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Security at concerts here in Stockholm. Does it count?

I wish I could spend more time as an audio retailer, but I guess I should be satisfied with the part-time status I have. I get such a good feeling from helping someone get more enjoyment from music.

From my experience, those who listen to music just for fun seem to get the most enjoyment out of it. I have noticed many audio store-owners and salesmen have sold off their personal stereos and do not listen to music at home. And the professional recording engineers pick apart the mix by habit, instead of just enjoying the song. My opinion: keep it a hobby if you can.

Chemical Engineer

I am manager of the Tape Department at ASCAP. Tapes that ASCAP makes for its survey are analyzed here for their musical content.

It was only after starting to hang around recording studios and doing some engineering myself that I realized how amazing it is when an engineer can really make it work and sound natural AND have it be marketable to the masses. It's a wonder that anyone manages at all.

I'm an EE student hoping to soon be an audio engineer.

I'm going to be some of these one day.

As an acoustician, I am consistently amazed at the disregard for acoustics in audio. This oversight is not limited to consumer audio, but pro (i.e., recording and live venues) as well. The mentality seems to be to buy another black box, interconnect, cartridge . . . This is in lieu of addressing the ultimate interconnect, the room/ear interface. Go figure.

I work on sound for video games.

Although my day job is in telecommunications, I do write "The Vinyl Anachronist" column for the e-zine Perfect Sound Forever. I'm sort of a bastard son of Michael Fremer, attempting to convince a non-audiophile audience that LPs still sound better than CDs.

Radio Producer

student. my goals are to some day design/build high end loudspeakers

Yes, I'm the Professional Sound Stooge here in the Film Department at the University of Texas @ Austin.

Well . . . no, but formerly for a very brief time, Yes. When I was a student working on my computer science degree, I had a summer job that involved producing and recording soundtracks in a studio. Now a work for the phone company and dream of building my own recording studio one day.

I am involved in electronics, copier repair and my schooling is in electronics so this is very helpful when it comes to reading and checking out equipment.

The High End cannot survive by cannibalization of music professionals. It needs the basic music lover who has an ordinary job (in my case, electrician). Therefore I am the backbone of the industry, and I expect them to damned well listen!!

Yep---I'm a music biz attorney and I also do A&R for a major label.

At various times I have thought about a music-related job, but except for one week in record retail as a 20-year-old, I never have. My father---who also collected records, produced some concerts and wrote a little for Frets and, I think, Downbeat---never actually worked in the business. I have a brother who has been a professional rock'n'roll musician and now is back in college. It's a hard life. Instead, I & my brothers are all music lovers and collectors of recordings.

In addition to my software sales job, I also write monthly audio equipment reviews for Clube do Audio magazine, the top high-end audio publication in Brazil.

i get as involved as i can, with all aspects of music. i am trying to get the overall feel of music, from the concept all the way to the reproduction of that strainge abstract called music. no i dont make a living out of it. it is an all consuming thing tho. more satisfying than any drug you care to name. once you hear the fruits of all your emotion and skill.... it is anexperiance like no other.

I just sing the blues at work

I teach guitar classes at a local high school to make my bones at this point. I suppose that this qualifies as a professional involvement, no?

Since the age of 17 I have sold electronics. I am 27 now and can confidently say that I have learned a lot in those years. I have learned to love music, which has inspired me to learn to play. For the last four years I have worked with one of Vancouver, BC's top specialty audio stores, Hi-Fi Centre, and in that time I have learned something so important I am surprised there isn't more emphasis on this point. We get more enjoyment from the products we prefer to listen to. Sounds obvious, but how often have we been told otherwise? The cult of personality pervading our industry is as dangerous to its future as products like Divx and the other profit-based technologies the big-box retailers promote.

Software developer with experience in embedded stuff on internetworking, multimedia, video and audio streaming, etc. . . . Have computer, give a clean PC power supply, and we'll change the world.

Well, I read Stereophile when I should be working. That's music-related . . .

My only audio job is keeping the reatilers gainfully employed...:)

radio broadcaster

Consumption is my biz, and biz is good.

Without getting too weird, I'd like to say that "fan/consumer" is a pretty lame designation for me and, I'm sure, many of your readers. Music is, yes, a business, and audio hardware is "stuff," but you could say the same about the art world, the study of philosophy and beauty, the objective search for truth, the pursuit of perfection in the material world, the practice of religious faith and worthwhile sex. I am a "fan" of Andy Rooney, and I "consume" hot dogs, but there is no awe, there is no magic. I feel differently about music.