Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers

Median gross receipts of $16,426 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.

10,802 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers are doing it alongside something else.

12.8% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.

Independent hobby, book, sporting and miscellaneous retail suits people selling into an enthusiasm they genuinely share, because knowledge is most of the differentiation left.

There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.

9.5x between the quarters — $4,991 against $47,300, or $3,525 a month. This is the shape of a field where a minority does very well and the summary statistics quietly borrow their success.

The bottom quarter of Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers earns under $4,991 — $45,029 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.

Do not start this on enthusiasm alone; a shared interest with your customers is not by itself a margin.

41.0% of the 10,802 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 4,424 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.

Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.

From $4,991 to $47,300 is 9.5x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $16,426 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.

In cash terms the middle half of Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers runs $4,991 to $47,300 — $42,309 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $16,426.

The 75th percentile is $47,300. Reaching it from the $16,426 midpoint is $30,874 a year; reaching it from the $4,991 that the bottom quarter of Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers earn is $42,309.

$11,435 below the midpoint, $30,874 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.

Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $7.89 an hour at the midpoint, $2.39 at the 25th percentile and $22.74 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.

Straight from the Census bands for Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers: 2,702 filers under $5,000, 1,723 between $5,000 and $9,999, 2,262 between $10,000 and $24,999, 1,380 above $100,000 and 446 above $250,000.