by Eric Salazar, Kristy Nichols and Spencer Prewitt
When you are in music school, you have a very full schedule between classes, studying, and (most importantly) practicing. Many music students live their lives on a limited budget. To make money, other musicians tell us “play more gigs!” and non-musician friends and family members say “get a day job!” While we would all love to play more gigs (and we all should), the reality might be that someone else is already getting those gigs or we may even not be ready yet for the gigging lifestyle. A day job is a great way to earn cash, but with such a full schedule, we might not have time to dedicate the amount of hours an employer needs. Music Majors have an especially sporadic schedule thanks to the added element of giving performances – a schedule that some employers can find hard to work with. With all of these factors, how are music students supposed to make money?
Last article we exploration a tried and true method for generating income while in school, teaching. We talking about some key items like how to find places to teach near you, how to find out what you should charge, and how to know your schedule. Today BuzzReed brings you an outside-the-box method that you may not have thought of.
Today: Method Two – Sell Music Online
That’s right, it is possible to generate income from music through the internet! If you have recordings that you are really proud of, you can actually independently release your own album for a relatively low expense through Digital Distribution companies like CDBaby or Tunecore. These companies will automatically place your recordings on major Music platforms like Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play. Be warned, marketing your album and actually generating sales is an involved process, but the internet offers a wealth of information on how to do this. Research and study the best methods to sell your albums. You also need to understand that selling your music is an investment. You have to put money into the process to get money out of it. This is a money maker that most people don’t think is a possibility for them, but can be a great way to earn a living if you compose your own music or are involved with side projects in other genres.
Another hugely popular resource for online Music income is YouTube. Being a YouTuber is an actual way of making a living. Make no mistake, this is another time-consuming process. In order to earn sizable income on YouTube a channel has to have hundreds of thousands of views. Like all aspects of life, if you take time to study and learn the process, this can work. Additionally, if you use the digital distribution sites listed above, there are options to get your Music included in the YouTube Creator catalogue. This means, other people will be able to use your Music for their videos, earning you income every time their videos are viewed – another option for people who compose music or record in a variety of genres.
Utilizing the internet to generate online sales of your music is an often unthought of approach to earning income. Make no mistake, you will need to invest time and money to learn how to actually make money. Just like learning scales, with enough time and effort, you can make this method work for you!
That’s all for today, we will see you next time! Our next article will talk about a more collaborative approach to earning income while still in school.
