This past week, Nicki Minaj perfectly summed up how decrepit the music industry has gotten in one Instagram post about her album, The Pink Print: "What happens when your album is streamed 70 million times?...Nothing, that's what." Of course, when an artist like Minaj is hurting from missed money-making opportunities, the situation is only more dire for independent musicians—especially ones left of center. As the profits a band or producer can expect to earn from record sales has dwindled over the past decade, artists have been forced to locate alternative revenue streams to enable them to continue making music. Some examples are well-documented, like Red Bull Music Academy's cultivation of emerging artists, and artists like Christopher Owens accepting modeling jobs with big name fashion houses to facilitate the "budgets to make exciting records."

Likewise, the art world continues to become more intertwined with music, providing new and often collaborative performance opportunities for artists, like MoMA PS1's Warm Up series and MOCA's recent Step and Repeat live arts program. But how much can these recently expanded avenues compensate for a bleak industry climate? How available are they to different musicians? And how hopeful should we be? Here, a handful of artists—Holly Herndon, Helado Negro, Brenmar, TOPS' Jane Penny, and White Mystery—provide a little insight into how they make a music career work for them.