I’m worried that if I major in music ill end up unemployed…
What do you want to do with music after college? If you want to play/sing in a major orchestra or choir, it may be a good option. Most of my music teachers in high school (private and public school teachers) majored in music. Teaching in a school, playing in an orchestra, teaching private lessons, and even running and maintaining your own music store are all decent job opportunities for a music major.
What is you assessed music talent?
This question comes up more than any other on this forum. Majoring in music will give you a bachelor’s degree just like any other major, and gives you access to jobs that require a bachelor’s degree, and to graduate and professional schools (including medical, law and business, nursing, many others). Music majors are well respected for their discipline and work habits.
There are some good books available online about career paths and planning. Conservatories and colleges also have offices for this. During your college or conservatory years, you can get involved in outreach or internships or volunteering or gigs or whatever helps pave the way.
These days, many musicians have to be multi-faceted. It is also quite possible to major in music and work in other fields, but continue music. Many paths.
I hope you can relax and pursue what you are genuinely interested in for those 4 years. If you want to tell us more about yourself along the way, we are here 
I recommend doing a search on here of threads, there have been plenty of them over the years that talk about this. In a nutshell, a music degree at its very least is a college degree that outside of targeted degrees (nursing, engineering, comp sci, accounting) is basically the same as a typical liberal arts degree.There are different type of music majors, performance majors learn some pretty unique skills with the way those program work, they have ‘academic’ learning in things like music theory and music history (and liberal arts classes), but they also learn to be self disciplined and excellent at scheduling in tight schedules without being told (in academic classwork, much of what you do is scheduled for you, classes,labs, etc happen on a fixed schedule; with music performance, you have to find time to practice, for individual and ensemble work and find a place to do it, you have to schedule time with ensembles to practice,deal with some pretty temperamental people, so music performance teaches being self driven and reliant). Music majors go on to a lot of different fields, too, they go on to be doctors and lawyers, business people, IT is loaded with ex musicians and music students IME, and it goes on. There was an article recently that Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, was looking for people with unique backgrounds, trying to go beyond finance and economics majors, and they specifically mentioned music students.
All I can tell you is that even with ‘targeted’ degrees like comp science and engineering, you are basically prepared to enter the work world, you learn tons more on the job, and with general academic degrees, music majors are on par with them.
It is true that being a full time musician is extremely difficult, requires a lot of dedication and desire and the ability to invent and reinvent yourself, but the reality, as one article that was posted here recently, is that most music (or other arts majors) don’t end up starving; they may not end up doing music or their art, or do it part time, but they do okay:)
Actually, if you look at the ‘stickies’ at the head of this forum, you will see an article about the myth of arts leading to the poor house…we should also I would suggest have a sticky for a thread on ‘what can I do with a music degree’, since it comes up so often. That same area (featured threads) if you click view all, has a lot of threads about this, people asking what to do with a music degree and so forth.
My daughter, who just graduated with her MM, has a friend who graduated with a BM from Juilliard and now works for Goldman Sachs. Other friends of hers are in medical and law school, but most of them who have graduated are working in music. Some chose the orchestra path but others are freelancing or going further with their studies (DMA, etc.) My daughter might go back for a DMA in a few years (she likes the idea of teaching in a college) but she can make a living now performing, freelancing, teaching, and playing in various part-time ensembles.
I should add that her teacher told her she won’t have any problem attracting plenty of work. He said the key to being a successful freelancer is to show up on time, play well, be easy to work with. If you don’t have one of those three qualities, you probably won’t be able to support yourself as a freelancer, as word gets around quickly.
@gh:
Congrats on your D graduating, man does time fly! I second what the person told your daughter, I know personally a number of working freelance musicians who make a living at it, and they said basically the same thing, that work ethic, willingness to jump in and show up, being easy to work with and not a prima donna go a long way, as does networking. Through friends of mine I met someone, a viola player, who made a nice living doing broadway shows plus other work, and he said a lot of it is networking and knowing people and impressing them. Someone else I know,who teaches at several music schools and is a working freelance musician, said that the kids who don’t make it often are the ones who were the ones who looked down on ensemble playing, were in the ‘competition bunch’, and seriously flailed when they faced the reality. The irony of music is that it is very different than other fields in some way, in others is very similar, that the quality of the person may be as important or more than the quality of their playing.
I was about to like your post, musicparent, but they seemed to have removed the “like” function!