So you want to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll star? Career success of pop musicians in the Netherlands

Empirical research on the career development of pop musicians is scarce. In the present study three sets of factors that have been posited to determine musicians’ career achievement were tested: background characteristics, personal attributes and the professional environment of pop musicians. A group of aspiring professional Dutch pop musicians (N = 340) responded to online questionnaires. Regression analysis showed that social support and a professional attitude were positively associated with career success, and conscientiousness negatively. Most important, the professional context, i.e., having a website dedicated to the musician or act, and having access to professionals in the music industry, emerged as the strongest predictors of career success. Surprisingly, we found that self-perceived musical talent was not linked to career success. The limitations of our study and implications for future research are discussed.