Surveying music makers:
individual artists, teachers, and music lovers

A music scene is created by people with passion. This individual survey was designed for any Alaska resident who participates in the music scene in any way. (Survey is now closed.)

Here are some more details on what it means to be an artist, teacher, or music lover, for the purposes of our survey:

Artists:

• Performing or recording musician

  • You don’t have to earn money or perform music you wrote; cover songs at an open mic count. If you’re a student, that’s fine.

  • Performing in front of others as a part of religious/traditional ceremonies or services qualifies, whether paid or unpaid

  • Performing with others, like in a choir or band, qualifies — tell the rest of the group to report, too!

  • This may apply to you as an actor or cabaret performer, as long as some form of music creation is also a regular part of your performance

• Composer, lyricist, or arranger

• Producer or beatmaker

• DJ for live music events

  • If you host or DJ on the radio, see our music business page — we want your radio station to take the music business survey! You as an individual can take the artist survey, but you’re not the kind of DJ we’re talking about when we mention DJ performances. (Don’t report radio hosting income as artist income.)

Teachers:

• Private music teacher

• Member of a music teaching co-op / collective / non-profit

• Traditional music or cultural enrichment educator

• Master class, workshop, or seasonal camp music educator

• Teacher or mentor in audio or instrument tech

• School teacher (K-12) specializing in music

  • If some of your classes are music and some are not, use that ratio to estimate a rough percentage of your total teaching income that corresponds to your time teaching music.

• College or university music or A/V tech instructor

  • Include teaching work in all subjects connected to music, including music history, theory, analysis or criticism

  • This includes teaching courses in technical skills that apply to producing music events, but not courses that only apply to other performing arts (for example, audio engineering, yes, but not costuming)

• Teacher or mentor in instrument building or repair

  • If you earn money from teaching instrument building to others, include that here as part of your teaching income. But don’t include income from selling/renting/repairing instruments. That should be a part of the music business survey, so please take that one, too!

• Conductor, coach, or leader of a performing ensemble

  • If you earn income conducting or coaching an ensemble, and you are the only paid member, report it on the Artist/Teacher survey as teaching income. (A paid accompanist for an ensemble like this should report it as their own artist income.)

  • But if you’re part of a performing ensemble that is its own private or non-profit entity, with an annual budget and multiple paid positions, take the music business survey and also tell us about the ensemble as a whole there — or make sure that someone else from the ensemble reports it.

Music lovers:

• Are you an audience member or volunteer? We have a couple questions for you, too!

If ANY of the above describes you, go for it!

If you’re not sure your work fits into these categories, check our music business list to see if those descriptors fit you better. You can also contact us if you want to know more.