Self-employment method
Sound Recording Industries
41,282 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 41,282 people who filed under this code in 2022, 49.12% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 41,282 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 13,108 | 31.8% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 7,168 | 17.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 9,346 | 22.6% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 5,614 | 13.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 3,516 | 8.5% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 1,854 | 4.5% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 495 | 1.2% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 181 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $10,586 for the year — $882 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.
With 41,282 filers, this is a populated field. The market sets the price rather than you, and the useful question is what would let you charge above it.
6.1% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
Independent film, video and sound work suits people who can build a client list that outlives any single production company or platform arrangement.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 41,282 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of Sound Recording Industries earns 7.9x the bottom quarter — under $3,937 against over $30,965, a spread of $27,028. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Sound Recording Industries earns under $3,937 — $46,083 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 gear bought before the client list exists — the equipment does not generate the work.
49.1% of 41,282 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 20,277 people. Close to half of everyone in Sound Recording Industries is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
Take it as a floor, not an estimate. The $10,000 threshold is measured on money received, before materials, rent, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax, so the true share of filers who ended the year with no income is higher than the figure shown — we simply cannot say how much higher.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 7.9x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $10,586 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Sound Recording Industries should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Sound Recording Industries runs $3,937 to $30,965 — $27,028 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $10,586.
Between $3,937 and $30,965 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $10,586. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $20,379; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $27,028.
$6,649 below the midpoint, $20,379 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Sound Recording Industries that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $1.89 an hour at the 25th percentile, $5.08 at the midpoint and $14.88 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 13,108 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 7,168. $10,000 to $24,999, 9,346. Over $100,000, 2,530 — and 676 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $10,586 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $10,586 wage and should never be read as one.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Sound Recording Industries, the hourly figure is $10,586 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else