It’s the question every songwriter asks at some point.
Can I make a living as a songwriter?
But the answer is not just a simple yes or no. It’s more nuanced than that.
And I’m going to try to answer that question.
So in this comprehensive guide on how to become a songwriter, we’ll cover:
- How Much Money Do Songwriters Make?
- How The Hit Songwriters Make Money
- The Lifestyle Of A Professional Songwriter
- A Typical Day For A Songwriter
- Do Songwriters Need To Record Their Songs?
- Do Songwriters Need A Songwriting Education?
- How You Can Make Money As A Songwriter
How Much Money Do Songwriters Make?
This is a hard question to answer because it’s so general.
You can make anywhere from a blue-collar income to hundreds of thousands of dollars for one song.
The point is, you can make a decent living as a songwriter-artist. If you want to be a songwriter only, that’s a bit tougher.
Ester Dean, who’s written songs for Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige, Nicki Minaj, Selena Gomez, Usher, and Beyoncé, knows what it’s like to be a songwriter.
“It’s very difficult to predict how much money you’re going to make on a particular song. The way songwriters make money is in royalties: If a song gets played on the radio or licensed for a film or downloaded from iTunes, you get a very small percentage of that money. But you don’t see that money for a long time, because it takes months for the song to get recorded, released, and finally played.”
- Ester Dean
But, as I’ll talk about below, you have a better chance if you’re a songwriter and an artist.
How The Hit Songwriters Make Money
Jason Blume has written a lot of songs for famous artists, like Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Waylon Jennings.
And he says a songwriter’s bread-and-butter is royalties.
“…100% of your income comes from royalties earned when people buy digital and tangible recordings of your songs…and from streaming,” he says, adding that this includes performance royalties.
“It doesn’t matter how many songs you write or how amazing they are,” he goes on. “You only get paid when people buy or stream the songs, and when they are performed or broadcast…”
Of course, this is assuming you’re writing songs for other artists.
If you’re also the artist, there are plenty of other revenue streams (more on that below).
Let’s look at Mark Foster, the frontman of Foster The People, as an example. His song “Pumped Up Kicks” earned over $400,000.
And you know what he was doing before his band blew up?
He was waiting tables, painting houses, being a bartender, and writing jingles.
So the point is, if you can write a great song, you can make a lot of money. And you don’t need a big-name artist to record it.
Yeah, if a famous person records your song, that would be fantastic for you. But it’s not necessary.
Now, to collect all the royalties you’re owed, you need to register your songs with a Publishing Rights Organization (performance royalties), sign up with SoundExchange (digital performance royalties), and sign up with either Songtrust or Sentric (mechanical/publishing royalties).
If you don’t, you won’t get that money.
The Lifestyle Of A Professional Songwriter
I once heard someone ask, “Is being a songwriter a 24/7 job?”
And to that, I’d say, “Yes and no.”
In a sense, your songwriting brain is almost always on alert.
You hear someone say something interesting. You’re moved by a story. Something in a book jumps out to you.
So you’re not working 24/7, but your songwriter software is running all the time.
People also assume that being a songwriter isn’t really “work.”
Okay, let’s explore that idea…
I’ve heard full-time songwriters say their career is fun and rewarding a lot of the time. But they also say it feels like a day job some days.
The full-time songwriters and musicians I know treat their careers like…well, careers. Because that’s what they are.
These artists have typical working hours. They have a solid work ethic. They use contracts.
Being a professional songwriter isn’t easy. It’s rewarding, but you’ve got to earn that title.
A Typical Day For A Songwriter
You’re probably wondering what a typical day looks like for a songwriter.
So here’s an abbreviated schedule of songwriter-artist Aaron Espe‘s day (via his blog):
- 8:30am – make my to-do list, turn TV on (news), get updated while listening for song ideas.
- 9am – walk to studio in backyard and write by myself for at least one hour.
- 10am – complete etc. stuff on my to-do list and prep for cowriting session.
- 11am – welcome cowriter to the studio, catch up (if someone I know) or get to know them, and figure out a song direction for the day.
- 11:30am – write a song.
- 4pm – cowriter leaves, and I begin production of song demo if I haven’t started already (sometimes I’ll begin production once we have completed a verse and chorus).
- 5pm – [Family stuff — he’s married with a few kids]
- 9pm – if I have enough energy, go back out to studio and work on the day’s song demo. Otherwise, watch baseball and have some alone time.
And here’s a typical day for full-time songwriter Lacy Green:
- Do songwriting starting at 10 a.m. (usually co-writing) usually until the afternoon
- Record a quick demo using an iPhone (one of the necessary songwriting tools) and send it to the songwriters’ respective publishers
- Sometimes have a second songwriting session around 2-3 p.m.
- With the rest of her time, she performs these songs at writers rounds
So yeah, songwriters have an appealing schedule and lifestyle.
Do Songwriters Need To Record Their Songs?
If you want to go the route of writing songs to pitch to other artists, do you need to record your own versions of those songs?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, but you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars recording a radio-ready song.
You could probably get away with a phone recording of you singing and playing guitar. You just have to perform the song well.
“Make sure you’ve got a demo,” says Daniel Reifsnyder, Grammy-nominated songwriter. “Guitar and vocal is okay — or even a decent home recording.
“Just don’t send a work tape where you start, stop, or stumble over the words to an artist! Remember, this may very well be an artist’s first impression of you as a writer — make it a good one.”
And Dean says “your recordings don’t have to be perfect, but they do have to be powerful.”
It’s got to resonate with the artist to whom you’re pitching it.
I’ll talk more about pitching your songs to artists in a bit.
Do Songwriters Need A Songwriting Education?
Do you need to go to school for songwriting?
Some people might say yes, but I say no.
Most of the songwriters you love (or whose songs you love) didn’t go to school for songwriting.
“Music publishers don’t care whether or not you have a degree in songwriting, or what else you’ve done. It’s a business, and they care about one thing: whether you can deliver songs that they believe will earn you — and them — lots of money.”
- Jason Blume
Yes, songwriting classes or workshops can be helpful. It’s always good to learn.
But please don’t spend hundreds of thousands or even thousands of dollars on a songwriting education.
You can learn a ton from your songwriting idols, blogs (like this one :), YouTube videos, your fellow songwriters, and through lots of practice.
Need songwriting ideas?
Get the FREE booklet 78 Songwriting Prompts To Get You Unstuck below
How You Can Make Money As A Songwriter
Okay, now for the juicy stuff. How do you make them dolla-dolla bills?
Let’s assume you write songs every day and your best songs are truly great.
If so, these are practical ways you can start making money as a songwriter today.
Earn Streaming Royalties
Recording and distributing your original music — this is the most obvious revenue stream for songwriters.
Anyone can record their songs at home and release them worldwide, sometimes for free. Once you pick a digital distributor and send your music to Spotify, Apple Music, etc., you can start earning royalties.
For example:
- Streaming platforms pay you per interactive stream via your digital distributor
- SoundExchange (U.S. only) pays you for digital performance royalties if your song is streamed in a public place
- Publishing admin companies (like Songtrust or Sentric) collect and pay you mechanical royalties when someone streams, downloads, or buys your song
Performance Royalties
PROs collect performance royalties for you. A performance royalty is when you or someone else plays your song live.
You earn a performance royalty when your song is played in a public place, like:
- On TV
- In restaurants or bars
- On video streaming platforms, like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube
- Over the speakers at a clothing store or grocery store
- On the radio
- In gyms
BMI and ASCAP (the two biggest PROs in the U.S.) pay 88% of their collections to its members, and they split the royalties 50/50 between the songwriter and publisher (you’re probably both).
For example, when I perform my song live, I typically get paid $1-2 per song per performance.
Just imagine if an artist records your song and plays it at every show on a country-wide tour. That’s a lot of performance royalties going to you.
Pitch Your Songs To Local Artists
If you’re trying to figure out how to become a songwriter professionally, you probably won’t have access to Shawn Mendes or Lil Nas X.
You’ve got to start closer to home. It’s best to start out selling songs to artists in your area.
Try approaching local or regional artists who are on their way up.
Who’s creating a buzz in your area? Who has talent but isn’t yet filling up huge venues?
Find those artists. Make sure your song could fit next to the other songs they’ve recorded. Listen to their music, read their bio, and really get to know them.
Then, if they’re a good fit for your great song, reach out to them. Send them a professional email asking if you can pitch them a song.
If they say yes, follow these basic dos and don’ts in your pitch.
If they say no, thank them for their time and move on to the next artist.
If they don’t respond, send them a polite follow-up email after a week or so. It’s possible they like your track but didn’t get a chance to reply, or maybe they didn’t see the email.
“Please don’t bombard the artist with multiple songs. Nobody has time to listen to 10 or 12, even if they’re really good! Pick three at the absolute most.”
- Daniel Reifsnyder, Grammy-nominated songwriter
License Your Music For TV And Film
Sync licensing is when your song gets placed in a TV show, commercial, movie, video game, or any type of visual media.
As I wrote in this comprehensive sync licensing guide, you can earn anywhere from $50 to $100,000 per placement.
Plus, you can earn sync royalties, depending on the situation and the agreement with the licensor. And again, your PRO will collect these royalties for you, so go sign up for free.
Get A Publishing Deal
A publishing deal is when you sign over a portion of the songwriting rights of your song to a publishing company. In exchange, the publisher tries to get artists to record and release your songs.
They can also provide a lot of other opportunities for you. A publisher may:
- Pay you to do songwriting full-time or part-time — the publisher gives you an advance, which you then have to earn back via the royalties from songs you’ve written and artists have recorded.
- Give you a budget for recording demos.
- Pitch your songs to record labels, producers, and artists to try to get someone to record your song.
- Provide networking opportunities. Having a publishing deal gives you a bit of influence and respect in the songwriting world and can get you in front of the right people.
However, there are some things to be cautious of, like:
- A publisher’s advance and demo budget are basically loans. You’ll need to pay them back via the song royalties your songs earn, assuming an artist records them and they do well.
- You’re giving up a portion of the rights to your songs.
- Your songs may not have high enough priority for the publishing company to actively pitch them to artists.
Here’s Dean on the reality of working with a publisher:
“Even [after getting an advance from a publishing company], you definitely need a second job. I worked in elderly homes for about seven years before I could pay my rent with songwriting alone, and it took five years after I got a publishing deal before I’d really ‘made it.'”
But she made it.
So how do you pitch songs to music publishers?
Google “music publishing companies.” Then find a company with a roster of artists who release music like yours.
Usually, the company will have a submission page, contact info, or you can sign up with one online and get involved in their publishing services.
You Can Make A Living As A Songwriter…Starting Today
I would suggest using more than one of these methods for making a living as a songwriter.
I’m a songwriter and artist, so I’m pursuing streaming royalties and sync licensing. I’d totally be up for writing a song for another artist, I’m just not intentionally going that route.
I don’t want to give up any portion of my songs, so a typical publishing deal is not appealing to me.
But whatever methods you’d like to pursue, you can totally earn a living doing songwriting. It’ll just take consistent effort and, of course, amazing songs.
Have you had success with making money as a songwriter? Share your story in the comments!