Music Think Tank

4 Ways Musicians Can Make Money Online

When I see this sentence my radar usually goes off.

I mean if it were that simple everyone would be able to do it, right?

Certainly, there are many scams out there.

The good news is there are also many legit ways for musicians to make money online.

Therefore, I am presenting my own list of the best ways to make money online.

This list is based on my actual experiences as a working musician trying to make some extra money online.

Here we go.

1. Selling Music Related Items On Auction Sites

This is often a great way to find gear and other music items but it can also be a great way to make some extra cash by learning how to sell equipment you no longer use or all sorts of related musical items.(Or non-musical for that matter)

I have generated cash on e-bay but I want to caution that I have also run into some scams and buyers that are less than legit.

Overall, this can be good way to make a little extra cash for many musicians.

If you are interested in making money on e-bay or other auction sites beyond simply selling things you no longer use I would highly recommend doing the research. It is a highly competitive market and the profit margins on buying and selling are typically very tight.

2. Selling Goods And Services Through Online Classifieds

This one has so many possibilities for the musician.

Music Lessons

Wedding Singing

Guitar Repair

Piano Tuning

Each classifieds site has different rules about posting so do the research first.

3. Online Job Sites (O’desk and Elance)

Type in the word “music” in the search box at the online job search site of your choice to find jobs that match your specific skills.

I have found some great flexible and part-time work this way.

I have made some good friends and contacts.

One thing that has helped me is that I have done work for free in order to build up my portfolio. This has helped to get jobs from both the people I submitted the pro-bono work to and other related companies.

Many of these jobs will require writing or various design and computer related skills but I urge you to look at this as an opportunity to learn new skills.

By finding some jobs that interest you and putting in a little extra time to learn the skills needed. ( Which are available for free all over the internet)

Doing this will help you in your own music marketing and career as well.

A real win-win!

4. Affiliate And Online Marketing

Proceed with caution here*

This can be an oppportunity to make money but it is not an easy or quick method of doing so and do not believe anyone that tries to tell you it is.Basically, affilaite and social marketing is setting up your own website or using social media to direct internet traffic to another site that is set up to get people to buy something or take an action. Sites such as Amazon or Music Colleges.

If you do a little research and use sources like “warrior forum” to weed out the bad apples this can be a great way to add to your income.

Obviously, it too does require skills outside of musical related ones.

However, do not cross these possibilities off your list just because you do not have the technical skills. Remember that no one that does these jobs started out with those skills and unlike music they can be learned by anyone and often do not take very long either.

FINAL THOUGHT

Even if your YouTube channel gets millions of hits you will have a difficult time making much money from it.

However, the idea of providing music related content is a very solid one.

I once worked for a company that enlisted artists to make videos around products. Fortune 500 companies pay great money to these artists in exchange for placement ofr products in the videos.

Another variation would be an advertisement or mention of the company at the start of the video if you can generate lots of related traffic. (Maybe a kitten doing a dance move to your song?)

Musicians can get good money for these services and I urge you to explore these options and the areas where they lead.

Think about doing theme music for podcasts or providing free music lesson materials or teaching online for guitar sites.

There are many ways to make money online using musical skills and knowledge.

The skills and ideas you can develop while at the same time making extra money will further help in your career in music.

A real win-win!

I am sure you know of some I have not listed that have worked for you so please feel free to add to this post in the comments.

Thank You,

Kyle Ohlenkamp