Before we get started, we recommend downloading our Music Business Model Worksheet so you can jot down areas of interest and build a revenue plan around it while going through this list. Download our Music Business Model Worksheet here.
If you’re an independent musician, you’ve likely ran across a few articles telling you how musicians make their money. You read through it and possibly didn’t find much actionable advice. Most articles on the internet will tell you things like sell your music, build a website, promote on social media blah, blah, blah. Well, I’m hoping this article will give you a bit more than that. When I first started music, I went hard on live performances and didn’t stop to think about building my business model beyond performing live. That was my mistake. If I had to do it all over again, I would have sat down and put together a business model where I outlined exactly how I was going to make my money and how much of it I was going to make in any given month. And it wouldn’t all be based on live performances.
Firstly, not every musician is a live performer and not all live performers only make their money performing live. The conventional wisdom is to perform live and go on tour – because that’s where the money is. I can agree with that. About 50% of our income comes from performing live. And that’s why I’m telling you to build a better business model than that because I regret putting all of our eggs in that one basket. By the time I realized this fact, precious foundational years had gone by and a lot of time was wasted that I can’t get back.
What is a business model?
Basically, it’s your plan for making a profit. How will you as a musician, make your money? Let me say it this way to help put this in a better perspective for you. How will you as an entrepreneur, make your money. Because if you’re an independent musician, that means you’re an entrepreneur and you own a business. Your product mix is your music, and you’re using it to sell a movement, a feeling, or an idea. Hopefully, that gives you an idea of where I’m going with this. My point is, if you’re creative enough, you can sell anything, not just your music. So if you haven’t created a business model yet, then there’s no time like the present. Download our Music Business Model Worksheet here. It will help you organize your business interests and create a revenue-generating plan so that you can set up multiple streams of income. In this article, we’re going to discuss all the ways you can make actual money as a musician.
- Live Performances. I’ll just go ahead and put this one up first and get it out of the way. Live performances are the best way musicians can make money because you can earn money for the actual performance from the venue, get tip money, sell merchandise, and even get sponsorships. Live performances encompass a lot of the ways musicians can make money all in one sitting. It’s pretty remarkable really. Ari Herstand talks about this extensively in his book How to Make it in the New Music Business. Okay, moving on…
- Sell Merchandise. You’ll need a website (highly recommended) or some kind of selling platform or both in order to sell merchandise. But, once you get it set up, it’s easy money if you have a supportive fanbase. Check out this article we wrote about using dropshipping to handle inventory, stock, fulfillment, and shipping so that way you won’t have to do a thing but share links. Seriously, if you’re not doing this, you’re missing out.
- YouTube. Start taking the steps to monetize your YouTube channel now if you haven’t done so already. This is going to take some hard work to make it happen, but trust us, it is more than worth it. YouTube will pay you money for running ads on your videos. Don’t worry if you think this sounds a bit invasive. People have come to expect ads on YouTube videos. It’s a rite of passage. The requirements are to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. Once you hit those benchmarks you can start making anywhere from $100+ per month to into the thousands depending on clicks and views. YouTube is a goldmine.
- Teach. Teach something, anything. Guitar lessons, voice lessons, songwriting workshops, becoming an artist, etc. There are a lot of routes you can take with this option. For example, you can use an online platform such as Teachable to create a workshop and sell it online to your fans and followers. Or, you could go to your local music shop and partner with them to teach workshops and have them pay you just for bringing people in the door and offering something of value to their patrons. You could also join a music school as a teacher and do traditional instrument lessons, or you could do it on your own. The possibilities are endless.
- Do Session Work. Musicians are looking for studio musicians to come in and play during studio sessions. You could offer your services up to local music studios. You could also offer remote session work where you’d play on someone’s track from your own home studio. Musicians pay for that as well!
- Write custom music. Offer your services as a jingle writer, score music for an independent film-maker, or sell a custom song-writing service to your fans. This is great for birthday gifts, singing telegrams, holiday gifts, mother’s day gifts, etc. To pull this off, you have to have a decent and active mailing list, write up a thorough marketing plan, and promote the service heavily.
- Digitals. I’m throwing every digital-ish avenue for making money here. This includes streaming sales, direct digital sales from your website, digital distribution, Bandcamp, NoiseTrade, and Content ID through YouTube. Even if you don’t have the numbers to hit for #3 to work quite yet, you can still make money with YouTube’s Content ID program. The way it works is, you get paid every time your song is played on a video where ads are present. Some music distribution services such as CDBaby have features that set this up for you automatically. Take the time to set your music on every online distribution platform available. You may get pennies, or you may get $100s. But, you won’t get any if you don’t set this up. Every bit counts.
- Write about music. There are tons and tons of blogs that are willing to pay you to contribute high-quality articles. You could write about music, about being a musician, about your local music scene, about instruments, and anything else having to do with music. Write a few sample articles and post them on your website. Use this as your portfolio. Then make a list of blogs that might be willing to pay for this and reach out to them. Offer your service and name your price. Even Quora has a partner program where you could join and get paid to write answers to posted questions.
- Mixing/Mastering. If you’re good at all with sound engineering, you could make some money helping other musicians sound their best! They will pay good money for this. If you’re looking for a place to offer this service, try Fiverr. Learn how to Mix and Master from the experts.
- Create custom kid’s music. Yes, this is a thing. We hear from our friends who are parents that finding decent sing-a-along music for their children to learn things such as counting numbers, or alphabets, or even learning words is hard to come by. Check out Super Stolie, an artist who is doing this. If kid’s music is not your thing, you could do other types of music such as yoga/meditation music, backing tracks, etc.
- Affiliate Advertising. You don’t have to be a blogger in order to make affiliate sales. Anyone with a following can sell affiliate products or services. Musician’s Friend has an affiliate program and so does Amazon. Who says you can’t make money from your reading list?
- Start a revenue-generating blog. Speaking of blogging, you can do that too. You can easily blog about the music scene in your hometown. People are always looking for something to do, so getting traffic to your blog won’t be too hard. Set up ads or sell ads directly to local venues.
- Monetize your website. Even if you’re not blogging, you can still apply for an Adsense account and monetize your website. We suggest not going to overboard with this, but posting ads in strategic spots throughout your website will result in extra money each month.
- Provide a service to other musicians. As a follow-up to #9 on this list, you can also perform other services for other musicians such as social media marketing, booking, management, and graphic design.
- Crowdfunding. You could crowdfund your next project, or crowd-fund your entire career with subscriptions. If you like the idea of subscription-based funding, try Patreon or set up your own self-hosted subscription service on your website.
- Sync licensing. Commercials and TV/Film producers need music to score their projects. We suggest using a service to get your music in front of them. CDBaby and Shazam are good places to start.
- Royalties. Sign up with PROs (Performance Rights Organizations) and they’ll make sure you get paid every time your song is listed as being played somewhere, even if it’s by you. You can get paid when your song is played at a restaurant or on a radio station. This is why we recommend submitting your songs to radio stations. Learn more about PROs here.
- Join Upwork and perform music jobs. Upwork is a platform that connects freelancers with employers. If you’re looking for music jobs, there are all sorts of music jobs on Upwork related to music. Set up a profile and search away. You can apply for any job posted. Job posters will invite you to an interview if they think you’re a good fit and you’ll take it from there.
Making money one way is for amateurs. There’s a big world of money-making out there for independent artists whether it be passive income ideas, live performances, royalties, teaching, or a combination. It’s your job as the entrepreneur to create a business model that combines multiple streams of revenue so you can enjoy the flexibility of doing what you love. For more information on earning passive income, check out our post, 5 Passive Income Ideas for Musicians.
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Probably one of the best articles I’ve read on how musicians can create a real income for themselves in the new world of the music business. Great stuff Anitra!!!—Timing for this Perfect! Thank you!!!
Thank you PatMan! I appreciate your feedback. Best of luck to you on your musical endeavors.