We are all suffering; the economy is changing and shifting to a new phase. A large number of businesses are now turning their attention to doing things online. We need to lean how to make money with your music online.
For musicians around the globe, the same can be considered true. If you are affected by our current situation, then you need to find the alternatives available online for your music.
Warning! A Friendly Reminder
We won’t be talking about a quick-rich scheme here. Far from it! Remember the following before watching this entire video.
Proper Mindset
I need you to know that if something is too good to be true, it probably is not true at all. Nothing happens overnight. You are not going to sleep and wake up with lots of money raining over your head.
Commitment
You also need to commit yourself to do the things I will be sharing with you if you want to make them work. If you will start working on any of the ideas mentioned in this article, make sure to finish them and commit to it.
Offer Value
Most of the things I will be sharing will include offering your music or your music services to people. So remember always to offer the best value you can to ensure that people will patronize your craft.
Build An Audience
It is essential to build your audience online because, more likely than not, they will be the first to watch, recommend, or even purchase your music.
Now that we’ve already taken care of the warnings.
Let’s make money with your music online and let’s get going!
Publish And Sell Your Music
Music Streaming
As of 2019, Music Streaming hit a milestone of epic proportions, which is a trillion streams to close that year. People are consuming audio through online streaming more and more each year. That is something you should be taking advantage of.
Put your music online for streaming and get paid for it!
There are plenty of streaming platforms where you can submit your music. To name a few, that would be
- Apple Music
- Deezer
- Google Play
- Amazon
- Spotify
When you publish your music on these platforms, two things happen.
One is you get to publish your music into the world, and people hear it, and it builds your name as you also create an audience.Â
Two, each time someone plays or stream your music on platforms like Spotify, you earn a certain amount of money just by letting others hear your music.
Sell Your Content On iTunes
You can also make money online by publishing and selling your music on iTunes. I separated iTunes from our list of digital platforms because it’s not a streaming platform.
People buy your music here, and they get a downloadable copy straight into their phones, mobile devices, or computer.
How Do You Publish On These Stores?
So how exactly do you publish your music on these companies? Well, you can’t! You need a distribution service to do that for you. They are called aggregates, and you pay them a certain so you can publish your music in the stores we’ve mentioned.
I personally use Distrokid
You can also try CD Baby, Tunecore, Ditto Music and other known distributors online.
Sell Stock Music Online
If you are a prolific producer or songwriter and you like to produce tracks, you might want to consider selling stock music.
Audio Jungle and Envato Market
Arguably the most significant source of online stock media items like photos, web graphics, and of course, stock music.
They have a large crowd of buyers looking for a good soundtrack for their project. All you have to do is open an account as a publisher, which is free and upload the best tracks you possibly can produce.
Oh, by the way, Audio Jungle checks your work for approval, and the downside to that is they take quite a while before approving or disapproving your tracks.
On the good side, once your track has been approved, it can sell over and over again as long as people find it to their liking.
Pond 5
Another website or company that does exactly what the audio jungle and Envato does is Pond5. This is also a known source for stock music online, and if you need a place to publish your stock music, you should consider uploading your tracks here.
They also have a screening process if you want to be part of their platform.
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Open A YouTube Channel
Now let’s talk about YouTube!
I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard people earning money from publishing their music on YouTube. Well, I suggest you start creating your YouTube channel right now and start working.
Remember when I said that this doesn’t happen overnight? Because uploading videos on YouTube is only half of the story. The other half is when you need to work your ass off to be a YouTube partner.
How do you do that?
Well, YouTube needs you to have at least 1,000 subscribers and have at least 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months.
Quite a requirement, right? Well, it’s all worth it once you are in their program because ads will show on your YouTube video, and you get paid when this happens.
So my suggestion is, start working on your YouTube channel if you want to consider using this platform.
Facebook Monetization
The most prominent social media on the planet is also one of the best places where you can get some revenue with your music. But just like Youtube, you need to do some work to make this happen.
Create a Facebook page and start sharing your music or content that is valuable for your followers to consume. That can be your behind the scenes or your music videos or even tutorials.Â
You need to do so because Facebook needs you to get to 10,000 followers before you can start monetizing your videos.
So while building that 10,000 armies of followers, you can also share your links from Spotify or iTunes on to your Facebook page. This way, you can generate revenue while slowly trying to get the requirement for Facebook monetization.
You can also connect your website store using Facebook pixel if you have one.
Crowdfunding
Crowd Funding… I have to be honest with you, I have never done much crowdfunding myself, but I did a little digging. I realized that I should include this in my list of ways to earn money with our music online.
Patreon
Patreon allows your fans to support your musical endeavors by pledging a certain amount of money per month in exchange for fun things that you can offer them.
This platform is not only for musicians but for other people with exceptional talents who are creating fantastic content online.
They will take a cut on the pledges you have gathered since you are using their system to do so. Fair enough if you were to ask me.Â
Gofundme
Another crowdfunding platform you can try is Go Fund Me.
Think of it like Paypal, but more design to raise funds for a cause. It’s a secure way to generate payments through electronic means or donations. You can create a campaign to tell people what you need, set a goal of how much you hope to raise, and then describe through a story or photos why you need the money.
Teach Or Create A Course Online
Of all the ways on how you can earn money from your music online, my favorite would be teaching. Teaching can come in many ways, like offering a one-on-one lesson online. But I have a better suggestion.
Offer a course or a mini-course online. Before I tell you why it’s a better option than teaching one on one, let us first check 3 of my recommended websites on where you can sell your courses.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the most significant sources of learning materials online in the form of video instructions. If you are a music student looking for a solution to your musical frustrations, go check out udemy and find the course that matches your needs.
But if you want to publish a course about how to play guitar for beginners or how to produce music like a pro, then you can do that in Udemy.
Just check their page on how to publish your course on their website.
Skillshare
One of my personal favorites and go-to websites, when I want to learn something new, is Skillshare. Just like Udemy, you can find high-quality instructions and courses to address your desire to learn something.
You can also publish your course and help others learn while you get paid. Check out their help center if you want to start posting your excellent course on their website.
Lynda or LinkedIn Learning
The third website I’m recommending if you want to publish your teaching material is Lynda which is now also called LinkedIn Learning.
It’s the same with Udemy and Skillshare; you can find excellent courses to help you understand a topic. One good point where Lynda stands out is that they always publish high-quality video instructions on their platform.
They also have a dedicated page to instruct you on how to become a publisher on their website.
Why Create A Course Online?
First, I want to tell you that you don’t have to be an expert to start teaching others. Whatever you are good at will be more than enough to help someone learn it. Someone out there will benefit if you create a course.
That course can be how to play guitar for beginners, how to bake a cake or whatever you are good at. Any topic you decide to create will eventually make money with your music online.
Here are the reasons why you should consider building a course.
- You only need to do it once. When a course is published online, you don’t have to check and update it continually. It goes autopilot on itself.
- You can sell it over and over again. Unlike a physical product, digital products can be sold multiple times as long as people see the value of it.
- It doesn’t expire. An online course is not a fish or meat at the wet market where you have to put in a freezer, so it doesn’t spoil.
- It’s a passive income. Once your course is selling and has started to gain traction, you don’t need to monitor it 24/7. Someone can buy your course while you are asleep. It becomes an extra source of income while you are doing something else.
Start To Make Money With Your Music Online Today!
Well, there you have it, folks! We’ve covered some ideas that can help you generate funds at home while enjoying your music.
I strongly suggest you start building your online presence now. We’ve already established the fact that doing any of these things doesn’t happen overnight.
So, the best time to make money with your music online is today!
What do you think of this list? Did you think I missed something or is the list helpful? Let me know in the comments below