With more layoffs looming, Music's tough job market is about to get tougher

Since Laura Gonzalez lost her job as a Spotify software engineer in December when the streaming giant cut 1,500 employees in its third round of layoffs in 2023, she has struggled to reassert herself in a changing music business.

As companies like Universal Music Group and BMG downsize for strategic purposes, Gonzalez noticed through job listings and interviews — that PR, media and streaming jobs are shrinking, while the social media and ticket sales remain pretty strong. “It's scary, I'm not going to lie,” says Gonzalez, a San Diego singer and guitarist who fronts the shoegaze band Lack of memory. She adds that “competition is crazy,” noting that she spent a year at Spotify creating revenue streams for artists beyond royalties. “I found myself having to study and brush up on topics I hadn't thought about since I was at university — data structures and algorithms.”

From the perspective of music-business job seekers, the employment landscape has recently turned into the unknown. Over the past several years, spurred by streaming growth and a spike in demand during the COVID-19 home quarantine, labels, DSPs (digital service providers) and other streaming-focused companies have been expanding and hiring. But the president of UMG, Lucian Grangehas been warning staff for months that the world's biggest company is on the brink of serious cost-cutting.

For this reason, according to Peter Wolter, founder of The Music Recruiters, an Amsterdam-based company that recruits people into the music business and connects them with employment opportunities, job seekers with music-business experience in human resources, finance or other transitional skills may consider to consider areas that do not cover the recession, such as health insurance. He expects job growth in music and businesses in artificial intelligence, data analysis and the internet, but perhaps not immediately.

“It's not like all these people who are laid off are going to be able to move easily to these areas. That will depend on the network and experience,” he says. “It's clear that the music industry is changing. There's not a single area that I'm aware of that has really strong hiring like you might have seen in the past in digital distributors — or technology booms that you sometimes see.”

There are bright spots in the industry. John LobaBMG's new president of Frontline Recording said last month that he would immediately begin bolstering the A&R team in Los Angeles. (In October, the Berlin-based company and publisher laid off 30 employees as part of the CEO Thomas Cosfeld called “a strategy for future growth.”) And record tours by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé helped create “a lot of great growth opportunities for years to come” on the live side, Michael Rapinopresident/CEO of Live Nation, told investors last August.

“Jobs will look different and there will be more competition, but I don't think we need to completely freak out,” he says Andrea Magdalina, Coachella's community director and founder of shesaid.so, a music-business community of women and gender non-conforming people that hosts an online job portal. “What's difficult is that people are looking for work right now, because things are changing very quickly. The market is going through a consolidation phase.”

For now, however, online recruiters see a bleak picture of the business. (In addition to recent layoffs at DSPs and labels, music journalism has taken a devastating hit, with Conde Nast downsizing Pitchfork and papers like Los Angeles Times laying off entertainment writers and editors.) Recent music-related opportunities on ZipRecruiter, according to Julia Pollackthe company's chief economist, were in teaching, treatment, or lower-level positions.

“There's not a huge amount of growth in these industries,” he says. “The kind of high-paid music manager roles that are the most attractive are few and far between.”

Noticing the same trends over two months of unemployment, Gonzalez broadened her job search: “I'm hoping that I can find something that I can make an impact on, whether it's in the music industry or a different industry. Everything is a learning path.”