D.R.E.A.M. – Unique Risk Factors for Musicians

D.R.E.A.M.

Data Research Education Awareness Music

Unique Risk Factors for Musicians

v. 1.0 

      September 2, 2025

Purpose: 

To analyze the commentary of music industry professionals and workers to identify and analyze meaningful insights on scenarios, situations, people, and items particular to the music industry that put musicians and music workers at physical and/or mental health risk. 

• Our first qualitative data project identifies unique risk factors for professional musicians. According to the Zero Suicide Framework, suicide risk is not one-size-fits-all. People experience unique risk factors that should be addressed to personalize their care plan. There is a lack of representation of musician specific risk factors in the research that exists today. This first report is based on analysis of 10 SLAM Summit conversations. 

Observations:

• Common themes: 

Conclusions and recommendations: 

♫ Conclusion 1: Pressure. 

What does it mean? 

The numbers point overwhelmingly to widespread feelings of pressure. While it’s true that just about every undertaking has pressures, the music occupation comes with a unique set. 

• Many musicians feel tremendous pressure to perform at a high level, through sickness, fatigue, depression, or other ailments.  
• Many musicians feel tremendous pressure to hit some arbitrary measure of success. The “success” goals in these aspirations are often undefined, poorly defined, or are inflated to unreasonable levels, i.e.: “If I don’t become wealthy through my music career, then I’m a failure.” 
• Many of these pressures are self-imposed, but musicians of all levels of success face a variety of external pressures as well:
  • To create and perform in the way the audience wants or expects.  
  • To create and perform in the way that their contract-holders and managers want or expect. 
  • To make enough money to provide for themselves and loved ones. 

Many of these pressures are due (at least in part) to common cultural beliefs and definitions of artistic success. 

The weight of the world on my back.

Recommendation 1: Cultural changes are needed: 

• To raise awareness and empathy for the high pressures felt by musicians, which are strong enough to put them at risk of mental and physical health ailments and self-destructions. This viewpoint must be adopted by musicians, journalists, music industry professionals, and the larger community of fans, followers, 
• Realign expectations of artist success. Massive wealth is highly unlikely, even for “household-name” musicians. Many artists have built reasonably comfortable lifestyles through their music without hitting high ranks on music industry charting, e.g.: Billboard rankings.
  These harmful misconceptions are prevalent in popular culture, likely due to past stories of massively wealthy, decadent music stars and celebrities, along with an inflated belief in Billboard charting as the only means to musical success.   

Recommendation 2: More research is needed to assess and detail the high-pressure demands unique to musicians. 

♫ Conclusion 2: Musicians and creatives are predisposed to depression, drug and alcohol misuse, and madness. 

How  will I make it? I won’t.

“A tortured life, so to speak, can lead to some really intense creativity, too. So some of these people that are just so fantastically creative and inspiring for us, they’re eating themselves up inside over different things.“ Creating and listening to music was frequently described as therapeutic. It seems a logical conclusion that many musicians (and other artists) are drawn to their craft in part from a subconscious desire to process or soothe some inner emotional/psychological pain. There is a long-standing, commonly-held cultural belief about a link, some even say “a necessity” for creatives to be predisposed to mental health issues. Does it hold up to study? This is a point for further research. 

Recommendation 1: Foundational changes needed in popular culture, institutional and private educational approaches to art teaching, in the professional mental health playbook, and in the music industry ecosystem. We must put to bed the romanticism of the tortured artist. We must end the harmful misconception that drugs and alcohol and/or depression are requirements for success or “greatness” in an arts career. 

Recommendation 2: More research is needed to assess the conflation between mental health issues and artistic inclination, especially in the music arts. 

Seeing the things that make true happiness. . .

♫ Conclusion 3: Physical health. 

Physical health was a distant second behind “Pressure of the job” for most frequent mentions in the designated data set. This was a bit unexpected, but it makes sense. Performing music is a physical and sometimes physically demanding act.Vocalists in particular have spoken of the risks to their vocal cords from strain or misuse through performing. The risks for any physical ailments only increase as musicians age.

Recommendation 1: As with the previous two items, more awareness and specific research are needed. 

Recommendation 2: Support Life And Music suggest the creation of physical exercise regimens tailored specifically to different music roles: vocals, guitar, bass, drums, horns, keyboards, etc. 

♮

Underaddressed topics: 

There was some discussion of the constant and rapid changing of the expectations and methods for success in music careers, as well as much discussion of the pressures musicians face, but little to no commentary on the innate instability, unpredictability, and uncertainty of a music career – – day to day and year-to-year – – especially in contrast with other established, labor-based, skill-based, non-arts-driven career paths.

Many professional musicians’ lifestyles involve heavy travel schedules, yet very few of the musicians mentioned feeling strain from the road. 

Only two musicians shared personal suicide attempts or ideas. 

Sources and methodology:

The S.L.A.M. internal Data Research Education Awareness Music Team (D.R.E.A.M. Team) analyzed the full spoken content of 10 different “SLAM Summit” panel discussion recordings, tagging meaningful statements across various categories. This report focuses on quotes associated with the “Unique Risk Factors” tag, seeking commentary and call-outs pertaining to risk factors that are unique to professional musicians and the professional music environment.
We analyzed a sampling of podcast episodes and identified unique risk factors that were mentioned.

• It must be noted that at the time of this writing, 32 “SLAM Summits” have been recorded, so this is an assessment of a representative data sample of 10 episodes, not the entirety of available data. Further, only 8 of the 10 contained meaningful quotes. Per S.L.A.M.’s assessment, 2 of the 10 episodes analyzed were found to have meaningful tags, but did not contain any “Unique Risk Factor” quotes. 
• We did not seek to confirm or debunk the truth or validity of any statements made. The purpose was to analyze, process, quantify, draw logical connections, find meaningful commonalities, themes, and/or contradictions between the statements, and ultimately share the recorded observations, feelings, concerns, beliefs, philosophies, etc., in the speakers’ own words. 
• The speakers were invited to participate in “SLAM Summit: Music Survival Guide” panel discussions. All episodes are publicly available or are scheduled for release at http://www.supportlifeandmusic.org/voices. The quotes in this report will be kept anonymous, and are not intended to be taken out of context as any kind of reflection on any persons involved in the conversations. 
• Some of the content presented has been edited to:
  • Remove extraneous words phrases, like “you know,” “um,” “like,” etc., as well as to remove repeated or stammered words/phrases. 
  • Correct obvious Zoom transcription errors in translation, dictation, or grammar. (crosschecked against the actual episode audio.)
• No statement was changed, no quote was edited to directly or indirectly change its original meaning in any way. 
• The Support Life And Music D.R.E.A.M. Team sought to identify statements about mental health as well as physical health risks, due to the strong correlation between compromises to the latter detrimentally affecting the former.
  • Demographics within the 10 episodes analyzed (some of the participants fall into multiple categories):
    • Males: 14
    • Females: 7 
    • Professional musicians: 15
    • Professional Music Industry Workers in other roles: 8
    • Others: 4
    • Europeans: 3
    • US Citizens: 18

The “Conclusions” section of this report was written solely in-house at Support Life And Music, and its recommendations are drawn from S.L.A.M. backgrounds in the music industry and mental health, as well as from the designated data set. All facts, figures, opinions, conclusions, and suggestions in this article are presented solely for informational purposes. There are mental health improvement techniques that can be undertaken by anyone in any situation to benefit themselves and others, but consultation with a certified mental health professional is always recommended. See the Support Life And Music website for a more expansive list of healthcare providers. 

Contents and Initial Assessments: 

Unique Risk Factor Assessment	Quote
Deprioritization/ Irregular meal times	You’re on tour. You’re at work. You’re not playing around. You can’t be late. You can’t eat…It’s so difficult when I’m on tour, because I can’t eat like the other ones. You know, they’re on the table eating the amazing food. I’m fucking hungry, but I know that 1, 4 hours before my show I can’t eat, so afterwards. Do you know how cold my food is without a heater? It’s disgusting. So I throw it away.
Your body is your tool to get the job done	When musicians and bands go like, ”Oh, we do our job, and you don’t do your job [socialize with fans],” and I’m like, “If your job was your liver and you had a couple of beers. Come and tell me about it, you know.” So I try basically to protect myself, not my voice.The voice is secondary. If I’m not there, my voice is not there, you know.
Cultural relevance risk	When the music industry went from rock and roll to grunge, and all of a sudden every band that was rock is dropped. How do we keep your career alive. What do we do? We got to ride it out because everything comes back around again.
The job is a priority over family/ personal time, especially on tour.	That’s a tricky one… Because  I’ve been trying to mix all worlds at once. But then it’s not optimal either… right before a show, for instance, I’m like, completely focused on that. And afterwards as well. Since we need to…pack everything up and get back home. So I’m like, completely out for a day and a half, basically before every show that we do so when I bring my family …to the show, it’s like, yeah. I tried to make everyone happy. But yeah, still, I think I need to focus on the music at that point in time. Just personal relationships are always the thing that suffers the most.
Having to subsidize music job with day job	Having a daytime job is both a blessing and a curse, because we’re never able to focus as much on the music as we would like, I guess, but also it keeps us busy.
Band managers end up getting into personal matters	Unfortunately, I do have to deal with a lot of stuff in management. A lot of personal stuff. Did you pay your rent? Is your health insurance paid, you know, keeping marriages together. Managing a band is a full-time job, and then some.
Different expectations/assumptions toward women workers/musicians in the music industry	As a woman, I’ve made the mistake in the past of just being nurturing and it backfired on me.
Band members may tolerate dysfunction to stay in the band	Somebody here said. ‘Just get away from that’. Sometimes they can’t get away from it, because that means they have to leave the band that they love, that they think they’re going to make it in, and they don’t think they’re going to make it anywhere else. If they leave that band.
Musicians may feel pressured to produce something they are not proud of and they are associated with it forever.	The manager’s name isn’t living on forever. The marketing person isn’t living on forever. The radio promoter isn’t living on forever. You are, because it’s your name plastered all over the front of that album cover. You better be happy to live with that as part of your legacy.
Return on investment for songs is a long road	It takes so long for some of the best art to really hit. And I mean, really hit. And sometimes it takes decades, and sometimes things are just ahead of their time. Sometimes it takes a while for people to understand something, and you know the best. Art divides the audience. If everybody loves it. It’s usually a fad.
Many incidents of people around musicians taking advantage them	I’ve seen really good artists blindly trust their manager or PR, or person in charge of that, and just completely be run over and stolen from.
Musicians may feel pressured to do things for the sake of making it	a lot of [musicians] will stop at nothing to make it, and they will sign on the line of many dark things to get there, and it’s the truth of it, and maybe I shouldn’t be revealing that. But it’s something that needs to have some light on it. There’s dark corners of this industry that are just those ways are not working anymore. And there’s several people that several tables, I said, at a very successful
Musicians will have to manage on their own until they are making enough money to incentivize a manager	It’s quite simple. If you’re a small artist right now, and you’re not making any money. There’s not a lot of incentive for a manager to come on board, either. It’s not music, friends, it’s music, business.
Women musicians are sexualized	I’m a woman. So I get… extremely sexualized…a lot of people don’t know but I wear cheeseburger slippers on stage… [to] mess, with everybody’s perception.
Women musicians are sexualized	You will hear everything, every little thing. They will judge your face, your body, your tits, your voice, your personality. They call me a diva. Okay?
Musicians do not have a say on what gets posted on social media or youtube	One of the reasons why I think [not putting yourself front and center] is being triggered more now than ever before is, people are scared to see what pops up on Youtube. So they just want to know that they’re gonna sing consistently night after night, even though they’re not singing [in the front]. So you’re trying to … perform your best… I went up and I got up on stage, and just white noise came out. And I was like devastated… I’m such a dynamic singer,… it was very traumatic for me. Honestly, because it’s like you have people holding their cell phones like right in your face as you’re just… struggling. And you’re like, you don’t understand what’s happening…So after it was like the worst show of my life. I went backstage, and I, just like stood in a corner, and just like did the silent cry, where you just like just tears are running down your face.
The way you feel mentally or physically will affect your singing voice	But definitely, if you’re nervous, if you’re anxious. If you’re emotionally distraught in any kind of way, if you’re dealing with something you can have like a defeatism which sometimes doesn’t let us get all the way [to the high notes]. If I am sick, I don’t have lung capacity
Age impacts your singing abilities	Jason McMaster: The older I get [my voice is] diminishing a little bit…sometimes live I have more … power, and I can hold that note, whatever it is longer than I can when I’m in the studio, and I don’t know if it’s adrenaline like a natural thing.
Fans have very high expectations for seeing a musician live	No one is expecting you to suck… They’re there to see a show…They want you to kill it …all the time…they act so surprised when you know you got to take a break, or when the band has to get a replacement singer.or God forbid right? Or you know something is different about the show. Wow! What’s different?
For musicians, the very act of listening to music, especially their own, can lead to perfectionism and overly self-critical thinking	I’ll listen to songs, and I still beat myself up sometimes, too, like, Oh, I got to get that better. I gotta. I gotta. I’m not feeling that yet. So you know. I listen to music, but I also. It’s my work sometimes, and sometimes sometimes you got to step away, too, because you’re like I got to do that better. I got to do that better, and it’s that that can be stressful.
For creatives (musicians), the analytical approach and the extra exposure can diminish the simple enjoyment of experiencing the artform.	I listen to a lot of podcasts. Obviously, since that’s what I do for a living. But when but I don’t do it as an escape any longer.
Intense pressure to succeed.	There’s these guys you’re never going to know that put so much pressure like, what happens if I don’t make it? I got to make it. They set these boundaries like, if they don’t make it, there’s nothing left for them, and that’s really hard. I mean, imagine going to bed at night like that.The guys that haven’t made it. They’re, you know, just local guys that are struggling to make it. And then you got to think about the guys that have got the stardom have got, you know, played arenas, and did this all. And then it all ended. that’s a lot for somebody, and not just musicians, actors that had, you know, they were childhood actors. And look how they would happen, and they’re all scared to like talk to somebody. You shouldn’t be embarrassed.
The professional music lifestyle faces unique, often intense pressures, at every level of success.	The gigging musician, the band that ekes enough money by to pay themselves. At least they’re living on ramen days, or maybe they have a pretty good, you know. They can pay for their house and their mortgage, and all that kind of stuff. But those bands also probably are those musicians. Probably many of them have tragic stories. And what about those who we’ve lost along the way that we don’t know about, because they’re not famous.I think you know, having a greater understanding that these pressures. Look, you don’t have to be Kurt Cobain to have these issues right? You can have these same issues as just a regular person who happens to have a career in music. And yeah, those pressures. Clearly they’re different when you get to a certain level of fame. But, man, they’re still there, and you need to fight those. And we need to have ways to encourage musicians to get past those.
Young adults in the musician lifestyle often push the limits of safety and “partying” with uncertain people and substances.	There was a time in my life like everybody else. You know, we were young, and we were all full of piss and vinegar, and we thought the world was ours, and we were unstoppable. And yeah, dude. Listen. I partied like everybody else at one time.
Life on the road in hotels can sometimes feel solitary, hopeless, and can lead to suicide risks.	There were times, man, I would be on a hotel balcony on the 20th floor, and just wonder. . . “I could just jump off this thing right now and end it all.”
The “party” atmosphere is such a prominent component of the touring musician’s environments, that it leads to risk or relapse, anxiety, loss of control, and other concerns – – for everyone, but especially for those recovering from addiction(s).	And you could see how there’s definitely a lot of triggers on the road in the business, from the drinking and the partying for years and years and years, and just really being a mental mess going through the withdrawals of it.
The struggle to succeed can feel futile, hopeless, especially when exacerbated by dependency, leading to suicidal ideation.	Then I almost killed myself. . .I had planned to drive off – – It’s gonna sound fucked up, but it’s the truth. I was going to launch myself off this mountain cliff thing, because I had always dreamed that I was going to die that way. So I said, Fuck it, let’s fulfill that dream, since I can’t fulfill any others. Because all I ever wanted to do was play, and I couldn’t. Nothing was clicking. I tried and tried and tried every band, every every every possible thing. It just. . . nothing was working. I was always just playing covers, and it got to the point where I couldn’t even play a show without drinking, because I didn’t want to be there. It wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t have a purpose.
There is a unique wear-and-tear and strain of performing at a high level, which can be compounded with numerous shows on the schedule.	There’s so many factors about it – – mentally, physically – –  that go into. . . people don’t really understand a lot what it takes to get on that stage and give it 150% every night.
Some kinds of music are more physically, and possibly emotionally, demanding, which leads to risk of fatigue and other physical ailments.	That’s the kind of music that I sing. It’s not easy, and it takes its toll. I don’t care how good you are, what techniques you use, because that goes out the window a lot of times when you’re on the road, because the circumstances.
The “party” atmosphere is such a prominent component of the touring musician’s environments, that it leads to risk or relapse, anxiety, loss of control, and other concerns – – for everyone, but especially for those recovering from addiction(s).	You know it. It was everywhere. But I was fine, because I was so focused on the task at hand, and I knew that I had to keep improving. It was everywhere. It was very easy. I very easily could have went right back to drinking.
Risk (especially for vocalists) of over-exertion, potentially leading to physical harm and loss of ability.	I don’t like that because I don’t want to think about stuff (vocal technique), I just want to play. But obviously there’s things that you want to make sure that you’re doing right. You don’t want to hurt yourself, and that’s also kind of a thing that you have to develop on your own.
A link between creativity and inner darkness.	A lot of musicians, a lot of artists, man, they’re kind of a little tortured, because sometimes intense. . . A tortured life, so to speak, can lead to some really intense creativity, too. So some of these people that are just so fantastically creative and inspiring for us, they’re eating themselves up inside over different things.
Drastic changes in the music industry make it hard for veterans to give any meaningful advice.	Sometimes people ask me that, what’s your advice for young and upcoming musicians and all that? And it’s like, well, I don’t know if I can give them advice, because it seems like the music world has changed so much now, and how to monetize music and how to promote yourself and all that’s changed so much.

Zero Suicide. (n.d.). Framework. Zero Suicide. https://zerosuicide.edc.org/about/framework