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 the way, in truth!
When 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 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 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 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 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 tasks or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Bought 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 without delay. 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 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 wish to flip it right into a studio”) or capturing stay audio for different bands at their reveals, typically 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 stay in venues or publicly broadcast on radio and TV.
12. Sync Licensing (Songwriter Facet): When you write your individual songs and retain the publishing rights, you may get paid an upfront charge — and in some circumstances, ongoing royalties — when your music is positioned in movie, TV, video games, commercials, and so forth.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Facet): Identical goes for the “recording” facet of the equation. When 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 might 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 could be a huge vendor. (New Age Piano, anybody?) However don’t simply consider notation; you could possibly 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 may come within the type of ticket gross sales, door splits, bar percentages, or a assured charge from the venue proprietor.
17. Residency Gig: Identical type of cost choices as above, however a residency is a frequently scheduled factor. It may very well be “7 nights in a row in July” or “Each different Thursday all yr.”
18. Home Concert events: 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 evening.
19. DJing: When 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: Need to receives a commission huge 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 a normal 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 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 stay music as a part. Beer festivals. Balloon festivals. Meals festivals.
24. Busking: Play in a public area with plenty of foot site visitors for ideas. 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, hunt down 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: When you don’t thoughts small rooms and plenty of months at sea, cruise ship gigs offer you an opportunity to play so much (typically a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to give attention to observe, recording, studying, and so forth.
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 nicely, are often shorter units, and have the potential to turn into 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 personal, 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 will have heard, followers nonetheless buy CDs, vinyl data, and even cassettes. Supply 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: Supply limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. As an 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 will have a trove of unreleased recordings. Give followers paid entry! Or bundle every thing 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 symbolize possession or engagement in some piece of music, imagery, group, art work, or monetary association.
Music Training
35. Train 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 expertise 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 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 operating.
38. Music Workshops: Host IRL or on-line group gatherings the place studying and suggestions occurs in a gaggle setting.
39. Visitor Lectures: Communicate at colleges, faculties, or music seminars. These are sometimes paid alternatives, however even when 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 speak or promote books afterwards.
40. Music Transcription: Are you good at determining advanced harmonies, blistering bluegrass breaks, or well-known saxophone solos? You might 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 e-book. Or on YouTube (with the potential of incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Help
41. Challenge-Based mostly Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to boost cash from followers to assist a particular recording, tour, advertising, or video undertaking.
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 straight from followers by way 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 offer you for livestreaming. However not like the Venmo or PayPal ideas talked about above, it could actually come within the type of a platform-specific foreign money or motion: Stars, Bits, Subs, and so forth.
45. VIP Experiences: Supply 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: When you’re a prolific author, you will 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 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 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 Sport Music: In principle, 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 into 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 when you play a singular instrument, this may offer you a method 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, 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 file personalised 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 tasks.
Retail & Venue Work
53. Document Retailer: Gig at evening and work at a file retailer throughout the day. You’ll keep on high of the most recent music releases, as nicely brush up on the classics.
54. Music Retail: Relatively 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 might 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 Workers: Choose extra of the “on the bottom” venue expertise? You might be a bartender, bouncer, field workplace assistant, or venue supervisor.
58. Reside Sound Engineer: Each good venue wants good stay sound. You might 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 evaluations, 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 information and fervour 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. If in case you have nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, 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 may 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 whenever you rep their merchandise, providers, or mission.
65. Endorsements: Get discounted (or typically free) services comparable to devices, music advertising instruments, or music manufacturing software program. In alternate, 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 evaluations, and hyperlink to the producer or retailer, and earn a fee on any gross sales.
67. Be an Influencer: “Influencer Advertising?” Simpler mentioned than carried out, 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 in regards to the ultimate product and gross sales. Turning into an writer is an endeavor all its personal, after all. However when you already show a knack for lyric-writing, you will 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 evaluations for an current publication, however you could possibly additionally host evaluations by yourself website 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. When you get adequate engagement, you possibly can monetize by way 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 charge, however that additionally means there may very well be an enormous payout when you win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: If in case you have blended 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 good 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 Providers: 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 alternate for a charge.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is whenever 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 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 generate profits out of your musical expertise. And I needed to go away room so that you can think about your individual potentialities. Have enjoyable!
Conclusion
Most musicians won’t ever deal with each merchandise on this checklist, and that’s utterly effective. They shouldn’t. All of us have our personal specialties and pursuits. Finest to give attention to what’s rewarding, each by way of private development and revenue.
However hopefully this lengthy checklist 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 further income streams.
