Make a Living As a Musician
Steps
- Make sure that your music is good enough that you can make a living off it. It's fine if you're not at that level yet, but if so you need to keep practising before you try to make a living off it.
- If you have really good music, you need to get it recorded professionally. If you can afford to access a studio that's ideal, but if not you can set up a home studio relatively cheaply.
- Next, you need to learn how to mix and master your music or find an audio engineer to mix and master your songs so that they are commercially ready.
- Learn digital marketing, graphic design and video production so that you can promote your own music, design your own album art and make your own music videos. https://www.senseoffence.com/artist-development This will save you a lot of money in the long run if you can do these things yourself.
- Use a music distributor like DistroKid or CDBaby to upload your music to streaming platforms so that you can earn royalties every time they are played on these platforms.
- Sell merchandise using a print on demand service like Printful or Printify where you only pay after a fan has ordered your merchandise. https://www.senseoffence.com/toolsformusicians
- Promote your music. Post on social media sites like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and also lesser known ones like Amino. Post your music on Reddit to subreddits that accept your genre of music. Submit your music to Spotify playlists. Look for lists of music blogs in your genre and contact the author to try get a feature. https://www.senseoffence.com/free-music-promo
- Sell CDs, vinyls, cassettes and digital downloads of your music. https://bandzoogle.com/blog/18-ways-musicians-can-make-money Play live shows or do ticketed livestream events online.
- Collaborate with brands or other musicians. Offer your musical services on freelancing websites like Fiverr and Upwork. https://www.shopify.com/blog/sell-music
- Teach music lessons or run online courses teaching people how to play your instrument. http://www.makingitwithchrisg.com/blog/makemoneyfromhome
- Try songwriting and publishing. By writing songs for other people and leasing the right to use them to other musicians, you can make royalties on any money they make from streaming it. https://twostorymelody.com/how-to-make-money-as-a-musician-in-2021/ Make sure you sign up to your like Performing Rights Organization to get paid your fair share.
