How to Make Money as a Musician

Mar 6

Spoiler alert: this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. And for those of you who are business-savvy, this may sound obvious. For everyone else, here is my spiel about how to make money as a musician, aka what they didn’t teach me in music school.

Unfortunately, the Conservatory didn’t have much to say about making a living doing the thing we were all there to study. There was one class in which we learned about writing grant proposals and press releases, but I have yet to do either of those things (and I don’t know anyone making bank by applying for grants).

If I could go back to that “music business” class and tell my twenty-year-old self how to earn a decent living making music, here’s what I’d say:

Think of yourself a little less like an artist and a little more like an entrepreneur. Don’t just study music; learn about business, and accept that you’re the CEO of [Your Name] Inc.

Actually, you’re the entire C-Suite…

You’re the Chief Revenue Officer. You head up the sales and marketing department. Learn how to brand and market yourself. Learn how to sell what you do to venues, audiences, and fans.

You’re the Chief Financial Officer. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of micro and macroeconomics, but you’ve got to understand fundamentals like profit and loss, opportunity cost, tax write-offs, etc.

You’re the Chief Technology Officer. No, we’re not talking about developing software here, but the CTO typically oversees Research and Development, and in the music world, that pretty much sums up all the stuff that you make, i.e., your art.

The big takeaway here is that musicians should think of themselves as entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs should think of themselves as an amalgamation of C-Suite officers.

Sure, it’d be great to only focus on practicing and playing music. In truth, there’s a time and a place for that type of tunnel vision in order to hone one’s craft.

But eventually, you’ll need to develop the skills of a businessperson. Otherwise, you’ll end up just another undiscovered starving artist, no matter how good your chops are.

Sorry, that was dark.

Last thing: “making a living” and “being successful” can mean very different things to different people, so if you’re cool with “just getting by” if that means focusing more on music and less on business, I’m all for it!

But if you want more work and better paying work, heed the advice above. And if you’d like more content like this going forward, let me know. Today’s email was a high-level overview of my approach, and we can certainly go deeper.

That’s all for now. Happy shedding!

Jeff

P.S. It goes without saying that if your music sucks, business skills aren’t gonna do much for your music career. So, don’t forget to keep practicing your craft while studying the immutable laws of marketing.

Here are some music resources to keep you busy:

Jeff Schneider

How to Make Money as a Musician

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