Need 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 how, in truth!
Whilst you ought to, after all, prioritize sure income streams as an artist who creates authentic music, there are occasions — maybe whenever you’re first rising your profession —whenever you simply gotta pay the payments.
And in that case, placing your music expertise to make use of certain beats a job outdoors of music, proper? Particularly if your musical side-hustle helps you keep sharp as an instrumentalist, arranger, producer, educator, or content-creator.
That will help you get a way of the wide 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 simple scanning.
Streaming & Digital Gross sales
1. Streaming Income: Earn cash from streaming exercise whenever 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 individual web site.
3. Social Video Monetization: Receives a commission when individuals 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 further creator instruments to monetize subscriber engagement.
Music Recording Work
5. Music Manufacturing: Put your producing expertise to work for different artists. Receives a commission in factors, upfront charges, co-writer splits, or no matter different association is smart 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 individual recording initiatives or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Received skills as an instrumentalist or vocalist? Are you fast at studying and arranging tunes? Recording periods could be an effective way to receives a commission whereas not tying up an excessive amount of of your time directly. You possibly can attend periods in individual, or do distant session work from your individual house studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal plenty of recording gear that goes unused whenever you’re not making music? Possibly it’s time to think about renting out your studio to different engineers, producers, and artists.
9. Cell 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: Acquire 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 Aspect): In the event you write your individual songs and retain the publishing rights, you may get paid an upfront price — and in some instances, ongoing royalties — when your music is positioned in movie, TV, video games, commercials, and so forth.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Aspect): Identical goes for the “recording” facet of the equation. In the event you personal your individual tracks, you’re the label, and may receives a commission for sync placements.
14. Compose for Music Libraries: Prolific composer or producer? You could possibly write music for music collections which might be 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 might 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 price from the venue proprietor.
17. Residency Gig: Identical type of fee choices as above, however a residency is a repeatedly scheduled factor. It may very well be “7 nights in a row in July” or “Each different Thursday all 12 months.”
18. Home Live shows: Play intimate concert events in personal houses. These could be nice fan-building experiences and assist you to promote plenty of merch, whereas lowering stress for large turnout. Plus it can save you on journey bills if the host places you up for the night time.
19. DJing: In the event you’re not touring, you’ll be able to DJ occasions, events, or venues in your hometown. On the street? Do a DJ set at a competition or venue between your tour dates.
20. Company Gigs: Need to receives a commission massive bucks whereas getting into The Twilight Zone? Play at a company operate. 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 a typical venue gig.
22. Metropolis or Municipal Occasions: The annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, the summer season beer backyard within the park, the Arts Stroll. Verify along with your native chamber of commerce or metropolis council for alternatives.
23. Festivals: It’s nice to play music festivals, after all, but additionally 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 visitors for suggestions. Subway stations. City squares. Boardwalks and piers. Simply test the native ordinances first. Get a allow, if required.
25. Be within the Home Band: Just like a residency, the place you keep put and totally different audiences come to you, search out efficiency alternatives the place you back-up different singers. Might be live-band karaoke, an enormous band or jazz group, and so forth.
26. Play Cruise Ships: In the event you don’t thoughts small rooms and plenty of months at sea, cruise ship gigs offer you an opportunity to play so much (generally a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to concentrate on apply, recording, studying, and so forth.
27. Nursing Properties: Whereas these aren’t glamorous gigs, they are often very significant for the viewers and also you because the performer. They’ll pay nicely, are normally shorter units, and have the potential to turn out to be reliable repeat gigs.
28. Digital Performances: Need to mix the unique and intimate feeling of a home live performance with the comfort of livestreaming? Play a non-public, digital efficiency on Zoom, Google Hangouts, and so forth.
Music Merch Gross sales
29. Artist Merchandize: Promote merch at gigs, in your web site, and on platforms like Instagram and Spotify. Objects may vary from t-shirts to mugs to books.
30. Bodily Music Codecs: Regardless of what you might have heard, followers nonetheless buy CDs, vinyl data, and even cassettes. Provide them in all the identical locations you’ll your merch, in addition to in document shops through bodily distribution or consignment.
31. Restricted-Version Releases: Provide limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. For example, you might 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 possibly can 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 every part you’ve ever recorded right into a digital package deal with bonus tracks.
34. NFTs: “Non-Fungible Tokens.” These are crypto property on a blockchain that characterize possession or engagement in some piece of music, imagery, group, paintings, or monetary association.
Music Schooling
35. Train Music: Whether or not it’s personal classes or a teleconference tutorial, you’ll be able to assist different individuals get higher at an instrument, music manufacturing, or songwriting.
36. Music Remedy: Put your expertise to make use of in a therapeutic method that helps individuals 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 expertise. Plenty of upfront work, however with the potential for it to turn out to be extra “passive” revenue as soon as your advertising and marketing funnel is up and operating.
38. Music Workshops: Host IRL or on-line group gatherings the place studying and suggestions occurs in a bunch setting.
39. Visitor Lectures: Converse at colleges, faculties, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even if you happen to’re an unpaid speaker at a music convention, it’s 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 likely to be work-for-hire revenue, or you might publish these transcriptions in a ebook. Or on YouTube (with the opportunity of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Assist
41. Venture-Primarily based Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to boost cash from followers to assist a selected recording, tour, advertising and marketing, or video challenge.
42. Membership Golf equipment: You should use a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your individual on-line fan subscription via your web site. In trade 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 via platforms like PayPal or Venmo. These hyperlinks could be listed in your web site, livestreams, and even pinned to the highest of your Spotify profile.
44. Livestream Assist: That is income followers offer you for livestreaming. However in contrast to the Venmo or PayPal suggestions talked about above, it may possibly come within the type of a platform-specific forex or motion: Stars, Bits, Subs, and so forth.
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, photographs and autographs.
Music Composition
46. Songwriting for Different Artists: In the event you’re a prolific author, you might 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 plenty 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 plenty of time and dedication. Think about accordingly how typically and whenever you wish to settle for scoring work.
49. Video Recreation Music: In idea, this isn’t that totally 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 turn out to be a part of the sport’s soundtrack, which refers again to sync licensing. Lastly, there’s a complete huge ecosystem of VGM covers on YouTube, the place artists do their very own artistic preparations of well-liked online game music. So if you happen to play a novel instrument, this would possibly offer you a approach to differentiate your self: Halo on accordion, Remaining Fantasy on steel 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, comparable to hip-hop, pop, or EDM? You possibly can 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 document customized songs for particular events like weddings or birthdays. Simply you should definitely 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 expertise to make sound results and audio environments for media, public areas, or different commissioned initiatives.
Retail & Venue Work
53. File Retailer: Gig at night time and work at a document retailer through the day. You’ll keep on high of the most recent music releases, as nicely brush up on the classics.
54. Music Retail: Moderately 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 individual enterprise or work out of an current store or retailer.
56. Expertise Purchaser: Already in communication with a big community of proficient musicians? Put these social and group expertise to make use of reserving the acts at a neighborhood venue.
57. Venue Workers: Favor 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 opinions, characteristic interviews, and extra. You could discover a possibility to do that as a side-gig in your native newspaper or arts weekly.
60. Musicology, Criticism, Editorial, and Curation: Put your deep data and keenness for a selected style to make use of. Train 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. When you have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, you might 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: When you have a great singing voice, you would possibly be capable of translate these dramatic expertise 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 whenever you rep their merchandise, providers, or mission.
65. Endorsements: Get discounted (or generally free) services and products comparable to devices, music advertising and marketing instruments, or music manufacturing software program. In trade, you agree to make use of that gear in public and supply testimonials.
66. Affiliate Advertising: Promote a sure product in your web site, do gear opinions, and hyperlink to the producer or retailer, and earn a fee on any gross sales.
67. Be an Influencer: “Influencer Advertising?” Simpler mentioned than achieved, however… if in case 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 below the “merch” part, however that’s extra concerning the closing product and gross sales. Turning into an creator is an endeavor all its personal, after all. However if you happen to already show a knack for lyric-writing, you might 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 might write opinions for an current publication, however you might additionally host opinions by yourself website within the hopes of monetizing your weblog via advert placements and affiliate income.
70. Podcasting: Begin a podcast about your music, adventures, or different pursuits. In the event you get adequate engagement, you’ll be able to monetize via advertisements, sponsorships, or listener assist.
71. Competitions: These may very well be rap battles, songwriting challenges, bluegrass competitions. There could also be an entry price, however that additionally means there may very well be an enormous payout if you happen to win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: When you have blended media or web-development expertise, you might create an immersive real-world or digital expertise. Emma McGann’s multi-player “Monsterverse” RPG in Discord is a superb instance. You possibly can ask your followers to pay to take part, or you should utilize it as an opportunity to drive merch gross sales on the finish of the expertise.
73. Consulting Companies: Musicians need assistance, strong recommendation, and networking connections. Are you able to mentor somebody in administration, crowdfunding, digital promoting, or one thing else? Present that technique recommendation in trade for a price.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is whenever you make some artistic work obtainable for others to make use of, and not using a clear thought of who will collaborate, or what precisely will end result. Making stems downloadable for remixers is an apparent instance. You possibly can 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 checklist already, there’s certain to be many extra methods to become profitable out of your musical expertise. And I needed to go away room so that you can think about your individual prospects. Have enjoyable!
Conclusion
Most musicians won’t ever deal with each merchandise on this checklist, and that’s fully effective. 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 checklist offers you an summary of your choices as you make a profession of your music, and as you complement your major music revenue sources with further income streams.
