Income related to music

How many of you make any sort of income from music or music related things? I’m interested in what you do, how well it’s working out for you, how long it took to get it off the ground, how safe and stable you feel your revenue is, other challenges that people don’t think about? Also, whether you’re open to talking to others/coaching/mentoring to help them on a similar journey.

Any key pieces of advice or warnings you want to impart on our community?

I appreciate that for many this is a hobby and should stay that way, but for some it’s a passion that makes a lot of sense to build a business around.

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Best I’ve been payed for playing music was 120€ + delicious food.
Usually it’s free drinks/food/hosting.

I have a job that pays for my hobby and don’t care much.
The ratio of (gear cost + time spent)/(money earned with playing music and time on stage) is vertiginously high.

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LOL … reminds me on this saying of a friend:

  • a real musician comes with a 5000 bucks instruments to the gig
  • drives in 500 bucks car
  • 500 km to the gig
  • and performs for 100 bucks, free drinks, and food
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Be careful what you sign.

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I used to make a meager living as a musician. It was a constant hustle. I gigged (my music, in bands/ensembles, weddings), licensed music, played sessions, taught lessons, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. It wasn’t sustainable for me. But I’ll die knowing I gave it a shot.

Not sure I’d give it a shot today. Streaming income is a joke. And I don’t want to be an influencer.

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Sometimes there are snacks or pizza at a jam session.

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If you are interested in music as means of income, I strongly recommend reading “Everything You Need To Know About The Music Business” by Donald S. Passman. It’s an industry “bible” for a reason.

As for myself, I had a choice to make music my day job about 20 years ago, and made the decision to stick to audio work only. Felt like I want music to be something I have fun with after work. But I can understand if others want to pursue it as a job

good luck!

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Does reselling gear count? I do that sometimes, since I tend to stumble upon great deals. I once bought a Tascam 424 mk2 for like $30 only to resell it for $250.

Other than that, no, music is a money sink for me.

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i made a few quid dj’ing in the 90’s, enough to pay for new records. jungle, electronica and that.

as soon as I gave it up n started writing tunes I made no more money :joy:

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funny that, DJing pays just enough to afford new 12"s for the next gig. Making music is only marginally worse

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the amount of money most of us would have to earn to break even musically is probably shocking :grin:

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A wise person once said that you should try every other way to make money than via art. If you absolutely cannot find another way to earn an income then you must bust your ass and take what you can get from your art.

The main exception to this is if you have solid musical skills, absolutely insane personal charisma and are somewhere between your teens and early 20s or relate extremely well to people in that age group.

I think the sum total of my music related earnings are two espresso and a beer.

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sooooo… you say for 2 espresso and 2 beer you’ll play at my weeding? :smiley:

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As far as advice goes; always have a kill fee in your contract. People will try and pull out last minute and screw you for money if you don’t. I got screwed out of £600 on a project because i had to learn this the hard way.
As for work, I used to do commission work, bits of corporate sync stuff, but that never came back after the pandemic. Then I was working for student and small individual projects, and I’ve had nothing in about 7 months, and I’m putting that down to AI.
As the moment I’m making nothing of my music cos i can’t compete. I can’t accept a commission for less than a £1000, that might sound a lot, but that works out as £12.50 if im doing 8 hours a day for a 2 week project… I’m on £13.20 an hour at my side gig for tesco. So yeah…

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I do live from music since almost 6 years if I’m correct.
I make an ok living and it’s stable enough over a year that it’s not scary (even tho I have a second kid coming). So far also it’s been getting better every year, just a tiny bit but enought to be happy about hahaha. I think i’m at around 1500 euros per month.
What I do is:

  • Main job is mastering and mixing from home.
  • Second main job is teaching modular synths in a pro teaching facilty in Lyon 6 weeks a year.
  • Then there is the Youtube channel and all the video related stuff like Patreon / commissioned work for Schlappi Engineering. I also get TONS of free gear from this which save a lot of GAS money hahaha.
  • Then the shows, not very regular but I get paid good now that i’m considered as a bit of a Breakcore dinosaur hahaha.

EDIT: I’ll add that i LOVE IT even tho if you look at the amount of work this all is none would do it if it was not a passion first hahaha.

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If it’s a weeding, I’ll be happy to jam if the herb is good. If it’s a wedding and you want to hire me, well then you just turned it in to your funeral. :rofl:

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99.9% of people making a wage from music are not doing what it is they really want to be doing in/with music… so prepare for that.

Working in music is not that hard… making a living from what you truly love and want to do with music is.

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It should also be noted that many ‘big names’ people revere don’t make a living from music. They have ‘proper’ jobs to pay the bills, but never really bring it up in interviews. That and the fact that any kind of career in music is likely to be incredibly short-lived.

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Yep. I have been shocked several times throughout the years when learning that several musicians I idolized had day jobs to pay the bills. That’s probably why some of them have been around for 15-20+ years and consistently put out great music. They aren’t stressed about money, or in debt, or have to sell out and do something they don’t want to really do in order to keep a roof over their heads.

No shame in having a nice paying day job. I think it can free artists up to make the music they want with no compromises.

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We want names now