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 how, in reality!
Whilst you ought to, after all, prioritize sure income streams as an artist who creates unique music, there are occasions — maybe while you’re first rising your profession —while 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 will help you get a way of the wide 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 straightforward scanning.
Streaming & Digital Gross sales
1. Streaming Income: Earn cash from streaming exercise while 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 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 generally is a nice income between your individual recording tasks or excursions.
7. Session Participant: Received 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 may attend periods in individual, or do distant session work from your individual house studio.
8. Studio Operator: Do you personal a whole lot of recording gear that goes unused while 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 stay 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: Acquire 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 stay in venues or publicly broadcast on radio and TV.
12. Sync Licensing (Songwriter Aspect): Should you 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 so forth.
13. Sync Licensing (Label Aspect): Identical goes for the “recording” aspect of the equation. Should you 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 would 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 generally is a massive vendor. (New Age Piano, anybody?) However don’t simply consider notation; you may additionally do chord-charts, tablature, lyric sheets, and extra.
Dwell Music Performances
16. Touring and Dwell 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 charge from the venue proprietor.
17. Residency Gig: Identical type of cost choices as above, however a residency is a recurrently 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 houses. These could be nice fan-building experiences and enable you promote a whole lot of merch, whereas lowering stress for big 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 possibly can 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: Need to receives a commission massive bucks whereas getting 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 an ordinary venue gig.
22. Metropolis or Municipal Occasions: The annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, the summer season beer backyard within the park, the Arts Stroll. Examine together 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 stay music as a part. Beer festivals. Balloon festivals. Meals festivals.
24. Busking: Play in a public area with a number of foot site visitors for ideas. Subway stations. City squares. Boardwalks and piers. Simply verify 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. Could possibly be live-band karaoke, an enormous band or jazz group, and so forth.
26. Play Cruise Ships: Should you don’t thoughts small rooms and plenty of months at sea, cruise ship gigs offer you an opportunity to play rather a lot (generally a number of gigs per day), and supply downtime to deal with apply, recording, studying, and so forth.
27. Nursing Properties: 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 normally shorter units, and have the potential to grow to be 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 non-public, 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. Gadgets 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 data, and even cassettes. Supply 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: Supply limited-edition or signed bodily copies of your music to followers. For example, you may promote tour-specific recordings that may by no means once more be out there to buy.
32. Digital merch: Not all merchandise have to be bodily. You may provide 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 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, art work, or monetary association.
Music Training
35. Educate Music: Whether or not it’s personal classes or a teleconference tutorial, you possibly can 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 manner 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. Numerous upfront work, however with the potential for it to grow to be extra “passive” revenue 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 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 advanced harmonies, blistering bluegrass breaks, or well-known saxophone solos? You would earn cash transcribing that music note-for-note. It is likely to be work-for-hire revenue, or you may publish these transcriptions in a ebook. Or on YouTube (with the potential for incomes advert income).
Crowdfunding & Fan Assist
41. Venture-Based mostly Crowdfunding: Use platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe to lift cash from followers to help a selected recording, tour, advertising, or video mission.
42. Membership Golf equipment: You should utilize a subscription-model platform like Patreon, or construct your individual on-line fan subscription via your web site. In trade 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 via 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 Assist: That is income followers offer you for livestreaming. However not like the Venmo or PayPal ideas talked about above, it could come within the type of a platform-specific forex or motion: Stars, Bits, Subs, and so forth.
45. VIP Experiences: Supply 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: 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 a whole 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 reveals, and documentaries. Like many areas of specialization, this area can require a whole lot of time and dedication. Contemplate accordingly how usually and while you wish to settle for scoring work.
49. Video Recreation Music: In principle, 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 grow to be a part of the sport’s soundtrack, which refers again to sync licensing. Lastly, there’s a complete large ecosystem of VGM covers on YouTube, the place artists do their very own artistic preparations of in style online game music. So should you play a novel instrument, this would possibly offer you a technique 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, resembling hip-hop, pop, or EDM? You may 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 you’ll want to 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. File Retailer: Gig at night time and work at a report 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: Quite 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 would 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 Workers: Choose extra of the “on the bottom” venue expertise? You would be a bartender, bouncer, field workplace assistant, or venue supervisor.
58. Dwell Sound Engineer: Each good venue wants good stay sound. You would 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. It’s possible you’ll 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 fervour 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. When you’ve got nice technical facility in your instrument and reliable sight-reading expertise, you may 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: When you’ve got singing voice, you would possibly be capable to translate these dramatic expertise to supply 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 while you rep their merchandise, companies, or mission.
65. Endorsements: Get discounted (or generally free) services resembling devices, music advertising instruments, or music manufacturing software program. In trade, 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 critiques, 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 performed, however… you probably have 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 below the “merch” part, however that’s extra concerning the closing product and gross sales. Turning into an creator is an endeavor all its personal, after all. However should 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 may write critiques for an current publication, however you may additionally host critiques by yourself website within the hopes of monetizing your weblog via advert placements and affiliate income.
70. Podcasting: Begin a podcast about your music, adventures, or different pursuits. Should you get adequate engagement, you possibly can monetize via advertisements, 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 an enormous payout should you win.
72. Interactive Music Experiences: When you’ve got blended 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 may 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 trade for a charge.
74. Open-Supply Collaboration: That is while you make some artistic work out there for others to make use of, and not using a clear concept of who will collaborate, or what precisely will end result. Making stems downloadable for remixers is an apparent instance. You may 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 record already, there’s certain to be many extra methods to earn a living 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 deal with each merchandise on this record, and that’s utterly effective. They shouldn’t. All of us have our personal specialties and pursuits. Greatest to deal with what’s rewarding, each when it comes to 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 main music revenue sources with further income streams.
