Are you a musician? Have you had trouble starting your career and making an income? Consider ways you can make money online as a musician.
It may sound crazy, but you can make money from home. You don’t have to worry about risking your health just to teach or perform. So consider a few ways you can earn a living from your computer.
But first, this post contains affiliate links. Click here for my full disclosure policy.
Do What You’re Good At
One of the best ways to make money online is to do something you’re naturally good at. You can choose something related to music or something different. Then, you can look for online or remote jobs to get started.
You can also look for clients or customers, depending on the thing you want to start. If you want to offer lessons, for example, you can start on a lesson platform that helps you find students. Or you can start your own website and get students that way.
Whatever it is, make sure you also enjoy the thing. If you want to make money online, it can take a while before you see significant results. So be willing to put in the time to make your thing grow.
Create Your Own Thing
If you can’t get an online job, or working through a sort of platform doesn’t make sense, you can start your own online freelance business. You can set up a website and sell your products or services.
Then, you can have control over who you work with, what you offer, and when you work. That can be an amazing option if you already have a busy schedule with school or a non-online career.
While starting from scratch can be difficult, it can be a great choice for the long-term. You won’t have to worry about a platform taking a cut of your profits, so you can make more money once you get going.
Diversify Your Income Streams
After you get one income stream going, you can add more. If you want to do multiple things, you don’t have to choose just one. That way, you can enjoy all of your interests and make money online from them.
However, add one income stream at a time. If you try to add them all at once, it can be hard to focus on building that stream to be consistent.
So write out all of the income streams you want. Then, determine which one you want to start with and what order to add the others in.
Ways to Make Money Online as a Musician
If you don’t have any ideas for how to make money online as a musician, you’re not alone. Traditionally, music was something that you had to do in-person.
But the pandemic has taught a lot of us that there are more possibilities. Consider a few ways you can make money online as a musician.
Give Online Lessons
The most obvious option is to take your private lessons and move them online. Not only is this safer during a pandemic, but it can be more convenient and more accessible.
You and your students don’t have to worry about traveling to work with each other. If you live somewhere with a lot of bad weather or you live in a rural area, you can still teach and find more students.
While online lessons can seem harder, they can be effective. You just have to change your teaching style to fit the student and the environment.
Create an Online Course
If you don’t want to teach live, private lessons, you can create an online course. Now, this one can take a lot of work upfront, and you aren’t guaranteed to make money. So before you create the course, survey your ideal students to see what they need.
You can target your course at music students or other advanced/professional musicians. And if you don’t want to create the course before selling it, you can launch it live the first time and give lessons as you go.
If creating a course is overwhelming, you can also create other digital downloads. Then, you can still teach what you know, but you don’t have to worry about recording or editing video.
Upload Recordings
If you’re really good at playing your instrument, you can sell recordings. You can use a website like BandCamp to offer your recordings for download. Or you can also try to get streams on Spotify.
If you play the piano, you can also record accompaniment tracks. Then, you can sell those to teachers and students who need to practice with a pianist but can’t do so in-person.
Either way, you should make sure to get good quality audio equipment. That way, you can produce professional recordings from home.
Sell Sheet Music
If you like composing, you can also sell sheet music. You can focus on selling sheet music for a particular instrumentation, so you can build an audience who needs that music.
Whether you want to sell music on your website or a site like Sheet Music Plus, you can make money from creating original compositions or arrangements.
This is one of my favorite ways to make money because you can create the music once. If you sell digital files, you won’t have to deal with shipping and handling, so it can be pretty easy to make money online from your sheet music.
Get a Brand Partnership
If you have a significant following on social media, you can partner with brands to do sponsored posts. You can pitch yourself to relevant brands, and you can form relationships with those companies.
Make sure you choose companies you like as well. As a flutist, it wouldn’t make sense for me to partner with a company that sells strings.
If a brand approaches you that you haven’t tried, ask for a trial period. That way, you can make sure you like their products or services. And then, you won’t have to lie to your audience.
Manage Social Media
Perhaps you don’t want to do brand partnerships but you do have a handle on social media. You could offer social media management services to other musicians or companies.
In the world of social media, being able to engage with your audience is essential to growth. People and companies know this, but if they’re busy, they may not be able to do this engagement themselves.
You can find musicians or companies that are on social media but could use some help. Then, you can pitch your services to those people. You may just land some social media management clients.
Become a Virtual Assistant
If you aren’t great at social media but are good at writing emails, scheduling appointments, or managing your finances, you can work as a virtual assistant. You can find virtual assistant jobs, but you can also pitch yourself to potential clients.
Whether you focus on musicians or a specific service to offer, you can find clients on social media or through a Google search. Then, you can start building your virtual assistant business.
Depending on the work you do, you can make your own schedule. You can even set your own rates, so you can make money online without having to work a ton of hours.
So…
Do you make money online as a musician? Do you want to? If so, check out The Busy Musician’s Planner to help balance your time working and practicing!