I'm constantly out and about meeting new people.  A question that I get all the time and I'm sure you get as well, is "what do you do?".  Although I actually "do" a lot of things, I really consider myself a musician first and foremost.  It's what I most strongly identify with and so I simply tell people I'm a musician.  Almost invariably I get a response that goes something like this:  "That's really cool that you get to do what you love... But It must be really hard to make a living as a musician."  Usually I respond by saying something like this, "It can be a challenge, but for me it would be A LOT harder to make a living doing something I don't enjoy." 

 

The fact is that I make a very respectable salary as a musician and although I'm certainly not rich by any means (yet) I actually make well above the national average.  And if you're not already, you can too! Making a living as musician can be challenging, but if you love making music the rewards that come from waking up and doing what you love everyday will make it all worthwhile. 

 

If you're an independent musician, and if you're reading this I assume you are, one of the keys to creating a sustainable income is diversification.  For a number of years I taught guitar at a very successful retail music store.  The store that I worked at was an independently owned store that does well over a million dollars in business annually.  One of the owner's keys to success was creating several different revenue streams that together created a very nice income stream that has made the owner very wealthy and his employees well compensated.  The store has a great lesson program, multiple high end guitar lines and a strong internet presence.  The beauty of this is that if one of the revenue streams slows one of the other two streams tends to compensate and keep things running successfully.

 

You can utilize this same principle as a musician.  I have done a variety of things to make a living which include:  running this website, teaching guitar, performing, writing music for local ad campaigns, selling CDs and writing songs for TV shows.  It's been the combination of these endeavors that has allowed me to flourish.  But of all the things I've accomplished it's probably been hearing my music on TV that has been the most exciting.  There's just something about knowing that music you created is being heard in millions of homes that's very rewarding.

 

There are a lot of opportunities to have your music placed in TV shows.  My cable package has over 100 channels, and ALL of them are using independent music in one way or another.  The production quality of music for TV needs to be what is considered "broadcast quality".  This means better than a demo but not necessarily as good as a record.  Music supervisors are typically looking for music that they can place as is, without re-editing.  All of the music I have had placed over the last few years was recorded in home studios, usually using Pro Tools.

 

Do you have high quality recordings of your music that aren't generating income?  Why not learn how to license your songs in tv and films and start generating a passive income stream from your music. Sure it will take you some effort and work now, but it's effort and work that will help you bring in money for your music for years to come. You spent the time and effort required to learn how to play an instrument and write songs, why not learn how to actually make money from your creation??

 

My program on music licensing, The A To Z Of Music Licensing is a comprehensive education on how the business of music licensing works and how you can start licensing your songs today. It's available by itself here.

 

As well as with email coaching.

 

And with coaching both via Phone AND Email here. 

 

 

Until Next Time....

Aaron Davison