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Knowing what opportunities exist and how to build a strategy of consistent action to profit from many streams of income is the key to creating the important basis to pursue your dreams.
Making money in the music business can be difficult, but it’s not impossible, and many musicians and producers are doing so without being well-known or having singles that reach the Billboard charts. In this article, we’ll talk about a few techniques to become a successful artist and how you can join them to also make money as an artist. We’d highlight some of the ways to make money as a music artist here:
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Creating Merchandise to Sell
An essential means of making money as a rising musician is by selling your products. If you know where to find materials, creating merchandise can be rather cheap. Additionally, if you make money from selling merchandise at your live performances or concerts, it can be an amazing method to pay for venue rental or event travel fees. You’re not required to only sell clothes items in your merchandise line. It can include a wide variety of goods, such as posters, bottle openers, phone covers, mugs, and more.
Having a range of products available might assist you to establish higher and lower level price points for your merchandise. If you’re a musician who is great at using social media or who has accumulated a devoted following over time, you should consider monetizing this group of people by persuading them to buy your merchandise (hats, t-shirts, and customized goods). If you’re confused about what to sell, make a questionnaire and examine the outcomes to find out.
So when should you make merchandising investments and consider it as one of the ways to make money as a music artist?
When you start to build a fan base and play frequent shows or concerts, you should start to invest in it because this is when you’ll sell the majority of your products. However, as one of the several ways to make money as a music artist, you can also sell online through your website or an already-established online store like Jumia, Konga, or even Amazon. Just keep in mind to have your business hat on when it comes to merchandise sales. Watch your sales volumes and keep track of payments to ensure that you always have a supply of the crowd-pleasers for the upcoming big concert.
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Earn Money by Performing at Shows
For musicians, live performances and concerts are major sources of income. There are several potential revenue streams that you can acquire by performing a live concert; sales of tickets, Payment from the promoter or venue owner (if it’s a paid performance). You can start charging people for tickets to see you play when you’ve started to establish yourself and are getting regular shows and events to perform at, whether as the opening act or the main headliner.
Additionally, if you’re a group or band, you’ll need to agree on how the revenue will be split, ideally before the actual concert, if you have a supporting act like a hypeman. It’s crucial to consider any potential costs that could be weighed against you as the live artist, such as venue rental fees or deposits, catering costs, or marketing expenses. Therefore, be sure to shop around to get the venue that offers the most value for your money.
Live music performances are one of the most interesting methods for musicians to make money, from local shows in your community to international concerts. In other words, you don’t need a successful song to master stage performance. So keep an eye out for opportunities to perform at events, and even better, hire a road manager to keep the bookings coming in. This is one of the most common ways to make money as a music artist.
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Collaborate with other Brands and Musicians
We’ll talk about two aspects of these particular ways to make money as a music artist: the first is earning money from brands through ambassadorships and endorsements, and the second the ways to make money as a music artist is through song collaborations and charging a booking fee for a feature to record a verse or chorus for another artist. Let’s begin:
- Brands
Have you ever noticed one of your favorite musicians working with a certain company or product?
That is an endorsement or brand partnership agreement. The musician earns money in this capacity by endorsing a particular company or product. As a musician, you might collaborate with a variety of brands and businesses such as Liquor companies, Clothing lines, App developers, Skin care lines, etc.
If you choose to work with a brand, they will discuss how you will help them market or increase their awareness by being associated with you as an artist. This might take the form of sponsored social media posts, advertisements at your live performances, music videos, and much more.
- Collaboration with other artists
It costs a lot of money to make your favorite collaborations—and we’re not just talking about studio and production expenses.
The most lucrative method is royalties. This is the revenue generated from the selling of records and streaming services (all platforms included). Then, you or the artist you are working with must agree on a share of the royalties the song will have brought in and the promotions involved. This amount can vary significantly depending on your contract and the majority of circumstances. This percentage may rise if you or the guest performer contribute more to the song. For instance, if you take care of the chorus in addition to a verse, we will talk about a “duet” and not a “feature.” In other words, you can reasonably claim more if you put more “effort” into the song.
In music, guest verses have developed into a very lucrative industry. Most musicians charge a booking fee upfront for them to have a verse on your song. Some artists share verses among partners for free, but as one of the ways to make money as a music artist, others have exploited features as a way to cash in. This is another simple method for making money in the music business.
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Sell beats and samples
Selling beats online is a typical source of money for aspiring producers. Some makeup to eight figures(naira) a year just selling beats. If you want to sell your beats on the internet, you must first understand pricing, branding, and consistency. When you sell a beat to an artist, you sometimes also sell exclusive rights to that beat. This means that no one else will be able to use it for their music. This also is among the most lucrative ways to make money as a music artist. If you want to sell beats online, consider a structure that offers several price points for individuals to purchase your beats.
As a musician, it is always vital to have perfected the act of production or a musical instrument; if you haven’t yet, don’t worry, you can start exploring that alternative later on. Selling samples and beats as digital products would help you earn money as a producer/musician. Some producers may even make this their primary source of revenue.
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Create Your Event
Lastly, one of the ways to make money as a music artist, asides from goods sales, have you considered how your fans can give back to you? Having an event allows you to fully explore the offer of doing what you love, which is music, to your admirers while also using your industry network by partnering with other artists to perform at your event, thereby boosting the value offered to your potential audience.
Some of these approaches are quick and easy to use, while others require time to develop, but they are all within your reach. It is now entirely up to you what you do with this list and the result you produce. Nobody else can do the work for you, so get started right away!
To also know how to kick off your music career, Check this out: https://kevineze.com/things-to-know-to-start-your-music-career/
