In November 2016, Help Musicians UK published the results of their pilot survey ‘Can Music Make You Sick? Music and Depression’ (Gross and Musgrave, 2016), from this pilot survey that garnered 2,211 responses, it emerged that 71.1% of respondents identified as having suffered from panic attacks and/ or anxiety, and 68.5% from depression.

This second phase of ‘Can Music Make You Sick’ seeks to answer the questions Help Musicians UK needed answering, “why?‟, and, “what can be done?‟. In semi-structured interviews with twenty-six musicians from multiple genres, of varying ages, career stages, and locations throughout the UK, this research sought to investigate the source of these high levels of depression and anxiety, by asking the musicians themselves what they felt might be causing or contributing to their mental health issues.

Although the causes of mental health problems are multi-faceted, there appears to be a perceptible and uncomfortable link between the epidemic of mental ill-health amongst musicians, and the working conditions within the music industries. In this sense, working in the music industries appears to be making people sick.

Gross, S. A. and Musgrave, G. (2017). A Study into the Incidence of Musicians’ Mental Health Part 2: Qualitative Study and Recommendations.University of Westminster: MusicTank Publishing.