Number One Singing Career: Professional Music Recording Artist

This is a singing career that has great rewards, but is usually only available to a select few who are able to influence others with their personality, their looks, their singing, or their unique musical style. The road to becoming a singer is a rough and tough one, and only those who truly have the determination and the passion to become a singer will be able to make it to the end and achieve great success!

Most professional recording artists would be able to make a living, and often also branch out into fashion, modeling, product or brand endorsement and even art and painting too! In order to make it big as a singer, one would need to have a great team of musicians to work with, as well as great production crew to create the bestselling records!

Number Two Singing Career: Full-time Unsigned Music artist

Apart from the professional recording artists and singers, there are also unsigned singers who are not contracted to any record labels, but travel and  perform full-time at different locations in their resident countries. If you wish to have a singing career as a full-time singer, you would need to gain experience and perform at various venues like local pubs or cafes in order to build up a following or fan base. These would be the people who will support you wherever you perform, and also spread good word-of-mouth feedback regarding your performances to their friends! Some full-time singers also eventually become professional recording artists too!

Number Three Singing Career: Backup Harmonizer

There are also some singing careers that allow you to be part of the production or support crew. As a backup singer, you would do recordings for the various backup harmony parts that each song may have, in order to make the song sound full and colourful! You would need to have a strong sense of harmony, and be able to sing various harmony parts easily and on pitch, because a song may have 5 - 10 harmony parts or more!

There are also those who perform live as a backup singer, being part of the backup chorus that is often on stage together with the lead singer at concerts or performances! These backup singers often travel together with the lead singer to various countries, and may even possess singing abilities that may surpass the lead singer!

Number Four Singing Career: Singing Instructor

For those who do not really aspire for the limelight, and who derive their joy from teaching about singing and music to others, a career as a singing instructor is a great way to do what you love, and still earn a decent living too! Good singing instructors are in great demand, especially with the rise of various singing competitions like American Idol, World Idol and so on. The best singing instructors can even earn up to US$300/h for conducting individual singing lessons!

You would of course need to have proper music qualifications, great singing experience and qualifications, and also a good ear for listening to singing voices, and a great analytical mind for deciphering the singing voice and explaining it to your students so that they are able to understand your lessons well! The greatest singing instructors often have students who surpass them in their singing and eventually become much more famous than their instructors ever were!

Number Five Singing Career: Sing Demos

For those of us who are just starting out as singers, you may wish to get some extra income by becoming demo singers. Demo singers sing original compositions and help songwriters to record their songs as a demo, so that they can sell them to recording companies or artistes. This is a great way for new singers to gain experience, and also earn some income through these recordings. It is also possible for demo singers to become professional recording artists, if the recording companies like the voice that they hear on the demos! This is a great way to gain some exposure in the industry and also help budding songwriters to sell their songs too!

These are just 5 of the multitude of singing careers out there for those of us who aspire to sing for a living, or even aspire to become a professional recording artiste! Not everyone can be a professional singer though, but it is certainly not difficult to earn a living as a singer, and who knows, one day, you may achieve your dream to become a full-fledged recording artiste!

Comments 

 

0 #6 rebecka 2010-07-26 12:29

You don't exactly need to be visible to be a successful singer, I definitely agree on that point. I have two friends who have the best voices you'll ever hear and they're both doing background singing in commercials. One specifically chose to sing and earn money that way because she is seriously introverted. The other does it because it was one of the first big breaks she got and she just became comfortable with it, and now actually prefers to sing that way, while she does small non-singing acting roles in off broadway shoes. You can def make a living singing in other ways than the more popular stage persona singing jobs.

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0 #5 cassandra 2010-07-26 12:22

This was very good info to know. To be honest singing for a living is no easy thing to do. You work many strange hours and go from gig to gig hoping there's someone very important there who will take an interest in booking you for something even bigger or better yet sign you to a record deal. But don't give up it pays off when you least expect it.

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0 #4 RazDag 2010-04-06 20:22

proffessional vocalists can earn a pretty decent living singing. They just have to hook up with the right people in the industry. Get into music industry events, email people at recording studios, join music groups on social networks and get valuable exposure on sites like Youtube or even this website networking with other talented people who have musical talents.

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0 #3 Maggiestar 2010-02-25 00:16

The majority of singers don't make it to superstar status, and the main reason isn't because they try and get turned down, but mainly because thats not what they want to do. Many of the greatest singers are not famous and will never be. They sing in places like church choirs, local community functions, or local venues. They mostly do it for the love of their natural singing talent. Others who sing like pros and stay just as busy save their music for local clubs. They may never make much money, but any singer will let you know it's not a good career move if you're in it for a quick buck.

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0 #2 topace19I 2010-02-24 23:58

found this on another site describing how much a backup singer could make. But it seems like ti depends on who you're doing the backup singing for.

But also note, this was posted back in 2008 two years ago:

What is required:
[li]
[*]Ability to sing, dance and coordinate moves with other singers
[*]Ability to sing parts as recorded
[*]Ability to learn parts on your own
[*]Availability to rehearse as needed
[*]Positive and down to earth attitude and good stage presence
[*]Ability and willingness to travel
[li]
What you will get:
[li]
[*]You get Paid on a per singing gig basis (average is $75)
[*]Press and exposure
[*]All accommodations and transportation to shows.
[*]Co-write songs with the band
[*]Sing lead on selected cover and sing your own songs at suitable shows
[*]Sell own merchandise at shows

[li]

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0 #1 flygirl2000 2010-02-24 22:45

So what is the average salary of a backup singer? I'd really like to know, as I do a lot of singing and wouldn't mind expanding expanding my horizons a little in the music industry. I'd like to get my foot in the door as a backup singer though.

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