I can't speak for merchants but I can speak for musicians (I hope that comes under artisans). Depending on what you mean by medieval (people have different understandings of the term) I will just go with pre-1400c and in Western Europe. As you know the feudal system was very class structured, you have the nobles and knights and you had the peasants, you also had the church. Early music (that we have records of) were directly involved with the church. Chants one of the earliest for of western music were all written and sung by monks, the early pieces we have no knowledge of who the actual composer were just that they were monks. So their everyday life was tied with the church. We know a few early names like Guido of Arezzo (late 10th early 11th century) who was a music theorist (best know for creating the Guidonian Hand or as we use it today solfege) but he to was a monk so in regards to his life, he lived the life of a monk. It isn't until we get to the Notre Dame School 1160-1250 (incidentally what I want to do my PhD on) that we start to learn the names of composers. As you can guess from the name the school was attached to the (still being built) Notre Dame cathedral, so still a religious institution. Even though we now have names, Leonin and Perotin, we still no very little about there lives (the little we do know coming from the letter of someone known as Anonymous IV).

It was with the Troubadour's, Trovador's (not sure about that spelling) and Meistersingers that musicians closer to what we know today started to emerge away from the church. It was these musicians, in France and modern day Belgium/Netherlands, especially that created the notion of knighthood, chivalry and courtly love that we associate with that time today. These musicians lived a more 'free' life then the monks as they could travel for their art. That being said many of them stayed in the same place for long periods of time under the patronage of wealthy individuals (something that is consistant throughout all secular music history). Also they all came from many different social classes of the first know was a Duke, many their originas were unknown and some where the children of lesser knights. Although there were ones from lower classes.

So to answer your question more directly, other then the church musicians, the troubadours (who were not Dukes) were not living the life of nobility but were not living the life of the church or peasants either they were however almost always financially attached the wealthy and courts so their day to day lives would have revolved around that. Also they were educated as music notation was still developing and the printing press was yet to be invented to their music was either self written or learnt aurally.

I hope this answers at least some of your question and I hope the response is okay its my first time. Also want to apologies for the spelling my spell check seems to be not working.

We don't see much of them in the contemporary accounts: Domesday records just one carpenter, while five Derbyshire manors rendered the King £40 of silver without anyone apparently having mined or smelted it. The non-agricultural population was clearly divided between town and country, much of it presumably falling into - or equivalent in status to - one or other of the rural classes subject to some form of manorial obligation, others free townspeople of lesser or middling rank. Were they wealthier? Not necessarily, as even serfs varied in the extent of their tenements, the better-off surpassing lesser free tenants in income even after payment of rents and fines. In the towns though we’re probably looking at a wealthier class than the surrounding villagers, not least because urban living brought increased real overheads besides higher prices for necessities. Some doubtless operated out of fixed premises, but the weekly local market and those of nearby towns must have remained a key outlet, offering access to consumers from miles around.

Companies are a later development: business partnerships developed in the later part of the period as a way around the prohibition of usury rather than a pooling of business (the first companies seem to fate from the early 1550s, ironically just after lending at interest was explicitly legalised). A "business" is a vaguer concept: perhaps it applies to the town forge which was presumably passed from father to son, though Hunt & Murray (1) suggest that successful merchants usually abandoned trade once they were able to.