If you love making music, it’s one of the most fulfilling ways to earn a living. Whether it’s your full-time job or a lucrative side-gig, selling music is a creative way to make money doing something you love.

But what if the money’s not there? Selling your music doesn’t come with any guarantees. For a lot of musicians, the siren song of a profitable music career just isn’t worth the risk.

So how do you reduce that risk? Or even eliminate it altogether?

Making money from music isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. By setting up diversified, automated revenue streams⁠, musicians in 2020 are able to reduce the risk and take a chance on their dream career.

Wondering what that entails? You’ve come to the right place.

How to make money with music
1. Earn streaming royalties through digital distribution
2. Make money playing gigs
3. Sell band merchandise online
4. Collaborate with brands and other musicians
5. Sell beats and samples
6. Teach music classes and sell lessons

In the early stages of your music career, it’s crucial to have multiple revenue streams. Without the backing of a major record label, any single stream is unlikely to generate enough income for you to earn a living.

But operating together, a number of (mostly) automated revenue streams can help you mitigate risk and focus on making music, rather than selling it.

Let’s go over the most common revenue streams artists use to monetize their music:

1. Earn streaming royalties through digital distribution

It’s important here to understand the difference between a streaming service and a distribution network:

A streaming service is a platform people use to listen to music. The most popular are Spotify and Apple Music.

A distribution network distributes and collects royalties from those streaming services.

Musicians don’t really have a choice when it comes to streaming services. Not even the biggest artists in the world are protected from backlash when removing their music from popular streaming platforms.

It’s important that you stream your work on Spotify and Apple Music, the two largest, most globally available services. Other popular streaming services include Google Play, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music—plus genre-specific streaming services like BeatPort and JunoDownload, both of which cater to electronic music producers and fans.

How to find and select the right distribution network
Most distribution networks are able to send your music to all major streaming platforms, so this isn’t a major concern. However, there are significant differences in what services distribution networks offer, their pricing, and their royalty payments that are important to consider when you’re looking for your distribution service.