It is not a utopia. Earning a living from music is not impossible. In contrast, nobody says it will be easy, nor a stroll in the park at times. But you can. It is not necessary to be a rock star to reach this goal, we simply mean making a worthwhile living 100% dedicated to music; which in itself is a dream for many. So, how do you make money with music?
As Maestro Paco de Lucía said, when music becomes your profession everything changes, and although music is your passion, it also begins to be a responsibility. Here we talk about dedicating yourself to music 8 hours a day, or more if possible or necessary, in order to reach your goal. The goal is to make money with music and turn music into your profession. This can only be achieved with many hours, a lot of passion and a lot of work. If you are prepared to put everything into your endeavour, you will probably reach your goal and finally get to make a living entirely through music.
First of all, as in any professional field, talent is important. A talented person will have the easiest path to make money with music, however, we believe that with work, anyone can do it.
We will explain here the best ways to make money off music. Let’s not forget that we are not talking about how to become a commercial artist or a bestseller, simply how to live a good life working in what we are most passionate about: music.
How to make money off music
- Become a teacher
Teaching is probably the first and most obvious way to make a living for all those musicians who wish to fulfil their dream. Teaching guitar, piano, bass, drums, music theory, music production is a good way to quickly start making money with music. Consequently, becoming a teacher of music or instruments can offer a healthy amount of money if we have enough students. Let’s assume that a one hour lesson pays at least € 15, something that will also depend on our niche. If we do the calculation, we can see that if we organise our time efficiently, it is a good source of income.
- Studio Music
Many recording studios turn to instrumentalists to record songs for artists or producers who come to the studio. In this case, we are talking about sporadic work, which makes it difficult to know how much money we can earn.
- Give concerts as a form of income
Having a band and generating income through concerts is another option. Filling small rooms on a recurring basis may be an option for those in which playing live is their forte. Furthermore, we should include the possibility of becoming part of an orchestra. For this, however, you must learn an extensive musical repertoire to play in many places.
If you play your own songs you will also be generating copyright and as a result, you will generate additional income. To obtain these copyrights, you must be part of the local rights management entity, which will collect these rights and then distribute them as you generate them. It seems complex, but it is not.
- Custom composition for audiovisual productions
If your strength is composition and production, it really is a great option to make money with music. We live in the audiovisual era, and this opens up new possibilities for musicians, composers and producers. For this reason, creating incidental music for movies, series, documentaries, video games, music for advertisements and radio spots is a very interesting option. You will make money from music from this option in two ways: the first is doing the work itself and the second for the copyright generated depending on the impact the audiovisual project has had.
- Earn money with copyright
As we have already mentioned, copyright is fundamental for any musician or author. It is a way of earning money that for many musicians becomes their main source of income. Both live music and compositions that you have made and are playing on television, radio and the internet.
- Revenue from stock music
It is a new way to make money with music royalty-free and musicians around the world, thanks to the Internet, already generate enough income to live well. The fundamental requirement to earn money this way is to not belong to any rights management entities. Therefore you can upload your songs to websites that sell music for use in ads, movies, advertising … and they provide you directly with a % of the sale. The more songs you have, and the higher quality, the easier it will be to sell. If you want to sell music this way, we can help you. You can register and start making money with your music from day one with Free Music Projects by following this link: Artists
- Music for Events
Weddings, corporate events… there are many occasions in which live music is used to liven up this type of event. Weddings are one of the events that generate the most income for many musicians. For example string quartets and classical musicians. Depending on your musician profile, this mode of generating income can also be very interesting and lucrative.
We hope you found this post interesting and useful. We would love to be able to collaborate with you in making money with music and reaching the goal of living off music! It is an ideal job, not free of obstacles and effort, if your passion lays with music.
