Creating Income with Your Original Music

My mom had a cousin, Bob. On some holidays we’d go over to his house, where I spent a lot of time playing foosball with the other kids in the basement. One year I remember him saying something about “multiple streams of income” and for some reason that term stuck with me. Like any kid who sees his extended family only a couple times a year, and all at once to dilute the one on one time with any individual, I never really got to talk to him about what he meant. All I really knew was that he taught some college courses and directed plays at a community theater. But I also knew he was a pretty smart guy, and there was more to that statement. He knew something I felt like I needed to know.

Bob died from cancer a few years ago. I never really got to talk to him about creating multiple streams of income, but overhearing those few words and the fact they stuck with me, makes me feel like I owe him some thanks. As I’ve thought about my future as a musician, I now understand that in order to be financially secure I need to embrace the idea of multiple revenue streams. This article is dedicated to Bob.

As this site will demonstrate, there are many ways a musician can make a living. Some of the more obvious options (at least, obvious to me) include teaching private lessons, teaching through a school, store, or program for children, corporate gigs, cruise ship gigs, musical theater gigs, playing in a wedding band or some other sort of cover band, and accompanist work at churches or simply being hired by successful musicians that need a back up band.

The biggest misconception is that you are supposed to do just one of these things to make all or most of your money. Perhaps this is ingrained in our minds because as a society we look at successful individuals and use labels to describe what they do professionally. “She’s a successful lawyer” or “He’s an eminent professor”. And of course we narrow this down with specialties, such as criminal law or American literature, so that we know these individuals dedicate themselves to specific topics within their field. So it makes perfect sense to get the impression that a successful musician must be really good at doing one, specific musical skill. In reality, success involves the complete opposite.

Doug Ross, on his blog Sound Music Sound Money wrote a great post about diversifying your income. He offers several ideas for creating multiple sources of revenue. Sometimes diversification might take the instrument out of your hands. That’s ok! As a musician, you have a varied skill set, and can probably use your highly trained ears in the studio behind a mixing board, or your notation chops to copy or arrange others’ music.

One way I create extra revenue is through production consulting. I learned a lot at my record label job, and you can take the guitarist out of the office but you can’t take the office out of the guitarist. Or something along those lines. The point is, just because it doesn’t involve playing music doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it. I still get to work from home, and there’s usually a guitar in my lap. Think about your skill set and find ways to use that to your advantage.

Teaching private lessons is another easy way to make some money, if you’re a good teacher. I don’t have many students, but I don’t want many. If I can dedicate one afternoon a week to a few lessons, I can pay a few bills. The trick with teaching is getting your curriculum together. Some people just aren’t cut out to teach because they have trouble breaking down the complex ideas needed to learn an instrument. I had my first guitar student when I was 14, and over time figured out how to adapt my lesson plan to different types of students. I have no aspirations to be a teacher, but it’s a nice supplement to my income.

Now, let’s talk about one potential revenue stream that’s absent from my “obvious” list above.

Creating income with your original music

Ultimately, I think everyone gets into this music racket with some dream of performing in front of adoring fans, all singing along to the songs you wrote, and then going out to buy all of your albums. Well, even if you never get to crowd surf, you can still make some honest money with your own music. Despite the advice of a handful of vocal music industry pundits, the money is not in touring or gigs. Licensing for TV & film can generate some income, but it’s much easier said than done. Maybe you can make some money off merch, but let’s face it, we’re not making music to support a line of clothing. So how do you do it?

There are two keys to generating a steady flow of money from your original music:

1) Build your catalog. Major labels are surviving the massive decline in CD sales because of their huge catalogs, not their current roster. This is all part of the Long Tail theory of economics, which basically says the money is in selling less of more. In many ways, I’m like a very tiny label that owns my own catalog of assets. Thanks to the digital download scene, my inventory is limitless and I can continue to sell these assets with a very low overhead, plus my profit margins are relatively high.

To sideline for a moment, if you’re offended by the the idea of your opus being called an asset, take a deep breath and get over it. That’s exactly how anybody that would help your career would think about it, so if you want to do this on your own, you’ll be much more comfortable separating the two. While you’re writing, recording, and performing, music is your art. Once it’s packaged for consumption, it’s your ticket to one day waking up at noon every day and playing music in your flannel pants all afternoon before rehearsal or your gig. I speak from experience, and the water is oh so fine.

Back to your assets. Just like an investment portfolio, your catalog should be diverse and include several artist brands. Note that I use the term brand instead of band. A brand is an label to identify the sound of the music. A band is simply the entity that creates that music. You may be in several rock bands that have different members, but the music fits together. Put them all on a bill one night and it would make sense. All those bands are part of the same brand. However, if you have a jazz quartet, a folk duo, and an indie rock band, you want to distinguish them as separate brands.

I have a couple albums under my own name, and I’ll continue to write, perform, and record my original jazz/funk/whatever music under my own name as long as it fits the brand. However, most of the music I’ve recorded is sold under other brands. I have a covers album recorded with a vocalist friend, and a few other instrumental niche oriented albums recorded with some other musician buddies. Perhaps ironically, the music that creates the most revenue is not that sold under my name. Of course, I created these other brands to be more commercially viable and help support the Cameron Mizell brand.

There are many reasons for creating these other brands. For starters, it’s best to strengthen your original brand before you expand it. For example, John Mayer’s first few albums were pretty much straight ahead pop music. Guy with guitar sings songs. Then all of a sudden he records a blues album. Had he done this earlier in his career, I guarantee his label would have pulled the plug on that idea. Not only is blues far less marketable than his pop/rock music, it’s a different fan base. Since he released his blues album after building a huge following with a strong brand as a singer/songwriter, many of his fans actually gave it a shot, and embraced the album. It even created a stir about whether the same tall skinny white kid that released Room For Squares could play the blues authentically.

Most of us probably won’t be John Mayer, so that example could be easily dismissed. Lately, when I’m talking to somebody about the other music I make, I use this metaphor:

Large wineries always have a top shelf name brand. These are their higher priced wines, and what they usually build their reputations upon. However, they also sell wine under other other less expensive brand names. These other wines are made from the same crops of grapes, but perhaps the conditions for part of the crop wasn’t ideal. To maintain the quality of their name brand, the winery chooses to exclude those grapes from their signature product. But instead of just throwing the rest of the crop away, they sell it under a different label. Then people like me who are perfectly happy with a $10 bottle of wine can still give them money.

This isn’t to say that you should release all your crappy songs under a psuedonym. What it means is you should take stock of what you can do well as a musician, and use it all.

2) Give your music context. To sell anything now a days, people need to know why they’re buying it and how they’ll use it. Music is no different. The great thing about music is that people can consume enourmous amounts over and over again, which nearly eliminates competition.

To start giving your music context, I suggest comparing yourself to similar but better known artists. Even on the crazy chance that everybody tells you your music is completely unique, figure out a combination of artists that will help people that have never heard you triangulate some idea of sound in their head. “Bjork/Springsteen/Prince” or “Jessica Simpson with her hand caught in the garbage disposal meets Tchaikovsky”. Look, if you’re creative enough to make the music, you’re creative enough to do some marketing, just step away from the artist’s ego for a few minutes and invite people to try something new.

Next, I’d come up with a list of anything that goes well with your music–activities, food, seasons, jobs, whatever. Music, for most people most of the time, background noise. Ouch, I said it. That’s not to say they don’t love their music, it’s just that they don’t have the attention span to actually digest every note you play, every nuance in your vocal performance, and all the irony in your lyrics. They just dig the melodies and the beat and it keeps them going while they [insert activity here]. See what I mean? Tell them what to do when they listen to your music.

The most successful method of introducing your music to new listeners through context is with playlists, and the playlist most conducive to selling is the iMix. To read more about this, see my article, How To Effectively Promote and Sell Your Music on iTunes.

Over time, combining these two key elements will give your catalog a lasting value. I especially believe that creating niche oriented music might be the secret to long term success. Recorded music sales are on the decline. A dramatic decline. Independent artists can generally make more money off individual sales, so we don’t have to sell as much to see a decent income. Because of this, my sales have been holding pretty steady, if not steadily showing increases. But someday this stream of revenue might dry up–whether it’s because prices drop or people don’t have to buy it anymore, I’m counting on a change to take place.

A diverse catalog of original music will prepare you for that change because the diversity creates a wide net to catch future opportunities. What opportunities? I can’t say for sure. Licensing, as elusive as it is now, will likely always be a possibility. A large catalog also creates more composer/publishing opportunities (think about people covering your songs). There will undoubtably be new opportunities created 5 years from now that we can’t yet imagine, like the music your hologram TV will play when you get a space call from your buddy on Mars. How are we to know? We’re not technologists! But as independent artists, we are flexible and can take these changes in stride, adjust our revenue streams, and keep making music. Bring on the change!

How do you make money with your original music? Share your ideas in the forum.