First, you must be excellent at what you do, from a musical standpoint. Second, you must have flexibility and patience — I am about to reveal to you 26 revenue streams that you can take advantage of, but tapping into even one-fourth them over a five-year span is certainly no easy task.
Too often, the most talented of musicians do not understand the basic mechanics of making money in the music industry in any genre. I have seen classical and jazz musicians trained at conservatories seem as lost as beat makers and aspiring producers when it comes to making money. Today, I will cast light on where exactly in the music industry you can make money as a performer or a composer. Note that this list of revenue streams applies to ways you can make money exclusively performing or composing music in your career — if you are interested in the many dozens of careers available to musicians with a music degree, see this popular article I wrote back in November.
Here are 26 revenue streams, listed alphabetically, you can take advantage of as a performer or composer, each one with the potential to be exceptionally lucrative. Advances are sums of money doled out by a publisher or record label to an artist or composer prior to creating a work that will be sold under the name of both the artist and label company. Thirty or forty years ago, advances were a highly sought-after means of making money as a musician.
This is one of my favorite methods because the potential is so high and any musician can start making money with it. Making a lot of money this way takes a tremendous amount of hard work and true industry, but if you can do it, you will not only reap the rewards of monetary gain, your visual social media presence will also skyrocket, which will undoubtedly lead to many other musical opportunities.
CD and Mp3 sales are a way to make solid extra cash from your music. Like publisher and label advances, sales have been consistently declining for CDs and Mp3s over the past ten years, mostly due to the advent of digital torrenting and Spotify.
Still, you would be cheating yourself out of not selling at the very least Mp3s on a personal website of your music. David has spoken in interviews how he successfully makes a living off of his solo piano music, thanks in large part to the elegance and ease of his website designed for commerce transaction. For composers, commissions are perhaps the most sought-after method of making money for original work.
The first is a concert music commission, where a composer is paid a certain sum of money to write music for an ensemble. These kinds of commissions usually occur in the classical and jazz fields, though they can occur in any genre. The second is a commercial music commission. These can come in the form of either a lump sum for a one-time project, such as a movie score, or in a recurring contract, such as a television series score. Sometimes, composers can find long-time employment being commissioned to write television scores.
One of the most popular methods for generating seed capital cash for starting your ventures for musicians is an online crowdfunding platform. Income earned as a salaried member of an orchestra or ensemble. Revenue generated from playing in a live setting for non-salaried players. Retail Sales. Revenue generated from selling physical music in retail stores or via mail order.
Digital Sales. Sales at Shows. Interactive Service Payments. Revenue generated when your music is streamed on on-demand services Rhapsody, Spotify, Rdio. Digital Performance Royalties. Revenue generated when your sound recordings are played on internet radio, Sirius XM, Pandora. Paid to performers by SoundExchange. AARC Royalties.
Collected for digital recording of your songs, foreign private copying levies, and foreign record rental royalties, distributed to US artists by AARC. Paid to performers on recordings used in TV and other secondary uses. Payments paid to performers when a recording hits certain sales plateaus. Label Settlements. Payments from labels to recording artists for litigation settlements MP3. Session Musician Revenue Revenue paid to you for playing in a studio. Paid by label, producer or artist, depending on situation.
Revenue paid to you for playing in a live setting. Teaching and Producing Music Teacher. Revenue generated from teaching your musical craft. Brand-related Revenue Merchandise Sales. Revenue generated from selling branded merchandise t-shirts, hoodies, posters, etc.
Ad Revenue. Or other miscellaneous income from your website properties click-throughs, commissions on Amazon sales, etc. Persona Licensing. Payments from a brand that is licensing your name or likeness video games, comic books, etc.
Fan, Corporate, and Foundation Funding Fan Funding. Money directly from fans to support an upcoming recording project or tour Kickstarter, Pledge Music. Other Arts Administrator. Money paid to you specifically for managing the administrative aspects of a group that you are a member of.
The Future of Music Coalition is a national nonprofit organization that works to ensure a diverse musical culture where artists flourish, are compensated fairly for their work, and where fans can find the music they want. Oh my goodness! Awesome article dude! Is there anybody else getting identical RSS problems? Anybody who knows the solution will you kindly respond?
I needed to thank you for this wonderful read!! I absolutely enjoyed every little bit of it. I have you book-marked to check out new stuff you post…. To be honest everyone is talking about not making money and blah blah blah and dying broke and all this jazz mess. Compose your song, Copyright it, sell it yourself, sell it to others who need or want to use it in movies, commercials, clubs, bars, Franchise hotels. Stop trying to worry about the third party and discover and open your mind and make contacts to bleed your way into the industry YOURSELF and make the initial sale.
You gotta know who to cater too and find a market for your music not walk into a hip hop club and sell them Spanish music, Let the puzzle piece fit not force. Heey there! This is my first visit to your blog! Reproducing a song in a sound recording, digital or physical formats; this includes certain types of internet streaming. The right to publicly perform a song, including radio, TV, certain internet streaming, live performances, and background music played at various venues.
Public performance rights on the recording side. The U. Keep track of your projects, especially if there are multiple composers and writer splits involved. Do you own the sound recordings, or are you credited as an artist on them? A private ReelCrafter reel with track notes is an easy way to create this list.
Keep a record of who owns what and how you can use it. Void of any agreements or contracts, composers generally keep the rights to their creations. Often these companies that collect your royalties will come across your music being used and seek you out to try and pay you. A big example: mechanical collection societies or other licensing agencies will send out Notices of Intention NOIs in the mail when your music is being recorded. Often a quick google search or email to a company can confirm whether you should follow up.
With these steps in place, you should see increased income from your music over time. Handling all of the administration work involves significant effort, but trusted publishing partners can manage a lot of this load. Check out the rest of our music licensing series: How sync licensing works Choosing the right vehicle for licensing your music.
A: Most of the time, if you let the studio or production company know that you understand what the standard deal is, and that you insist on these terms, they will give it to you. Q: What if they offer me a lot more money double or triple in the composer package fee to accept the complete buyout? A: It happens a lot. You could get a little more money upfront, but you give up the chance to make hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars if your work and the show, film, or project are successful.
Q: What if they say no? Where can I go for help? A: Sometimes the producer or the showrunner of a film, show or other project can help you if you ask for it. Very often, they are willing to speak up to help. They want the best music for their project. Q: I need help with the contract.
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