Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Creative people and the products they create play a fundamental role in the music industry. They form the core around which the rest of the industry revolves. Without musical and lyrical compositions and talented people able to perform them, there would be no music industry. Pressure mounts on creative people to keep on creating and producing music that will satisfy both industry and consumer demand. This leads to various personal and professional issues the creative person is faced with when pursuing a career in the music industry. This study explored how coaching supports creative people with their personal and professional issues, within the South African music industry. The research design was an exploratory, qualitative study. A purposive sampling technique (Babbie & Mouton, 2009) was used to select the six research participants. The research participants selected were at various stages of entering the music industry professionally. Multiple data collection methods were utilised for this qualitative study, namely solicited essays, researcher reflections and semi-structured interviews. The findings presented in this study showed how coaching can be effective in helping creative people deal with their personal and career issues.