April 14, 2024

4 Side Projects Musicians Can Consider

🇺🇦 Side-Line stands with Ukraine - Show your Support

When you’re in music, it’s always better to have multiple streams of income coming your way. You never know when you won’t be able to perform and some gigs might suddenly dry up. This is why you need a plan B in case things don’t work out as well as you had wished. The good news is that your talent as a musician could be much more valuable than you think, and if you’re skilled and are ready to think outside the box, here are a few side projects you could consider to earn extra income.

Start a Spotify Playlist

Did you know that you could make money from your playlists on Spotify? You have services like Playlist Push that will send tracks from promising artists for curators to review. You will get paid for each track that you review and will be able to find great tunes to add to your playlist.

Another way that you can make money as a playlist creator is by approaching brands and offering your services to them. One thing you should never do, however, is accept payment from record labels or agents to put music on your playlist. This goes against Spotify’s terms of service, so do not take the risk.

Learn How to Become a Producer

Another thing you should do is consider becoming a producer if you’re not one already. There are tons of tutorials on YouTube that will allow you to learn how to use things like ProTools, Logic Pro, Fruity Loops, and Ableton. Once you get familiar with them, you can start selling your productions online. There are various sites like Airbit and Beatstars that allow you to sell beats online, but one of the best ways to do so is to start a YouTube channel.

A common way people get discovered is by making beats that resemble those of other popular producers or artists. People looking for the artist or music by this producer might listen to yours and like it. They will also appreciate the fact that they could get the same level of production for a fraction of the price.

Start a TV Channel

You might think that starting your own TV channel is too complex, but it’s much simpler now than ever. You could start a channel surrounding your genre of music and cover events, offer live performances, post current content and videos, or interview artists. You could also start a cultural channel and speak about broader subjects surrounding a particular culture or community.

You have services like Red Bee Media that will help you with everything from channel origination to playout. They can help you whether you want to create a traditional TV channel or one that will be served directly to your viewers via the internet. They can help with consulting too if you want to know the regulations you might have to abide by or need strategic help.

Teach

One of the simplest ways for any musician to earn some extra income is to teach others. There are tons of ways that you could do this. You could start a YouTube channel and monetise it. One great way to gain recognition would be to teach people how to play songs that are trending at the moment. You’ll be able to benefit from that traction and gain attention for your other videos. You could even create a course and advertise it through your videos.

These are just some of the ways that you could make some extra money on the side as a musician. Don’t be too rigid and try something new, you never know what could happen.

author avatar
Bernard - Side-Line Staff Chief editor
Bernard Van Isacker is the Chief Editor of Side-Line Magazine. With a career spanning more than two decades, Van Isacker has established himself as a respected figure in the darkwave scene.

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

The donations are safely powered by Paypal.

Select a Donation Option (USD)

Enter Donation Amount (USD)

Verified by MonsterInsights