Wish to receives a commission to your musical abilities?
As a musician, there are extra methods to earn cash than ever earlier than. Dozens upon dozens of how, the truth is!
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 expertise to make use of certain 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 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 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 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 smart for you and your collaborator.
6. Engineering: Are you good at recording, mixing, or mastering? Let different artists know! This generally is a nice income between your personal recording tasks or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Obtained abilities as an instrumentalist or vocalist? Are you fast at studying and arranging tunes? Recording classes may be an effective way to receives a commission whereas not tying up an excessive amount of of your time without delay. You possibly can attend classes in particular person, or do distant session work from your personal dwelling studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal loads 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. Cell 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 reside audio for different bands at their reveals, generally having a transportable 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 reside 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 will get paid an upfront price — and in some circumstances, ongoing royalties — when your music is positioned in movie, TV, video games, commercials, and so on.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Facet): Identical goes for the “recording” facet of the equation. Should you personal your personal 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 are particularly curated for sync licensing alternatives.
15. Promote Sheet Music: The unique supply of “music publishing” income! Relying in your style, this generally is a large 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 Reveals: Play reside and receives a commission. This income might 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 cost choices as above, however a residency is a often scheduled factor. It might be “7 nights in a row in July” or “Each different Thursday all 12 months.”
18. Home Live shows: Play intimate live shows in non-public properties. These may be nice fan-building experiences and aid you promote loads of merch, whereas lowering strain for large turnout. Plus it can save you on journey bills if the host places you up for the night time.
19. DJing: Should 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 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 time beer backyard within the park, the Arts Stroll. Test along 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 reside music as a element. Beer festivals. Balloon festivals. Meals festivals.
24. Busking: Play in a public area with a number 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: Much like a residency, the place you keep put and completely 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 on.
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 lots (generally a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to give attention to apply, recording, studying, and so on.
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 nicely, are often shorter units, and have the potential to turn 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 so on.
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 might 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 document shops by way of bodily distribution or consignment.
31. Restricted-Version Releases: Provide limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. For example, you could possibly promote tour-specific recordings that can by no means once more be out there 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 recordsdata. You’ll have a trove of unreleased recordings. Give followers paid entry! Or bundle all the pieces you’ve ever recorded right into a digital package deal 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, paintings, or monetary association.
Music Schooling
35. Educate Music: Whether or not it’s non-public 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 means that helps individuals enhance their well-being.
37. On-line Programs: Create and promote a digital course. It might be about your instrument, or your music-biz and promo expertise. A number of upfront work, however with the potential for it to turn into extra “passive” earnings as soon as your advertising funnel is up and working.
38. Music Workshops: Host IRL or on-line neighborhood gatherings the place studying and suggestions occurs in a bunch setting.
39. Visitor Lectures: Communicate at faculties, schools, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even should you’re an unpaid speaker at a music convention, it’s best to have the prospect 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 is likely to be work-for-hire earnings, or you could possibly publish these transcriptions in a guide. Or on YouTube (with the potential of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Help
41. Venture-Based mostly Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to lift cash from followers to help a particular recording, tour, advertising, or video mission.
42. Membership Golf equipment: You should use a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your personal on-line fan subscription by your web site. In change 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 platforms like PayPal or Venmo. These hyperlinks may 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 in contrast to the Venmo or PayPal suggestions talked about above, it may well come within the type of a platform-specific forex or motion: Stars, Bits, Subs, and so on.
45. VIP Experiences: Provide your diehard followers the prospect 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: Should 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 loads of dedication, however might 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 discipline can require loads of time and dedication. Take into account 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 could differ from cinematic orchestration and sound design. Many video video games additionally characteristic songs that turn into a part of the sport’s soundtrack, which refers again to sync licensing. Lastly, there’s a entire huge ecosystem of VGM covers on YouTube, the place artists do their very own inventive preparations of common online game music. So should you play a novel instrument, this would possibly provide you with a solution 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, corresponding 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 personalised songs for particular events like weddings or birthdays. Simply make sure you cost sufficient to 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. Report Retailer: Gig at night time and work at a document retailer through the day. You’ll keep on prime of the newest music releases, as nicely 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 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 reside sound. You could possibly be the important thing to creating that occur. Bonus factors should you’re not a grump!
Different Music Professions
59. Music Journalism: Write present previews, album critiques, characteristic interviews, and extra. You could discover a chance to do that as a side-gig to 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. 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. When you have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, you could possibly make a dwelling 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 offer 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 and products corresponding to devices, music advertising instruments, or music manufacturing software program. In change, 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 critiques, and hyperlink to the producer or retailer, and earn a fee on any gross sales.
67. Be an Influencer: “Influencer Advertising?” Simpler stated than accomplished, however… when you’ve got a big social following, you might be able to monetize that focus 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 concerning the remaining product and gross sales. Turning into an writer is an endeavor all its personal, after all. However should you already show a knack for lyric-writing, you might have longer-form literary expertise too. It might 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 web site 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’ll be able to monetize by adverts, sponsorships, or listener help.
71. Competitions: These might be rap battles, songwriting challenges, bluegrass competitions. There could also be an entry price, however that additionally means there might be an enormous payout should you win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: When you have combined media or web-development expertise, you could possibly 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 Providers: 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 change for a price.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is if you make some inventive work out there for others to make use of, with no clear concept 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 gadgets on this record already, there’s certain to be many extra methods to make cash out of your musical expertise. And I wished to depart 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 fully tremendous. They shouldn’t. All of us have our personal specialties and pursuits. Greatest to give attention to what’s rewarding, each by way of private development 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 earnings sources with extra income streams.
