Perform music for the public
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This work is the relationship itself. An agent can prepare for it and write up what happened afterwards, which is real time saved, but the encounter needs a person present and answerable.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Relationships, negotiation and public-facing presence |
| Jobs that do it | 3 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Performing for or Working Directly with the Public (4.A.4.a.8) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 3 occupations that perform it.
- Sing or dance during dramatic or comedic performances.
- Perform before live audiences in concerts, recitals, educational presentations, and other social gatherings.
- Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.
- Sing a cappella or with musical accompaniment.
- Interpret or modify music, applying knowledge of harmony, melody, rhythm, and voice production to individualize presentations and maintain audience interest.
- Specialize in playing a specific family of instruments or a particular type of music.
- Sing as a soloist or as a member of a vocal group.
- Observe choral leaders or prompters for cues or directions in vocal presentation.
- Memorize musical selections and routines, or sing following printed text, musical notation, or customer instructions.
- Play musical instruments as soloists, or as members or guest artists of musical groups such as orchestras, ensembles, or bands.
- Play from memory or by following scores.
- Provide the musical background for live shows, such as ballets, operas, musical theatre, and cabarets.
- Improvise music during performances.
- Perform in television, radio, or movie productions.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Buy nothing. An assistant can prepare you for the encounter and write up what happened afterwards, which is real time saved, but the encounter itself is the work and it needs you in it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
Who does this work
3 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Present arts or entertainment performances”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.