section_path: Careers
section_name: Careers
paragraph_text: Careers
  
  The salaries and working conditions for vocalists vary a great deal. While jobs in other music fields such as music education choir conductors tend to be based on full-time, salaried positions, singing jobs tend to be based on contracts for individual shows or performances, or for a sequence of shows.
  
  Aspiring singers and vocalists must have musical skills, an excellent voice, the ability to work with people, and a sense of showmanship and drama. Additionally, singers need to have the ambition and drive to continually study and improve.
  
  Professional singers continue to seek out vocal coaching to hone their skills, extend their range, and learn new styles. As well, aspiring singers need to gain specialized skills in the vocal techniques used to interpret songs, learn about the vocal literature from their chosen style of music, and gain skills in choral music techniques, sight singing and memorizing songs, and vocal exercises.
  
  Some singers learn other music jobs, such as the composing, music producing and songwriting. Some singers put videos on YouTube and streaming apps. Singers market themselves to buyers of vocal talent, by doing auditions in front of a music director. Depending on the style of vocal music that a person has trained in, the "talent buyers" that they seek out may be record company, A&R representatives, music directors, choir directors, nightclub managers, or concert promoters. A CD or DVD with excerpts of vocal performances is used to demonstrate a singer's skills. Some singers hire an agent or manager to help them to seek out paid engagements and other performance opportunities; the agent or manager is often paid by receiving a percentage of the fees that the singer gets from performing onstage.