Musician salary: $47.80 an hour median, the pay figure BLS publishes for this job.
Hourly pay by percentile, by state and in the top-paying metro areas, from the latest BLS survey. BLS publishes no annual wage for musicians, and neither do we.
BLS publishes only hourly wages for musicians. The median hourly wage was $47.80 in May 2025 (BLS); the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $20.35 an hour and the top 10% more than $132.56 an hour. BLS publishes no annual wage for this occupation, because workers in it typically work fewer than 2,080 hours a year, so no annual figure is shown.
Data Government data groups this job as Musicians and Singers (O*NET-SOC 27-2042.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
- 10th percentile
- $20.35
- an hour
- 25th percentile
- $27.57
- an hour
- Median
- $47.80
- an hour
- 75th percentile
- $75.33
- an hour
- 90th percentile
- $132.56
- an hour
Data BLS releases hourly wages only for this occupation. In the words of its OEWS field notes: “The OEWS program releases only hourly wages for some occupations that typically work fewer than 2,080 hours per year and are paid on an hourly basis, such as actors, dancers, and musicians and singers.” Multiplying an hourly rate by a full-time year (2,080 hours) would not describe what a typical worker in this occupation earns in a year, so this page never does it.
Musician hourly pay in the 28 states with a published median
Data BLS state estimates, May 2025. 28 states publish a median for this occupation; together they employ 65% of the 36,180 musicians BLS counts nationally. Sort by pay or by number employed.
| State | 10th–90th percentile, hourly | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | $65.46 | $24.64–$174.87 | 260 |
| North Carolina | $57.96 | $12.50–$83.45 | 750 |
| Minnesota | $53.64 | $15.23–$134.16 | 540 |
| Illinois | $53.12 | $17.53–$125.95 | 1,300 |
| Hawaii | $52.59 | $25.59–$140.00 | 740 |
| Connecticut | $50.75 | $23.34–$106.28 | 520 |
| Virginia | $50.60 | $20.60–$85.76 | 400 |
| Florida | $50.47 | $22.28–$197.46 | 2,130 |
| Montana | $46.84 | $15.79–$92.86 | 260 |
| Washington | $46.55 | $24.65–$151.75 | 750 |
| Colorado | $46.27 | $26.58–$64.45 | 420 |
| New Mexico | $45.14 | $14.66–$118.83 | 60 |
| California | $43.83 | $21.61–$123.63 | 6,840 |
| Indiana | $39.92 | $19.34–$72.93 | 400 |
| Missouri | $39.22 | $14.70–$84.67 | 620 |
| Maryland | $38.97 | $25.06–$64.91 | 570 |
| Massachusetts | $38.92 | $19.21–$131.62 | 680 |
| Michigan | $36.63 | $19.69–$77.59 | 1,340 |
| Wisconsin | $36.61 | $11.90–$75.46 | 380 |
| Maine | $35.76 | $31.90–$55.80 | 30 |
| Iowa | $35.65 | $16.73–$129.17 | 250 |
| Texas | $33.59 | $8.56–$83.33 | 1,430 |
| Ohio | $33.36 | $18.59–$75.90 | 1,760 |
| Kansas | $28.64 | $16.70–$84.13 | 260 |
| Alabama | $23.79 | $18.57–$30.62 | 190 |
| Utah | $21.98 | $17.70–$38.56 | 230 |
| Vermont | $21.82 | $14.69–$59.25 | 30 |
| South Carolina | $19.27 | $13.11–$104.87 | 330 |
- BLS publishes employment but no wage estimate: Arizona (410 employed), Arkansas (110 employed), District of Columbia (200 employed), Georgia (540 employed), Kentucky (130 employed), Louisiana (150 employed), Mississippi (80 employed), New Jersey (570 employed), New York (5,470 employed), Oklahoma (280 employed), Oregon (1,310 employed), Pennsylvania (1,160 employed), Tennessee (1,860 employed).
- no estimate in BLS's May 2025 state file: Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Where the hourly median is highest
Data Metropolitan areas with at least 100 people employed in the occupation, BLS May 2025.
Occupations O*NET lists as related
Data Pages for related occupations. Their pay is not compared here: BLS publishes annual pay for most of them and hourly pay only for this one.
How this page is built
Wages are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates for May 2025 (national, state and metropolitan area), for the occupation shown. BLS releases only hourly wages for this occupation. OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay: they include base pay, commissions, production bonuses and tips, and exclude overtime, shift differentials, non-production bonuses and benefits. Percentiles describe all workers in the occupation, not entry or senior levels.
- Annual earnings: BLS publishes none for this occupation, and an hourly rate times a full-time year would not describe them.
- Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Experience level: percentiles are not seniority bands.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
More for Musicians
What the job is, skills, tools, pay and related roles.
Open →How to becomeMusician how to becomeEducation, training and the skills to build first.
Open →ResumeMusician resumeKeywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.
Open →Cover letterMusician cover letterA sample letter to adapt, built from the job's core tasks.
Open →Interview questionsMusician interview questionsQuestions with what they test, plus practice mode.
Open →Free toolCheck your resumeParsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.
Open →