June

Creative Ways to Make a Living with Music (Part 1)

Posted In: Career Building, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

I was having lunch the other day with some very good friends of mine from a quite successful band. They’re currently signed to a prominent record label and are touring all over the country. They were even up for a Grammy and a Dove this year. They stay so busy that they’re usually difficult to catch, so getting a chance to talk over lunch was a rare treat indeed. Despite all of their success, one part of the conversation in particular really struck me. I asked how things were going, to which one of the members jokingly replied, “Great. Now if we can just figure out how to make a living at it!”

Different folks measure success in different ways. There’s enjoying doing what you love to do. There’s being good at something you enjoy. And, yes, there’s monetary success. Even when it comes to money, some deem success strictly as becoming wealthy. Others, still, feel successful just by making a decent enough income to support a family by doing what they love. All of these are valid. But it doesn’t take a record deal to make a living with your music. Quite often, it’s the indie musician or band that walks away with the most money in his/her pocket, simply because there are fewer fingers in the pie. So, record deals and touring aside, here are some creative ways to earn a living with music:

Teaching Private Lessons

Although it may seem obvious, many musicians forget about the potential of taking on private students. Even doing lessons one afternoon/evening per week can bring in some nice spending money. Teaching can also be quite rewarding if you have the patience and a desire to see others learn. If you have a music stand and the extra space (for instance a corner of the living room, or an extra room in the house), you probably have all you need to teach private lessons.

Session Musician

If you have access to recording equipment and a high-speed internet connection, you probably have the capability to do remote session recording. For a guitarist, a laptop with a decent audio interface, some recording software, and a POD by Line6 (all comments from tone snobs aside) is enough to get you started. The odds are even more in your favor if you’re a vocalist–just replace the POD with a microphone. If you’re doing limited tracks, which usually you would be, there are free options available if you’re in need of recording software. Digidesign has a free version of ProTools that’s limited to eight channels. Kristal Audio Engine is an open source multi-track recording sofware. Audacity from SoundForge is also open source.

When you begin your session work, you will usually receive a guide track via an mp3 file. You will record your track, then send the instrument track back to the client. Unless you mail the client your files on a CD, a high-speed internet connection is almost a necessity. If you have FTP, you can upload the files directly to the client’s server. Otherwise, there are other great online options such as YouSendIt and ProAudioBus. A great place to get started doing remote session work is Studiotraxx.com. They have a great all-in-one system.

Here are some great options I recommend for getting equipped to do remote session recording:

Music Copyist

For musicians who have a strong understand standard musical notation and music theory, then a music copyist may be a viable opportunity. Copyists produce neat copies of a composer’s or arranger’s score from his or her original manuscripts. While this practice was once done by hand, now, with the advent of scoring software, musicians and copyists have the ability to create professional looking sheet music on their home computer. If you write songs or compose your own music, then sheet music opens up an entirely new market for your music. Here are links to some great notation software:

Continue on to Creative Ways to Make a Living with Music (Part 2)!

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