Introduction
For this project, I have chosen to focus on the career path of being a singer/songwriter. This pathway is one that I want to pursue myself – thus focusing on the intricacies of it will not only inform me from a research perspective (concerning this project), but also incidentally as a musician, who aims to work within this sector of the industry.
Academic & Professional Qualifications
As with many jobs in creative industries, formal qualifications are not inherently a requirement. However, they can significantly contribute toward your credibility as an artist, thus increasing your portfolio and, thus, workload.
Concerning academic qualifications, there are many that a musician may consider if they are in favour of becoming a singer/songwriter. Some of these may include university degrees such as songwriting, composition, performance, and so on. These provide budding artists with the skills necessary to support themselves creatively.
An article from Zippia comments on how, ‘43% of song writers hold a bachelor’s degree, and 24% hold an high school diploma’. This provides the knowledge that, whilst holding academic qualifications are not a requirement of being a songwriter, they are beneficial. (Zippia Team, 2020)
The Leeds Conservatoire Songwriting Progression Pathway site explains how, within said degree, you will be provided with opportunities to work both collaboratively with your – as well as have one-on-one tuition sessions to help expand upon your songwriting and composition abilities. Both of these opportunities are in a streamlined setting, within which important skills can be developed and feedback can be gained, almost instantaneously. This is an ample opportunity for budding singer/songwriters, as you are surrounded by like-minded individuals, who all come from different musical backgrounds – thus pushing you to learn and grow as an artist. (Leeds Conservatoire, 2025)
A further example of such would be music theory and instrumental/voice grades. Taken from the ‘Our History’ ABRSM, ‘a standard so high that the certificate granted may be regarded as a distinction worthy of attainment.’ Evidently, music theory and instrumental graded examinations are worthy of high praise and regarded as a high achievement – adding further to your musicianship portfolio. Not only this, but the knowledge garnered within the process of attaining said grades attributes to your skillset as a songwriter. (ABRSM, 2024)
Both of these academic qualifications combined provide musicians with the knowledge of compositional and theoretical devices. These skills, whilst not paramount, are highly advantageous for those within the songwriting sector – as composers are equipped with the skills to write intuitively, and use certain musical devices to convey the stories that they are aiming to tell. From personal experience, after attending seminars at Leeds Conservatoire I am now aware that I have always been highly inclined to naturally utilise devices such as conceptual hooks – yet, as a musicologist, I can identify where and why such a device may be used in both pieces of my own and other composers.
Alternatively, when considering personal qualifications required for this profession – the definition of such skills become more convoluted. These skills are usually more practically focused – taking a look at things such as performance, compositional and production skills. All of these attributes collate to create the skillset of a worthy singer/songwriter.
Knowledge, Skills & Qualities/Attributes
With being such a broad career-path, it is paramount that singer/songwriters possess a large skillset. As previously mentioned, skills such as compositional knowledge, mixing/mastering, and performance are all essential for a singer/songwriter to possess, as they supply the foundations for compositional knowledge, thus the career itself. These skills are required for the practical aspect of the job, however there are some further personal attributes which contribute to the career path. Being confident and self assured is needed to present yourself as a marketable candidate. There are so many up-and-coming artists, so possessing unique, yet professional qualities that set you apart from the crowd, but still reinforce your ability to reliably and maturely work to industry standard are vital. Furthermore, having a clear plan or vision as to what your ‘artist identity’ is allows you to market yourself as a polished, clearly recognisable brand. During an interview with BBC, Lewis Capaldi shared some of the attributes he deems important for a singer/songwriter, some of which included: ‘Determination, discipline and resilience,’ ‘Time management and reliability,’ ‘Digital production and social media skills,’ ‘Stress management skills’ and ‘Adaptability and flexibility.’ In short, you must strive for professionalism, perseverance and polished performance skills to fully present yourself as someone desirable to market and work with. (BBC, 2019)
Duties & Responsibilities/Typical Day of Work
There are a multitude of tasks that must be accomplished by a singer/songwriter in a day. Many of these include surface level tasks, like writing/composing pieces, performing – however, as an article from Career Explorer suggests, there are some further ‘admin’ tasks that are vital. Things such as booking gigs, promoting your music or any upcoming shows, revising and editing compositions, adhering to deadlines and contracts. Moreover, maintaining finances, whether it be government mandated (like filing your taxes), or paying musical utilities (studios, distributors, promotors, etc). (CareerExplorer, 2025)
Financial & Legal Issues of The Job
As with many fields of work, there are complications when it comes to the monetary portion of things. When first beginning on this career-path, the likelihood is that you will be working freelance. This means that you are in charge of all of your own finances, including taxes – which you will have to work out and file yourself. Furthermore, it also means that there is uncertainty when it comes to your wages. It is not definitive that you will receive the same amount of money every month, much as a 9-to-5 would guarantee. Some months may be packed full of gigs, or songs receiving an influx of streams on services – others may be lacking in that necessary engagement. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, your outgoings will depend on the different services you have used, such as studio time, paying promotors, distributors, mixing and mastering engineers. Moreover, because of the work being freelance, you will have no automatic pension pot. This means that you will either have to forgo having a pension set aside, or sacrifice some of your monthly earnings to separately collect money for your future pension.
An article from The Independent Society of Musicians describes some of the further challenges that aspiring singer/songwriters may face. Some of these include: Copyright clauses. Unpaid fees (potentially from a performance, or teaching gig), Unfair contracts, some of which may cause you to lose the rights to the music that you have written, or other unjust terms, support for mental health, medical resources, dentistry, etc. They also discuss factors such as discrimination and safeguarding – where, in a sector that does not have a company hierarchy, as well as assigned roles such as ‘HR’, any kind of issues can go without resolution due to a lack of mediation. (Darke, 2024)
Marketing & Promotional Aspects
Depending on how much of a name you have made for yourself in the industry, marketing and promotional aspects may look slightly different. When first starting out, many aspiring singer/songwriters turn to social media to promote themselves – this may be following trends and utilising their songs in the background of these videos, uploading a snippet to platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instragram, etc. Another easy opportunity for beginners would be to utilise offers provided by easily accessible promotion opportunities. One example of this is the online distributor, DistroKid, who offer a promotion service at a reasonable price, on top of licensing your music out to streaming platforms – a good option for beginners, as all of your material is sourced and promoted through one company. One very simple method of promotion would be to paste posters or other forms of simple memorabilia around the surrounding area of where you are located. This is especially effective in areas that relate to your target audiences (for example, the university bathrooms – which may encourage peers to come and support a local act). Depending on your scale as an artist, other forms of promotion such as: critical reviews in a variety of formats (online video essays, journalism recounts, published texts, etc), billboards, as well as platforms such as Spotify and BBC introducing can source your material out to new audiences.
Intellectual & Personal Challenges – how to deal with
The music industry is a challenging and oftentimes very personal sector of work – what you are marketing is oftentimes yourself, thus a multitude of issues can surface. One large issue faced by the majority of musicians is imposter syndrome. From a 2023 Psychology Today article, Marwa Azab Ph.D. describes imposter syndrome as, ‘a psychological phenomenon, entails persistent feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt despite evident achievements.’ Within said article, Azab goes on to suggest potential remedies for such a challenge, many of such examples proving ample for a musician struggling with imposter syndrome. One pertinent suggestion was to gather accomplishment evidence, which may be represented as a variety of things when considering such from the standpoint of a singer/songwriter. This may include any certificates, perhaps from music theory grades, or potentially reviewing old performance videos that you felt went well in the past. If applicable, surveying positive comments about your music left on social media platforms. (Azab, 2023)
For composers and songwriters, writer’s block can be detrimental. A lesson transcript from Viversity Online Courses details a few suggestions of how to overcome such, including ‘encouraging writers to explore ideas or themes they might not have considered on their own.’ As well as providing prompts, designed to ‘spark creativity’. From personal experience, I have also found that forcing yourself to write a piece – even if you deem it to be inferior to previous compositions – can sometimes allow inspiration to flow, thus granting you the motivation to begin working on a song that you feel proud of. Another method I have found to be beneficial is listening to artists that inspire me, or even new artists – to see if there are any chord progressions, or lyrical devices (such as semantic fields) that I feel particularly influenced by. (Viversity Online Courses, 2025)
Burn-out and lack of motivation fall under a similar category. I have found that writing to-do lists, creating weekly plans – as well as setting a reminder of my goals and how such work can get me closer to them is immensely helpful when attempting to overcome a lack of motivation.
Career Progression & Development Opportunities
As with most careers within the creative sector, there are many different variations of progression when it comes to being a singer/songwriter. A Jennie Johnson article talks about pathways such as being a freelance songwriter, lyricist or even a music educator. Each of these opportunities provide pathways for development in different sectors: songwriters and lyricists play into the side of creativity, and have to work with adhering to deadlines set – networking, promotion and constant communication. Moreover, a music educator is required to provide educational material, engage with students in a way that is both culturally relevant, as well as beneficial to their education. A job in the education world can still closely link to the music industry, yet is viewed as a more ‘traditional profession’. (Johnson, 2025)
Further opportunities could include being a ghost/topwriter – creating pieces for other musicians according to stimuli or briefs. This is a great opportunity for development as an artist, pushing your compositional abilities, to write for situations other than your own – along with expanding your portfolio to assist you in possessing similar opportunities in future, or simply having extra material to present to potential ventures (producers you want to work with, venues you would like to play at, record companies, etc).
Some more unorthodox examples are music critics or journalists. These loosely relate to the career of singer/songwriter, as compositional and contextual knowledge are needed – however you aren’t technically writing or performing yourself.
Bibliography
ABRSM (2024). Our history. – ABRSM. Available online: https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/who-we-are/our-history [Accessed 30 Oct. 2025].
Azab, M. (2023). Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: 6 Evidence-Based Strategies. – Psychology Today. Available online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/202308/overcoming-imposter-syndrome-6-evidence-based-strategies?msockid=10ff6b08e9ee6f8604057d67e8276e2a [Accessed 5 Nov. 2025].
BBC (2019). How to become a singer-songwriter: Lewis Capaldi’s story. – BBC Bitesize. Available online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvmcmfr [Accessed 7 Oct. 2025].
CareerExplorer (2025). What does a songwriter do? – Careerexplorer.com. Available online: https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/songwriter/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2025].
Darke, S. (2024). Legal advice and support for musicians. – Independent Society of Musicians. Available online: https://www.ism.org/legal-advice-for-musicians/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2025].
Johnson, J. (2025). Explore 15 Career Paths for Aspiring Songwriters. – Jenniejohnson.com.Available online: https://jenniejohnson.com/bestjobs/15-exciting-career-paths-for-aspiring-songwriters [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
Leeds Conservatoire (2025). BA (Hons) Songwriting. – Leeds Conservatoire. Available online: https://www.leedsconservatoire.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-courses/ba-hons-songwriting/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2025].
Viversity Online Courses (2025). Google Books. – Google.co.uk. Available online: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Overcoming_Writer_s_Block/IaVHEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=ways+to+overcome+writers+block&pg=PT148&printsec=frontcover [Accessed 5 Nov. 2025].
Zippia Team (2020). Best Colleges and Degrees For Song Writers – Zippia.com Available online: https://www.zippia.com/song-writer-jobs/education/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2025].
