I am available for Weddings / Bar Mitzvahs / Christenings.
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i accepted the fact that genres i like can’t generate anything deserving to be called income, thus music is a sponsored activity.
on the other hand, i’m proud to be my own patron.
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Do you do exorcisms?
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okay, just to make sure before I hire you. You are not a massmurderer are you?
everyone I know who got “successful” made it through scoring advertisements. And ghost producing. After they landed a “hit”.
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No.
For some reason I find them quite difficult.
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Yeah, it’s always my kind of people at the start, but it never ends well…
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Bob Dylan worked at the self-service checkouts in Asda (he retired last year).
Ringo Starr drives buses in rural Cheshire.
Mick Jagger was a bin man but was made to take compulsory redundancy some years back.
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Yung Lean and Bladee worked in a shampoo factory for several years as well.
Most of the big names you get will have gone past that stage, but if you started listening to any artist before they became “huge”, most of them have this story.
For smaller artists I idolize with day jobs they would be Dion, pradaaslife, Drux, and probably most of the techno artists I hear.
I primarily stick to more underground stuff and the vast majority of them have day jobs.
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I work full time in music as an audio engineer at a non-profit institution. First job in music with salary + benefits. It took a long time for me to get to this point to be 100. I also DJ, tour, and host events which brings in the income to buy Elektron gear. I grew up in the city i live in, so i’ve been able to establish strong relationships with my community and gain stable work. This has been my only key to survival in music. I don’t think I could live my current lifestyle if I moved to a major city and started from scratch at this point in my life.
The cost of living in my city is rising fast which had made me decide to pivot into a different field to future-proof the incoming tidal wave of economic fuckery (U S A). I am currently negotiating a position as a Music Director for an entertainment district and opening a listening bar in the same district. This will be my first full-time gig not engineering in over 10+ years and it’s very conflicting internally, but it will put me in a position to maintain my personal music projects/brand within a new space.
Mentoring + Education: Yes! We need to give back. I host educational events in my city and mentor a few youths who are trying to get into the field. If you have the ability, time, and patience… please do it!
Small bit of Advice: Living a nomadic life only works well if you plan it ahead of time (touring, residencies, etc). I work alongside touring artists, engineers, management, etc and the stories from these great people are mixed. Most of them have really stable years and then have a couple of really bad ones. Like a yo-yo effect. So just be prepared with a fallback if you decide to want to live that life. Touring is where the stable money is coming in right now, but it also feels like the wild west. I miss so many aspects from touring regularly, but I don’t miss the chase.
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This isn’t exorcism, it’s head banging.
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Mike Parker is a fine art teacher by day, makes incredible techno in his spare time
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I’m a full-time musician, and I follow what I call the “Mozart Model”—composing, teaching, and performing to make a living. Mozart would compose in the morning, teach in the afternoon, and perform (while networking) in the evening. I’ve structured my career in a similar way:
- 50% of my income comes from performing (gigs, private events, etc.)
- 40% comes from teaching (private lessons, courses, workshops)
- 10% comes from composing (licensing, commissions, personal projects)
It’s definitely a grind, and I’m always hustling, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. The biggest challenge is maintaining stability. Income fluctuates, and you have to be adaptable. Diversifying income streams has been key for me.
For anyone looking to go full-time, my advice is:
- Treat it like a business. That means marketing, networking, and financial planning.
- Build multiple income streams. Relying on just one is risky.
- Relationships matter. Most opportunities come from connections, not job postings.
You don’t need to be famous to make a solid living from music. In fact, it’s probably a better life if you’re not!
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Could you elaborate on the style/genre of music you’re working in?
I make music that is loosely in the “indie rock” world (just to keep it vague). Make a few thousand a year in royalties but had one sync deal where I made mid 5 figures in a single year and occasionally get smaller syncs of a couple thousand here and there.
Money always comes a little later because things like BMI and label royalties take a while to pay. But in my experience, once I made something good, things got off the ground very quickly in terms of getting signed, getting a booking agent, playing festivals, etc. The music industry really is a lot more of a meritocracy than a lot of people give it credit for. If you make something good that stands out, you will have opportunities very quickly because listeners, labels, promoters, are always looking for more great music.
Not at all. I would have to be at a much higher level and even then things change in very unpredictable ways. I just saw that Mark Mothersbaugh, out of all of the composing he’s done for TV and movies, makes the most money, $1 million a year for an old Devo song that’s used as the theme for a tv show on MTV that gets re-run over and over. I didn’t even know that MTV was still on the air. The industry can be very random.
Another weird example is the band Cigarettes After Sex who weren’t that well known and then suddenly had two of their songs become huge viral TikTok trends and now they have billions of Spotify streams and sell out huge live shows. It’s very strange.
I think the only way to have real stability is if you have a big live draw and you tour constantly and keep expenses low.
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Sure that’s not the Rugrats theme and Nickelodeon?
He also still does a TON of tv and movie scoring.
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Thanks everyone, I’m finding the thread fascinating. Small sample pool but I’m noticing that there hadn’t really been anyone responding talking about money they make from YouTube, or sample packs, patreon, education or consulting, or making music technology hardware or software.
I might be showing my hand a little, but I don’t think I’m ever likely to make a living out of gigging or streaming revenue, but I do wonder if I could set up a viable business that blends a few of the above things. It’s probably a pipe dream, but I’d love to do something in the service to a community like this. Absolutely not chasing the influencer thing, but I love the idea of being a music technology educator in some form.
This makes me laugh. The minute art gets made into a business, its screwed.
Ive been gigging since the mid 1990s. Hardly ever got paid.
Been releasing and selling my music for just as long. To be honest Ive only made any real income since I started sharing my bandcamp links on here. So thats the last 3 or 4 years.
I sell the odd album here and there. I get royalties from a few compilations Ive been on with labels.
I haven’t done any gigs in the last 4 or 5 years.
Im not in it for the money at all. I charge for my music as a matter of principle. If you like enough to pay for it, you will. If you dont want to pay for it, then you dont like it enough. Simple.
Also, I work my arse off to churn out the tunes. So its nice to recieve a few quid once in a while.
If you really want to make money out of music, Be a DJ and do weddings.
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This is where I’m at mentally, but mostly as a side gig/backup. Presets, soundware etc. We’ll see. Been at the back of my mind for a while
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