Fund Your Music Career With Freelance Writing

by Posted on

It’s time to get creative.

Today’s music industry demands it, especially when you need to fund your music career.

There are lots of ways to make supplemental income to support your music. And one reliable way is freelance writing. 

I’m a writer by day, so I know how to get paid to write. 

And I want to share what I know so you can do the same.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

STAY MOTIVATED

Download the FREE One-Thing-A-Day chart. Start moving toward your success one step at a time.

Why Freelance Writing Works For Part-Time Musicians

Being a musician today requires multiple streams of revenue, both active and passive income.

You need as many methods as possible for making money from your passion. And funding for musicians, like grants, can be hard to get ahold of.

Enter freelance writing. 

If you write songs, you’re comfortable with words, so there’s a good chance you could write helpful music advice content.

Even if you don’t write songs but have a lot of experience in a certain area, you can share your knowledge through blogging. 

Here are some clear benefits to freelance writing as a musician:

  • You can easily do it on the side
  • It’s completely remote work
  • It can pay well
  • You can generate backlinks to your website
  • You can help other musicians

Because of these reasons, it’s a convenient (but not always easy) side-hustle you can use to pour money into your music career. 

How To Start Freelance Writing

Here’s a step-by-step process for getting into freelance writing. These are the general things I did to become a full-time writer. 

Find your niche

Obviously, you’re trying to write about music in general. But what specifically are you good at? What are you an expert in?

When I write for my clients, I focus on balancing music and life, recording at home, and songwriting. Those are the things I have authority on because I do them every day. 

I don’t write about performing anymore because I don’t perform. I don’t write about mastering music because I don’t know how to.

If you’re wondering how to find your niche, it might help to first figure out what type of musician you want to be.

Then start writing about being that kind of musician. 

Start a blog

This is a simple and easy step that can make a drastic difference. Before you start writing for other websites, you need your own. 

It acts as a writing portfolio for potential clients to see. And it’s the best way to practice your writing. 

A smart move would be to start a blog on your music website rather than a separate platform.

By getting more visits to your official music website, people are more likely to listen to your music. 

Create a content calendar

I didn’t create a content calendar for this blog until a couple of years after I launched it.

Don’t do that. 

Not having a content calendar will lead to sporadic posting. You won’t have focus topic-wise. It’s kind of chaotic. 

But with a content calendar, I can see the big message I’m sharing across all my posts. I can easily write ahead. I can have a better balance of topics within my niche. 

Learn from me. Create a content calendar. I use this content calendar template from CoSchedule.

Get on Quora

Quora is a place where people anonymously ask questions about literally anything and everything, including music stuff. Then other people answer those questions to varying degrees of helpfulness.

So if you can answer people’s questions helpfully, that builds your trustworthiness. You can also include links to relevant articles and videos, including some of your blog content. 

Just make sure your answers are truly helpful, not just an attempt to get visits to your website.

If your answers are amazing, people will upvote and reply to your answers. They may also visit your Quora profile, which is where you can include a link to your blog. 

I get a handful of referrals to this blog from Quora each month. Plus, who knows how many musicians my answers have helped even if they didn’t click through to this site. 

Post on Music Think Tank

Music Think Tank is a website where anyone in the music industry can post helpful content. Its motto is “where the music industry thinks out loud.” 

You can re-post content from your blog or just create unique content for MTT. Either way, you can link back to your site and build your reputation as a trusted source in your niche. 

The only rule to remember is the one-post-a-month rule. They ask that you submit posts no more than once a month. 

My content has been shared on the front page of Music Think Tank and in their Weekly Recap, generating visits to this blog. 

Pitch your ideas to music blogs (FREE email template)

After you’ve written and published some content on your blog, it’s time to start getting some guest posts.

These may not be paid jobs (at least in the beginning), but they will get you backlinks, referrals to your blog, and a decent portfolio. 

Start reaching out to some music advice blogs and pitch your ideas. (If you need blogs to start with, I listed some in the next section).

Here’s an email template you can use for your pitch:

[SUBJECT]: Write for [NAME OF BLOG]

Hi, [EDITOR’S NAME/NAME OF BLOG]!

Just wanted to say thank you for your blog post on [REFERENCE THEIR BLOG POST]. It was super helpful because [WHY YOU LIKED IT].

I’m a [TYPE OF MUSICIAN YOU ARE] based in [YOUR LOCATION] and I have [YOUR LEVEL/AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE IN YOUR FIELD].

I’d love to write a guest post for your blog. Here are some topics I came up with:

- [POST IDEA 1 + ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY]

- [POST IDEA 2 + ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY]

- [POST IDEA 3 + ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY]

And here’s where you can check out my writing: [LINK TO YOUR BLOG/PORTFOLIO]

Let me know if any of these ideas would help your readers. If so, I can turn this around in [YOUR TURNAROUND TIME].

I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

[YOUR NAME]

If the editor wants to work with you, they’ll probably ask for a short bio and a link to your website. If not, include it with your blog post. 

Once you’ve got a few guest blog posts in your portfolio, you can start charging per-word or per-article. A reasonable beginner’s rate is 4 or 5 cents per word.

Music advice websites to submit to

Here are some websites I’ve written for and others that look promising. Some of these pay and some don’t:

Freelance Writing Tools

To help you get started, here are some freelance writing tools I use all the time. I swear by them. And they’re all free.

Balancing Writing With Music

I was a writer on the side for several years, two of which I was actively pursuing it as a career.

And these are some things I’ve learned about balancing freelance writing with music and life.

When to write

I write best early in the morning (unfortunately). So I’ll often do songwriting or blogging at 5:30 a.m. That’s when my internal editor is still slumbering. 

On the other hand, I don’t write as well at night. I’m much better at making music before I go to bed. 

My point is, test out your writing skills at different times of the day. Or even on different days — some people have more brainpower on the weekends. 

Once you find your ideal writing time, schedule “Do freelance writing” in your calendar. Hold yourself accountable.

It’s for your music career, after all.

How to write effectively

Because you’ll be writing on the side, you have to make the most of your time. 

So here are some quick tips for squeezing the most out of your writing sessions:

  • Implement Parkinson’s Law by setting a timer for yourself while writing
  • Create a detailed outline before you start writing anything
  • Do your research — it’s the foundation for your post/article
  • Don’t edit yourself while writing — just get it all out and edit later
  • Proofread your own work on a different day than when you wrote it
  • Link to reputable sources when appropriate/helpful
  • For posts on your blog, link to your other blog posts when it’s fitting
  • Consider taking a writing course, like The Six Figure Freelance Writer, which I really benefitted from

Be patient

Whether you’re running your own blog or writing for clients, the key is to be patient. 

It took me a while to go from writing in the evenings and on the weekends to being a part writer/part customer service agent.

Then it took two years after that until I went full-time with writing. And then it was 1-2 years before I started writing for places like Sonicbids, Bandzoogle, and Soundfly.

You’re probably not trying to be a full-time writer. But my point is that it can take a while before you start making decent money writing or getting steady traffic to your blog. 

You can totally fund your music career with freelance writing. It just takes intention, patience, and a desire to help others.

FREE ONE-THING-A-DAY CHART

Start moving toward your success one step at a time. Grab the One-Thing-A-Day chart for FREE.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *