So you’ve decided to dedicate your life to music. You don’t need me to tell you it’s a career path that requires intense dedication with no guarantee you’ll ever be able to support yourself fully from your music.
While there’s a lot you can do to build a strong, dedicated fan base to support your music (check out my Book Smart Grow Fast Workbook to begin), it’s important for most artists to find a stable source of income. It’s also important to find one that actually supports you in your creative pursuits, financially and energetically. I.e. you need it to not drain you energetically or creatively. Of course, all forms of labor require some form of exertion, but the key is to optimize for minimum drain for maximum financial benefit.
Not all of these careers will be a match/accessible for everyone, but my hope is that this article can help you think more strategically about supporting yourself while you’re developing your music career, even if none of these suggestions are a fit for you,
First, a bit about what I don’t recommend as much. I’ve seen many artists dive in on music-adjacent careers. For the most part, I find them less than ideal for the following reasons:
They use up your creative energy (your most essential resource as a musician)
They can dilute your artist brand if they’re too visible
They often are super time-consuming and require a lot of hustle that you should be using on getting your artist career up off the ground.
Here are some concrete examples of music-adjacent jobs I wouldn’t especially recommend. Again, these are your life choices, and some of them might be right for you, but I’ve seen these take more creative energy than many artists can afford and they don’t pay as well or consistently as some others listed below.
NOT-SO RECOMMENDED
Writing music for sync
Most artists don’t have an unlimited well of creative ideas and most artists can’t spend 40 hrs/week in front of an audio interface. It sounds fun to do, but I don’t see this as healthy creatively for most artists and I don’t see the pay being worth the creative drain.
Cover/wedding bands
If you’re an original songwriter, playing events can be a slippery slope to a life on cruise ships. Performing constantly in this way might drain your creative energy and begin to heavily influence your identity as a performer. I don’t love it.
Music industry (Record label, publicist, manager, etc.)
I have worked as a publicist while dedicated to a serious band and there were some benefits, but the music industry is also a highly competitive, always-on industry and being aware of every other band and label and blog all the time didn’t provide the peace of mind I needed to be fully immersed in making my best art.
Sound/Audio Engineer
This is a beautiful and noble profession. But it’s also incredibly competitive, and undervalued. Depending on the cost of living in your area, it can be hard to make enough money to support yourself. Being a producer/engineer is a creative path all its own. It requires creative and personal commitment. If you’re not a passionate producer, don’t waste your time working a mixing board. The world doesn’t need more disgruntled sound engineers who’d rather be on stage.
RECOMMENDED
And now for my favorite careers for developing artists!
Busking
Hear me out - this is my favorite way to make money as a musician. When you busk, you can get in a massive chunk of those first 10,000 hours performing your own songs live. If you can learn to engage and delight people, the chances are you’re really onto something. You can get real-time feedback about which of your songs connect with people and which ones to cycle out and replace. You can set up a QR code where people can follow your socials or subscribe to your newsletter and increase the size of your community while you’re at it. You might even get invited to play shows or make new connections. Put your pride aside and get out into the world with your songs.
Software Engineer/UX
I’ve seen so many musicians take up careers in tech. With many cheap and accessible bootcamps, remote working opportunities and high salaries, this is a great way for artists to spend their 9-5 while they work on their music at night.
Music Teacher
This is what I did for years before I started working in the music industry. I offered half-hour in-home lessons to kids for $65, did a few lessons a day and paid my rent. I was worried at first that I wasn’t a good enough musician to teach, but I found that what parents wanted most was for someone kind and patient to help their kids learn about music and have fun. I taught guitar and piano. I bought beginners' workbooks for each student from a local music shop and basically just taught from the book. I advertised on craigslist. I didn’t even have a website. If you’re reading this blog post, I guarantee you’d do a better job setting this up than I did. I like this because, while it is music-adjacent, it doesn’t require the same creative energy you need to write songs and perform. It also can offer a ton of flexibility and your students and their parents will be excited to hear about it when you need to take a couple of weeks off to tour.
Anything teacher
I’ve met countless school teacher/musicians during my two decades in music. Summers off. How much more should I say about this?
Only four suggestions? Yep these are the ones I’ve thought of. But again, my hope with this post is to teach you how to think about your career and how to pick work that supports your financial needs and wellbeing as an artist.
Would love to hear from you - what are your favorite ways to make money while you’re building your music career?
Signing off for now!
Cass
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