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, the truth is!
Whilst you ought to, in fact, 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 expertise 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 an inventory of 75 methods you may make cash out of your music, grouped by class for simple 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 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 extra 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 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 individual recording tasks or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Obtained skills as an instrumentalist or vocalist? Are you fast at studying and arranging tunes? Recording periods could be a good way to receives a commission whereas not tying up an excessive amount of of your time without delay. You possibly can attend periods in particular person, or do distant session work from your individual dwelling studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal lots of recording gear that goes unused if you’re not making music? Perhaps it’s time to think about 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 need to flip it right into a studio”) or capturing stay audio for different bands at their exhibits, typically having a conveyable studio could make all of the distinction in getting the job.
Music Publishing & Licensing
10. Mechanical Royalties: Gather 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 stay in venues or publicly broadcast on radio and TV.
12. Sync Licensing (Songwriter Facet): Should you write your individual songs and retain the publishing rights, you may get paid an upfront payment — and in some circumstances, 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” facet of the equation. Should 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 large vendor. (New Age Piano, anybody?) However don’t simply consider notation; you would additionally do chord-charts, tablature, lyric sheets, and extra.
Reside Music Performances
16. Touring and Reside Exhibits: Play stay and receives a commission. This income might 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 cost choices as above, however a residency is a often 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 could 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’ll be able to DJ occasions, events, or venues in your hometown. On the highway? Do a DJ set at a pageant or venue between your tour dates.
20. Company Gigs: Wish to receives a commission large 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 other forms of personal occasions. These can usually 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. Test together with your native chamber of commerce or metropolis council for alternatives.
23. Festivals: It’s nice to play music festivals, in fact, but in addition analysis non-music gatherings which have stay music as a part. Beer festivals. Balloon festivals. Meals festivals.
24. Busking: Play in a public area with numerous foot site visitors for ideas. Subway stations. City squares. Boardwalks and piers. Simply examine 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 loads (typically a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to deal with apply, 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 will pay effectively, are often shorter units, and have the potential to develop into 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 non-public, 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. Objects might 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’ll your merch, in addition to in report shops through bodily distribution or consignment.
31. Restricted-Version Releases: Provide limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. As an example, you would promote tour-specific recordings that may by no means once more be accessible to buy.
32. Digital merch: Not all merchandise have to be bodily. You possibly can supply 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 might have a trove of unreleased recordings. Give followers paid entry! Or bundle all the pieces you’ve ever recorded right into a digital bundle 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, neighborhood, art work, 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 approach 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. A lot of upfront work, however with the potential for it to develop into extra “passive” earnings 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: Communicate at colleges, schools, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even when you’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 advanced harmonies, blistering bluegrass breaks, or well-known saxophone solos? You could possibly earn cash transcribing that music note-for-note. It could be work-for-hire earnings, or you would publish these transcriptions in a e-book. Or on YouTube (with the opportunity of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Help
41. Challenge-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 need to use a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your individual on-line fan subscription by means of your web site. In alternate for month-to-month cost, followers get unique or early entry to content material and different perks.
43. Fan Donations: Settle for donations instantly from followers by means of 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 Help: That is income followers provide you with for livestreaming. However not like the Venmo or PayPal ideas talked about above, it may well 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, pictures 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 might result in a publishing deal.
47. Write Jingles: Ya know, the catchy (and typically 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 exhibits, and documentaries. Like many areas of specialization, this subject can require lots of time and dedication. Contemplate accordingly how usually and if you need to settle for scoring work.
49. Video Recreation Music: In concept, this isn’t that completely different from movie scoring. Besides that gaming has its personal musical tropes, so the reference factors might differ from cinematic orchestration and sound design. Many video video games additionally characteristic songs that develop into 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 inventive preparations of well-liked online game music. So when you play a singular instrument, this may provide you with a strategy to differentiate your self: Halo on accordion, Closing 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, resembling 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 report personalised songs for particular events like weddings or birthdays. Simply make 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 expertise to make sound results and audio environments for media, public areas, or different commissioned tasks.
Retail & Venue Work
53. Document Retailer: Gig at evening and work at a report retailer throughout the day. You’ll keep on high of the newest music releases, as effectively brush up on the classics.
54. Music Retail: Reasonably 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 gifted musicians? Put these social and group expertise to make use of reserving the acts at an area venue.
57. Venue Employees: Desire extra of the “on the bottom” venue expertise? You could possibly be a bartender, bouncer, field workplace assistant, or venue supervisor.
58. Reside Sound Engineer: Each good venue wants good stay sound. You could possibly be the important thing to creating that occur. Bonus factors when you’re not a grump!
Different Music Professions
59. Music Journalism: Write present previews, album opinions, characteristic interviews, and extra. You could 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 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. You probably have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, you would make a dwelling in a big ensemble.
62. Spiritual 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: You probably have a great singing voice, you may be capable to translate these dramatic expertise to supply voiceovers, audiobook readings, or character voices.
Model Collaborations
64. Model Sponsorships: Associate up with some firm who shares your values and aesthetic, and receives a commission if you rep their merchandise, providers, or mission.
65. Endorsements: Get discounted (or typically free) services and products resembling 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 opinions, and hyperlink to the producer or retailer, and earn a fee on any gross sales.
67. Be an Influencer: “Influencer Advertising and marketing?” Simpler mentioned than accomplished, however… you probably 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 underneath the “merch” part, however that’s extra concerning the closing product and gross sales. Turning into an writer is an endeavor all its personal, in fact. However when you 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 would write opinions for an current publication, however you would additionally host opinions by yourself website within the hopes of monetizing your weblog by means of advert placements and affiliate income.
70. Podcasting: Begin a podcast about your music, adventures, or different pursuits. Should you get ample engagement, you’ll be able to monetize by means of advertisements, sponsorships, or listener assist.
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 when you win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: You probably have combined media or web-development expertise, you would 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 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 accessible for others to make use of, with no clear thought of who will collaborate, or what precisely will outcome. 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 listing already, there’s sure to be many extra methods to make cash out of your musical expertise. And I needed to depart room so that you can think about your individual potentialities. Have enjoyable!
Conclusion
Most musicians won’t ever deal with each merchandise on this listing, and that’s utterly high quality. They shouldn’t. All of us have our personal specialties and pursuits. Greatest to deal with what’s rewarding, each by way of private development and revenue.
However hopefully this lengthy listing offers you an outline of your choices as you make a profession of your music, and as you complement your major music earnings sources with extra income streams.
