marketing-and-promotion/hiring-music-pr [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
Musicians Union. (2024) Showcasing your music https://musiciansunion.org.uk/career-development/career-guides/marketing-and-promotion/showcasing-your-music [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
National Careers Service. (n.d.) Musician Job Profile https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/classical-musician [Accessed 3rd Nov 2025]
Planit. (n.d.) Composer or Songwriter https://www.planitplus.net/JobProfiles/View/816/98#:~:text=write%20lyrics%20as%20well%20as,and%20producers%20on%20a%20composition. [Accessed 3rd Nov 2025]
Walfish, G. (2024) The 6 Most Common Challenges Faced By Independent Musicians. [Blog Post]. Xposure Music. 22 February. https://info.xposuremusic.com/article/the-6-most-common-challenges-faced-by-independent-musicians [Accessed 5th Nov 2025]
