6 Ways You Can Still Thrive When Live Music Isn’t An Option

COVID-19 has taken the spotlight in many ways. 

We’ve experienced a lot of loss in our economy, politics, and everyday life across the planet.  

The pandemic has taken lives, caused economic disaster, led to mental health issues, and more.  

For musicians in particular, the coronavirus has been brutal. 

Most live music has disappeared for the foreseeable future. As a performing musician, my life has completely changed. 

I perform as a duo with my husband and we do a mix of R&B and sultry pop. We perform live music at bars and wineries in our local area and do a lot of touring. 

But, when COVID-19 came on the scene, all our shows were canceled. 

Some of our venues have closed down and others have said they won’t be doing music at all this year. 

The situation has caused a ton of loss and I don’t know when things will get back to the way they were, if ever. 

Additionally, I’ve lost my main means of connecting with local fans. This situation has forced me to reconsider my music strategy as a whole. 

I suspect other musicians will agree with me when I ask…

“How do I make money from music when live music is not an option?” 

I have some ideas.

Here are 6 ways you can thrive and even make money despite not being able to perform live…

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Pay More Attention To Social Media (Your Fans Are There)

I focused much of my energy on providing live music. 

I neglected social media platforms and online streaming, which are both excellent ways to engage with fans. 

That was a big mistake. 

Now, I’m making it a goal to build up content through these forms of media and focus on growing my audience there. 

YouTube is a major platform for growing a fanbase as well as earning an income. (You can even offer live music virtually).

The beauty of YouTube is that even as a musician, you can still cover any topic you want. It doesn’t have to be only about music! 

Your fans will get even more value out of content that compliments your music. There are lots of ways to engage your fans with video content besides your music! 

Here are a few:

• Backstage videos
• Band practice
• Meanings behind songs
• Answering a frequently asked question

Also, once you gain 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, you can monetize your channel. This will allow you to start earning an income from the ads on your videos. 

Quick-news platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a great advantage for delivering music content in small bites to a target audience. 

The thing about these platforms is that you have to commit! 

If you post relevant content more consistently, you get rewarded. The algorithms will boost your posts in news feeds and provide you with even more visibility.

Be sure to incorporate a complete music brand and artist persona along with your social media strategy. 

That way, you can look more authentic and attract the right fans to your music. This approach will give you measurable results and you’ll grow as you gain more fans. 

As a result, you’ll have even more opportunities to sell your music, merchandise, affiliate products, and more.

Provide Exclusivity As A Premium

Platforms like Patreon and Bandzoogle can be an artist’s dream. With these websites, you can build a reliable source of income. 

The way it works is simple… 

You create exclusive content and your fans agree to pay a specific amount each month to receive it. It’s like a subscription service where your content is the premium. 

Members can pay as little as $1 per month or hundreds of dollars. Either way, you’ll have a stable income stream that you can rely on month after month. 

The trick is, you have to deliver valuable content each month. It’s a bit of work, but it’s truly worth it if you can build up enough subscribers. 

Invest In At-Home Recording Equipment

As an independent musician, the best way to navigate the music industry is to have autonomy. 

This means investing in things that will allow you to record and stream your music from home. 

For example, setting up a home recording studio can save you a ton of time and money.

With this setup, you can produce your own music and distribute it to your fans through live streaming or digital distribution at your convenience. 

You don’t need to depend on a studio, producer, or engineer.

Consider Remote Options 

The best music involves collaboration!

Thanks to technology, you can create beautiful music with others without leaving your house.  

Places like Soundcloud and Facebook groups provide easy access to tons of musicians for a variety of music projects. 

By working remotely, you’ll have the ability to add layers of complexity to your tracks with the expertise of musicians from all over the world. 

Remote work can also be a big source of revenue.

There are several online workplace platforms that allow you to connect with people looking to hire musicians.

Whether you can offer music-related services or provide virtual assistant support, finding jobs online is a great way to supplement your music income. 

If you’d like to try your hand at remote work, check out Upwork. This platform takes a small fee from every job, but you can still earn a significant amount from using it. 

If you’d like to offer services in the music/audio category, there are plenty of options. Jobs can involve mixing, mastering, songwriting, voiceovers, and transcribing. 

There are more job opportunities in non-music categories as well, such as writing, graphic design, event planning, appointment scheduling, data entry, and more. 

Offering to do jobs remotely gives you a lot of flexibility as you’d be working from home and likely setting your own schedule. 

Develop Passive Income Sources

Looking for other ways to earn money is basically a musician’s favorite hobby, or should be at least. 

If we only learn one thing from these uncertain times, it should be to establish many streams of revenue. 

Passive income is an excellent way to generate a constant flow of revenue from multiple places. It can really help you keep up with financial obligations as an entrepreneur. 

Passive income is money you make from something you set up ahead of time. 

The passive income source is on auto-pilot so you can earn money from it consistently, even while you sleep. This type of income usually doesn’t need a lot of maintenance, but some do. 

Some ideas for automated income include:

• Blogging
• Online workshops
• Affiliate marketing
• YouTube channel monetization
• Dropshipping

There are many ways to incorporate passive income strategies into your daily routine.  

Affiliate marketing is one of my personal favorites! It is a special form of marketing where you recommend other people’s products to your audience. 

Once someone buys a product through your link, you will earn a commission. 

Amazon, a huge online retailer, offers a great affiliate program called Amazon Associates. They will credit you with a sale even if that particular sale didn’t include any products you referred. 

As long as the customer arrives at Amazon within 24 hours after clicking your link, you’ll get a commission on anything they buy. 

I have earned commissions from hairbrushes, toothbrushes, and all kinds of products simply by referring some books on my blog. 

Adding affiliate marketing to your daily routine is easy. All you’ll need to do is share your favorite products on platforms where you engage with fans. 

These platforms can include:

• Social media
• Your email newsletter
• Your website and blog

Passive income strategies take effort to begin, but the results can be amazing.

Play the Long Game

To see success, musicians must think about long-term goals. 

Focus on where you want to be in the next 5 years and 10 years. This will give you a clear perspective on what you should be working on now to achieve those goals.  

It will also help you make informed decisions about how to spend your time day-to-day. As a result, you’ll have a much more solid foothold when things get rocky. 

I never imagined that a pandemic would decimate my number-one stream of income. 

But, fortunately, I’d been developing side-freelancing opportunities and passive income systems simultaneously.

These options have always been a part of my long-term goals. As infrastructures began to crumble, I’m extremely thankful that I had something to fall back on.

Being a musician requires creativity on many different levels. 

Today’s challenge is one thing, but there will always be another challenge. If you’re doing any type of creative outlet as a profession, challenges are inevitable. 

That’s why we should strive for as much independence as possible. 

This means we’ve got to figure out how to meet the needs of our fans on a global level. Also, we should always put in place multiple ways of earning money.  

The bottom line is, when performing is not an option, there are still lots of other options.

You can still thrive and make money even if you can’t play live.

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Anitra Jay is an acoustic soul singer-songwriter based in Houston, TX. She’s found significant success in establishing a lasting fanbase using her special brand of marketing techniques, which she shares freely with other artists on The Crafty Musician blog.