Last updated: April 10, 2023
Definitely one of the most discussed topic of all when deciding to make a living out of music: today we'll cover how most of the people can work in this industry and make thousands of dollars every month.
Here is what you will learn from this article:
- Making a living out of music is not easy and it’s not for everyone
- Usual and secret ways to make money in the music industry
- Many jobs are the consequence of other jobs
- Which role you would like to assume in the industry
CONTENT INDEX
Please click on the section you're interested in to get into it immediately
WHO THIS BLOG ISN'T FOR ❌
Here's a checklist of the people to who this article is NOT TARGETED:
- Those who think that making a living out of music is yet another
“easy make money” bluff
- Those who think that making a living out of music is yet another
- Those who think that a few weeks of practice will be enough to be able to work
- Those who give up after a few days of testing and experimenting
- For those who don’t want to make a commitment
- Those who do not want to change their lives
Making a living out of music is no joke. I have seen dozens and dozens of friends trying and giving up or having the need to always lean on something else because they could not create a winning strategy to work in the industry.
Later in the article we will get the chance to explore this topic a lot, don't worry.
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WHO THIS ARTICLE IS FOR ✅
- Singers / Songwriters
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- Rappers
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- Producers (entry level included)
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- Beatmakers
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- People who are curious about this topic and want to understand a bit more in detail how the music industry works
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- Audio Engineers
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- Artists
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- Everyone who consider music to be essential in their lives, those who have that fire inside which makes them only think about that all day
When I started working in the music industry I would have paid A LOT to be able to read a blog like this. At that time it was really hard to find valuable information. The only way was physically asking people or do really long researches on the net.
So I'm really glad to have you here, now let’s get started!
WHY IT'S DIFFICULT TO LIVE OUT OF MUSIC
Let’s be honest: you are not able to live with your music because 90% of the times you either have the passion and knowledge but not the experience to understand how to invest your time, or you are not simply ready yet.
Let me explain: there are 3 main reasons for not being ready to make a living out of music:
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YOU'RE STILL NOT AT THE RIGHT LEVEL
I understand it’s frustrating, trust me, I’ve been there too. Maybe you already have the perfect mindset and willing to reach your goal.
In this case just give yourself time: what I can suggest is exactly what I did as well: identify some specific goals and do whatever you can to achieve them.
EXAMPLE: let’s say you have been producing music for 3 months and you now realize you have to get better to make a living just with music.
The most logic thing to do is to identify a period of time, not too long or too short (ex. 4 months), during which your only goal will be to study and practice as much as possible in order to get better and strengthen your weaknesses in music production, so that at the end of this time you will be ready for the next step.
To understand whether this is your situation or not, I strongly suggest that you ask honest people from within the SPECIFIC SECTOR in which you want to work to give their opinion:
EXAMPLE: if you want to be a full-time beatmaker, ask much more experienced beatmakers for honest opinions and use their feedback to start your 4-month path. (Yes, even paying, many times is just the best way to get honest and detailed opinions).
DO NOT ASK TO ONE PERSON ONLY. Try to receive feedbacks from at least 4/5 experienced people, and even friends (but consider their opinions as less important)
Even after years of experience with almost every musical genre, I personally still keep asking feedbacks everyday to colleagues and people who I consider to be on my level or higher in that genre I’m working on.
It is ESSENTIAL to grow on a personal and working level.
✅
YOU WANT TO DO TOO MANY THINGS AND DO
NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE FROM ANY OF THEM
Of course.
You think that being able to do many different things will lead you to earn money from all of them and consequently, you will be a step ahead of others.
But unfortunately I have to tell you that it is totally the opposite.
The best suggestion I can give you is to choose 1 or 2 things to really focus on for your job, and keep the others as things you are able to do but are not part of your working role.
Being the best at one thing that you do is much preferable than being average-good in many different ones. This will allow you to ask FEES that are much higher than the average ones, so even higher that those requested by people who offer 5 different services.
✅
YOUR MINDSET IS STILL NOT ON POINT
TO ACHIEVE THE RESULT YOU WANT
This could be the weirdest cause and the most difficult to understand at first.
At the same time I can strongly confirm that the right mindset is as important as the practical skills if you want to do music as a full-time job. And it is also the main reason why many of my friends were not able to reach their “next step”
Having the right mindset means to bring your life vision and your beliefs on the right “wave” to pursue your goals.
It is not enough to consciously think that you are able to reach your goal, your subconscious must believe it as well. Let me explain this easily:
EXAMPLE: an average employee earns around 1000 and 1500€ in Italy. So if I tell an average employee that I earn 10.000€ per month, how do you think they will react? “it’s impossible”, “you’re corrupt”, “I can’t believe it” – and they would probably keep saying that even if I showed them a real paycheck.
But why does this happen? Because their unconscious mind thinks that the normal salary cannot be other than 1000/1500€.
10.000€ represent what TV has communicated to them or what their parents have told them over the years, which is that this amount of money can only be earned if you are corrupt or if you are in politics.
And you know what’s even funnier? If that employee earned 10.000€ in a particularly profitable month, they would not be able to manage them for the same reason mentioned above and would find themselves spending all the money on useless or unprofitable assets and run out of them in only a few months.
But let’s go back to the topic of music: how will you ever be able to make a living out of it if you don’t have any reference of a person who really made it, or if you unconsciously think it’s impossible?
Let me tell you: you cannot. You cannot because you will always prioritize other things to music, and magically you won’t have any time to invest on that, or to study or get interested in the topic. And this will lead you to really having zero time in the end.
Unfortunately it is really sad but that’s truly the main reason why people fail. Not only in music but in every field. And this is why I personally understood that this topic is to really be taken seriously and a solution must be found as early as possible.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND WINNING STRATEGY✅
Here we are at the end of this huge article.
I really hope you have found what you were looking for!🔥
In case you still haven’t found the answers to your questions, I invite you to write us an e-mail to let us know, so we can improve it and add further information that might be useful to everyone.
Here follows a short description of the last point of this article: I will give you some essentials on how to start if your thoughts are still not so clear.
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SHORT, MID AND LONG TERM GOALS
Setting goals is the base for every successful person.
It is very important that you know what you want to do.
Keep an eye on them often, and take notes of where you are and how it is going. The last suggestion I can give you is where many people fail and get demoralized: do not overdream.
You should take a step at a time and set your goals based on your actual situation: don’t put too much pressure on yourself, otherwise you could burnout very easily.
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PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
Now let’s face a practical situation (which I have never read anywhere else):
Let’s say Person X does a “normal” 9-5 job for 5/6 days a week, has a regular salary and all the usual things and benefits one may have with an “ordinary” lifestyle.
This person decides he want to make a living out of music and wants to start playing the ROLE Y (any of the ones mentioned above).
Obviously, he would first need to learn the skills to be able to do the job, and then he should also know how to go forward.
To face this situation Person X should put in place the following strategy:
- Book the course for a few months or even a year ahead to “secure” your choice. (this also financially, making a firm commitment) – This will also help destroying the wrong mindset –
- Immediately do market research on how to proceed once you finish the course, study and get to know your competitors and find places where to go for networking purposes and opportunities.
- When you’ll do the course, the could ask if there is any STAGE or opportunity to work for someone affiliated to the school/academy.
- Plan to afford staying at home for a few months in order to start your new activity. Then save money and reorganize your working life.💵
If you are SURE of the quality of your work, I suggest presenting yourself to medium/high level artists and companies with your portfolio and offer free work to demonstrate the quality you can deliver. Initially you might have to make several attempts before getting into a reality that gives you permanent work, but again – from my experience – I can confirm that it’s worth every second of your investment.
- Finally, the most difficult step: facing the fact that from that moment on you’ll have to leave your job and live in an ‘unstable‘ situation for a few months.
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It is therefore from the moment Person X leaves his job that you will need to commit yourself to changing your life.
Again, also confirmed by my personal experience, the main barrier that prevents you from achieving your dream is YOUR MIND.
As I mentioned earlier, you can totally be able to live out of doing music: it is not very difficult to learn the job or even to practice, the real difficulty is in finding the courage to change things in your own life.
I really want to emphasize this because once again, this is where I have seen most of my colleagues fail.
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