Wish to receives a commission on your musical abilities?
As a musician, there are extra methods to earn cash than ever earlier than. Dozens upon dozens of the way, actually!
Whilst you ought to, in fact, prioritize sure income streams as an artist who creates unique 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 can assist you get a way of the wide selection of choices on the market, I’ve put collectively a listing of 75 methods you may 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 individual 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 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 generally is a nice income between your individual recording initiatives or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Received abilities as an instrumentalist or vocalist? Are you fast at studying and arranging tunes? Recording periods may 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 periods in individual, or do distant session work from your individual residence studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal quite a lot of recording gear that goes unused if you’re not making music? Perhaps 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 exhibits, 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 unique 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 unique music is carried out dwell in venues or publicly broadcast on radio and TV.
12. Sync Licensing (Songwriter Aspect): If you happen to write your individual songs and retain the publishing rights, you will get paid an upfront charge — and in some instances, ongoing royalties — when your music is positioned in movie, TV, video games, commercials, and many others.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Aspect): Similar goes for the “recording” facet of the equation. If you happen to personal your individual tracks, you’re the label, and might receives a commission for sync placements.
14. Compose for Music Libraries: Prolific composer or producer? You possibly can write music for music collections which can be 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 may additionally do chord-charts, tablature, lyric sheets, and extra.
Reside Music Performances
16. Touring and Reside Reveals: Play dwell and receives a commission. This income might come within the type of ticket gross sales, door splits, bar percentages, or a assured charge from the venue proprietor.
17. Residency Gig: Similar type of cost 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 12 months.”
18. Home Concert events: Play intimate live shows in personal properties. These may be nice fan-building experiences and aid you promote quite a lot of merch, whereas decreasing strain for large turnout. Plus it can save you on journey bills if the host places you up for the evening.
19. DJing: If you happen to’re not touring, you may 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: 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 different kinds of personal occasions. These can usually pay higher than a regular venue gig.
22. Metropolis or Municipal Occasions: The annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, the summer time beer backyard within the park, the Arts Stroll. Verify together with your native chamber of commerce or metropolis council for alternatives.
23. Festivals: It’s nice to play music festivals, in fact, but additionally analysis non-music gatherings which have dwell music as a part. 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 examine 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, hunt down efficiency alternatives the place you back-up different singers. May very well be live-band karaoke, a giant band or jazz group, and many others.
26. Play Cruise Ships: If you happen to don’t thoughts small rooms and lots of months at sea, cruise ship gigs provide you with an opportunity to play quite a bit (generally a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to concentrate on follow, recording, studying, and many others.
27. Nursing Properties: 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 turn out 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 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. Gadgets might vary from t-shirts to mugs to books.
30. Bodily Music Codecs: Regardless of what you could 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 file shops through bodily distribution or consignment.
31. Restricted-Version Releases: Provide limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. As an illustration, you may promote tour-specific recordings that can by no means once more be out there to buy.
32. Digital merch: Not all merchandise should be bodily. You’ll be able to supply PDFs of your tour diary or poetry. A digital cookbook. An unlock of a secret video.
33. Digital “Field Set”: Similar goes for music information. You’ll have a trove of unreleased recordings. Give followers paid entry! Or bundle every thing 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 symbolize possession or engagement in some piece of music, imagery, neighborhood, paintings, or monetary association.
Music Schooling
35. Educate Music: Whether or not it’s personal classes or a teleconference tutorial, you may assist different folks 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 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 expertise. A number of upfront work, however with the potential for it to turn out to be 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: Converse at faculties, schools, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even in the event you’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 speak or promote books afterwards.
40. Music Transcription: Are you good at determining complicated harmonies, blistering bluegrass breaks, or well-known saxophone solos? You possibly can earn cash transcribing that music note-for-note. It may be work-for-hire earnings, or you may publish these transcriptions in a ebook. Or on YouTube (with the opportunity of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Help
41. Undertaking-Based mostly Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to boost cash from followers to help a selected recording, tour, advertising and marketing, or video mission.
42. Membership Golf equipment: You need to use a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your individual on-line fan subscription by way 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 way of 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 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: If you happen to’re a prolific author, you could 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 quite a lot 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 exhibits, and documentaries. Like many areas of specialization, this discipline can require quite a lot of time and dedication. Contemplate accordingly how usually and if you wish to settle for scoring work.
49. Video Recreation Music: In principle, this isn’t that totally 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 turn out 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 artistic preparations of fashionable online game music. So in the event you play a novel instrument, this would possibly provide you with a approach to differentiate your self: Halo on accordion, Ultimate 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, reminiscent of 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 you should definitely cost sufficient on 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. Document Retailer: Gig at evening and work at a file retailer through the day. You’ll keep on prime of the most recent 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 possibly can 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 an area venue.
57. Venue Employees: Want extra of the “on the bottom” venue expertise? You possibly can be a bartender, bouncer, field workplace assistant, or venue supervisor.
58. Reside Sound Engineer: Each good venue wants good dwell sound. You possibly can be the important thing to creating that occur. Bonus factors in the event you’re not a grump!
Different Music Professions
59. Music Journalism: Write present previews, album opinions, characteristic interviews, and extra. Chances are you’ll discover a chance to do that as a side-gig on your native newspaper or arts weekly.
60. Musicology, Criticism, Editorial, and Curation: Put your deep data 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. You probably have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, you may 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: You probably have a superb singing voice, you would possibly have the ability to translate these dramatic expertise to offer voiceovers, audiobook readings, or character voices.
Model Collaborations
64. Model Sponsorships: Accomplice 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 generally free) services reminiscent of 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… when you have a big social following, you could possibly monetize that focus 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 in regards to the closing product and gross sales. Changing into an creator is an endeavor all its personal, in fact. However in the event you already show a knack for lyric-writing, you could 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 may write opinions for an current publication, however you may additionally host opinions by yourself web site within the hopes of monetizing your weblog by way of advert placements and affiliate income.
70. Podcasting: Begin a podcast about your music, adventures, or different pursuits. If you happen to get ample engagement, you may monetize by way of adverts, sponsorships, or listener help.
71. Competitions: These may very well be rap battles, songwriting challenges, bluegrass competitions. There could also be an entry charge, however that additionally means there may very well be a giant payout in the event you win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: You probably have combined media or web-development expertise, you may 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 charge.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is if you make some artistic work out there 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’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 checklist 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 individual prospects. Have enjoyable!
Conclusion
Most musicians won’t ever sort out each merchandise on this checklist, and that’s fully high quality. 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 provides you an summary of your choices as you make a profession of your music, and as you complement your main music earnings sources with extra income streams.