Two Ways To Increase The Money You Make From Music

Hey guys, have I got a big post for you today! I'm going to share with you two things you can do to increase the amount of money you're making from your music career. If you're yet to make your first bit of profit from music, this guide should get you on the right track to earning from your musical talents.

Both of these strategies are very powerful, and will help you on your quest to making a living in the music industry. That said, if you're not that bothered about making money from music and are more in it for the ‘getting known' side of things, still read on as the second strategy will help you with that as well.

But first, if it's your aim to do music professionally, you'll want to check out our free ebook while it's still available:

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1. Diversifying Your Music Related Income

Ok, so let's start with a big one. Once you're at the stage where you're aiming for profit, the first thing you should be doing is diversifying your income streams. What I mean by this, is you shouldn't only be trying to make money from one activity (e.g. only CD sales). Instead, you should aim for a few different ways to earn.

While you can diversify your income from music through a combination of playing gigs / selling CDs / collecting royalties, I suggest you take things one step further. I'm talking about tapping into a whole source of income out there that doesn't even relate to your personal brand as a musician.

If you look at many of the top acts in the world, they're all branching off into different things. Clothing lines, perfumes, headphones and the like. This isn't because there isn't money to be made from your music directly, as there is. It's just that there's also a lot of money to be made outside of what you can do as a branded musician.

“Ok, so there's a slight problem here” I hear some of you thinking. “I haven't got the budget or reach to successfully launch my own perfume range”. That's not an issue. I was just using the above example to illustrate my point:

By diversifying your efforts as a musician, you will make more money! – Tweet This

So, let's get into some practical examples you can start applying today if you wanted. One great way in which you can use the talents you've gained as a musician to make money is by selling those talents to other people. This can be in the form of teaching them how to do what you do, lending your vocals to other people's recordings, or doing jingles for them for their chosen project.

None of these things involve the promotion of you as a musician. Additionally, they don't require you to have a big name to earn from them. That said, if you've got somewhat of a name, it'll be easier for you to get people to take you up on your service. Furthermore, you could probably charge more by leveraging your somewhat established name. This isn't' essential however, as you can still sell services regardless of how big your name is.

You can go about promoting the services you offer in a few ways. Firstly, you may want to promote your services on your website. If you know other musicians (or wannabe musicians) check your site to see what you're doing, this'll be a good place to pick up new clients.

Another place to get clients is via online freelancer sites. You can sign up to these sites for free and look for work related to things you can do. These freelancer sites make it easy for people to find you and your talent set, and it's then up to you to convince them you're the right person for the job (there are usually other people competing for each job).

I suggest you go for a combination of using these freelancer sites, advertising on your own websites, looking for jobs on general job websites, and putting out local adverts in papers etc. Using any industry contacts you have to see if there are jobs going is also a good idea. The more places you look, the more of a chance you'll have of finding work.

As you build up your name and reputation for doing the kind of work you're looking for, you'll find the jobs will come along a lot more frequently. Teaching guitar lessons and offering backing singer services (among other services you could offer) often get repeat customers, so be sure to keep a good relationship with any clients you end up making.

So that's one way in which you can increase the amount of money you make from your music career. Many musicians have already gone on to use their talents to make an additional income, or even a full time living. Doing this will allow you more flexible work hours over a corporate job, and leave you more time to do your music. On top of that, as you'll be working in the music industry, you'll build up connections on the way who might be able to hep you with your personal brand.

Now, time for the other way to increase your music related income. While the above method is something that a lot of musicians have already realized works, the following is something that surprisingly few musicians have taken advantage of (share to see the rest of this guide):

2. Creating Your Own Platform To Promote Your Music With

Ok, so now we're getting ambitious! Are you fed up with the ‘gatekeepers' of your genre who only cover the same few big acts over and over? Or maybe they do showcase some up and coming talent, but it's not much or as prominent compared to how many talented acts are out there? Believe me, I know how you feel.

One way around this is to create your own platform which you can promote your music with! Now before you think that's something that's too much of a big job and not something you could achieve, bare with me.

Creating your own platform doesn't have to be difficult. With the internet, it's both easy and low cost to start up your own business. This could be in the form of a website, or in the form of a podcast. Both of these are highly achievable and can make a real difference with your reach.

The website (or podcast) you make should be one that's related to the type of music you make. That said, it shouldn't be centered around your personal musician brand, as you'll want it to draw the attention of people who haven't heard of you before. For example, if you make rock music, you could start a site reviewing all the latest releases in your genre. Of course, when you have a new release, you could also promote it to the mailing list you build up. On top of that, you could advertise it in various other spots on your site.

If you make rap music, you could start up a rap news podcast. If you're into Christian music, you could do a podcast / radio show where you talk about issues facing teens and adults, and play relevant music. Of course, in both of these examples you'll also be able to promote your own music along the way. After all, you are the platform owner.

There are a number of different types of platforms you can create in any genre of music. The key thing is that it'll be easier to build up a audience as you're talking about something general. There will also be a lot of fans who are actively looking for what you're talking about, so you just need to get in front of them via marketing and it'll be easier to ‘convince' them to listen to your audio. This isn't really the case with your personal brand as a musician; people don't know to look for you until you have already reached them. The fact that people will be more receptive to what you talk about when you own a more general platform means that taking this path is a great way to get your songs out there a lot more. On top of that, you can also make money in other ways from your podcast or website.

Conclusion

So there you have it, two big ways to make more money from your music. By applying yourself to both of these things, you will make more money from your music career. It does take work to achieve, but as this work will increase the amount of money you make from something you love, this shouldn't be an issue for you.

Now, I'd love to hear from you. Are you using any of these methods to make money from music? What have you found to be a good income earner for you? Let me know in the comments below. 🙂