How a music student can earn a living

Arnold Schönberg: [...] According to my experience one does not find many good musicians selling musical instruments--pianos, violins, phonographs, radios, etc. Who else could really advise a buyer as well as a good musician, or have as good a judgment about records? On the other hand, I am probably not the only one who has been repelled by the trivial music by which a mediocre musician hoped to advertise his product.
Finally, I want to mention a number of shop activities in which a music student can work as a clerk or salesman, or as a laborer, craftsman, or apprentice to a craftsman. For instance, in a publishing house he might evaluate the chances of music to be printed; he might be useful in publicity and in communication with performers; he might prepare manuscripts for engraving and read the proofs. And he might also learn here very much besides: about the prohibition of stealing of other composers' ideas under the copyright, and the possibility, nevertheless, to commit plagiarism, if only one knows and obeys the letter of the law. These he might learn and take advantage of it in an honest way, in a way protecting the interest of culture and the lives of the creators--let us hope!
Similarly, there might be student activities in printing, engraving, and photostatic shops. It is amazing how few musicians know these processes, and it is more amazing how little regard these shops show for the progress and development of our art. Let me mention here that when one of my most advanced works was engraved, the permanent proofreader of the engraving shop asked me by a note in my manuscript whether there was not a mistake in measure 724, since the first violin had D-natural and the second violin had D-sharp. This after 723 preceding measures!
It is a pleasure to state that one has begun to use progressively more musicians in broadcasting and recording activities. The sound man of the future will be a perfect musician with a physiomechanical education. Much can a music student learn practically in such employment, but if he were acquainted with the theory, his musical taste, his ear, his sense of form, and his knowledge of the score would deliver us musicians from the painful torture we have to suffer otherwise.
Music teachers can do much to help here. First of all, it seems that parents who are in the position to support their children through school should advise them to accept only such jobs which develop their knowledge. Music teachers could use their authority to influence parents in this direction. They could do more. They could attempt to convince influential persons of all kinds--school administrators, supervisors, businessmen, etc.--to provide such and similar jobs for music students.
Nobody would regret this. On the contrary, some obvious advantages might very soon arise. Musicians who have extended their knowledge through these activities during their college days, will know how to earn a living in an emergency. They might become a true intelligensia, defending cultural goods fearlessly against upper and lower attempts towards banalization.