5 ways to make money with your music
You’ve likely wondered, as a musician, where the majority of an artist’s revenue comes from? How does music help artists make a stable income?
Here are five major streams of income that artists can expect to make the majority of their income.
Streaming Royalties
Let’s start with the easiest way to make money from your music. It’s releasing it online to all major music platforms. Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal are all available.
While streaming sales may not bring in big bucks immediately, they can add up over time, particularly as your following grows and the number of monthly listeners increases. This makes streaming a regular source of income for many artists, new and old, large and small.
But how do you get there?
Through streaming royalties. Streaming royalties are the money you get every time your track gets streamed or downloaded via a digital music platform.
Music Publishing
Music publishing royalties are one of the best sources of income for independent musicians.
It can be not easy to understand the workings of music publishing. It can be not easy to understand the music publishing process.
Here’s a very brief overview.
Music compositions and recordings are considered intellectual property. They come with a set of rights. This means that organizations such as streaming sites, radio stations and venues, who wish to use this property, must pay an annual licensing fee.
Merchandise
Another way to generate income is by selling your merchandise as an aspiring musician.
Merch manufacturing can be very affordable if you know where to find it. Merch manufacturing can be very affordable if you know where to source it.
Your merch range doesn’t need to include clothing. You can have a broad range of products, from mugs to phone cases to posters to bottle openers.
Offering a variety of products can increase or decrease the price point of your merch line. A $20 tour t-shirt may not be affordable for everyone. They’ll most likely be able to afford a $5 keyring. Those $5 bills add up!
Live shows and touring.
The world is now open again! Hooray! Live music and shows are a major source of income for musicians.
You can make a lot of money by playing live shows.
– Tickets sales
– Fees at the door
– Payment from venue owners or promotors (if it’s an ad-hoc show).
Once you have established yourself and are getting regular gigs as an opening act or main headliner, you can charge tickets for fans to see you perform.
You should also consider any expenses incurred by you as a live performer, such as venue hire/deposits, catering costs, or promotional material. Make sure to shop around for the best deal on venue hire.
Psst: If you are playing original material, keep track of your setlists to claim any performance royalties you owe.
Sales of physical music
It all started with one thing.
Today’s music industry is seeing less income from physical music sales, such as CDs and vinyl. However, physical music sales still provide a source of income for artists and musicians.
CDs are a great way to start. CDs are easy to make and inexpensive to reproduce. They can also be packaged up and sold together with other merchandise. They aren’t very popular nowadays, but that’s not surprising.
Selling vinyl copies of your music is a great way to get in on the current buying trends, as many bands are releasing limited edition vinyl runs.
In 2020, there was a 50% increase in cassette tape sales. This may be a temporary trend, but it’s worth jumping on board if you feel it will enhance your image.
Remember that you can also sell vinyl and CDs at shows via your website or other online stores and physical distribution to record shops and ecommerce wholesalers such as Amazon.