How To Make Money From Music?
If you are passionate about music, you can make a living too from it. Music can be your full-time job or a part-time money-making hobby along with your career. It is a creative industry that can be lucrative. However, there is no guarantee in making money by selling your music. Finding the right music that can fetch you profit can be difficult.
It is not easy to make money from your music. But it is not impossible either. If you are in the initial stage of your music career, it is important to find more than one revenue stream. You won’t be able to make enough money for your living if you do not have a big record label to back you. Below are some of the important revenue-making methods musicians can use to make money.
- Streaming Royalties
Music royalties and releasing your music online are one of the best ways to earn profits. Several online music platforms are available, allowing you to release your music such as Tidal, Deezer, Apple Music, Spotify, etc. Even though these streaming sales will not bring you a huge amount instantly, they will increase over time if you can grow the number of monthly listeners and followers. Thus, online streaming is a regular income source for many musicians. Streaming royalties are known to be the money you get each time your music is downloaded or streamed on a digital platform.
- Music Publishing
Publishing royalties is another method to earn income for independent musicians. This is a tricky business and therefore, you must understand it well to earn all the royalties you make as a musician. Music recordings and compositions are an intellectual property and therefore, there is some set of rules for it. Thus, any organization that uses your music must pay you some annual license. The owner of the music, mostly artists, will get this royalty money.
- Merchandise
An upcoming musician can make money by selling their merchandise. You can manufacture your merchandise without much expense if you know the right way to source it. By selling your merchandise at your concerts or gigs, you can earn some extra money for your venue or travel expenses. Your merchandise products can include clothing, bottles, mugs, phone cases, etc.
- Live Shows And Touring
As the pandemic is over, live shows and tours are considered to be one of the prime income sources for musicians. Ticket sales, payment from the promoter or owner, on-the-door fees, etc are the revenue sources for musicians for such events. When your shows become established and you are attracting more audience, you may charge for tickets for your shows. If you are conducting shows as a band or group, you must have an agreement between yourselves in terms of splitting the revenue. Your shows will also have expenses with them such as the deposit for your venue, travel expenses, catering costs, light and sound expenses, etc. Therefore, you must have a good plan to meet your expenses with the money you earn.