Our Insights Intern, Naomi Awoyera, explores the realities of pursuing a creative career in today’s challenging economy, where young artists balance passion with financial pressures. Through the stories of emerging musicians, the article reveals how resilience, resourcefulness, and a call for fairer opportunities are reshaping the future of the creative industry.

What is it really like to chase a dream? For the next generation of artists, creativity is not just expression, it’s resilience. Emerging creatives find themselves navigating a delicate balance: how to stay true to their artistic vision while managing the very real demands of adult life. Our Sound of the Next Generation Report 2024 found that only 52% of young people believe artists are paid fairly - an indicator of just how precarious pursuing creativity can feel. And it’s not just the arts, this sense of precarity echoes wider Gen Z pressures: a combination of unaffordable housing, weak wages and job uncertainty threatens young adults’ financial autonomy. Whether it be the pressure to earn a living, or the struggle to carve out time for creativity alongside ‘back-up’ plans, rising artist and industry professionals are learning how to navigate the roads between passion and responsibility.

In conversation with six young creatives from our NextGen community, we spoke about passion, barriers and goals. The discussions reflected a synergy of talents, friends and family, all in pursuit of a shared artistic vision; but threaded through each conversation was a quieter, more sobering reality: the real demands of adult life. 

Sarah is a 26-year-old alt-indie singer-songwriter from London/Essex. She began singing and writing music at a young age before attending music college, where she spent three years honing her craft. A recipient of the NextGen Fund, she used the grant to create her debut EP, The Keeper, one track of which went on to win the Original Track (Solo) at the Youth Music Awards 2024. Passionate about making music her full-time career, Sarah’s goal to build a sustainable life around the art she loves is clear: “I want to make it something that I can maintain without having to work alongside it. Taking the music on tour is a big goal for me and being able to live off of this thing that I love so much.”

Jenni is also on a mission to make music her full-time job. Last year, she graduated from university with a business degree and secured a job in marketing, a role she now juggles alongside her growing music career. The 24-year-old musician, based in Manchester, has been releasing her music since late 2021. Blending pop and alt-rock influences, she’s performed at gigs across the city. “[I’m definitely at a point now where] it’s becoming easier to get performances,” Jenni says. “I’ve built a bit more of a network where I am now, and it’s definitely growing. But to be at a point where I could completely replace my full-time job is probably still a little bit off.” For Jenni, like many emerging artists, the ultimate goal is clear: “I feel like everyone that does this sort of thing, the goal is to go out and perform and for it to be a career. But at the moment, I work in marketing while building toward doing music full-time.”

Like Jenni, Charlie has also had to navigate the balance between paid work and creative ambition. Charlie, 26, is a DJ, producer at Ori Community, and an up-and-coming industry professional from London. “I’ve been making music from a very young age,” Charlie says, “but never kind of saw it as a viable career option. I didn’t know what career I wanted within music. All I knew is I wanted to DJ and make music. So I just started taking different jobs.” In 2023, Charlie worked with the Youth Music Awards PR Team and is now focused on securing regular DJ bookings. Well-versed in many areas of the creative industry, Charlie admits that not all of those jobs align with her passion. “I would say 40% of the work I pick up now is because I have to pay my bills, not out of choice.”  

Their journeys reflect a challenge many emerging creatives face: the need to juggle paid work with the pursuit of a dream, with 44% of musicians citing a lack of sustainable income as a barrier to their music career (Musicians Census, 2023).

Further illustrating the complex reality for young creatives, Tobi is a 21-year-old law student and musician from Leeds whose journey into music began through the LEVELS programme with Young Thugs Studio, a Youth Music funded project. Before that experience, she had created little music, but the programme became a turning point, sparking her passion for songwriting and performance. While she keeps law as a solid backup plan, Tobi’s heart lies in pursuing music full time: “I definitely want to go into music; I see Law as my backup.”She envisions two possible paths: continuing to release music and grow creatively, or pursuing a master’s in music and management to strengthen her industry skills. Whichever route she takes, she’s determined to keep her career rooted in creativity, authenticity, and a drive to navigate the music world on her own terms.

Sarah, Jenni, Charlie and Tobi show the struggle of both balancing and progressing creative work. But some have found a way to do what they love and do what pays. Charity, a 24-year-old alternative singer-songwriter from Lincolnshire, explains: “Career wise, I've been looking at working with young children, working in schools, and I found that, that is actually quite a good way to bring music in. She received the NextGen Fund, which helped her produce a song and accompanying music video. Charity’s future plans include bringing her passion for music into education and working with young children. Although her main love is recording and creating music, she is equally committed to using her talents to inspire and nurture the next generation of musicians.

Their stories embody a generation of creatives balancing artistic ambition with the demands of making a living, often blending side jobs, backup careers and passion projects to sustain their work. Yet this determination unfolds against a backdrop of structural inequality, with Global Majority young people still underrepresented in the industry, especially in leadership, reflective of findings from our SONG report young people from a working-class background are far less likely to know someone who can support them to progress into music. 

For the music industry, the challenge is clear: open up opportunities and dismantle barriers to representation so that “doing what you love” and “doing what pays” are not competing choices, but the foundation of a fair and thriving creative sector.