4 less obvious ways to make money as a musician

Comments · 476

• DA

  @DavidBennettPiano · 4 years ago · pinned

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdaVBIeOsW4&amp;t=322">5:22</a> What I&apos;m actually saying here is &quot;£100, £200, £1000...&quot;, &nbsp;not &quot;£100,000-£200,000&quot;. I just phrased it very oddly! Sorry for any confusion 💰😅

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• OL

  @oliverzwahlen · 4 years ago

  What is interesting about those four ways to make money: They also apply more or less to any other creative work. A friend of mine who is a freelance photographer has exactly the same four ways of income: He makes stock photos, produce photos for companies according to their needs, he presents his works in nursing homes and have them on social media.

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• PJ

  @pj4733 · 4 years ago

  I took a songwriting course recently in college and its crazy how you can make more money from a 30 second loop being licensed then a 3 minute song being streamed on all platforms combined

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• WE

  @WesCoastPiano · 4 years ago

  I&apos;ve been playing piano since I was 5 years old and I&apos;ve always struggled with finding a way to make a living out of it. So thank you for this.

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• JI

  @Jillbles · 4 years ago

  I used to work for a music library. It&apos;s been ages, but one of our more popular options was sound-alikes. Stuff that sounded reminiscent to popular/famous music, but just different enough to avoid infringing on copyright.

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• VI

  @victorhugotoledocofre1366 · 4 years ago

  200k quid? I think I&apos;ll better go dust my old keyboard 😆

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• JR

  @jrpipik · 4 years ago

  Consider becoming a church musician. &nbsp;They need someone they can rely on usually several times a week (and not usually when you&apos;d have other gigs, like Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings). &nbsp;Most don&apos;t require that you be an adherent of their faith (or any faith) as long as you can fit in with their style of worship. &nbsp;It&apos;s more fruitful for keyboard players, I&apos;ve found, but as a guitarist-bassist I&apos;ve managed to make a nice little piece of change over the past few years -- not a living wage, but a decent complement to other income.

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• MI

  @misanthropicmusings4596 · 4 years ago

  I&apos;m not the target for this video, as I am not a professional musician (just a guy who enjoys music analysis channels like David Bennett Piano) but I found this really fascinating, as I know that it is really hard for entertainers to find work in their field and am always interested in how they find avenues for their talents.

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• TI

  @Timmie1995 · 4 years ago

  I love that you mention care homes. I&apos;ve had quite a few internships with patients with dementia, and music&apos;s power to create a connection and trigger memories has always baffled me. Walking into a room and seeing personnel singing with a few patients always lifted my mood, no matter how stressed or annoyed I was.

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• CH

  @Chilajuana · 4 years ago (edited)

  I used to play at Care Homes back here in the U.S. and it was quite fun. We had the older people singing and dancing. In fact, a son of one of the older ladies sent my band a letter stating, the last thing he remembered his mother doing before she transcended was dancing on her walker to our music. She was dancing all the way to heaven!!!! lol Alleluia!!!

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• MI

  @MiguelMendesguitar · 4 years ago

  I&apos;d like to add one more way: transcribing music.<br><br>The majority of my income nowadays comes from this, I&apos;d consider it still a very small niche with not too much competition. There&apos;s always people wanting to learn a song and there will always be - I work mainly for guitar tabs but piano sheet music is requested quite a lot as well.<br>You can market yourself or work within an agencies (I do both).<br><br>Just make sure you do have some ear training/transcribing knowledge, meaning you can easily notate what&apos;s being played into a music notation software (Sibelius and Finale are the standards, I use Guitar Pro and some Finale).<br><br>Any questions you might have feel free to ask

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• ZA

  @zappababe8577 · 4 years ago

  There was a lovely man called Graham, sadly missed and taken from us far too soon. I met him because he ran the music group for people who suffered from mental health issues and I have depression. He also used to play at a hospital for elderly patients and used to joke that he got them up dancing on their Zimmer frames! He was incredibly talented, had an amazing sense of humour and was extremely enthusiastic as well. RIP Graham, I wish you were still with us, you brightened up the lives of everyone who knew you.

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