Creating an income as a music producer is a big goal for many artists. Turns out that it can be tricky to figure out the right way. Today we will show you 7 ways to earn money with what you love!
Table of Contents:
1 - Streaming royalties
The most obvious, but also nearly the hardest way of earning an income with music is earning royalties from streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. To increase your streams organically we would recommend building up a Spotify playlist. If you can manage to build a huge following on a Spotify playlist, you can promote your music easily and get a ton of streams. Learn more about increasing your streams here.
2 - Physical sales
As soon as you build a small fanbase on your socials, you could try to make some physical sales such as Vinyl or CDs. Make sure you create something cool, like add a nice design to the box it comes in or add something like merchandise. Maybe even some sneak peeks of upcoming songs, or unreleased music you probably won't release. Make sure to add something exclusive, it will make people buy!
Most of your merchandise items will be physical products. You may think about bad quality prints on super thin T-shirts to have less costs. If you make merchandise, make sure you get good quality. If people see that the product you're selling is of high quality, it will be easier to sell. Especially when you have a gig, for example, you could create something like a pop-up store.
Create something you would wear too. A shirt with just your logo on it is a little basic but it could work for sure, but make sure you also have more creative items with cool designs.
Now, you might think it's really expensive to start selling merch, as most suppliers have a minimum order amount of usually 1000 pieces per single product. This is where print on demand (POD) comes in. Print on demand companies let you design your products and add them to your store/website, and you don't have to buy any inventory. They will print and ship a product only after someone has placed an order on your store. This way you won't have to worry about inventory, printing and shipping. A great example of such a company is Printful.
3 - Gigs
Gigs are awesome for earning some extra cash. Small nightclubs are always looking for affordable DJs with great potential. After you did some shows, you might get booked more and more. This will not just create more income, but your music will also get more attention! We would also recommend uploading DJ gigs to YouTube, SoundCloud or Mixcloud and if you're eligible, definitely add your sets to 1001tracklists. This way the artists will know you supported their track & you can build a connection.
4 - Social Media sponsorships
Social Media is a great platform to earn money. In these days you can get paid for sponsored posts, get paid by fans on livestreams and a lot more. What you want to do is putting out as much content as possible in order to grow your following. For Instagram, I would recommend posting 5-7 times a week. Daily posting is hard but building this fanbase is so amazing in a lot of ways. You will not just get attention from labels, but a lot of different Sample websites for example will also want to advertise their products via your account. So start growing your Instagram today and put out all the knowledge you got over the last years. Here are some more tips on growing your audience.
5 - Knowledge sharing
I recently came across different websites that sell masterclasses. Some of them basically allow you to create your own masterclass and they upload it to their website. It's probably not that easy to get featured but with a little following on social media, it won't be that hard! A great example of such a wesbite is Udemy.
6 - Freelancing
As a music producer you've probably obtained a lot of skills that you could profit from. You could write songs, mix and master tracks and more for other people and earn an income through that. Maybe you're even a great graphic designer or a social media expert. You could easily start doing this by looking at your connections to see who needs your help and by promoting your services on social media. Other great ways to connect with new potential clients are Upwork, Soundbetter and Fiverr.
7 - Sample packs
Last but not least, sample packs can be a great income source for you as a music producer. If your presets and samples are of high quality and you market it right, you could earn a good extra income. The best way to sell is to use a service like Wix or Shopify to host your website and upload your sample packs that way. Create a stunning looking artwork for your pack and create some TikToks around it. Make sure to create a demo track that uses the samples & presets of the pack. Then, create some hype around it on social media. If you want to you can even create ads on instagram to generate sales. Create a stunning video and explain why every producer needs to buy your pack right now - or let the demo track do the talking for you.
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