Generating Income With Music

By Paul Zollo

“Do you know what the secret is to being a professional musician? Get paid for playing music.”- Duckmandu

Teaching

Private Lessons

A great way to generate income as a musician is teaching. Not every musician is cut out to be a good teacher, though. You need a combination of virtues, including patience, energy and focus. You need to be able to communicate the fundamentals of your instrument in an accessible way to students, be they kids or adults.

• Lesson Plan
  
  For any student, it’s wise to set up in advance some kind of teaching schedule, a 9 or 12 week plan that gradually gives them more information each week while also going over previous lessons, and guiding them towards a rehearsal schedule. It’s important to gauge the potential of each student, and set up your lesson plan to fit the requirements of each student. Some will be able to learn more quickly, and others will require more time, so you have to tailor each plan to fit the needs and abilities of each student.

• Acquiring students
  
  There are several ways to acquire students — you can advertise in local papers and/or magazines and in the Yellow Pages. You can post a notice on Craig’s List. You can post flyers and/or business cards at local music stores and clubs. You can post a notice on SoundSafe.org

Teaching through a school

Often public and private schools will hire teachers to instruct their students, so that you work for the school. This is often a good arrangement as they provide the space for the lessons, you can do all the lessons in a single place, and you don’t have to spend as much of your time acquiring new students.

Teaching through a store

This is a good way to get students, as many music stores arrange lessons for students who rent and buy their instruments. Usually they will set up all the lessons for you and give you a space in their store, and like teaching in a school, this saves you the trouble of traveling to many homes.

Live Performance

By Paul Zollo

• Clubs and Concerts
  
  A club gig is a gig at a nightclub and/or restaurant/coffee shop. Depending on the size and location of the venue, pay will vary. The venues generally supply a sound system, but sometime you are required to bring your own PA.
  
  A concert gig is a gig in a theater, in which the audience is seated and there to hear the music. You can headline these or open for other bands or artists.

• Restaurant and Lounge
  
  Often restaurants and lounges or bars will want musicians to play — often this is more like background music, music for people to enjoy while they’re eating or talking or drinking.

• Corporate Gigs
  
  These are gigs for corporate events, produced by large companies for various events. Often they will have a luncheon or dinner, and some speakers, and then a musician or band for entertainment.

• Private Parties/Weddings
  
  These kind of gigs almost always require that you play covers; famous songs, not originals. A good wedding and party band will know famous songs from several decades, and good songs to dance to, so that you can appeal to all ages, from kids to old folks.

• Colleges
  
  College gigs are great because colleges often have a decent budget from which to pay musicians, and there’s a great built-in crowd. And college kids are often an enthusiastic and engaged audience.

• Street Fairs and Festivals
  
  Any kind of outdoor street fair or festival is an excellent gig for a band or artist because you have a built-in audience, so this is a great opportunity to have your music heard by a lot of new people. And outdoor gigs are often quite happy, because being outdoors and in the sunshine lifts people’s spirits. Getting decent pay for these gigs is not always easy; it depends on the location and the kind of festival. Some have bigger budgets than others. Almost all of them book far in advance, so you have to book these many months in advance. If you want to book summer gigs, start in January.

• Theatre
  
  Musical theater always needs musicians to play in their bands, and it’s a good gig as it’s regular for as long as the show lasts. The drawbacks are that you play the exact music each show, but it’s a good gig, and often the pay is not bad.

• Sideman for hire
  
  Playing in other people’s bands as a sideman is a good gig — again, like being a session player, this is about servicing the music and about being a pro. Being on time, being sober, learning the music, being easy to work with, etc. And having good chops.

• Orchestra
  
  A gig for classical musicians. A major orchestra position is a dream job if classical music is your life.

• Church gigs
  
  Musicians have regular gigs every Sunday and sometimes other nights and days performing in church bands. Often the music is quite good, as is the sound system, and the pay can often be excellent.

• Cruise Ships
  
  A great gig in that the pay is good, and you get to travel. Many musicians get to see the world by playing cruise ships.

Playing Live

By Paul Zollo

Often a band or artist needs to play live simply to generate a following, to sell CDs, to promote the music, and to generate interest from the industry. So even if you do not earn much money, playing live is often the best avenue to take to get your music out, to get heard, and to get known.

Session Playing

By Paul Zollo

A great way for a good musician to generate income; there are countless songwriters and other musicians recording their music everyday who need good musicians. Always set your rate up front — and be specific in terms of number of songs or an hourly rate. A session player is depended on to be professional; that means being punctual, being able to read music and/or chord charts, being able to come up with parts based on a producer’s or artist’s suggestions, and generally being flexible and fluid in terms of realizing the vision of the artist and/or producer. Do not let your own ego enter into this. This is a service job. You are there to service the music, not to express yourself. Do what is needed, do your best, and do what’s best for the music.

Dance Classes

By Paul Zollo

Dance classes are always in need of musicians to provide music for the dancers — often piano and keyboard players are used, sometimes drummers and guitarists.

Arranging

By Paul Zollo

If you can write music and create arrangements for live shows and for recording sessions — writing a horn chart, for example, or a string part — this is an excellent gig.

Transcribing/Writing Charts

By Paul Zollo

Many musicians are in need of someone to transcribe their songs or write their chord charts for them. This is another good reason why knowing how to read and write music pays off in the long run.

Scoring

By Paul Zollo

Movies, TV shows, cartoons and commercials need music. If you can score music, this can be a whole career in itself, and a great one. Best way to start is by scoring student films for free. Get your experience, and create something you can use as a calling card to ultimately get better scoring jobs. Also, many scorers nowadays hire assistants to write parts and arrangements and even to do some of the scoring. This is a great way to get started, as many scorers have started careers in this way, working for another more established composer.

TV/Film Getting Songs Placed

By Paul Zollo

Getting your songs placed in TV shows and movies can be a very lucrative activity for songwriters. There are music publishers who do nothing but place songs, and a songwriter can earn a lot of royalties this way. (See Performance Royalties).

Music Supervising for Film/TV

By Paul Zollo

These days, more than ever, TV and music producers are hiring musicians to be music supervisors — this means being the one who chooses songs for a film or TV show. If you know a lot about a lot of music, and are up on new music and old, and know a wide range of music, this could be viable for you.

Selling Your Music

By Paul Zollo

• CDs/Vinyl
  
  Nowadays, even without the benefit of a record deal, a songwriter-artist can sell CDs online (through CDBaby and other online record stores) and also at stores. (See DIY)

• Downloads
  
  Through iTunes and other online outlets, a musician can earn income through the downloads of songs. CDBaby will get you on iTunes and others; you can also do it yourself.

Merchandise

By Paul Zollo

The selling of music-related “merch” can be one of the most viable and profitable methods of funding a music career. In addition to selling CDs, bands and artists can sell all kinds of merch relating to the band/artist and/or CD. There are countless online merch stores that allow you to design and manufacture individualized merch, such as t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, mugs and much more. You can sell these yourself on your own website, or you can hook up with one of many online merch stores, which will display your merch; much as CDBaby displays your CD, administrates sales and shipping. You can also sell merch at your shows, and so many solo artists and bands have said that they make their most income from merch sales. Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba spoke about the importance of merchandise: “Merch sales are what kept us going. Even now, we’re still not making our living from playing the shows. Merch is where we make our profit.” John Mayer John Mayer said, “You’re not making that much money off records anymore, so until people can figure out how to make a re-writable Hanes Beefy-T, merch is one of the last bastions of individuality, commerce and style that an artist has left.”

Echoing those sentiments, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls told NPR, “We make almost no money off our recordings themselves.” To earn a steady income, The Dresden Dolls can take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the ‘merch table’ a major source of income when they’re on the road.

There are many online merch stores – One of the best, most ethical and easy to use is www.cafepress.com. Like CDBaby, cafepress and other websites makes designing and selling merch easy, even for musicians. They give you a free online shop to promote your products, they produce each item when ordered, they handle all payment transactions, they ship your products worldwide, they manage all returns and exchanges, they offer customer service toll-free and via email, and best of all they send you a monthly check for sales.

Royalties

By Paul Zollo

There are essentially two kinds of royalties a songwriter and/or performer can earn from music. There are:

• Performance Royalties
  
  Performance Royalties are those royalties paid every time your music is performed. This includes when your music is broadcast in any media- be it radio, TV, etc., when it is downloaded, and even when it’s performed in a club. (Additional Info here: Manage Your Money-The Business of Music)

• Performance Rights
  
  Performance Rights are the rights granted under the U.S. Copyright Act to owners of musical works to perform the song in public. The Performance Royalties are those royalties collected by a performing rights organization when a song is performed in live performance, or via the various broadcast media. (Additional Info here: Manage Your Money-The Business of Music)

Record Deal

By Paul Zollo

In the past, unless a recording artist was signed to a recording company, it was pretty much impossible for that artist to record and distribute their music. Since the advent of the internet, the distribution of digital music, and in addition to the prevalence of reasonably-priced recording software (such as Pro-Tools) and hardware (such as the Boss Digital Recording Studios), artists now have the option of recording and releasing their own music. An established record company will have distribution, and a budget that will cover recording, promotion and advertising. However, those expenses are usually deducted from an artists’ royalties, so that it can be a challenge for an artist to earn sufficient income from mechanical royalties alone. (For the difference between performance and mechanical royalties, see LINK) Recording artists are conventionally given an advance on royalties; a lump sum that will eventually be deducted from future royalties.

If an artist records and releases their own music, they have total creative and financial control of their music.

Music Journalism

By Paul Zollo

Nobody knows more about music than musicians. If you are an enthusiastic lover of all kinds of music, and you can write about it, music journalism is a viable path for you. You can do record reviews, as well as articles about musicians and interviews. To get started, do reviews for any newspaper or magazine or website you can. Anything to get started, get experience, and get bylines. You can’t get work in this field unless you have something to show. So work for free at first. It’s worth it, to learn how best to write about music, and to get good at it. Like playing an instrument, it takes practice.

Techs/Roadies

By Paul Zollo

This is another good gig for a musician. If you are good at dealing with gear, or the care and feeding of certain instruments such as guitars and basses or drums, being a tech or roadie is a good way to go. It’s decent work, often affords you an opportunity to travel, and it’s often the next best thing to being out onstage or on tour yourself.

Artist in Residency Programs

By Jean Spinosa

A residency program can last anywhere from two weeks, to six months, to a year depending on the program. Each artist in residency program is different with different qualifications, application process, terms, and requirements. Therefore researching to find a program to apply for that fits your project well is key.

An artist in residency program is a great option for an artist who has a specific music project. For example, let us say you are a musician/composer and you have been asked to create a piece to be performed at Carnegie Hall in 6 months. This does happen. You need a peaceful and productive environment with a piano to write this piece and an artist in residency program is exactly what you need.

In the Bay Area, Montalvo Arts Center has an excellent Residency Program. Please see their website for reference on protocol.

“In October 2004, Montalvo opened the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Programs, replacing the original artists residency program created in 1939. The $10.5 million facilities, designed by six teams of artists and architects, is comprised of 10 discipline-specific live/work studios and one commons building. The Lucas Artists Programs offer facilities and staff supportive of the creative process, state-of-the-art technology and an environment conducive to both individual practice and the energetic exchange of ideas among international and culturally diverse fellows.”