The best way to assure that you are “not a starving artist” is to get a job…a flexible one. There’s nothing stopping a musician from doing a little work elsewhere as they build their career. Another year in school will not help with that. In fact, leaving academia and working is the fastest way to establish a career. The longer you put it off, the longer it takes to establish yourself.
My D has many colleagues/friends that are performers. They work, teach, perform and also own homes, cars, raise children etc. They may not be at the top of pecking order in salary but many are comfortable. The “starving artist” thing is kind of a myth…imho.
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Agree and add to that…avoid coming out of school with debt.
Nailed it! About debt. Yes, makes a huge difference as you have more freedom to build your career.
I believe it might, if one’s second major is something skill-based…like statistics/data science. He’s not interested in teaching on a regular basis, more likely to help arts organizations maximize exposure of new people to music.
And yes, absolutely true about debt. We’ve always taken it as given that if there is debt, it should be small, or your future opportunity set is too constrained.
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I think what people mean is that an additional year doesn’t necessarily help a kid who wants to get out, perform and make performance connections.
Getting a second major is a whole other topic (which my musician was not interested in doing).
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I see, but I think an extra year may help with sponsor connections! 
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