It doesn’t take long to see how musicians and entrepreneurship blend well together. From the moment you picked up a guitar or microphone and wrote those first few lines over top of some well conceived chord progression your musical interest blossomed into something more. Those first few years of writing, networking with other musical artists, performing and refining all of these mounting skills eventually lead many to the notion that this is precisely what they want to do full time so you work to monetization.
To be frank, past the spectacle or thrill of performing its not any different than anything else. Just like you build a song and are excited to show everyone, someone else is building houses and would like nothing more than to show you around town pointing out every structure they have built or modified.
People take gratification in what they have built.
Putting The Art In Artist
Some people make art, other people build business, both take vision, persistence and creativity.
Recently I was visiting New York State and during my visit I made a stop in a boutique shop to purchase a souvenir on an especially beautiful fall day. The shop was located on a rejuvenated Main Street in a picture perfect town. As I went inside I found that they specialized in blown glass art, jewelry and other usable pieces.
What made it especially quaint was that the shop was either run by a co-op of artists or they employed them. Because just beyond the showroom there was a room behind a half glass wall barrier were these artists could be seen using all of their various tools to blow and shape glass.
I wanted to use this anecdote to illustrate that just because you are an artist doesn’t mean you shouldn’t want to thrive and feed yourself. Thats where the connection with musicians and entrepreneurship lies.
There is a high that comes from playing a great show and the adulation that comes from the audience who had been riveted by your performance, but that is not sustenance. That is temporary and fleeting. I’m not implying that you should denounce enjoying that, Im only saying as quick as you can get over it, do and get to the business at hand.
Get To The Business Of Making Your Art Your Business
Let me make an arbitrary assumption as a tool to motivate. Imagine that the truest thrill, the most purposeful art is to create something that can sustain you. Instead of painting with colors, shaping with glass or building with chords you form with organization planning and vision.
Now you take that organization planning and vision to create systems to promote, market and monetize your music, music videos, merchandise, live shows and any other supplemental content that you conceive.
So ask yourself, Is that an expression? And couldn’t that be a form of art in and of its self? Maybe. Maybe even another connection between musicians and entrepreneurship.
But, deciding for sure really doesn’t matter. What does matter is you creating a path for you. One that allows you to continue to make your music and provide for yourself while doing so.
Like anything else, there are no guarantees so you should certainly prepare to work hard and approach each step in a relentless and thorough way. In order to know you’ve done your level best to be sure that you have done everything within your power to see that your goals are met and your business get’s up and running.
Now that we’ve taken a top down approach to what you see as creation and art we can move our focus toward the actionable steps that can be taken to better organize your efforts as an entrepreneurial musician.
Establishing Your Self As A Business
Rather than continuing on in a way where in you are waiting for things to happen, Instead begin to go after what you need, an Income. You want to organize your self in a way that allows you to explore and maximize your opportunities to do so.
That said if you are going to be earning an income you are also going to need to file taxes for the income you earn. You can do this by either setting yourself up as a Sole Proprietorship as an LLC. This will allow you to do business and provide you certain protections. And that is important for both musicians and entrepreneurship.
Contact Your Local Government
In order to set up those entities you’ll have to contact with your local government. There is an association in the USA called the SBA, which helps small businesses take into account of what they must before they begin to earn income.
There are resources on their website that may help to inform you about formation and resource, as well as a tool that allows you to search for an SBC contact in your area. Small Business Association
Because there is a lot of e-commerce potential for musicians I recommend having a look at this video to get at least a basic insight as to the differences between those two business forms. The video also uses Shopify as an example. Shopify is one of the commerce platforms that a lot of artists use to host their music website and store.
I thought it might share the link. Please note that the need to have a proper license is not exclusive to those whom want to partner with Shopify.
Identify Potentials For Income
After you have everything organized and you have filed for and received your business license, you are good to go. But even before that you can begin to compile a list of potential streams for income. It’s important to think out of the box because a lot can be done these days that couldn’t only a few years ago.
This is a brief list of the obvious income potentials you could be targeting. With creativity and forward thinking you should eventually be able to expand this list.
- Adsense Revenue
- Patronage
- Product Endorsements
- Music Instructionals
- Music Albums and Merchandise
- Touring and Gigs
- Licensing
- Streaming Revenue
Develop Brand Identity
As you can see the list of potential incomes while only introductory still indicate a lot of areas for opportunity. A part of you maximizing your effort across all of these potentials and platforms will be making concerted effort to be brand yourself and your project in a deliberate and consistent way across all of them. You want to have a uniformity to your theme and your presentation so that all of these various off shoots coalesce within the bigger picture. That how musicians and entrepreneurship can better intertwine.
Before you get too far down the rabbit hole put some time into making the promotional material uniform. If you haven’t the predisposition to create graphical content for yourself then sourcing out a graphic artist to help you work through your ideas until they have manifested into some tangible form of imagery is the best course of action.
Uniform Graphics
You want to have graphic headers for all of the platforms, uniform color schemes and constant thumbnails. You’ll need banners and logos for your website and merchandise as well as professional photos taken and used together with these graphic logos and themes.
Once you have uniformity and consistency across all of the platforms you use, your branding will be recognizable, and eventually overtime people who are interested in you will recognize that something is yours just by the color and logo. This is important for both musicians and entrepreneurship. If you have done your job with writing appealing music in the same manner that you have with building up graphical brand recognition then the payoff should come in the form of a widening fan base.
Brand Identity
People seem to like, at the very least, the illusion of credibility that uniform presentation delivers. Perhaps it is because your brand becomes something of an ecosystem with which they can identify themselves as part of. This I suppose can be demonstrated by them pridefully wearing a t-shirt (celebrating musicians) they purchased from your online store (entrepreneurship). See what we did there musicians and entrepreneurship can be very very good friends.
If your budget Is to tight to pay a seasoned designer, you may consider working with a burgeoning graphic artist on fiverr. Perhaps you can get reasonable work at a reasonable price from someone working through that site. Search for graphic design for social media branding, as well as graphic design for musicians to start.
Digital Distribution
One of the first things that musicians should that demonstrates entrepreneurship is to partner with a music distribution company. They will provide distribution and collection services that you may need. These distribution companies help you to easily post across all of the streaming platforms that are paying for listens. After setting this up you can be sure that your content is ready to be consumed upon release.
It is important to investigate the services provided by these different distribution companies. Its important to be sure to select the one that best suits your needs. Once you have done so you will be ready to earn streaming revenue.
In addition to being an earning tool, it’s also a promotional tool. Through the ongoing release of new music and partnerships with distribution companies, these platforms provide access to promote and introduce your brand to an increasingly broad audience.
If you know you are ready to select a service for digital distribution, our guide to all that is exactly up your alley. Here is a link; Take a look!
Set Up Your Website and Online Store
I am of the school that sees having one’s own website is a must. Relying on social media should not be exclusive. Using Social sites exclusive subjugates you to the whims of the bylaws. Using your own site at as well as social sites. Gives you at least one home base that you have complete autonomy over. To me having a website is a must for musicians and for entrepreneurship.
We recently composed an article about having a website to promote your music. It explains why its so important to have a site for showcasing your music. Check it out!
Build an Email List
By building your own website and online store you can control and ensure your own online presence. Use your social media platforms to promote and drive attention back to your website. Your website as your own home base is where you can sell goods and build an email list.
Your site will definitely need a page to collect email addresses from your new fans. We have a valuable resource that discusses these essential pages. The article also discusses the other pages that you should include when building your website. Here is the link. Use it to your advantage!
An email list is filled with people whom are likely the most interested and engaged of your fans. Having a a thousand great fans can sustain you provide you engage with them accordingly. The email list is a great tool to market any new promotion. That would include singles, albums, or merchandise that you are attempting to sell. The email list is the best tool to directly market to your supporters. Use it wisely.
Owning Your Online Presence
Good numbers across social media may be a big seller to big labels looking to scoop up new artists to exploit; having your own infrastructure on the other hand is next level. Having a site that you OWN is invaluable to further building your business. This is especially true of the online store.
However you do go about it. Don’t miss out on your chance to have a website to help you promote and earn from your music. Here is a link to a recent guide we published about just that it should help. Have a read!
Drop Ship
Rather then stocking inventory that you buy in advance and store in your garage, you can go the route of partnering with a drop ship site.
These drop ship sites allow you to choose items from their catalog to sell on your online store. You then upload your logo and graphics and position them on the product. Once you have made your choices you can select your prices. You can then link the item to your own store on your own website.
On the other hand, if you are using a drop ship partner that is built into your website maker like Shopify, Squarespace or Wix; all of the services and tools will be provided under one roof. If your website is built on WordPress you will need to install the woo commerce plugin to your website and use a company like Printify for drop shipping products to connect to it with.
We recently wrote a quintessential guide for dropshipping. Getting your act together in that department can be a significant game changer. If you’re looking for deeper insights; Reading the article will be beneficial. Bookmark and Save!
Potential Income Streams
In addition to Adsense Revenue that you can earn through google with ads placed on your website, you can also earn Adsense revenue from your YouTube channel. Build regular behind the scenes day in the life content to regularly post on YouTube. Content like this may even become an income stream of its own. When enough people become regular viewers of your weekly installments, you will be paid. Showcase your day to day efforts that go into producing your music and videos, and you’ll have content for days. Once you have achieved that, you can add another notch to your entrepreneurial belt.
You can also earn extra income for your channel through product endorsements or affiliate marketing. Ensure the products you endorse align with your video content to avoid disrupting your audience.”
We’ve written at length about the various ways to monetize your efforts on YouTube. The best way to get up to speed on all the angles for YouTube is to scan through one of our articles written to that effect. Here is a great one about making money on YouTube with your music. Enjoy it!
Everything Else
None of this is in substitution for the old fashioned means of earning through touring, gigging and licensing. It is about putting as many lines into the water as possible though.
All of the traditional means of earning remain mostly the same, you can gig and earn but don’t shy away from the idea of buying on to a tour especially if there is opportunity to gain from doing so. You have to investigate the details well and make an evaluation for yourself.
But, as we’ve already suggested this is a business and in business there are risks. Do your best to make calculated risks in order to mitigate unwanted outcomes. With thorough preparation, research and critical thinking you will be well on your way.