The music industry is cutthroat and unforgiving. It’s little surprise that a recent survey shows that over 80% of music industry workers reported some sort of major mental health problem.
Skiddle, a UK ticketing and event company, were the ones behind the survey that mainly focuses on music promoters. Jimmy Coultas, who works for Skiddle, explained how the survey came to be:
“It was kind of an idea that was started by someone in the office who is a music promoter. … He thought it was a bit of a prevalent problem within the industry. And then we did the study and realized that it was a much bigger, in fact quite staggeringly so bigger, issue than we had all envisaged.”
The survey revealed:
- Over 65% of promoters reported feeling ‘intense and unmanageable levels’ of stress
- 47% said their work in the industry often leads to feeling anxious and sad
- 38% reported that working in music promotion affected their relationships with their spouse or partner
The biggest source of problems is lack of financial security (45%). Second is lack of support (42%), followed by the effect it has on relationships (25%). Skiddle hosted a two-day panel to address these findings as well as figure out ways to fix this.
During the panel, they discussed the harms of social media and highlighted how it is necessary for music promoters but also definitely a contributing factor to the above statistics. Another topic was the rivalry and competitive nature of the business. They also mentioned not knowing who to trust.
Professor Tarani Chandola of the University of Manchester Psychology Department partook in the panel and made an important point by saying that the industry itself needs to change. Making people aware of these problems is the first step in beginning to fix them.
It is our hope that the results of this survey will be one way of pushing the industry to find a way to better the quality of life.
You can watch the second day of the panel below.
