The New Realities of Life as a Full-Time Musician

Discover the real challenges and rewards of life as a full-time musician, and what it truly takes to turn your passion into a sustainable career…

The New Realities of Life as a Full-Time Musician

by Caleb J Murphy from Bandzoogle

“No one in music does just one thing,” according to music producer Shane Lance. “…They’re doing auxiliary jobs, whether in or outside of the music industry to stay alive.”

It’s true. If you’re going to pursue music as your career, you probably won’t be able to do just music. You’ll probably have to work a “real” job for a long time until your career becomes sustainable. And even then you may have to pick up odd jobs here and there.

For example, I’m technically a full-time musician, but that involves writing about being a musician, editing podcasts, and doing whatever I can to stay self-employed. Some months, it’s not pretty. But I’m determined, and my career is growing.

This is the reality of being a full-time musician in the modern music industry: you do whatever you have to for your dreams.

Most musicians don’t want it bad enough (and that’s okay)

Being a full-time musician is kind of like starting and running a small business. You create the thing, promote and market the thing, do the finance stuff, do all the business-y stuff.

The thing is, most musicians don’t want to run a small business. And that’s fine. If you want music to be your hobby, that’s totally okay and you should enjoy making the best art you can make.

But if you want to be a full-time musician, you need to make the best art you can make and also be ready to run a small business.

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Don’t just take my word for it. Full-time indie artist Nic D wrote a book called You Don’t Want It Bad Enough. In it, he’s blunt about the reality of being a career musician:

“If you want to make a living making music you have to think and operate like a business,” he writes.

“The moment I made the decision to make music my career, I became a small business and I had to think like a business owner,” he continues. “If you’re an independent artist and you want to make money from your music, you have to think of yourself as a business owner and you have to move like a business would.”

He goes on to list examples of things you need to do as an indie musician and business owner:

• Creating the music
• Marketing the music
• Accountant
• Social media management
• Content creation
• Video editing
• Graphic design
• Customer service representative
• Packing and shipping merchandise
• And much more…

Because of this, you have to be a self-starter. You have to be driven. As indie rapper Russ says, you have to be delusional to believe you can do music full-time. Not in a bad way – it’s more about confidence and self-belief than blind optimism.

To succeed, you must believe it can happen and truly want it. And you have to be willing to never quit.

“The only way to mitigate not being successful is to not quit,” says actor and comedian Seth Rogan. “If you don’t quit, you might make it.”

So you’ll have to ask yourself, “Do I want this badly enough? Am I willing to work auxiliary ‘real’ jobs in my pursuit of a music career? Can I keep doing this long-term?” And you have to be honest with yourself.

“Most of you, no matter how much you talk about what you want out of life, that’s all you’ll ever do. Talk about it,” writes Nic D. “You think you want it, but you don’t, and that’s ok, as long as you’re honest with yourself about it.”

How to diversify your income streams

So where does this leave us? The main message here is: you may not make all of your money from music, but if you want it badly enough, you’ll keep pushing forward.

The key is to diversify your income streams. How do you do that? Well, to keep things simple, you’ll want to find three streams of income. Here’s why you should focus on three…

Thomas C. Corley, author of Change Your Habits, Change Your Life, spent five years studying millionaires. And he found that three income streams “seemed to be the magic number.”

He found that 65% of the millionaires he studied had at least three income streams “prior to making their first million dollars.” He added that “the more income streams you can create in life, the more secure your financial house will be and the more wealth you will create.”

And these millionaires “built their businesses while employed full-time. If they can do it, so can you.”

Now, I’m not trying to be a millionaire and you probably aren’t either. Yeah, it would be nice, but I just want to make a sustainable living as a musician. And if you want a sustainable career in something, it’s best to listen to financially successful people.

The idea here is to focus on growing three income streams, even if you currently have less or more than that.

For example, as a full-time musician, here are my income streams:

• Writing about being a musician (like this post)
• Producing and mixing other artists
• Sync licensing and the subsequent royalties
• Streaming royalties
• Occasional concerts
• Editing podcasts

Even though I have several income streams, the three I’m focusing on growing are 1) producing/mixing other artists, 2) sync licensing (totally passive), and 3) being an artist (which includes streaming, patronage, and the occasional concert).

And even Nic D has several income streams:

• YouTube AdSense
• Merch
• Patronage
• Streaming
• His book
• His podcast
• Publishing royalties

Common income streams for musicians

Now let’s look at some common types of musicians as well as how they each can make money. These examples might apply to you:

Singer-songwriter / Composer

• Licensing your music
• Learn how to compose music for film
• Write songs for performing artists

Producer / Mixing Engineer

• Work with other musicians to produce music
• Create and sell beats online

Performing Artist

• Play live shows, locally
• Tour under your name or with another band
• Play corporate gigs (weddings, private parties, etc)
• Become a DJ

Instrumentalist

• Become a session musician
• Teach music lessons
• Create an online course or lessons around your instrument

For more, check out 18 ways musicians can make money, and choose the three most attainable streams of income for you – then focus on growing those.

It’s okay to work a “real” job

Most full-time musicians rely on income streams besides the flashy, “cool” ones, like touring or streaming or merch. Sometimes they need to work a “real” job, and sometimes they may do other things related to music.

So it’s okay if you have to do that too. You’re determined to grow your music career. You’re not failing if you have to pick up extra shifts as wait staff or mow people’s lawns. You’re still a musician who has the guts to pursue your dreams.

Caleb J. Murphy is a singer/songwriter whose music has been on NBC, ABC, and in hundreds of indie film projects. He also sends a twice-monthly email to indie musicians called 5 Things To Help You Keep Going.