If there was any positive way for musicians from the last few years experience, it’s that many creative artists found ways to generate more revenue online when live shows and touring simply down doe to covid.
With live shows now back in most parts of the world after spending 2 years of lockdowns, musicians are hitting the road to earn the tried and true revenue stream that comes with performing live.
There are tons of ways a musician can make money without relying on hard ticket sales. Building out your online presence is not only a great way to invest in yourself, it’s a great way to diversify where your money comes from.
Passive income is good income, especially while we’re all waiting for live shows to come back. Here are eight ways musicians can make money online without leaving the house.
1. Selling beats online ($50-$1000+ a month)
Selling beats on digital marketplaces is probably the fastest way a musician can make money online. Platforms like BeatStars and Airbit exist to help producers run their beat-selling business by facilitating payments, legal documents, and file delivery. That means there are no upfront costs (like building a website) to start selling beats online. And, it’s a fast-growing business. According to Urban Masterclass, “The beat selling industry generates at least $30 million a year. If you can get 0.1 percent of that, you’ll be able to make from $10,000 to $30,000 a year.” So, what are you waiting for?
There’s no need for a team to get started (like a manager or booking agent).
You have the option to sell your music under both exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. A track with a non-exclusive license can be sold to an unlimited number of artists, while an exclusive license can only be sold to one entity. Exclusive licenses are usually sold for a much higher price and are often negotiated directly between the seller and the buyer.
Most online beat marketplaces pay out the artist immediately after a sale. There’s no need to wait on royalties to see money in your bank account.
2. Production music libraries ($250-unlimited)
In short, production music libraries give the rights to companies or individuals to use your music in their projects, like TV shows, films, and advertisements, in return for compensation. If you’re just starting out in the music industry and have a smaller network, getting your music in a production music library is a great first step.
Production music libraries add stability to working creators. The downside is it takes a while to see residuals, but the upside is they often last for many years at a time. Some publishers will buy your music outright, providing upfront fees and a writer’s share of royalties. Others have an even split and pay little to nothing upfront but have more potential on the back end.
The goal of music libraries is to license your tracks to potential customers like ad agencies, TV shows, or indie filmmakers. They don’t care if you have a huge following or not. If the song is good, they will do everything they can to get it licensed.
The more tracks you have in a library, the more likely your tracks will get placed. If you need a tool to help you get produce tracks quickly, check out ARCADE. It comes with a 30-day free trial.
With so many different music library companies out there, it’s important to pick the best one for you. A few things to look for when picking a library are the kind of licensing that they require (exclusive versus non-exclusive), how much money they keep from each sale, and if their past placements match your style of production.
3. Fiverr.com ($5-$1,000 a month)
Fiverr is an online marketplace that lets producers, singers, mixing engineers, and other music industry folks sell their services online.
There is no fee to sign up as a seller, but they will take 20 percent out of every sale you generate.
Fiverr has a huge existing customer base, so freelancers have plenty of potential buyers right when they sign up.
Getting a high rating is key. A good way to get started on Fiverr is to charge less for your first few gigs in order to quickly build your reputation. Once you pass that point, Fiverr will start recommending you to more and more potential customers and you will be able to charge higher fees for your services.
4. Distribute your music on streaming services (1 million plays ≈ $4,000)
Getting your music on streaming platforms makes you available to your fans wherever they listen to music. It’s an obvious way a musician can make money online, although the royalties may take a while to add up. A million plays on Spotify may only bring back around $4,000, but with over 250 million monthly active users, there is a real opportunity to make more.
The best way to start seeing significant money from streaming services is to pitch your music to music blogs and user-curated playlists. If they make it on, the algorithms of the platforms will start noticing that your tracks are gaining traction and could begin adding them to their official playlists.
The Spotify submission tool allows users to submit unreleased music directly to Spotify’s editorial team for official playlist consideration. It’s a game-changer. This feature is only available for unreleased music, so plan ahead to have your tracks ready before your release date!
5. Patreon ($5+ per subscriber)
Patreon is a way for fans to directly subscribe to receive exclusive content. It’s one of the best ways for musicians to build a steady monthly revenue source while building a stronger connection with fans.
Musicians can start a Patreon page based on educational music videos, synth presets, music theory, royalty-free samples, and more. The opportunities are endless.
Patrons are more likely to pledge along benefit tiers, so make sure that you offer a few different tiers to cater to a wide audience. If you’re wondering what could make great rewards for your fans.
6. Bandcamp ($10-$1,000+ a month)
Bandcamp is a lot more than an online marketplace where you can sell your music and merch. It’s a vast community of music fans that understand how important it is to support artists directly. With their great recommendation system and daily selections, it’s a great way to capture new fans and drive a huge number of sales. Once a month, Bandcamp waives its revenue share on sales to put much-needed money directly into artists’ pockets during the pandemic.
Charge whatever price you want for your music and change it whenever you like.
Get access to real-time statistics to have a better understanding of your fanbase and help guide your next move.
The music that you upload on Bandcamp comes with a clean player that gives you, your fans, and the press efficient and customizable music players to embed across the web and display your music in style.
Bandcamp lets you sell your digital music, CDs, vinyl, posters, tickets, merch… you name it.
7. Sell music through your website
If you don’t already have one, you should build a website for your music. Not only does it give you a little slice of the internet that you own and control, but you can also sell music from your website directly to your fans.
More than that, you will also own the data and emails you collect through your website. This is essential for the long-term success of your career. You can then use that information to let your fans know about new music releases, upcoming tours, crowd funding campaigns, and more.
8. Offer free live streaming concerts with a tip jar
If you don’t feel comfortable selling tickets for your live stream shows, hosting it for free and setting up a virtual tip jar is a great option.
On Facebook Live and Instagram Live, this can be as simple as sharing your PayPal.Me link, Venmo username, or providing a website link with your viewers.
9. Monetize your YouTube channel
Another sure way to make money from music is to monetize your music video both audio and video by uploading to YouTube channel From there, you’ll need to set up YouTube monetization on your account.
Also, any time music you own is used in a YouTube video, whether on your own channel or someone else’s, you’re entitled to collect your share of the ad revenue generated. A digital distribution company like CD Baby can help ensure that you get all the money that you’re owed.
10. Monetize your music on social media platforms
Another potential source of online revenue for musicians is making money when your music is used in videos on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Be sure to check with your digital distributor to see if they offer social video monetization.
11. Teach music lessons online
Over the last few years, many musicians found an extra revenue stream by teaching their instrument online to their fans.
Whether through Zoom or recorded video lessons, teaching music lessons can be a great way to generate some additional income. You can even take it a step further and sell video lessons, sheet music, and more using fan subscriptions.
Final thoughts
You don’t have to throw yourself into trying everything at once. Some of these ideas might be more appealing for you than others.
Start by trying a couple of these revenue streams to see if you’re enjoying the process, and if they’re resonating with your fans.
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