INCOME Streams for Bands and Artists: Some ANGLES and TACTICS for Long-Term SUCCESS!

How do musicians make a living these days? The world we currently occupy is not the one of our parents, where hit records sold millions of copies, and rock stars drove Lamborghinis. Those days - whilst hardly the case for all musicians - are no more, and bands and solo artists have had to find new ways to make an income. This is largely thanks to streaming culture, and a downturn in music fans building up physical record collections. Most people nowadays (by no means all!) either pay a small monthly fee to their preferred streaming platform, or simply make use of the free versions of those. As I say, it’s a profoundly different world for those seeking to make their living with music. Outside of those with independent wealth, it can be prohibitively costly to try to make a decent go of it.

But there are ways, for those prepared to work the angles and become multi-hyphenates whilst doing so. We musos all wear many hats in today’s economy, so here’s a brief look at some of the ways in which income streams can be created. Combined together, these can be all an artist needs to not only survive, but thrive!

Touring is still the biggy. If your band can afford it, then the returns can be well worth it, particularly if you are strong in the merchandise stakes. Touring is an expensive pursuit without doubt, with a lot of up-front costs regarding vehicle hire, documentation and other types of paperwork. This can occur within every country you visit, so a lot of prep is required for those who want to tour internationally.

By the time you are ready to tour, career-wise, you’ll hopefully have amassed an audience that will support you and make such an endeavour worthwhile financially, because operating at a loss is fine for the vanity of the goal-setting, but not for paying the bills.

There’s a huge disparity right now in ticket pricing, with top-billed stars able to command hundreds of pounds for a single ticket to a show, versus a struggling grass-roots scene where sub-£10 tickets for local shows can be a tough sell. Promoting to the correct audience (it takes time to learn this) and networking effectively is how to win here, as well as persistently encouraging strangers (not friends and family) to turn up to your shows.

Remember: there are many, many cult/underground/small bands out there who are doing MUCH better in this regard than you might think. Marketing skills are worth learning: it’s one of those hats I mentioned wearing, so make sure you try it on!

For many touring bands, merch sales mean the difference between making it to the next gig or having to cancel the tour and return home penniless and despondent. Merch is super important to bands.

As an artist, the more wearable your logo or brand is, the better. The more merch you have to sell, the better.

Merch is really important to carry on tour, and it’s also really important to have in your online store. Not everyone can make your gig, but they may still be a customer waiting to shop! And some fans go to the show but don’t buy the shirt on the night: make it all available online and everybody wins.

Note: it is absolutely a good idea to have a band ‘member’ who is solely responsible for visual stuff like merch, branding, logos and so on. I’ll say it again: the music world is a dramatically different place to how it was 20 years ago. Not every band member needs to wield an instrument to be an essential part of the group. Don’t be a band without a brand.

This one can be slightly contentious with some people, both artists and fans. Paid meet & greets are ways of earning extra money on tour by hanging out with fans at an informal event prior to the show, usually before the venue doors open to the general public. Fans paying for these experiences are your super-fans, and are willing to support you by paying more money to spend a little bit of time with you. These fans are the ones who buy the merchandise and talk about your music to other people, so they are important to you. Keep them happy and listen to what they want: can you deliver it? If so, why aren’t you?

Normally speaking, there are special merch items attached to these meet & greets, and signing sessions where those fans bring their own collected stuff to get signed. A photo is normally taken too, and a small conversation had. It may feel like a strange thing to ask people to pay for, but your fans want to do this, so if you don’t offer it, you are missing out on something mutually beneficial.

Some artists take this a step further and invite a select number of fans to buy tickets for pre-tour rehearsals. This is an even more special thing, since the rehearsal room is a sacred, private space for any artist. Fans invited along are part of an event they normally never get to experience, and are accordingly willing to pay for it. Is it more pressure for you? Maybe, but it’s a private audience, and it’s a privilege to even have fans who want to attend, so remember that and be thankful, as you treat them like the VIPs they are.

This isn’t general advice for every band, because it could well lead to financial ruin for many people! But if you have a good following and a very good knowledge of the scene or niche you play within, you could create an entire second business as your own record label boss.

Sammy Urwin from Employed to Serve did exactly that with Church Road Records, and you can learn a little more about all of this (and several points I made in the Touring section) directly from Sammy in my Employed to Serve Interview.

It’s obviously a bit flippant to say ‘start a record label’, because there is so much to plan and pay for, but if you see a gap in the market, maybe that’s a gap that many other music fans would love to see filled? Labels like Sacred Bones are a great example of how to run an independent label. Even if it’s only for your own music, creating a label for it adds gravitas, lore and more merch opportunities.

Mechanical royalties were once the bread and butter of a songwriter along with publishing royalties (see below). A mechanical royalty is a sum of money paid to a musician whenever their music is sold in a physical (vinyl, CD) or digital (download, stream) way. This lasts for decades, and whilst streaming royalties are currently insultingly low, it’s still something that ticks away in the background.

There’s a wild statistic out there reporting how much money is left unclaimed by bands who don’t pay enough attention to the publishing side of their business. Publishing money accrues on work you’ve already done, let’s not forget! Signing up to a publishing company is an important step because they collect your royalties on streams, radio play, public performance and many other avenues. This is separate from mechanical royalties, and both of them are basically working for you automatically.

 Again, the numbers may appear small, but everything accumulates, and several streams of income can combine to create something considerable. A company like PRS (not the guitar brand!) are the people to investigate first here.

These are fancy words for getting your music played in adverts, TV shows or movies. This can be an extremely lucrative field, particularly in advertising. Once a song (and it needn’t be a brand new song) gets a little buzz happening via use in a TV show or popular ad, it can reignite entire careers! Bands and artists relegated to the cultural compost heap find themselves touring again, being asked to show up in more places and generally seeing their careers restart like a fixed engine in a clapped-out car.

Syncing is what we call it, and whilst it is as hard-work-and-luck based as anything else in the industry, those who aim directly at that sort of area are the ones more likely to enjoy success there. There are opportunities everywhere.

Lots of artists - particularly those who specialise in more technical styles - can do well from creating sellable sheet music. Whether as a digital download (printable at home) or as a properly produced folio of music in book form, there’s definitely a market for fans who want to learn your songs properly.

This area comes under your publishing royalties, and you can expand on those by creating TAB books to sell, or indeed work through another company who specialises in such. Sheet Happens is one that I know of, and the benefits there are that they make the products and ‘merchandise’ your wares alongside a curated roster of other top artists, so it’s a great additional shop window for you to be visible within.

This has been part of the industry since day one. Just because you wrote a great tune, doesn’t mean it should be you performing it. The world will always need good songs, and if you can write better than you sing, then maybe you have a hidden destiny as a songwriter for others. 

It’s not an old fashioned thing, either. Country music is full of it, and oftentimes, the songwriter is well-known in their own right. A great example is Jack Antonoff, who regularly co-writes with Taylor Swift, and also has his own band, Bleachers, who have collaborated with Bruce Springsteen. There is loads of that in the industry. Why can’t you be a part of it?

In our age of Zoom, Facetime, Hangouts and Meets, it’s easier than ever to set up direct appointments with people who are otherwise strangers. You can give lessons on music (or anything else you’re good at) from anywhere in the world that has electricity and wifi. Set up lessons with fans and students during your downtime at home, and even give in-person lessons whilst on tour. I’ve personally witnessed a number of big-name players doing this as I’ve awaited my appointed interview slot with them.

This is a great opportunity for everybody: you earn more, you’re teaching something you already know and it’s during time you’d otherwise spend mooching about. Your fans and students get to have a special connection with you in a personal, meaningful way, and they learn stuff. Good energy all around.

Finally, one income stream that is now proven is that of crowdfunding. Prog-rockers Marillion actually invented and mastered this back in the late 90s, and the industry slowly took note. Crowdfunding is, put simply, a way of inviting your fanbase to pre-pay for a release such as an album. The fans pledge a certain amount of cash upfront, which is divided into different price tiers, with different levels of ‘perks’ or ‘rewards’ attached. The more people pay, the more they get back in terms of special stuff like merch, studio-used gear or fan experiences that they can’t otherwise buy. Then they get the album (or whatever else it might be) once it has been created.

The cash that the fans agree to pay upfront literally goes into the making of the album. The artist regularly updates the fans with content (videos, messages, songs) along the way to make them feel like they are an integral part of the process. In fact, they are, and it’s a humbling experience for both artist and fan, to experience the creation of the new music together. The artist is paid directly from the fan, so it’s a legitimate income stream that’s important to investigate.

Patreon is very similar to this, except the emphasis is more on an ongoing relationship between artist and fanbase. It’s not so much focussed on an ‘event’ like an album, but more a sense of being a patron to the artist (hence the platform’s name), where the artist continually & regularly gives back content and work to their patrons in return for a regular subscription. Again, there are often tiers of subscription where higher fees allow more access or greater rewards. 

Patreon as a platform is pretty much what you as the artist makes of it. It can be a very special place to connect with the people who love what you do, and bring them content and art that nobody would otherwise get to enjoy. It’s also a stable and regular income, which in itself can allow a lot of other goals to be achieved.

These are just some of the ways in which you can make money as a musician today. Right now. You do not need a degree or a life coach, either. You just need to get your head in it all, learn how to be present where you want to excel, and learn from the examples of others - both good and bad.

Like all things in music, none of these streams will have you knocking on the door of the Lamborghini dealership overnight, but unlike the old industry, these are all areas that you can be in control of yourself. You put in the effort, you extract the gold.

I wish you an epic gold-rush that continues and continues. Good luck!