Indie Music

42 Ways to Make Money As An Independent Musician

Answer_to_LifeWhile often difficult, it is never entirely
impossible to make a sustainable living as a musician these days. In fact, the
Future of Music Coalition assembled a list of 42 ways that musicians can
potentially earn money in today’s music space – demonstrating the multitude of revenue
streams that today’s working musician must keep into account when venturing off
into the world as an independent musician.

SONGWRITER AND
COMPOSER REVENUE

1. Publisher Advance

2. Mechanical Royalties

3. Commissions

4 Public Performance (PRO) Royalties

5. Composing Original Works for Broadcast

6. Synch Licenses

7. Sheet Music Sales

8. Ringtones Revenue

9. ASCAPLUS Awards Program

10. Publisher Settlement

 

PERFORMER AND
RECORDING ARTIST REVENUE

11. Salary as Member of Orchestra or
Ensemble

12. Shows/Performance Fees

13. Record Label Advance

14. Record Label Support

15. Retail Sales

16. Digital Sales

17. Sales at Shows

18. Interactive Service Payments

19. Digital Performance Royalties

20. AARC Royalties

21. Neighboring Rights Royalties

22. AFM/Secondary Markets Fund

23. AFM/Sound Recording Special Payments

24. AFTRA Contingent Scale

25. Label Settlements

 

SESSION MUSICIAN
REVENUE

26. Session Musician/Sideman Fees for
Studio Work

27. Session Musician/Sideman Fees for Live
Work

28. AFM/AFTRA Payments

 

KNOWLEDGE OF
CRAFT: TEACHING AND PRODUCING

29. Music Teacher

30. Producer

31. Honoraria or Speakers Fees

 

BRAND-RELATED REVENUE

32. Merchandise Sales

33. Fan Club

34. YouTube Partner Program

35. Ad Revenue

36. Persona Licensing

37. Product Endorsements

38. Acting

 

FAN, CORPORATE
AND FOUNDATION FUNDING

39. Fan Funding

40. Sponsorship

41. Grants

 

OTHER SOURCES OF
REVENUE

42 Arts Administrator

Source: The Future of Music Coalition 

—

Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House 

admin on 11/02/2012 in Indie Music | Permalink | Comments (11)
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11 Comments

  2. wow, sheet music sales for the indie musician? are you kidding? many of these ideas are not terribly useful in the real world. hey, why not mention fiverr.com? there are tons of musicians making money there.

  3. I have been involved with several Grammy Award Winning /Nominated acts in the past 10 years. The musicians I associate with are all self employed, extremely talented and very ambitious. On several occasions I have been asked to promote them or solicit new business to fill in their off schedules. They work in and around the San antonio Area, as well as perform numerous out of town gigs throughout the country as requested. My question is one that I’m sure many might have… Should I create a DBA as a promoter and chance it on my own or should I look for a reputable promoter and gain experience

  6. Here is a 43rd way to generate revenue.
    YOu can use our special Afiliate Program to sell our electric guitar and bass instruments to your fans branded as “(your-name/artist/band) Signature Series” instruments.
    What is different about our instruments?
    They give you 76 pure analog pickup tones – all the pickup tones ever created from a single instrument. These unique instruments also give you all those headliner group guitar and bass player signature sounds.
    Shipped instruments include a website address that will teach fans how to play their instrument. We also have high-performance upgrades for most electric guitar and bass instruments.

  7. Hi. Big Chief from http://www.BigChiefEntertainment.com among many things 🙂 is a Certified Artist Developer and East Coast Coordinator for Conquer Entertainment and if you are looking to be part of a huge movement across the world, where we teach you how to become a CAD and tap into that gift you already have, give us a call.
    NOTE: DBA will allow you to learn and receive revenue if you do hook up with one since it would promote “you” on the long run, after the lessons has been learned.
    Any questions, feel free to call EST time before 10pm.

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