A hard day's night: A dynamical model of artistic career choice

The music labor market is a highly competitive one, characterized by an oversupply of professionals, several forms of temporary work, and employment uncertainty. Many musicians experiencing these conditions decide to abandon their artistic career in favor of a more remunerated or stable one. We extend here a well known model of cultural goods' production, by introducing dynamical aspects to propose a simple career choice dynamical model in which musicians can switch from a musical to a non-musical career and vice versa, and their choices are influenced by other musicians' choices. We then discuss and interpret the attractors and the structure of their basins, provide the analytical expression of the boundaries of the 2-period cycles and numerically discuss the conditions for 3-period cycles. The model reproduces well the musicians' employment situation and provides insights in terms of musicians' career sustainability choices. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.