What Does Meaningful Artist Support Look Like in 2025 and Beyond?

In last week’s blog, I shared a difficult truth:

73% of UK musicians report poor mental wellbeing.
68% have considered leaving the industry due to mental health and financial pressures.

These statistics are more than just a wake-up call—they’re a flashing red warning light for an industry that, on the surface, is thriving.

In 2023, the UK music industry reached a record-breaking £7.6 billion in value, supporting over 210,000 jobs. These figures represent innovation, global reach, and the passion of thousands of creatives.

But behind the headlines is a human cost we can no longer afford to ignore.

This is no longer just a welfare issue—it’s a strategic risk.

The music industry is powered by creativity, and creativity is powered by people. If we continue to lose artists, producers, writers, and performers to burnout, mental illness, or disillusionment, we’re not just failing them—we’re compromising the future of the entire sector.

At Finding the Music Inside, a consultancy dedicated to the mental and emotional development of music creatives, we believe the solution begins with reframing the conversation:

Wellbeing is not an afterthought. It’s essential infrastructure.

Rethinking Artist Development: From Exposure to Endurance

Historically, artist development has focused on branding, strategy, promotion, and technical skills. But in a world where artists are expected to be always visible, always online, and always creating, we must redefine what “development” really means.

The next generation of artist support must include:

🎯 1-2-1 Coaching & Mental Skills Training
Artists need space to explore their mindset, regulate emotions, build confidence, and understand the personal blocks that impact their performance, identity, and creativity. This isn’t therapy—it’s practical, forward-facing development.

🛠️ Wellbeing Infrastructure Built Into Label and Management Structures
We must move beyond signposting and into systemic integration. That means budgets, dedicated wellbeing leads, and proactive planning around creative pressure points—especially during release campaigns, touring cycles, and transitions.

🧠 Industry-Wide Mental Health Literacy
A&Rs, managers, label teams, and publishers need to be trained in emotional awareness. Understanding burnout, comparison fatigue, imposter syndrome, and trauma-informed leadership can make or break an artist’s longevity.

🌱 Creative Environments That Centre the Human, Not Just the Brand
We need spaces where artists feel safe to fail, reflect, grow, and create without the constant demand to monetise their every move.

📉 Burnout Prevention, Not Just Burnout Response
From digital boundaries to tour design to emotional debriefs post-release—preventative strategies should become standard practice, not rare exceptions.

Who’s Leading the Way?

Thankfully, this shift is already underway—and being led by brilliant changemakers across the sector.

🎙️ Yaw Owusu – Creative consultant, PRS Foundation lead, and driving force behind LIMF Academy, Yaw’s work champions holistic, culturally aware talent development. His approach goes beyond skill-building and taps into confidence, environment, and personal growth—especially for artists from underrepresented communities.

💡 Joe Frankland – As CEO of PRS Foundation, Joe has embedded wellbeing into funding, mentorship, and support structures. Initiatives like Power Up and PPL Momentum don’t just back music—they back people. His leadership has expanded what artist support can (and should) look like.

⚡ Ben Wynter – Co-founder of Power Up and a fierce advocate for equity in music, Ben consistently highlights the emotional toll of systemic bias, financial instability, and gatekeeping. His work reminds us that mental health and representation are deeply interconnected.

🏥 Help Musicians UK (through Music Minds Matter), Music Support, and PRS Foundation continue to provide vital lifelines for musicians in crisis, while also building long-term support frameworks.

🎧 Silvia Montello (Association for Electronic Music), Annabella Coldrick (Music Managers Forum), and Naomi Pohl (Musicians’ Union) are championing mental health education, contract reform, and wellbeing policy across the board.

🧭 Martha Kinn (YMU Music) is setting new standards in artist management by placing emotional wellbeing and creative fulfilment at the heart of career strategy.

🌟 Artists like Chappell Roan are using their platforms to call for better healthcare, fairer pay, and more supportive creative environments. This is advocacy rooted in lived experience—and it’s sparking powerful industry reflection.

These leaders, organisations, and movements are lighting the way. But there’s still so much more to do.

Finding the Music Inside: Why Coaching Matters Now More Than Ever

At Finding the Music Inside, we’ve spent the last few years developing coaching programs specifically for music creatives—helping artists, producers, managers, and teams:

  • Build emotional resilience
  • Break through creative blocks
  • Reframe limiting beliefs
  • Regulate stress and comparison
  • Strengthen confidence and identity
  • Make authentic, aligned career decisions

Our work is built on one clear belief:

🎶 The music industry doesn’t just need stronger strategies—it needs stronger humans.

Whether you’re an early-stage artist navigating self-doubt, or an established act trying to manage pressure and purpose, the inner game matters as much as the outer one.

We’ve seen first-hand how coaching can transform not only wellbeing—but performance, output, and leadership.

A Call to the Industry: What Will Artist Support Look Like in 2025?

If you’re in A&R, management, education, or artist services, this is the moment to ask:

  • Are we investing in people or just products?
  • Are we offering reactive care—or building proactive, human-first systems?
  • Do our development programs support the whole artist—or just their public-facing brand?
  • Are we defining “success” in terms of charts and streams—or in long-term creativity, joy, and sustainability?

It’s not enough to say we care.
We have to build structures that prove it.

Let’s Keep Building

I’m grateful to be part of a growing movement pushing for change—alongside so many incredible partners, organisations, and creatives.

We believe the next chapter of artist development is not just about visibility or virality.
It’s about wholeness.
It’s about wellbeing.
It’s about building an industry where creativity and humanity can coexist.

If you’re doing work in this space, I’d love to connect.
If you’re looking for support, tools, or collaboration—we’re here.

Find out more about Finding the Music Inside at www.findingthemusicinside.com