14 Ways Your Music Can Make You More Money

No need to rely solely on music sales and touring to bring in the big bucks. Here are some additional ways your music can make you as much money as possible. Let’s dive in…

14 Ways Your Music Can Make You More Money

Streaming

Having your music on streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, etc. is a no-brainer. But while platforms like Spotify and Apple Music dominate the streaming landscape, there are other emerging platforms offering unique opportunities for artists. Similarly, Bandcamp’s subscription model allows fans to directly support their favorite artists with recurring contributions, fostering stronger artist-fan connections.

By diversifying your presence across all of these platforms, you can increase your reach and open additional revenue streams. At the same time, staying up to date on new monetization features from major players, like Spotify’s Campaign Kit, Marquee, Apple Music’s analytics-based promo campaigns, YouTube’s Super Thanks feature, YouTube Partner Program, and more can help maximize your earnings. // Luckily, we’ve got a bunch of articles to guide you through optimizing your music on these platforms and how to make the most of your efforts. Check these out…

• How To Feed The Spotify Algorithm To Get More Streams
• How To Optimize Your Spotify for Artists Profile
• How To Advertise on SoundCloud as an Independent Musician
• How To Claim and Update Your Artist/Label Pages
• 7 Ways To Make Money on YouTube as a Musician

Publishing Royalties

Royalty collection is a complex business. The two most common music publishing royalty types are performance royalties and mechanical royalties. With our Symphonic Publishing Administration, these would be the two main types of royalties we’ll collect for you. Even though we do all the complex administrative work for you, it’s vital to understand how they work and how you can best leverage them to maximize your earnings. // Not sure if you’re already earning these? This post breaks it down for you.

Want to learn more? Check these out…

• Types of Publishing Deals and How They Work
• Typical Music Rights And Royalties For Creative Licensing

Play Live Shows

Playing live shows is traditionally the biggest (and most fun!) way to make money as a musician. With the pandemic way behind us, there’s no reason for you to not be back in the game! If you’re feeling rusty, we did a post with 6 apps that were built to make touring easier than ever. Whether you need help tracking costs, promoting your tour dates, finding deals on hotels, and more, these apps are here to help.

If you’re in need of a tour sponsorship deck, we also have a post to help you create one. The biggest issue people face when presenting their sponsorship deck is when they haven’t done the proper research before creating the proposal. Check out this post to learn more.

Monetize User-Generated Content

To say the least, you work hard on your music. You deserve to get paid for every iteration of your work, wherever it may end up. Whether your content is featured on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, SoundCloud, and many more, you can monetize it.

If you’re a Symphonic client, we can deliver your content to Rights Manager for Facebook and Instagram and monetize your sound recording catalog through reels, music stickers, ad-supported posts, and more. For all your other platforms, check out this post which breaks down everything you need to know about monetizing this content with ease.

Symphonic’s YouTube User-Generated-Content (UGC) analytics provide our clients with detailed information on how their content is being used in UGC videos all across YouTube. This post shows you how to access it in the SMS. If you want to improve your TikTok video performance, understanding your analytics is a big part of it. Luckily, you can also access TikTok analytics in our SMS as well.

Bandcamp

Bandcamp remains a standout platform for independent artists seeking to monetize their music directly. Unlike many streaming services, Bandcamp allows artists to set their own prices for digital downloads, physical merchandise, and even exclusive content. The platform’s “Bandcamp Fridays” initiative, where they waive their revenue share on sales, has become a favorite for fans looking to support artists directly. Additionally, Bandcamp’s subscription model lets artists offer perks like early access to releases, exclusive tracks, and behind-the-scenes content for a monthly fee. By leveraging Bandcamp’s artist-friendly features, you can build a dedicated fanbase while maximizing your earnings.

Did you know Symphonic has a partnership with Bandcamp? With it, we can deliver your release to Bandcamp for you. For $9.99 per month, Symphonic will deliver your content for you, with unlimited uploads. From the “draft” mode for further editing, then into publishing, this saves you the time of having to enter their releases on multiple platforms.

If this all sounds good to you, sign up for this feature right here.

YouTube

YouTube is another platform that continues to garner major success for independent artists. The easiest way to earn money on YouTube is with Content ID, a digital fingerprinting system that content creators (like record labels and artists) can use to easily identify and manage their copyrighted content on YouTube. If you’re a Symphonic client, you would upload your music to us and we’d go ahead and upload it to YouTube’s Content ID system. When that happens, any song that is uploaded is compared against audio and video files that have been uploaded by many users all over the world.

• If a match is found, we will monetize the video that has been matched and claimed, thus bringing you more royalties and ensuring that your works aren’t being illegally shared and monetized by others.

YouTube Channel Memberships are another great feature to be taking advantage of! It’s subscription-based feature that allows viewers to become paying members of your channel in exchange for exclusive perks and benefits. Members pay a monthly fee that’s set by you, and they can gain access to perks like custom badges and emojis, members-only community posts and live streams, early access to content, and special discounts on merch. This model provides artists like you with an additional revenue stream and helps to foster a closer relationship with your most dedicated fans at the same time.

In addition, you can offer multiple tiers of membership, each with its own set of perks and price points, catering to different audience segments. By offering exclusive content and benefits, you not only incentivize viewers to become paying members but also create a sense of belonging within your community while generating additional income to put back into your craft.

Video Games

The most engaging video games have great soundtracks to go with them. There’s a reason players get so immersed in their virtual worlds, and the music is a major part of that. Consider putting out an instrumental version of one of your best tracks just for gaming playlists.

Sample Packs

To put it simply, a sample pack is a curated collection of pre-recorded audio snippets like synth loops, synth patches, a cappella tracks, drum loops and so much more I can’t even fit in one sentence, all one package. All someone has to do is buy the pack for one set price and they’ve got a whole file of unique sounds to play with for their next track. It this sounds right up your alley, selling sample packs is a great way to make some extra money.

Merch 

Merch has always been a key source of revenue for independent musicians. Plus, selling merch online shouldn’t be a headache. There are tons of platforms specifically for musicians that make it quick and easy to sell whatever you want, but how to choose the right platform for you depends on a few factors. From price to quantity and any other needs you may have, there’s something out there for you.

In this post, we give you some options to consider to make the whole process as easy as possible.

Sync Licensing

Any time your song is featured in a TV show, movie, commercial, or any visual media, that’s called a “sync placement”. In addition to performance royalties you earn for airing on TV, sync placements also pay an upfront “licensing fee”, which is determined based on the song’s market value as well as the various details of how the music was used in the production.

“How To Optimize Your Songwriting For Sync” can help increase your chances of landing placements.

Micro-Sync

Just as an artist would be paid licensing fees and royalties for a placement in a TV show or film, they would also be owed “micro-sync” fees and royalties for smaller features. Some examples of the types of common micro sync placements include:

• User-generated content, i.e. YouTube
• Social media posts
• Internal company videos
• Video presentations at events and conferences
• Professional wedding videos
• Podcasts

Vinyl

Physical music distribution has been an important part of artist and label development for decades. Vinyl is just one of the many retro faves that are making a strong comeback among music lovers. As vinyl sales continue to lead the pack and new independent retail stores continue to expand, there are no signs of slowing down now. If you want to join in on the action, this post features some of the top vendors for getting your music on vinyl.

Affiliate Marketing

Another great way to earn some extra money is to sign up for affiliate programs related to your niche. With these, you can share unique affiliate links in your Instagram posts or stories. When your followers make a purchase through your link, you earn a commission.

For example, brands like StubHub, Vivid Seats and Ticketmaster all have pretty good affiliate programs. So whether your fans are buying tickets to your shows or other artists’, as long as they use your code, you get a cut. Doesn’t get much easier than that.

Influencer Marketing

As an artist with a distinct style, you are in a great position for sponsored posts or collaboration opportunities. Consider reaching out to brands who have a similar vibe or mission as you do, and spark up a conversation about how you can mutually benefit one another. This can range from either promoting their product in a post, reviewing said product or even doing a fully sponsored post for them.

Alternatively, you can do a version of this with other musicians in your community. From promoting each other’s merch to hyping up their upcoming show, this industry thrives on collaboration! And social media is no stranger to nurturing that community.

In Conclusion…

Whether you try out all of these or choose a couple of your favorites, we hope these help you make the well-deserved money you deserve for your work! Working towards having the financial freedom to do whatever you want to as an artist is an indescribable feeling we all dream of as creatives… but it doesn’t have to remain a dream! With hard work and consistency, you’re on the right track.

Good luck!