How many ways do you make $$ with your music?

Hi guys,

Just thought for interests sake I thought I would start a little thread about making/adding some cash to the ol income from music stream. For myself I had a really good month making money from music related activities. The biggest piece came from renting my studio out and producing a punk/rock metal project for some local musicians. I used some instances of amplitube for the guitars and a mix of Toontrack drumkit from hell with some manual edits and a few secitons on the electronic kit. I charge about $40 an hour and we did about 12 hrs so far. With a littel coaching it’s coming out great. Also I play abou ttwice a month with my band, so the bar gigs work out to about $100 to $150 on average and I did a little acoustic thing for a restaurant on a sunday evening. These activiteis and interest are growing. AJ has been a bit slow for me in Jan but it’s defientley still taken into consideration. A few hundred more and I’ll be pretty happy earning a good piece of my monthly income through music and AJ!! How many ways do you earn through your music?

JC

Almost all of any music money I make is from stock sales – my day job and family commitments don’t allow for much outside the stock passive income and a few hours per week in the studio (and of course posting on AJ forums when I should be working).

I do a bit of freelance every now and then but generally discourage it because I don’t have the bandwidth.

I’m also in a band, but since most the members have similar time constraints we try to play out no more than once a month (which is pushing it). Our individual takes are similar to yours, JC – about $100 apiece when we play out. (Shameless plug for any Portlanders out there – we’ll be at the Dublin Pub February 18th from 7-10, or later if they didn’t book a band after us :)).

I’d love to get into renting out a studio someday, and am stocking up as much as possible on good recording gear. Doing the stock scene over the past couple of years has been an amazing way of improving my songwriting, performance, and music production know how, but has also made me realize I’ve got a long way to go before I’ll feel comfortable recording other people (also my studio space is currently less than optimal).

Over time I hope to ramp down on the day job and ramp up on a modest music career. But I’ve got a mortgage and my daughter’s college education to pay for first .

Percentages vary and depend on so many constantly changing factors – but here is a really rough breakdown skimming my accounts.

Audiojungle – 5-20% of revenue per month.

Movie trailer music/track licensing – 20-50% of revenue per month (depends greatly on the film)

Film/video-game scoring – 40-70% of revenue per month (this number greatly depends on the project and the timescale for the project, milestone payments, budget constraints, when I get paid..etc….)

Orchestration / music preparation / transcribing / orchestral mockups – 0-10% of revenue per month.

Royalties – 0-5% of revenue per month. I know for a fact that this will increase this year.

Album sales (Bandcamp / iTunes / CDBaby, etc..) – 0-10% of revenue per month.

I used to do mixing / mastering, but I have a friend who is better at it then I am, so I give him all the gigs. In return, if he gets an orchestral mockup gig, I generally take that.

@KeroseneMusic and jhunger – Studio rental is a really good idea if you can afford the time out from your other activities, it can potentially be very lucrative, and also is a great way to meet other musicians – as I’m sure you’re finding!

Studio rental-

Yeah, same here. I love doing the studio thing since for myself it’s not terribly difficult. I always purchased gear with that idea one day in mind, and to not have to worry about going to a studio. I thought about it in 2003 but only am now getting around to it I guess. I bought some good outboard pieces for front end, a good mic, monitors, and mic pres..The only downfall like you said, is you have to be present. This is where a passive income is a much better idea. I try not to book long sessions, just a few hours at a time leaving me time to compose. I’m lucky to work part time and have the option of working more, but lately it’s hard to get into it and I’d rather earn through music, but to get even close I need multiple streams at this point.

For my cover/original band, I’m debating on an aggregator, I think Jeffs Tunecore service is the one I’m leaning towards. They seem fairly transparent with their numbers. This year I want to devote a little more tie to that income stream as well. Not sure though if I want to bother with manufacturing CDs, or simply going all digital with download cards. Film/video-game scoring

On a side note, just did my first video hive collaboration. The guy asked me how long it would take, I said well I want to do a good job so a week I guess. I was done sooner..really cool tune to the visual with some sounds, so I send him the mp3 and hes like, I already uploaded my video. Like …??? lol. Anyways, it was fun though, I enjoyed working from the video that way and I think I would like to do more of it in the future. It’s kind of fun and I feel like you have a bit or direction. I was thinking about branching out into some of the licensing as well, beyond the stock music.

I like your breakdown Gareth. Very cool. Do you do music full time at this stage?

JC

I’ve been doing music full-time since August 2009, but last year was the first year that I can truly say that I didn’t have to worry about money, for which I am truly grateful. It’s very tough when you first start out, but if you weather the storm and keep making new contacts/friends, and your work is good, things generally take care of themselves.

This youtube video series explains pretty much every way to make money as a musician. Really good watch if you’re just starting out

Thanks,

That was very awesome and informative.

JC