How To Eat Well As A Starving Artist

The starving artist is a concept that has old roots.  The idea of pursuing a life making art and suffering the financial consequences has been romanticized in movies and popular culture. 

As a consumer of art my favorite art form is music, by far.  Radio was my only access to new music growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s, and if an artist was being played on the radio back then they were far from starving.  To get big enough to have radio play meant you had already blown up, or will very soon.  Led Zeppelin and Billy Joel were the farthest thing from starving you could imagine. 

Times slowly changed and what was called “alternative” music became more and more common as the internet matured and new discovery channels emerged.  Fast forward to now and what we call “indie” music – short for “independent” – is everywhere. 

Right now if you want you can record a song on your laptop and upload it to Spotify.  It will be available to the world right alongside major musical acts. 

Though music discovery has been democratized, it’s created more starving artists than ever.  Just because you can upload your song to Spotify or Bandcamp doesn’t mean anyone is going to listen.

Starving, Really?

The median income for a musician in America is approximately $20,000 – $25,000 per year.  Most musicians are indie musicians, they’re not celebrities signed to a major record label.  The federal poverty line is $13,590, so that means the average musician is not quite making twice the minimum poverty line income. 

And my assumption is that this income figure for musicians is pre-tax.  Although taxes are very low on that income level there are still taxes to pay, so their post-tax income is even less.

Let’s be honest, can anyone really live on $23,000 a year?  Can someone cover the bear essentials like paying rent and having enough for food and basic clothing on $23k?  

There are folks in the personal finance community who claim they spend less than that per year.  But again, in order to spend $23,000 you have to make more than that to cover taxes. 

The point here – is the average musician a starving artist?  Well, quite possibly yes. 

They might not actually be starving, but most musicians either work another job, are on welfare, or have an arrangement that allows them to live on a meager income such as free rent. 

And let’s not forget that covid hit musicians especially hard since so many make money by playing live.  Many have still not recovered.

Be An Artist, Pass On The Starving

So how can you become an artist and avoid the starving part?  You do what I did and start your artist career after you’re already financially independent. 

In 2021 I made $20,743 as a graphic artist, about the same as the median income for musicians in America according to the numbers.  But unlike most of those musicians I don’t struggle to make ends meet.  Yes I still work a part time job that pays pretty well, but even if I didn’t have that income I’d be just fine thanks. 

I’ve got FU money, and quite a bit of it. 

So I’m not a starving artist, I’m a well-fed artist who has to muster lots of discipline to not be overfed.  And no matter how hard I try I still can’t get over feeling a bit douchy referring to myself as an artist.  But putting “well-fed” in front of it makes it sound less douchy somehow 🙂 

If you are one of those artistically blessed individuals who insists on making art your main career from a young age, well good luck.  I sincerely hope you succeed.  A high school friend of mine made it work and still works as an art director for a major corporation, but it’s a tough career path. 

In the end, if you have any artistic ambitions it’s better to be a well-fed artist than a starving one.  And you can do that by saving money from your main job and putting yourself on a path to FI.