You asked for the rest of the list, well here it is. 101 Ways to Make Money as a Musician By Guest JUNE 3, 2013 51. Manage Other Musicians – Been around your particular industry long enough to make all the right connections and pick up a few business and marketing skills? You can parlay your expertise into a management service. 52. Sell Vinyl – Offer your music in vinyl and attract a whole new audience. If you haven’t heard, vinyl is making a comeback. 53. Play Music on a Cruise Ship – You don’t have to be Kathie Lee Gifford to get a job on Carnival Cruise Lines. But if you’re up for the challenge, Josh Greenberg, who has worked on a cruise line before, says they are looking for people who know how to read music and can play music in various genres. 54. Create an App That Incorporates Your Music – M. Ward is a folk musician who saw a need–a need for an app that would stream non-commercial local radio programming. He created A Wasteland Companion, which is the same title as his album. Smart phone users can download the Wasteland app, stream public radio stations across the country, and also find other content about M. Ward, such as news and tour schedule. 55. Consider a Career in Music Therapy – To be sure, a career in music therapy doesn’t just happen overnight. There are college courses to be taken and a diploma to be received. But in the end, it is a solid career path to using your love of music to help others. 56. Host a Summer Concert Series in a Local Park – If a festival is too much to pull off, create a simple summer concert series where you, along with other musicians, each take a weekend day to perform. The local community may offer to support you financially. 57. Fill in for a Band Member – Everyone gets sick every now and then or has a scheduling conflict. Do your bandmates know you’re willing to step in if there is a need in one of their other bands? Maybe it’s time you let them know. 58. Give Away Your Music for Free – Seems counterproductive, right? Not necessarily. Check into sites like NoiseTrade, which offer full albums or samplers for free but they also leave patrons with the option to tip. You’d be surprise how well people tip when they are given the option instead of being told how much to pay. It’s worked for both indie artists, as well as big named ones. 59. Earn Performance Royalties – “A performance royalty is owed to the songwriter and publisher of a particular song whenever that composition is broadcast or performed in public.” 60. Send Out a Sponsored Tweet – Pop Star Kimberly Cole has over a million fans on Twitter. She uses a service called Sponsored Tweets and makes $1,300 for each sponsored tweet she sends out. Visit SponsoredTweets to find out how much you could make from your tweets. 61. Crowdfund Your Next Song or Video – Not ready to fund an entire album, but still need a small community to support your craft? Consider a service like Patreon, which allows people to become subscribers to your work (often pledging just a single dollar for your next song or music video). For example, Lauren O’Connell is currently creating music on Patreon and 132 “patrons” are signed up to pay her a total of $570 for her next song. 62. Record Lessons and Sell Them Online – David Walliman took his guitar playing expertise to YouTube and eventually created Guitar Playback, a website with a store where he sells high-quality video lessons among other things. 63. Sell Instruments After Live Performances – This idea is perfect for hand drummers who may perform in tourist spots. Get a drum circle going and then allow the participants to purchase a drum to remember their experience and take the music with them. 64. Act Like a Musician – The film and theater industry need real musicians to fill certain roles. If you’re a musician who can also act you should definitely promote yourself like Mark Morgan, a freelance trumpet player, who works for a NYC tourism company as an actor on the side. 65. Sell Your CDs in Person – People still buy CDs in person from a performing musician. When you’re performing, don’t miss the chance to sell your music to fans after the show. 66. Earn Print Rights for Your Sheet Music – Just like your recordings, when a composition of your recording is reproduced, you should earn some money. 67. Sell Your Album Online with CD Baby – This list wouldn’t be complete without the idea that’s made the CD Baby blog possible. Long live the independent musician! 68. Create a Premium Fan Club – Sell premium monthly or annual subscriptions to be in your fan club. Make the fan club worthy of the subscription by providing plenty of freebies and behind the scenes access. 69. Get In the Shazam Database – Being in Shazam is a must if you expect to be featured on a TV show or commercial. CD Baby can help you get into the Shazam database. 70. Produce Music for Commercials – A lot of musicians think that composing music for commercials means quenching their creative side, but Gabe Sokoloff says that isn’t the case. He says it can even help make you a better musician, give you an appreciation for the diversity in music, and advance your music career. Don’t know where to start? Begin with local businesses who might need music for television ads. 71. Sell Your Merchandise Online with Your Own Website – You never know when someone is looking for a goodie for themselves or a special gift idea for their friends and family, who might be fans. Street Drum Corps sells swag supplied and sold through their free online store CafePress. 72. Sign Up for All Media Sync Licensing with a Library – All Media sync licensing will extend your license to all forms of media, like commercials, TV shows, and more. CD Baby makes this possible through a partnership with Rumblefish. 73. Go on a Summer House Concert Tour – If you have friends in other states or connections in different cities within the same state, consider creating a house concert tour. Charge admission; pay the homeowner a fee, and pay yourself. Set up a recording in one of the houses and then sell albums later when the tour has ended, like Shannon Curtis did. 74. Earn Mechanical Royalties – “Every time a song you’ve written is manufactured to be sold in a CD, downloaded on a digital music retail site, or streamed through services like Spotify and Rdio, you are owed a mechanical royalty.” 75. Organize a Niche Music Conference – As a musician it’s natural for you to want to be around others musicians. Why not organize a conference where you can talk shop with all of your musician friends, improve your skills, and advance your industry? Ian Crombie, successful songwriter, serves as executive director of the West Coast Songwriters, who get together once a year for a conference. 76. Become a Music Librarian – It’s a highly-competitive field, but if you have a degree in music theory or library science or other related fields, and you know music better than others, then a career as a music librarian might be a good option for you. While public libraries often have these positions, there are many at radio and tv stations, colleges and universities, and conservatories, among other locations. 77. Sign Up for MicroSync Licensing with YouTube – By allowing this form of licensing, you could get paid when someone uses your music as background on one of their home videos posted to YouTube. CD Baby can make this possible for you. 78. Work as a Studio Musician – Connect with local studios and become their regular stand-in session musician. 79. Create a Fun App for Your Fans – Follow Dan Deacon’s lead and create an app that your fans can use in the audience at your live show. The Dan Deacon app allows users to participate in an audience-wide light that is synchronized with his on-stage performance. 80. Rent Your Studio to Other Musicians – Have your own recording space? Odds are there are other musicians in your area looking for a place to record their music. Make some extra money by renting out your studio. Neal Morse, progressive rock musician, rents out his personal studio. 81. Create an Instructional Digital Guide – If you don’t have video capabilities, another idea for making money with your music is to create an eBook teaching people how to play an instrument, like this one from guitarist Justin Sandercoe. Your customer gets the information they need immediately and it requires little overhead to produce for you. 82. Play Some Gigs for Free – Create exposure and get your name out there. Do the hard work up front and reap the benefits (especially the monetary ones) later. 83. Offer Acoustic Versions of Your Music – Offer your fans a different version of your music. Go acoustic and record it. Then promote it just like new music. 84. Record a Cover Song – First, acquire the mechanical license for the song you want to cover. Then record it and share it with the world. Learn the three distinct ways you can make money from this. 85. Become a Music Teacher – In many schools, funding for the arts are among the first cuts made when budgets are reduced, so full-time music teaching positions are becoming fewer and fewer. However, when that happens, many schools still offer part-time teaching positions and it is possible to piece together more than one of those in order to make a living, like Koen Guedens does. And if you can’t find a job teaching in a school, teaching private lessons in students’ homes can be quite lucrative if you price your lessons wisely. 86. Send out a Tweet – In 2009, independent musician Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls made $19,000 in 10 hours through Twitter. Seriously. Maybe it would be a good idea for all of us to sharpen our social media skills. 87. Build Out a Tour – Before you decide to just take your band on the road and make a living out of it, it would be wise to consult other bands who have toured and seek their expertise. Lucky for you, the band Marbin recently shared on the DIY Musician blog how they made their tour financially sustainable. 88. Open Your Home for Music Lessons – Gas isn’t cheap these days, and your time is valuable. Instead of traveling to the students to teach them your musical craft, have them come to you, to your home. Set up a space in the living room or in a music room and let your home help you make more money. 89. Submit Your Music to a Record Club – If you’ve got the right sound a service like Feedbands will stream your music to their listeners, and if the listeners like it enough, they’ll create a vinyl record for you and write you a check. 90. Start a Music Festival and Perform with Others – If you’re having trouble generating ticket sales on your own, partner up with several other music groups and have a festival. In case you haven’t heard, Tenacious D is making a comeback. But they aren’t stopping with a simple tour. Nay, they are getting together with several other musical comedy acts to blow our minds on one fateful day this Fall. 91. Find a Sponsor for Your Tour – If you want to go on tour with your band or on a solo tour, Simon Tam of Last Stop Booking says there’s no way of knowing if someone will sponsor you until you ask. But no one likes a diva and you need to be unique in your approach. 92. Get Paid to Review and Demo Instruments – If you’ve got a large enough audience on YouTube, you can mix in the occasional product review and demonstration. Reach out to companies who produce the products you like and see if they’re willing to compensate you for a review. 93. Write and Produce Jingles – If you’re lyrically gifted and have a tendency for the quirky and fun, like ShiftyPop, consider writing jingles. Use a site like Fiverr to market your services globally and undercut the competition. 94. Land an Advance and/or Sign-on Bonus from a Record Label – Easier said than done, right? But this does happen and you just have to remember that the advance portion is only an advance. You still have to produce revenue from the album to actually earn that money. A smart move might be to spend the bonus, but stash the advance away in a savings account until you start making sales. 95. Provide Educational Concerts (i.e. Performance Workshops) – Mix your love of performing with your abilities as a teacher. Offer up performance workshops to budding musicians or other groups. The Denver Brass, a 14-piece style-melding band, performs educational concerts and workshops at area preschools, middle schools and high schools for a fee. 96. Create a Digital Guide for Marketing Yourself as a Musician – If you’ve seen success in the music industry, especially when it comes to marketing, you can create an eBook or a digital guide to help others who are just getting their feet wet or who are looking to take their career to the next level. Here’s a great example from musician Ariel Hyatt. 97. Perform in Someone’s Living Room – If you’re not seeking the fame and spotlight, but you’d just rather play your music in a smaller, more intimate setting, consider a living room concert. Have someone you know (a fan, maybe?) open their home and sell tickets to the event. 98. Lead Worship at a Church – Isn’t it a sin for a church to pay for musicians? Well, a lot of churches don’t have a problem with it. And if you can find one that’ll pay you to show up each Sunday morning and play, that’s not a bad gig. 99. Play for an Orchestra or Ensemble – Douglas Yeo plays with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and says there are many benefits of seeking an orchestral career–good pay, an appealing schedule, and lots of travel being just a few. He also offers questions to ask yourself as you consider this career path. 100. Enter a Songwriting Contest – Dallas based singer-songwriter Larry G(ee) recently won gear and other prizes by being selected as a grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Another contest to enter is the International Songwriting Competition. 101. Use Your Studio to Teach Music Lessons – You’ve spent money creating a studio that is a top-notch place for you to make music. But you can also get that studio to make money for you by using it as the location where you teach lessons to others. Or rent it out to other teachers.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:15:58 +0000
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