It’s a dream for many: to make money with music. Living that rock and roll, or DJ lifestyle. But the truth is that even though it’s never been easier to get the word out about your music, it is still tricky and takes practice.
So if you want to make money with your music talents, we’re going to help you find different ways to earn an income.
In this article we’ll look at both the options you could follow, and how to leverage the marketing side of your music career.
Once you go through this, I’m sure you’ll never have to search how to make money with music. More importantly, you won’t even have to sign a deal with any label.
I know this is too much to say but an independent artist with a good marketing strategy can get more than these labels cut.
1. Start Coaching What You Already Know
Being in music can teach you things that novice musicians don’t know.
Why don’t you lend a hand and charge per hour for your coaching?
Wouldn’t that be fun if people shared their FL project with you, asking you to mix something properly or maybe figure out what’s wrong in the mix?
Also many musicians are actively looking for a mentor to help them get set up, answer their questions and help them build their profile.
If you want to market yourself as a music coach, you’ll need either a good website, or a good eye for someone who needs your help.
Create a basic website using Carrd (only $19 a year and easy to set up), and promote your services on social media.
Once you have a website, you can sell your coaching services from there.
There are many different websites that offer drag and drop website creation, such as WordPress, Wix and even Google Sites.
2. Sell Merchandise
To make money with merchandise, you need a good online presence. At least some subscribers on YouTube or Instagram.
If you’re just starting out and you only have 100 or 200 subscribers, this might not work.
But if you have like 5K+ subscribers, you might be able to sell a few T-shirts every month.
The trick is to have a good brand that could also work independently of your music career. A cool logo, a funky image, or bold statement all make great appliques to add to t-shirts, hoodies and other branded items.
3. Sell Tickets for Your Own Concert
Hosting your own concert is a great way to make money from music, although this can be difficult to manage. And you will obviously need to pay the venue too.
As an up and coming artist, you will also need to build a strong social media presence too to get that buzz.
A clever way to do this is to put on a festival. You can charge more for tickets, but you will also need to get more acts and make sure there are things to do. Don’t be the next Fyre Festival!
Watch this space as we will be interviewing a music festival promoter in the coming weeks….
4. Ad Revenue from Major Music Streaming Sites
From Spotify to Apple Music – there are a variety of sites that pay you whenever an ad plays before, during, or after your song.
Usually, their pay rate is like this:
| Platform | Payout Per Stream |
| Apple Music | $0.01 |
| YouTube Music | $0.002 |
| Tidal | $0.12 |
| Deezer | $0.0011 |
| Pandora | $0.0013 |
| Amazon Music | $0.04 |
| Spotify | $0.0033 |
These figures are just estimations. You might get a bit more or less than this.
5. Produce A Beat and Sell it on Beatstars or Anywhere You Like
This is for those artists who are into producing beats or who have the setup to create music.
Just like doing your own shows, this method is also one of the best ways to make money as a musician.
On sites like Beatstars and Airbit, you can sell your beats for $10-$100.
Most of the people who are into this provide a lease for their beats.
Lease refers to a contract where the producer can still sell the same beat to others. Other than this, he wants a renewal after a period. Usually, this period lasts a year.
In some cases, producers even provide a 5 years contract.
Buying full rights might cost $200-$500 for a single beat. On the other hand, leasing just costs $10-$100.
This is the main reason why so many people buy a lease.
6. Mix and Master Others Songs
I’ve seen that good artists like to mix and master their own songs. They don’t like anyone else to do this for them.
So if you’re into this, you can charge anywhere between $50-$250 for mixing someone else’s track.
This is what people are charging on Fiverr:
These people are selling on Fiverr, that’s why they’re charing below $100.
If you know how to set up a website and market your services, you can earn more than $75 per song.
7. Produce music stock sites
Another way to make money from music is to produce music for stock sites. This means your music could be used in advertising jingles, corporate videos or any other situation where people need simple music in the background.
People make very good money producing money for stock music sites. And although it isn’t as ‘sexy’ as making cool, edgy sounds with your bandmates, it’s a faster way to make money with music.
Whatever your style of music, you could make a 15 second jingle, a 2 minute loop, or a simple tune designed for use in a YouTube video.
8. Manage up and coming bands/artists
If you already have experience in music, you might be able to manage the next generation of up and coming stars. Or even manage an act who is need of a manager. You might be surprised who you might find…
This does mean that you’re not making the music, or performing. But, you can make good money in music with promotions.
The trick is to spot an act that needs managing, or to sell your services as a promoter. It helps if you have promoted gigs before, obviously, as there is a lot to bear in mind.
How to manage marketing as a musician
No matter what you sell, equip yourself with marketing knowledge as a musician.
Because if you don’t know how to sell, you can’t make money from any of the methods I’ve just told you.
Marketing is still a huge element to anything you do, and that includes making money with music. Learn how to promote yourself on social media, how to build an audience offline and online and you’ll soon have flocks of adoring fans.
We’ll look at this in-depth in another article, but to summarise here:
- Open social media accounts on different platforms and be consistent with posting your music and fun content
- Promote your social media channels whenever you perform live
- Do live streaming on platforms such as TikTok, Twitch and Instagram
- Put on great live shows (obviously, right?)
This is just a but essential way to promote your music business online.
And one more thing. If you do make money with music, be sure to get some help with your finances. It can quickly get complicated, so hire an accountant for musicians to avoid getting caught out.
Oh and if you do make a million dollars with your music, come back and tell us all about it (hit those comments below).
Good luck on your music career journey!
