Wish to receives a commission in your musical skills?
As a musician, there are extra methods to earn cash than ever earlier than. Dozens upon dozens of the way, actually!
When you ought to, after all, prioritize sure income streams as an artist who creates authentic music, there are occasions — maybe if you’re first rising your profession —if you simply gotta pay the payments.
And in that case, placing your music abilities to make use of positive beats a job exterior of music, proper? Particularly if your musical side-hustle helps you keep sharp as an instrumentalist, arranger, producer, educator, or content-creator.
That can assist you get a way of the big selection of choices on the market, I’ve put collectively a listing of 75 methods you can also make cash out of your music, grouped by class for straightforward scanning.
Streaming & Digital Gross sales
1. Streaming Income: Earn cash from streaming exercise if you get your tracks onto platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, or TIDAL.
2. Digital Downloads: Promote MP3s, WAVs, or FLACs of your tracks on platforms like iTunes, Amazon, ReverbNation, Bandcamp, or your personal web site.
3. Social Video Monetization: Receives a commission when folks create social content material utilizing your music in movies on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Fb, and extra.
4. Monetize Your YouTube Channel: Generate promoting income from viewer exercise by yourself YouTube movies, and use extra creator instruments to monetize subscriber engagement.
Music Recording Work
5. Music Manufacturing: Put your producing abilities to work for different artists. Receives a commission in factors, upfront charges, co-writer splits, or no matter different association is sensible for you and your collaborator.
6. Engineering: Are you good at recording, mixing, or mastering? Let different artists know! This could be a nice income between your personal recording tasks or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Obtained skills as an instrumentalist or vocalist? Are you fast at studying and arranging tunes? Recording classes will be an effective way to receives a commission whereas not tying up an excessive amount of of your time directly. You’ll be able to attend classes in particular person, or do distant session work from your personal residence studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal lots of recording gear that goes unused if you’re not making music? Possibly it’s time to contemplate renting out your studio to different engineers, producers, and artists.
9. Cellular Recording: Whether or not it’s vacation spot recording (“My band rented an airbnb and we wish to flip it right into a studio”) or capturing dwell audio for different bands at their reveals, generally having a conveyable studio could make all of the distinction in getting the job.
Music Publishing & Licensing
10. Mechanical Royalties: Accumulate this type of publishing royalty when your authentic songs — together with covers by different artists — get streamed, downloaded, or pressed on CD/vinyl.
11. Efficiency Royalties: Earn this music publishing cash when your authentic music is carried out dwell in venues or publicly broadcast on radio and TV.
12. Sync Licensing (Songwriter Facet): Should you write your personal songs and retain the publishing rights, you may get paid an upfront payment — and in some instances, ongoing royalties — when your music is positioned in movie, TV, video games, commercials, and many others.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Facet): Identical goes for the “recording” aspect of the equation. Should you personal your personal tracks, you’re the label, and might receives a commission for sync placements.
14. Compose for Music Libraries: Prolific composer or producer? You could possibly write music for music collections which are particularly curated for sync licensing alternatives.
15. Promote Sheet Music: The unique supply of “music publishing” income! Relying in your style, this could be a massive vendor. (New Age Piano, anybody?) However don’t simply consider notation; you could possibly additionally do chord-charts, tablature, lyric sheets, and extra.
Dwell Music Performances
16. Touring and Dwell Exhibits: Play dwell and receives a commission. This income may come within the type of ticket gross sales, door splits, bar percentages, or a assured payment from the venue proprietor.
17. Residency Gig: Identical type of fee choices as above, however a residency is a usually scheduled factor. It may very well be “7 nights in a row in July” or “Each different Thursday all yr.”
18. Home Live shows: Play intimate live shows in personal properties. These will be nice fan-building experiences and allow you to promote lots of merch, whereas lowering stress for big turnout. Plus it can save you on journey bills if the host places you up for the evening.
19. DJing: Should you’re not touring, you possibly can DJ occasions, events, or venues in your hometown. On the street? Do a DJ set at a pageant or venue between your tour dates.
20. Company Gigs: Wish to receives a commission massive bucks whereas coming into The Twilight Zone? Play at a company perform. It’s surreal. And profitable.
21. Weddings and Non-public Occasions: Carry out at weddings, bar mitzvahs, anniversaries, household Christmas events, birthdays, and different kinds of personal occasions. These can typically pay higher than an ordinary venue gig.
22. Metropolis or Municipal Occasions: The annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, the summer season beer backyard within the park, the Arts Stroll. Examine together with your native chamber of commerce or metropolis council for alternatives.
23. Festivals: It’s nice to play music festivals, after all, but in addition analysis non-music gatherings which have dwell music as a element. Beer festivals. Balloon festivals. Meals festivals.
24. Busking: Play in a public area with plenty of foot site visitors for suggestions. Subway stations. City squares. Boardwalks and piers. Simply verify the native ordinances first. Get a allow, if required.
25. Be within the Home Band: Much like a residency, the place you keep put and completely different audiences come to you, hunt down efficiency alternatives the place you back-up different singers. Might be live-band karaoke, an enormous band or jazz group, and many others.
26. Play Cruise Ships: Should you don’t thoughts small rooms and lots of months at sea, cruise ship gigs provide you with an opportunity to play rather a lot (generally a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to concentrate on follow, recording, studying, and many others.
27. Nursing Houses: Whereas these aren’t glamorous gigs, they are often very significant for the viewers and also you because the performer. They’ll pay effectively, are normally shorter units, and have the potential to grow to be reliable repeat gigs.
28. Digital Performances: Wish to mix the unique and intimate feeling of a home live performance with the comfort of livestreaming? Play a personal, digital efficiency on Zoom, Google Hangouts, and many others.
Music Merch Gross sales
29. Artist Merchandize: Promote merch at gigs, in your web site, and on platforms like Instagram and Spotify. Gadgets may vary from t-shirts to mugs to books.
30. Bodily Music Codecs: Regardless of what you’ll have heard, followers nonetheless buy CDs, vinyl information, and even cassettes. Provide them in all the identical locations you’d your merch, in addition to in file shops by way of bodily distribution or consignment.
31. Restricted-Version Releases: Provide limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. As an illustration, you could possibly promote tour-specific recordings that can by no means once more be obtainable to buy.
32. Digital merch: Not all merchandise should be bodily. You’ll be able to provide PDFs of your tour diary or poetry. A digital cookbook. An unlock of a secret video.
33. Digital “Field Set”: Identical goes for music information. You will have a trove of unreleased recordings. Give followers paid entry! Or bundle the whole lot you’ve ever recorded right into a digital bundle with bonus tracks.
34. NFTs: “Non-Fungible Tokens.” These are crypto belongings on a blockchain that signify possession or engagement in some piece of music, imagery, neighborhood, art work, or monetary association.
Music Schooling
35. Educate Music: Whether or not it’s personal classes or a teleconference tutorial, you possibly can assist different folks get higher at an instrument, music manufacturing, or songwriting.
36. Music Remedy: Put your abilities to make use of in a therapeutic method that helps folks enhance their well-being.
37. On-line Programs: Create and promote a digital course. It may very well be about your instrument, or your music-biz and promo abilities. A lot of upfront work, however with the potential for it to grow to be extra “passive” revenue as soon as your advertising and marketing funnel is up and working.
38. Music Workshops: Host IRL or on-line neighborhood gatherings the place studying and suggestions occurs in a gaggle setting.
39. Visitor Lectures: Converse at colleges, schools, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even if you happen to’re an unpaid speaker at a music convention, it is best to have the possibility to make a fast gross sales pitch on the finish of your discuss or promote books afterwards.
40. Music Transcription: Are you good at determining complicated harmonies, blistering bluegrass breaks, or well-known saxophone solos? You could possibly earn cash transcribing that music note-for-note. It is perhaps work-for-hire revenue, or you could possibly publish these transcriptions in a e book. Or on YouTube (with the potential of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Assist
41. Undertaking-Primarily based Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to lift cash from followers to help a particular recording, tour, advertising and marketing, or video undertaking.
42. Membership Golf equipment: You should utilize a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your personal on-line fan subscription by your web site. In alternate for month-to-month fee, followers get unique or early entry to content material and different perks.
43. Fan Donations: Settle for donations immediately from followers by platforms like PayPal or Venmo. These hyperlinks will be listed in your web site, livestreams, and even pinned to the highest of your Spotify profile.
44. Livestream Assist: That is income followers provide you with for livestreaming. However not like the Venmo or PayPal suggestions talked about above, it could come within the type of a platform-specific forex or motion: Stars, Bits, Subs, and many others.
45. VIP Experiences: Provide your diehard followers the possibility to pay for an unique expertise. Backstage passes, meet-and-greets, watch the soundchecks, dinner earlier than the present, images and autographs.
Music Composition
46. Songwriting for Different Artists: Should you’re a prolific author, you’ll have concepts to spare! Pitch your unreleased songs to different artists, publishers, or labels. Or collaborate with co-writers to make new songs. Repeatable success on this space takes lots of dedication, however may result in a publishing deal.
47. Write Jingles: Ya know, the catchy (and generally annoying) music that performs throughout commercials? There’s cash to be made the place artwork meets promoting.
48. Movie Scoring: Compose music for movies, TV reveals, and documentaries. Like many areas of specialization, this subject can require lots of time and dedication. Take into account accordingly how typically and if you wish to settle for scoring work.
49. Video Recreation Music: In principle, this isn’t that completely different from movie scoring. Besides that gaming has its personal musical tropes, so the reference factors could differ from cinematic orchestration and sound design. Many video video games additionally characteristic songs that grow to be a part of the sport’s soundtrack, which refers again to sync licensing. Lastly, there’s a entire large ecosystem of VGM covers on YouTube, the place artists do their very own inventive preparations of well-liked online game music. So if you happen to play a novel instrument, this would possibly provide you with a solution to differentiate your self: Halo on accordion, Closing Fantasy on metallic guitar, Zelda on harmonica, Mario Bros on banjo.
50. Promote Beats and Pattern Packs: Are you a prolific producer in a style that depends closely on digital music, equivalent to hip-hop, pop, or EDM? You’ll be able to assist different artists get an enormous musical help by promoting your beats, production-starts, and pattern packs.
51. Write Customized Songs: Let your followers know you’ll compose and file personalised songs for particular events like weddings or birthdays. Simply be sure you cost sufficient in your precise effort and time!
52. Sound Design and Audio Branding: Create “audio logos” and “sound identities” for companies. Or use your manufacturing abilities to make sound results and audio environments for media, public areas, or different commissioned tasks.
Retail & Venue Work
53. File Retailer: Gig at evening and work at a file retailer throughout the day. You’ll keep on prime of the most recent music releases, as effectively brush up on the classics.
54. Music Retail: Fairly be close to devices? Work at a music retailer and develop your experience within the newest gear, used instrument valuation, and extra.
55. Making or Repairing Devices: Good at fixing guitars? Carving violins? Soldering results pedals or synths? You could possibly begin your personal enterprise or work out of an current store or retailer.
56. Expertise Purchaser: Already in communication with a big community of gifted musicians? Put these social and group abilities to make use of reserving the acts at a neighborhood venue.
57. Venue Workers: Desire extra of the “on the bottom” venue expertise? You could possibly be a bartender, bouncer, field workplace assistant, or venue supervisor.
58. Dwell Sound Engineer: Each good venue wants good dwell sound. You could possibly be the important thing to creating that occur. Bonus factors if you happen to’re not a grump!
Different Music Professions
59. Music Journalism: Write present previews, album critiques, characteristic interviews, and extra. You might discover a chance to do that as a side-gig in your native newspaper or arts weekly.
60. Musicology, Criticism, Editorial, and Curation: Put your deep information and keenness for a specific style to make use of. Educate others about that historical past. Or make music suggestions and thrilling connections for listeners.
61. Member of an Orchestra: Jazz, Classical, Ballet, or the pit-orchestra for Musical Theater. If in case you have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading abilities, you could possibly make a residing in a big ensemble.
62. Non secular Music: Whether or not it’s the organist in a cathedral, the guitarist in a praise-and-worship band, the cantor at a temple,… many religions have music as a part of their common service.
63. Voice Expertise: If in case you have an excellent singing voice, you would possibly have the ability to translate these dramatic abilities to supply voiceovers, audiobook readings, or character voices.
Model Collaborations
64. Model Sponsorships: Companion up with some firm who shares your values and aesthetic, and receives a commission if you rep their merchandise, companies, or mission.
65. Endorsements: Get discounted (or generally free) services equivalent to devices, music advertising and marketing instruments, or music manufacturing software program. In alternate, you agree to make use of that gear in public and supply testimonials.
66. Affiliate Advertising and marketing: Promote a sure product in your web site, do gear critiques, and hyperlink to the producer or retailer, and earn a fee on any gross sales.
67. Be an Influencer: “Influencer Advertising and marketing?” Simpler stated than achieved, however… when you have a big social following, you could possibly monetize that spotlight by doing product placements or promo shoutouts.
Miscellaneous
68. Books, eBooks, & Audiobooks: I suppose this might go beneath the “merch” part, however that’s extra in regards to the last product and gross sales. Changing into an writer is an endeavor all its personal, after all. However if you happen to already show a knack for lyric-writing, you’ll have longer-form literary expertise too. It may very well be fiction, non-fiction about musicology, essays about band drama and tour mishaps, and even written instrument instruction with accompanying illustrations.
69. Music Running a blog: I discussed above that you could possibly write critiques for an current publication, however you could possibly additionally host critiques by yourself website within the hopes of monetizing your weblog by advert placements and affiliate income.
70. Podcasting: Begin a podcast about your music, adventures, or different pursuits. Should you get adequate engagement, you possibly can monetize by advertisements, sponsorships, or listener help.
71. Competitions: These may very well be rap battles, songwriting challenges, bluegrass competitions. There could also be an entry payment, however that additionally means there may very well be an enormous payout if you happen to win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: If in case you have combined media or web-development abilities, you could possibly create an immersive real-world or digital expertise. Emma McGann’s multi-player “Monsterverse” RPG in Discord is a good instance. You’ll be able to ask your followers to pay to take part, or you need to use it as an opportunity to drive merch gross sales on the finish of the expertise.
73. Consulting Companies: Musicians need assistance, stable recommendation, and networking connections. Are you able to mentor somebody in administration, crowdfunding, digital promoting, or one thing else? Present that technique recommendation in alternate for a payment.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is if you make some inventive work obtainable for others to make use of, with out a clear thought of who will collaborate, or what precisely will end result. Making stems downloadable for remixers is an apparent instance. You’ll be able to approve your favourite remixes and formally distribute these tracks, splitting any income the remix generates. However artists like Holly Herndon and Grimes took it one step additional with AI fashions of their vocals.
75. __________: Sure, a clean area, as a result of if there are 75 objects on this record already, there’s sure to be many extra methods to earn cash out of your musical abilities. And I wished to go away room so that you can think about your personal potentialities. Have enjoyable!
Conclusion
Most musicians won’t ever sort out each merchandise on this record, and that’s utterly superb. They shouldn’t. All of us have our personal specialties and pursuits. Finest to concentrate on what’s rewarding, each when it comes to private progress and revenue.
However hopefully this lengthy record provides you an summary of your choices as you make a profession of your music, and as you complement your major music revenue sources with extra income streams.