You’re completely dedicated to your music and determined to make your beloved career work. Yet you also realize that earning money as a musician can be a little chancy at times. Therefore, you need to diversify. Read on to learn about some unique ways to make money with your music and with side gigs.
Monetize Your Music
Your first step is to monetize your music. You’re already playing gigs and perhaps giving lessons, but there are other ways to earn money by doing what you love. You might record your original songs, for instance, and sell them online. Create videos, too — either performances or instructional offerings — and set them up on your own YouTube channel. You can monetize it with ads. You might even live-stream performances and sell tickets. Alternatively, set up a blog with musical articles, or develop some merchandise to sell online. Just make sure that you have a safe and easy way to collect payments from customers.
Update Your Website
To properly promote your music and your musical side endeavors, you’re going to need an up-to-date website that is well-organized and easy to navigate. The front page should focus on your performances and lessons and also direct viewers to pages devoted to your merchandise, blog, or YouTube channel. Update your website frequently with dates and directions to live performances, lesson schedule openings, new songs and merchandise, and whatever else your customers need to know. If you write a blog, add something new and interesting at least once a week.
Your website should be eye-catching, too. You might build a logo for yourself, for instance. That’s easy these days with a free online logo maker that provides a variety of templates and allows you to add text, colors, and fonts of your choosing. You can put your logo on your website, social media pages, blog, YouTube channel, and other marketing materials.
Start Your Own Business
Realize that your music has become a business, so consider formalizing your company by registering it with your state and writing up a business plan. You don’t have to get too fancy with your business plan. Start out with a description of your company and the products and services it provides. Then talk about your business’s structure and funding. Include information about marketing strategies and financial projections, too. This great how-to guide on starting a business will help you stay on track and improve your chances of success.
Find Some Side Gigs
Finally, remember that sometimes you may need a bit (or a lot) more money than your music business provides. In that case, find some freelance side gigs. Assess your skills and talents, and choose jobs that fit and that you enjoy. If you like to write, pick up some work in that field. You could also run errands, design websites, fix computers, or pet sit. Just make sure to schedule your side gigs so that they don’t interfere too much with your music.
Earn Money With Music
You can turn your love for music into a money-making business. Creatively monetize your music and keep your website up-to-date, but also set up your own company and be open to non-music side gigs. Just don’t give up on your dreams. Visit The Blogging Musician for more ideas.
By Elijah Dawson
