How To Fund Your Music Career Doing Music Related Jobs

Ok, so today we're going to talk about how to fund your music career. If you've been in this game for a while, you'll know that making music isn't cheap. Costs constantly arise, such as buying studio time, the cost of equipment and instruments, and investing in your music marketing education. If you've got a family on top of this but aren't currently making a full time living from your music, money can really start to become an issue.

If you're still young and studying, not making money from your music may not be as much of a big deal for you. As you get older and you start relying on money to survive however, you may find that you need to spend a portion of the time you previously spent on making music making money instead.

A lot of musicians go about getting a part time job to fund their music projects until they're earning enough from music to quit their job. This job however can spiral, and start to claim more and more of your time as you go and chase more money. In other words, it can be a real music career killer.

The alternative? Making money from efforts related to your music career! By doing this, you can still help push your name out there in other ways, while still earning money to support you in your music career. Sound good? Then read on for some ways in which you can do just that. If you find this guide useful, please share it via social networking sites and by linking to it from your music site.

1. Set Up A Site And Promote Affiliate Products

As I'm sure you know, the internet has allowed people to connect with others from all around the world. Music Industry How To for example gets a load of visitors from all different countries every single day, something that wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the internet.

When it comes to funding your music, you can take full advantage of this. If you want to work from home, you can take up something called ‘affiliate marketing'. This is the process of promoting other people's products, and for any you make a sale off, you get a % of that sale in commissions.

For example, let's say you decided to set up your own website and promote my course to other musicians. If you signed up as an affiliate, for anyone that clicks on your link and goes on to buy it, you'll get 50% of the selling price once those funds have cleared. In this case, if they bought the ‘fastest course', you'll get around $60 for making that referral. If they bought one of the other options, you'd get around $75 for the referral.

Another site with a affiliate program is Amazon. If you became an affiliate with them, you would earn a percentage of any product sales you make through your links. This usually starts at a 4% commission (It's lower then my affiliate program because they sell physical products so make less profit) and can rise anywhere up to around 10% depending on what you sell and how many sales you make per month.

While affiliate marketing can take a little while to get the hang off, it is a very real option for musicians wanting to make some money by adding relevant (And useful) product links within their website's content. Just don't make your website one full of affiliate links and nothing else.

2. Become A Music Teacher

If you know how to play a instrument or have a certain teachable skill such as singing, then becoming a paid teacher of this art is very real option.

There are three ways in which you can do this:

1. Become a teacher in a school or other place of learning.
2. Be a freelance teacher and teach as and when you want.
3. Set up a online course and teach your skills hands free over the internet (We'll look more at this option in the section below).

All of these methods have their pros and cons, so you'll have to look into each and decide which is best for you.

Teaching in a school will probably give you a more consistent salary then being a freelance teacher, but it can take up a lot more of your time and give you less flexibility. Being a freelance teacher however can pay you a lot more per hour, although it can take a while to build up your customer base.

Both however are good options for making an addition income without leaving the music industry.

As I mentioned, there is a third option: Setting up your own online course. This is the option I like the most when it comes to funding your music career, and you'll see why below…

3. Set Up Your Own Online Course

If you like the idea of teaching but don't want to have to always be there for your teaching to occur, you can set up your own online lessons and deliver them to different people as they sign up.

The good thing about this is, once you have created your lessons, you won't have to worry about this side of things ever again. You can record video lessons, audio lessons, or write up text lessons. Once made, that's it.

Every time someone signs up to be part of your course, you simply give them access to each lesson you've already created. You don't have to be there to teach each individual person, your pre made lessons will take care of all the hard work for you.

Furthermore, you don't even have to be there to send the lessons to your students. By using software such as Digital Access Pass (Which I use to deliver my online course), payments are taken automatically, and people are given access or not depending on whether they have paid.

For me this is probably the best way to teach people how to sing, how to rap, how to play a instrument and the like.

If you use this method, remember you still need to promote your course to have it make money. You can do this by doing freelance lessons, and recommending your students take your online lessons to learn a lot more for a fraction of the price they pay for hourly lessons.

Yes you may make less from each student, but you'll also continue to earn money without having to do any additional work or travel. This time can be used to make your music.

4. Do Recordings For Other People

If you want to start making money asap, one of the best things you can do is put yourself as being available for work on freelance websites.

There are always people looking for freelance singers, rappers, voice over artists, music makers and the like.

You can sign up to websites such as Odesk, and list yourself as someone that can do this type of thing. Let people know you can make them your own personal songs, do a voice over for their project, create them a backing track and the like.

Bare in mind though, that this kind of work is easier if you have your own recording equipment. If you have to go to the studio to do this, it can still work… BUT is a lot more inconvenient, especially when working with people who have tight deadlines.

It is a option though, so have a look on Odesk for examples of work you can do.

Conclusion

While it is possible to make money from your music, it doesn't always happen right away. If you're not currently at the stage where you're making enough from your music to survive on, you may want to consider doing one of the above four things. Not only will they keep you in the music industry, but you can still build up links and run into other music industry professionals while doing any of the above. A lot of the time they can lead to you building up your links network, so give them a go.

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