Stress in Music Managers and Artists:
Pilot Study on Czech and Slovak Students

Abstract

The aim of the presented study was to do a pilot research on the comparison of the incidence of stress in a group of students of music management and art of music. We examined whether artists and music managers differ in the perception of the intensity of stress when playing (working) solo from the intensity when playing (working) in group. Furthermore, we focused on the most common stressors and main stress symptoms among music managers and artists. Total 63 students of music, cultural or art management (average age 28.6 years; 69.8 % were women) and 75 students of art of music (average age 26.7 years; 64 % were women) filled out an online questionnaire in the spring of 2016. The results show that while artists reported higher stress levels when playing solo, music managers reported higher stress levels when working in a group. A closer look showed that while only a few music managers (4,8 %) are intensely stressed when working in a team, a considerable group of artists (26 %) stated that they were most stressed out when playing solo. As their main work stressors artists mentioned blackouts, unpreparedness, and audience, music managers listed flaws in the human factor, time pressure and financial problems. Stress symptoms among artists are mainly physiological and short-term but at the same time intensive, while stress symptoms among music managers are rather long-term and related to psyche, and relationships with others.