Encouragement plus realism, without crushing their dreams. Supporting them but making sure they stay in school, etc. lessons if you can, go see a variety of concerts of all kinds with them if you can. And David Byrnes (of the Talking Heads) book “How Music Works” (unless they only like classical music, though perhpaps even then).

Make them understand that the medium and context of music will be different going forward. They don't need to make a living creating and selling recordings; there are many unexplored avenues and they should pursue those instead. As an example, I'm imagining my music more and more as an interactive app compared to a standard album.

Christopher Small's Musicking[0] has influenced my thinking on this topic. The gist of the book is to understand music more as a verb ([communal] activity) than a noun (product, object).

[0] https://www.amazon.com/musicking-meanings-performing-listeni...

My kids love playing classical music, and are in a youth orchestra. I know it sounds square, but it does have some selling points. It's supported by money. It's not a boys club. The kids aren't 100% supervised, so there's still a social hang that they can enjoy.

For some kids, the fact that it spans multiple age groups is a plus. When I was a teenager, I enjoyed mixing with my own peers but also adults who had a lot better stories and jokes, and who had really experienced life in the trenches.

I've noticed that among the people I know who played music as kids and actually kept with it into adulthood, virtually none of them play rock music.