Quantitative Research

ON THE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF JAZZ MUSICIANS

RESultS from my 2021 SurvEY

I designed and conducted a mixed-methods research project of NYC professional musicians’ mental health and wellbeing in Covid-19 in summer of 2021, surveying 111 full-time professional musicians on their income, mental health, and wellbeing. Here are some of the results from the basic questions from the quantitative study below. While I recruited and interview participants who identified as professional jazz and improvisationally trained musicians, a breakdown of the workforce by genre is included which indicates variations of employment and engagement in various working genres (requiring different approaches, subcultures, and various ethnographic and social music practices). Consider in fall and winter of 2021 musicians suffered additional repeated tour losses due to the Omicron virus and are vulnerable to tour cancellations in a post-pandemic world, as noted by NY Senator Brad Hoylman and the Music Workers’ Alliance at a press conference at the Village Vanguard on March 11th, 2022.

METHOD

My study was designed as a mixed-methods research project to fill gaps in the current literature on the health and wellbeing of musicians in the US, which obtained ethical approval from the University of Sheffield (UK) in spring 2021. For the quantitative research portion, a 44 question survey with 40 quantitative and 4 qualitative text entry questions was designed to fill gaps in current literature. The survey was revised and approved by music psychology scholars to reduce data redundancy and participant fatigue. NYC was chosen as the primary location to recruit participants due to its having a population of over 50,000 professional working musicians.

Once the survey was approved and optimized into a google link complete with an introductory info sheet about the project and obtaining ethical consent to participate, I distributed the survey via social media and email to over 5,000 musicians in New York City via the AFM Local 802 Musician’s Union, Music Worker’s Alliance, and Women in Jazz Organization, and my own social media network. The survey collected responses online from June until September 2021 until it reached 111 participants. I then analyzed the data using SPSS software to cross examine variables such as age, gender, income, and exported data to bar graphs.

Additionally, six qualitative interviews of professional musicians ranging from 11-48 years of work experience in New York were conducted remotely via Zoom, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for themes with consent. I synthesize this information with the quantitative and qualitative survey results to draw conclusions and implications from the research.

QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

Here are partial relevant findings from my 2021 survey of 111 full-time professional NYC jazz and improvising musicians who participated in the survey (M = 56%, F = 36%, NB = 5%, Mean age = 45.6 years, 72% White).

2019 - 2020 INCOME

2019 average $27k annual income (mean age of 45.3 years)
2020 average $13k from music income (not including unemployment)
Only 60% received unemployment benefits in the pandemic, 35% did not apply
In 2020, 45.87% of professional musicians earned < 5k from music income; 25% earned < 1k; 58.71% earned < 10k; 70.64% earned < 15k
In 2020, est. 65% earned under $13k the federal poverty line ($12,880/year, Department of Health and Human Services, 2021) for a single household earner

MENTAL HEALTH RATES

79.19% suffered from high anxiety (10x the rate of 8% of New Yorkers pre-pandemic)
81.18% suffered from depression (10x the rate of 8% New York pre-pandemic)
24.55% (1 out of 4) of musicians reported having had a clinically diagnosed anxiety disorder at one point in time compared to 18.1% of US citizens (ADAA, retrieved 2021), making them 33% more likely to have a clinical diagnosis than non-musicians
4 out of 5 New York musicians reported mental health issues (depression, anxiety) compared to 1 in 5 (20%) adult New Yorkers

INCOME SOURCES

Less than 1% (0.91%) indicated primary livable income came from royalties and residuals
A majority 60.91% of musicians reported primary income sources from touring / recording / teaching, 4.55% Broadway / Union contracts, and 28.18% from side day jobs or contracted teaching jobs
86.37% have released their own original music online, 30% reported having released over ten combined albums and singles (estimated 10k average cost to produce and publicize high-quality album)
41.82% identified primarily working as side musicians, 39.09% working primarily as bandleaders
49% rhythm instrument players, 25.5% horn or string players, 10% vocalists
Participants reported primarily working in jazz or improvisation (35.45%), free improv or avant-garde (16.36%), the remainder in pop, world, traditional, punk, country, broadway, and other genres

PRESENTATIONS

I presented the preliminary results of 57 participants at ICMPC-ESCOM 2021 (International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition and the European Society of Cognition and Music) in July 2021, and the final results of 111 professional musicians’ surveys and six interviews at SEMPRE Conference in October 2021 (Society for Education and Music Psychology Research) regarding the impact of Covid-19. I guest presented this data at This Is A Movement Jazz and Gender Symposium in January 2022 moderated by Sarah Elizabeth Charles.