can we discuss music and money.. i never felt that i need to make money through my music.. i have a job
i just dont get this spotify and youtube monitisating job.. anyone ?

 

I felt the need to make money unfortunately.
Spotify is chump change. YT, well the world is your oyster, but it's not exactly
a get rich fast scheme and you don't get money for nothing and having more
than one lane of income is advisable. There is no map for that.
If you need money, just ask your dad. He is a king.

 

The only musicians I knew who made money made it by selling dope to other musicians

 

Or the roadie.
"I am from Miami."
"Oh really? How much do you know about cocaine?"

 

The only musicians I knew who made money made it by selling digital collectibles to other musicians.

 

Let's say you are a solo act making electronic music.

1. Make good music and beautiful visuals.
2. Post your music on Bandcamp so people can be able to support you directly. Post it on Soundcloud and youtube so it gets more visibility.
3. Create an instagram account so your fans and peers can connect with you.
4. If you are unique and work hard you will be able to build a fanbase.
5. You can make a small run of T-shirts for your fans or press a limited number of vynils and sell them on Bandcamp.

From there if you really want to live from your music and have a career you need to be able to perform live (DJ set or live show) and sign to a label that will actually promote you and a get a booking agent that will actually get you gigs or interviews.

- Your main source of income will be from touring and selling your merch at the venues.
- When you are signed to a label and depending on you contract, you negotiate how much money you get from the CD's/vynils they pressed for you and you also get a percentage of physical copies for yourself to sell on your bandcamp and at your shows. Same goes for merch (T-shirts, accessories, etc...)

It is at this moment that it make sense to me that your label will get you published on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Music etc...
There is no money in streaming it's mostly a promotional tool and it's someone's job is to get your track on a big weekly/monthly playlist.
Some artists get their music on streaming platform by themself on their first unsigned release, why not, they try to get in the algorythms.

Some people never release anything unless they are signed to a big label.
Some people always stay independant, creates publishing and distribution companies so they have full control on their rights from the beggining. Some people make music in their bedroom and get contacted by bigger artists to go to a writing camp.
Some people just have connexions and friends that make their carreer start faster.
Some people make it big and other just make enough money so they don't have to work a normal job, so they can travel and have fun.

This is from the point of view of small independant labels and artists.
There is an infinity of possibilities really, depends on where you are from, who you know, how hard you work, your talent, your luck...

One thing that is shared across all forms of art or businesses is that people that have rich parents can fail and try again and again it doesn't matter, they will be fine. But common working class people, only have a few opportunities while working full time jobs.

I have friends that get gifted $5000 of music gear (not even for a special occasion) and friends that are 12k in debt from self-producing albums that had no commercial success.

There is only one style of music, it's popular music, people just do it at different levels of success.

 

There was a time not so long ago and not in a land far, far away, nor in a time long, long ago, when live music was available 24/7, 365 days of the year and musicians made a good living performing. Some were already on the marketing path selling their music at gigs and touring their respective countries. This was worldwide.
Then came noise pollution laws, drink-driving laws, entertainment licensing, video, DVD, Blueray and encoding, The Internet....none in any specific order, but where venues were shut down for many reasons associated, and people chose to stay home and hire entertainment with too much to list that compounded into what you have today. The aforementioned is without entering into the commissioning, film, documentary or jingle arenas of music...

Now today being asked this question, you have less avenues for diversity available not because of a lack of talent, skill or competence, but because the avenues for money-making are limited primarily to one source if money is sought - Online. Unless as an artist you can guarantee bums-on-seats at every venue, which is limited to the already famous, then live money-making as a living is a thing of the past.

Being signed to a label means less now than it did twenty years ago. The rules have changed in streaming but not in contract. If they decide not to release anything you record under contract, this has not changed for well over 50 years. Every contract for anyone who has had one gives the label the main choice. They can hold you to it being unable to release anything except through them for the entire duration and if they choose, release nothing. The odds on advances like the prior 60 years are tiny unless they already know you will sell a million or more streams regularly. It was common to see 150K upwards advances in recording deals. Now, maybe a handful are given that. This means you can release nothing until the contract expires, should they decide they like nothing you present to them for release. This goes for both recording and publishing and has not changed. It is one of the few things that hasn't changed. What also has not changed is that you make no money until the label has recouped any expenses it has paid out on your behalf. Oh, you did not realize the marketing and other parts are expenses you basically pay for? You didn't read the fine-print?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2024

Let's talk reality. Building a fanbase takes time and sweat. It's not all about the music; it's about your story, your vibe, your hustle. And those gigs, man, they're where the magic happens. Nothing beats the energy of a live crowd. As for labels, it's a double-edged sword. Sure, they can give you a platform, but you gotta read those contracts like a lawyer. And streaming? Don't even get me started. It's like throwing your songs into a black hole sometimes. But hey, it's part of the game. I'm still finding my way, but forums like this and sites like site with articles on earning and creative development are goldmines for tips and inspiration. Oh, and about those legit games that pay instantly to paypal? Gonna check those out for sure!

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2024

to add to what's been said so far, you can make decent money providing audio related services, such as mixing and mastering, to other artists.

 

When I was a kid someone told me that if I reach one of the end point of a rainbow I would find lots of gold.
One day the sun shined after the rain and a beautiful rainbow appeared so I decided this is it, I'm going on an adventure.
A couple of steps from my house I found 1 dollar bill on the ground. I went to the nearest grocery store and bought some candy
and went back home and played zelda on nes.

 

Pack me fiddle and sod off to the main square. Right by the public bog.

 

and in clubs, and after they make contacts out of it... but that's real,

 

it has always been live shows from the beginning of time till today, you can basically travel the whole world with just few dollars if you do it right.. well, assuming you not suck at music. even the biggest artists these days make most of their money from the live shows maybe some brand endorsement and modeling or shits like that, but that's not really music related. streaming, record sales never have been main source of income for musicians, ever. you gotta go out and do the dirty job yourself, the best part being doing what you love so it wont feel like working at all, again assuming you not suck at music and know how to do it right.

tldr - dont suck, go out there

 

you can teach others how to play an instrument (or any other skill)

 

Great replies @OffshoreBanking and @BaSsDuDe
Success breeds more Success.
I've been fortunate to make a better than decent living producing music for over 30 years now.
Your comments are spot on.

 

it used to be, you made good music, you played live, developed an audience, played larger gigs and developed a local following, than a regional following. There were bands and artist from the south, from the north, from the west, etc. Eventually if you were good enough you would breakthrough nationally.

Now you could sell big shows, at each tier, your income went up and your expenses, label's and managers helped front money to cover expenses and would recoup money (also skim extra) from box office receipts. Record sales were pennies, even songwriters made more than the artist. Some hit on being movie stars, which widened the audience and increased the revenue, Elvis for instance, or that english boy band named after an insect or something.

Eventually pop music became a world wide phenom - late 60's to present, now touring acts could peform in Arenas and shows paid hundreds of thousand dollars per gig. a world tour would put you in the black forever (as long as your mgr and label didn't fuck you to bad and the IRS didn't go after you cause nobody paid taxes and you were ultimately responsible not your manager.

I saw Ray Charles live at the hollywood bowl, he was 70 or so and I was wondering why he was still touring, turns out he still owed taxes...

Digital production and reproduction introduced perfect copies and no way to limit infinite piracy, the value of recordings, dropped to zero forcing labels to shrink the contractual artist pool - also it became apparent they were'nt really doing much but collecting royalties on signed artists catalogues.

Artist began self promotion to try to acheive the old method of Fame, its now all about creating a "BRAND" name recognition, so you can sell merchandise, and cross market your own line of trinkets or beauty secrets, or sunglasses or books or anything but music.

So music doesn't exist as a viable income for artist, unless you can sell physical medium at your shows, and you can attract enough butts in the seat to sell your vinyl,cd etc. most bands make as much on their t-shirt sales as they do their record sales.

How do you make money on music? Write a good screenplay, write a good soundtrack, hire a director, shoot a great movie and sell it to a distributor like Paramount or Sony. Write a good novel, write a good soundtrak for the novel and include it as a cd with the book.

basically you have to piggyback the music to something else that can be sold...

 

i think it was @Danie who posted a chart of how people make money with music nowadays.

it seems like education is a decent market for making money on music

 

Last edited: Jun 1, 2024

Develop a plugin.
Offer royalties to celebrities and create hype.
Announce promotional sales to poor creators.
And never let them crack.
These are the best ways to make money from music in 2024.