There are many ways to make money as a musician. In the old days, touring was the only successful way to earn a decent living for a musician. Not the case today. Today you can be a very successful musician without ever leaving your hometown. It all depends on how you build your business model. If you’re interested in earning a living with music, but for personal reasons would rather not be on the road, there’s hope. Here are several ways you can make money as a musician without touring.
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Online Platforms
The internet has come a mighty long way over the years. Musicians are using a variety of online platforms to gain wide exposure for their music without stepping one foot out of their front door. You can access an audience from all over the world right in the comfort of your own living room. If you can build your fanbase to a decent level of support, you can earn money doing online concerts. Online concert platforms like Gigee, StageIt, and ConcertWindow allow you to host a show online and set a ticket price for your fans to purchase and gain entry. They do take a percentage from the top of your ticket sales though, as much as 10-30%. If you want to go the DIY route, you can also try doing Facebook Live coupled with a Virtual Tip Jar. Or, you can do a YouTube Live coupled with CashApp. However, you won’t have the added benefit of a ticketed entry.
Setting up an online show is only half the battle. Promoting your online show is what will make it a success. How do you promote an online show? You can use the same tactics you would use to promote a conventional show. You can do things like emailing your subscribers, texting them, adding the show to your online calendars, running a contest where the winner will be announced during the show, creating a Facebook event, co-promoting or co-collaborating with another artist or organization (a charity show for instance), making the show a niche event, getting blogs or members of the press to promote it for you, getting your fans to promote it for you, creating a digital flyer for it, and more. Check out my article, 11 Things You Should Do to Promote Your Show here and 15 Ways to Get People To Your Show here for more information on how to promote a show.
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You’ll have to work extremely hard to sell your tickets and get people there. That’s why it’s uber important to build your own artist brand and establish your fanbase. Your artist brand is what will set you apart from other artists and your brand is what will keep your audience engaged, supportive, and loyal. If you’d like help on getting your artist brand developed, start with identifying your purpose as a musician by taking the 5 Day Purpose Defining Challenge here.
Using online platforms to host live events is a great way to get exposure for your music. There’s no wrong or right way to do it. It’s just a matter of doing something that works for you and your fans.
Also, YouTube is an excellent way to earn residual income. Doing great cover videos, lyric videos, and content consistent with your brand can attract fans in groves which will give you the opportunity to monetize your channel for earning revenue.
Local Events
If you do have the freedom to perform live locally, you might be interested in doing local gigs. There are many different types of venues that host live music. It might take you a while to find your special niche, but when you do get your groove, local shows can turn out to be quite lucrative for you. Some musicians find success performing at weddings. They get their gigs by setting up booths at local wedding shows, purchasing ad space on wedding vendor blogs, and reaching out to couples who have recently gotten engaged. Other private gigs such as house parties, office parties, holiday parties, and galas can also be a source of income for local musicians. To get started doing private gigs, I recommend setting up profiles on entertainment catalogue sites such as GigSalad, GigMasters, and Thumbtack.
You can also create your own database of contacts and send out postcards throughout the year to get exposure and business. Think about all the different types of people who need entertainment and identify who they are in your city. Start by looking at museums, event planners, wineries, college and university programming departments, local fairs, farmers markets, festivals, high-end apartment homes who put on events for their residents, senior living facilities, etc. Create a postcard and drop it in the mail. If you make a habit of doing this on a monthly basis, you’ll likely get several gigs throughout the year from this initiative alone. It’s a good chance, those gigs might even become recurring, too!
Don’t forget about local venues! Restaurants and bars who present live entertainment are always looking for musicians. These gigs can pay between $200 to $500 per gig depending on the venue and your set-up. Check out my How To Book Gigs eCourse for help booking these types of gigs and others. Also, there might be a way that you can get paid hosting open mics and jam sessions! This might work well especially if you can offer your own equipment and promote the events. Venues are always looking for ways to bring in more people.
In addition to private gigs and conventional venue gigs, you can also create a music program for students and shop it around within your local school system. Get inspiration from Stolie, a singer-songwriter who does music for adults and also created a separate children’s niche.
Studio Session Work
If performing live is not your cup of tea, lots of musicians earn their income by being available for session work in the studio. If you’re really good with your particular instrument, you might find a calling providing session music for other musicians. For some reason a good drummer or even and a good bass player is hard to find. Many bands and singer-songwriters seem to be looking for these particular musicians to do session work. But hey, you don’t have to be a bass player or drummer to be a successful studio musician. Practically any instrument is in demand if you network with the right people! So if you think you have what it takes to offer quality session work, start networking with studios and musicians and build your resume. Add a line to your email signature about how you can help in the studio. Put together some samples of your work and send it out to all the studios in your town. Go to open mics and musician meet-ups and get to know your local scene. A good networking strategy should be a major part of your business model if you’re hoping to get session work as a musician.
Teaching
Teaching music is a great way for a musician to earn money! If you’re knowledgeable about music, know how to play your instrument well, and you have a knack for teaching, this route could be a gold mine. There are music schools you can join as an instructor and you can also offer your own classes independently. You can offer music both online and in person. However, in order to earn a significant profit from teaching music, you will have to promote your service and make sure people know your service is available. The first thing you’ll need to do is identify what you want to teach and who you want to teach it to. Then, you’ll need to create a page on your website or a flyer and send the information out to your friends, family and people you know who might be interested in hiring you. You may want to create a “grand opening’ special offer in order to get your first clients in. Once you get your first few clients, focus hard on making sure they have a good experience, and soon thereafter, you’ll start getting referrals.
Music Licensing
There is a large need for independent music in film and TV. Your music can be in a national commercial, a movie, or a TV show! You’ll need to learn to write music specifically for this purpose and you’ll also need to educate yourself on how to pitch your music to these mediums. But it can be very worth your while! One band received $80,000 for a single song placement in a movie! Check out Ari’s post about How to Get Songs Placed on TV and Film on his blog, Aristake.com. It’s a very informative article showing you where to start. Be sure to also read the comments section, as there are lots of good tidbits there too!
The other thing you can do is get hired to write music and jingles. Get in touch with advertising agencies, video production companies, web designers, and recording studios. You can even get in touch with YouTube content creators to get your songs played on their channels or even write intro music for them.
Earning money as a musician doesn’t have to be just about performing live. There are many revenue generating tactics you can employ to earn money with your music. The trick is finding what works for you and promoting the heck out of that. As a musician, you are your own business. It’s up to you to do whatever you can to earn money for yourself and your family. Whether your money comes from teaching music, doing studio work, playing for senior living facilities, licensing your music to TV and film, touring or some combination of them all, your music is the center of it. Finding ways to leverage the power behind your music to earn yourself a living is key to being successful.
+5 Easy Side Hustle Ideas for Musicians
Musicians, I want to hear from you. How are you earning money with your music? Tell us in the comments section, what your biggest cash cow is when it comes to making money with your music.
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Huh, I’ll be sure to check out some of these sites. Good tips! : D
Hey Brooke! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂