MBW Views is a series of exclusive op/eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. The following op/ed comes from Dr. Charlie Howard, founder of Xception, a company specialising in providing mental health support to people in the public eye, reviews where the music industry is at in terms of supporting artists – and outlines how far it has to go…
In recent years, the music industry has made real progress in acknowledging mental health as an issue worth taking seriously.
There’s been more open conversation, more honesty from artists, and more organisations offering support. But when it comes to how we build artist careers – the structures, timelines, and expectations we set from day one – mental health still feels like something we add in later, once things start to crack.
Xception has been working with music artists, and the teams around them, for more than six years, providing flexible, confidential mental health support to people in the public eye.
What we see, over and again, is that by the time someone seeks help, they’ve often been struggling for a while. And by then it’s not just about navigating one-off challenges – it’s about unpicking an entire system of pressure they’ve been operating under, often since the start of their careers. And it raises a difficult question: why isn’t mental health the first thing we think about when setting someone up for success?
We’re not suggesting that mental health replaces ambition or strategy. But if we want longevity, real artistry and people who can thrive across unpredictable and often relentless careers, then mental health has to be stitched into every part of the process – not dropped in later like a wellness initiative.
This isn’t only about artists either. Managers, publicists, label teams, assistants, tour crews – they all carry a significant emotional load. In many cases, these are the people expected to be the first responders to an artist’s distress, often without any formal training or support themselves. We need to broaden the conversation beyond the individual at the front of the stage and consider the wider ecosystem surrounding them.
The pace of the industry makes it hard to slow down. There’s always the next release, the next show, the next opportunity. But in our work, we’ve learned that taking the time to check in – properly, not performatively – doesn’t slow artists down, it sustains them. When mental health is embedded early, careers don’t just survive; they evolve more steadily and with greater clarity. Artists make better decisions. Teams feel more grounded.
There’s more space for creativity, and less risk of burnout becoming the painful price of success. Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why flexibility is so important; support that moves with people, adapts to the pressures of touring, launches, and downtime alike.
A therapist on the road, check-ins between cities, long-term support during off-cycles: all of these things help people stay connected to themselves, even when everything else is moving fast.
And it’s not just about reacting to crises, it’s about creating an environment where those crises are less likely to occur. Proactive mental health integration helps reduce attrition, substance dependency and the long-term psychological toll that constant visibility and performance can bring.
It allows artists to define success on their own terms, instead of being forced to conform to an outdated blueprint that often rewards overwork and emotional suppression. We’ve seen what happens when support is missing, and we’ve also seen what’s possible when it’s in place from the beginning.
“Mental health has to be stitched into every part of the process, not dropped in later.”
There’s a lot of energy in the industry right now to do things differently. We hear it from labels who want to build sustainable rosters, from managers looking for tools to support their clients more holistically and from artists who are no longer willing to sacrifice well-being for visibility.
In partnership with major labels and talent management companies, we’ve piloted a groundbreaking approach for artists which has seen exceptional results and really highlighted the need for this type of support at every stage of an artist’s career – from developing acts to fully fledged legends. This momentum represents a cultural shift that can’t be underestimated.
Just as marketing, branding and production are treated as fundamental pillars of an artist’s journey, so too must be the systems that support their mental and emotional resilience. By integrating support into contracts, touring logistics and even release calendars, we build a structure that isn’t just reactive, but genuinely preventative.
The opportunity now is to act. And perhaps the most transformative shift we can make is in how we think about mental health – not as a box to tick, not as something that kicks in only when there’s a problem, but as a core part of what makes a career truly viable. It’s time to move from awareness to infrastructure. We need to embed support into the fabric of how we build careers.
It’s not about perfection; it’s about prevention. It’s about building environments where people can keep showing up – as artists, yes, but also as whole human beings.
If we truly care about longevity, about artistry, about doing things differently, then mental health can’t be an afterthought. It has to be the foundation. If we want to build careers that last, we have to start there.
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