Sell Sheet Music to your Songs online: How to turn notes into dollars

Artists who write their own songs can earn income and connect with fans by selling their sheet music online and at gigs. While music transcription skills are helpful, there’s now music transcription AI that can help. Either way, this guide will help turn those notes into dollars.

by Julia Kater of Bandzoogle

Selling sheet music is a great option to make money from your music, and allows you to reach an audience anywhere in the world. You can start with just one composition, working on generating a steady income stream by selling it multiple times. 

It’s no secret: the best place to sell your sheet music online is your own music website. This way, you don’t lose a commission on any of your sales, and you can promote your sheet music to your fans directly.

Do people make money selling sheet music online? Yes, absolutely! Here are some ideas to get you started.

How to sell sheet music

It’s easier than ever to offer sheet music to your website visitors. The first thing to do to start selling your sheet music online is to create a website page dedicated to your music. Make sure you have a clean copy of your sheet music in PDF format. 

Whether you’re a jazz artist, a composer, or a music educator, your sheet music store should be well-organized, and reflect your brand. 

Next, create a page for your sheet music store that’s simple to browse and easy to shop. Add a Store feature to set up your sheet music e-commerce. In this store you can add your files as downloads, to be sent automatically to your customer once their payment clears. 

From here, you’ll want to add as much of your sheet music as you have on hand. Keep the page design in mind, so that it remains clean and uncluttered. If you have other items you’d like to sell, group your sheet music together in a section to be sure that your store is easy to browse.

Make your sheet music store stand out

Your sheet music store will serve as a reflection of your work, so you’ll want to be sure that it’s organized. The look and layout of your online store should appeal to anyone looking to buy your sheet music, at first glance.

Add your sheet music as separate products in your online store, with a description and image for each one. If you have lots of sheet music to sell, use a grid layout to allow for more products displaying on the page at once.

To make your online store look great, pair a simple font with a high contrast background. This will help draw attention to each item, and give the page a clean, modern look. You can also place your store into sections if you’ve got many songbooks or scores to sell.

Sheet music store example: Paul Cardall

Sell different types of sheet music

The best way to sell your sheet music online is by creating a PDF file. You can add different versions for your customers when you create these files – say, for a variety of instruments. 

Starting out, try adding single songs on their own. Then offer full songbooks as well. These could be a compilation of songs from your last album, or arrangements that flow well together as a series (think traditional folk songs, holiday tunes, or hymns), or songs around a specific theme.

Once you see what your website visitors gravitate towards purchasing, you can create more of the same type of sheet music to increase your sales.

Sell sheet music in multiple ways

Like many composers, you might perform your own music as well. You can add a music player to the page, so people can hear samples of how the songs sound. To sell your sheet music, one option is to sell the track plus PDF file directly from your music player.

You could also sell your digital album, or single, through a Music feature, and include the music in PDF format so that your customer will get both at once when you make a sale.

If you’re scoring songs to go with your latest release, you could set up product bundles that include your sheet music with merch.  This works well if you are bundling related items – for example, a T-shirt with cover art plus a transcription of one of your tracks. 

Create these bundles with your products and do include a streaming music player for your customers to listen to while they browse options,  to create a listening experience on the page.

Sheet music store example: Amy Lauren 

Sell your music composition services

Thinking about generating more money through your music in a creative way? If you’re a composer or arranger, sell your services to people looking to have their music transcribed. This could be artists wanting to create sheet music for their own songs, arrangements for music ministries, or piano and vocal scores for music teachers. 

To further advertise your ability to arrange music or help compile scores, create a music composer website that showcases work you’ve done in the past. This can help you book more work, and generate more money from your skills.

Sheet music store example: Phil Driscoll

Promote your sheet music sales to your fans

Your own website is the best place to make a musical impression on your fans. From there, you can promote yourself, and your sheet music, far and wide across the internet.

On your homepage, you can add a call-to-action that directs your website visitors to check out your latest sheet music for sale. You can also include a link to your sheet music store in your news feed, or in a blog post announcing your new music release. 

Be sure to include links to your sheet music files in multiple places on your website – that way your site visitors are sure to see them, and click through to see what you have on offer.

Promote your sheet music store to your social networks as well, adding a link pointing to your website where your friends and fans can browse and buy your music.

When you sell your sheet music through your own website, you should be collecting your customers’ email addresses. Your mailing list is the best way to keep in touch with fans that have supported you by purchasing your music. This way you can keep track and connect with them when you release new music, or create more sheet music for sale.

Sheet music store example: Emilio Teubal

Selling your sheet music online is a great way to make extra money with your music. Whether it’s versions of your own original compositions, or arrangements, a few pieces of music can go a long way in generating income.