Most musicians nowadays are always on the lookout for new ways to reach more people and get exposure for their work, today the internet can be your very best friend for the task at hand as there are plenty of ways to reach a worldwide audience.
We have compiled the most efficient methods that have had an economical impact on the artist and have also reached a very large and unexpected amount of people, for you to check out and try on your own.

1. Crowdfunding: With a very vast success rate, crowdfunding has proved to be a financial edge for artists who are seeking investment, Crowdfunding can help even to launch your musical career or record your very first album if it turns out successful.

It has multiple ebenfits for both parties as the donation amount they offer you can be exchanged for a reward so it is a Win-Win situation.

There are multiple platforms like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo that have raised millions of dollars for a vast number of purposes.

1. Build your email list: This is an age-old marketing tactic that you definitely want to incorporate into your life as an artist. You don’t want to have your fan base only connected to your social media. What if that method goes away? You’ve lost them and you have to start all over. Always have someone to market your next product or concert to by building your list.

A good mailing list is in which you can offer them a varied amount of merch, or an exclusive fan-based premium item for those subbed to your mailing list earning some extra cash and giving value to your fans for helping you achieve and conquer new goals as an artist.

There are multiple online tutorials and sites that offer mailing list services for massive emails sent with a ton of great features to assist you and making the task far easier and less time taking.

1. Music Blog: Music blogs have long surpassed many magazines and have become one of the main sources on obtaining information for many people interested in music, all the way from the fans to the musicians themselves.A big blog can amass thousands and thousands of people a day, so hosting one for yourself is a great idea.

Most blogs use a monetization sysyem (Google for example) to set advertisements in the blog and for every visit you receive a micro amount of money that with time it can generate a large sum if taken seriously and keeping the blog updated and with constant traffic.

1. Youtube Song Cover Videos: We have all seen these amazing upcoming artists who focus on covering a varied amount of artists or songs we all know, sometimes adding an interesting twist to it or playing it in a differents style.

Song covers are perfectly fine to do and upload to Youtube or any video Hosting service in which you can request for a monetization plan.

Today, many talent scouters go straight online, it saves time and the process for them becomes less arduous.

1. Video Monetization: Many independent artists upload their songs to video platforms, and these platforms usually offer some kind of monetization system in which you get paid by allowing the video host service to post advertisements around your video or the website.

The one that has proven most efficient as it has billions (Yes billions!) of annual views between all the uploaded content from its users it’s Youtube, and their monetization system is very fast and easy to setup, you can start earning even from previously uploaded videos you have, by activating in the settings the monetization button.

1. YouTube Content ID Fingerprinting: Make sure your music is put into a database that allows YouTube to match anytime your song is used. That means every time your music is added to a random skateboarding or fashion video, you’ll get a slice of the revenue. If your distributor doesn’t offer it, use a service like Audiam or INDmusic.
2. VEVO Video Hosting: Associated with Youtube, Vevo has been a successful platform for serious artists, if you have high quality videos that you believe can attract large audiences VEVO is a very good host to consider as it also pays significantly higher rates than Youtube.
3. Upload More videos: Your videos do not always have to be about your music, they can be lessons on a specific matter, for example, many guitar players open tutorials to how to play guitar basics or and specific song.
4. Video Playlist: In Youtube one of the best features for setting up all your video is creating a Playlist, many people overlook this feature but it is vastly used.You basically bundle up all your videos in a list and people have the feature to play them one after another, this way your older videos can still reach some audience and yo will not have to work on exposing every single one of them individually.

1. Annotation Links in Videos (Itunes or any online music store): Another great feature of monetizing a video channel is the annotation links with no Copyright Issues, what does this mean? You can link people who watch your videos to the direct site where they can purchase the song, or even better the whole album!

11. (Almost) Free Banner Ads: Little known fact. If you spend just $1 on YouTube ads to your video, you can put up a free banner ad at the beginning of the video that can go anywhere you want. Sell merch, concert tickets…anything. After you place an ad, a “Call-To-Action Overlay” tab will appear on your Info/Settings tab in Video Manager. Voila, free promotion to sell your wares.

1. Concert Ticket Bundles: If you are going to perform any time soon and are looking to sell some more tickets offer something when they buy them from you, some sort of merchandise like a T-shirt usually works very well and it is a very budget friendly situation for your fan as he will feel like he is saving his money up and will get to see you live at the same time!
2. A Raffle/ Fan appreciation Events: You can not charge for a raffle to your fans, as it is illegal to do so but yo can give a free giveaway, showcase your winning fans in your social networks and they will share this with friends and family maybe earning you some new fresh faces.

A few days after the raffle post purchase links to your most recent album or single and you might get some more attention than usual.

1. Join A Network: You can join a YouTube network such as Fullscreen or Maker Studios who leverage your audience for higher ad rates. They may also bring other monetizing opportunities for your videos, not to mention cross promotional opportunities to drive up views.
2. Patreon: How about a guaranteed payment from your fans for each video you put up no matter how many views it gets? Patreon is a unique model where your fans pledge small monetary figures for Kickstarter-style rewards. The results is knowing how much money you might make from a video before you even make it!

1. Description Links: After you include the basic information on your video in the description, make sure you add outbound links to everything that you’d like to sell to prospective fans. Merch stores, iTunes, Spotify…all great places to draw your fans to for further revenue.
2. Licensing Companies: Do not wait for someone to randomly find your song to put behind them on YouTube. Have people who are actively looking for songs to license. Companies like Audiosocket and CueSongs allow artists to have.
3. Live video recording party: If you plan on doing a live in concert CD or DVD, charge a small fee and invite fans to be part of your live video audience. Promote it as a chance to be part of the video and fans will be thrilled to be involved.
4. Digital Sales: You must be selling your music through different websites that host this service. Keep in mind that online retailers take a percentage of sales Some digital distributors that place your music in stores like iTunes and Amazon will take a cut on top of that.
5. Physical Merch: It depends heavily on how many live shows you play having some t-shirts, buttons , pins, stickers and anything you can come up to can come in handy if you start selling via online your own website
6. Digital Merch: Digital merchandise refers to exclusive items such as a photo shoot set or a video collection with some bloopers in it or just a PDF booklet with some Q&A hold by the band.
7. Cover Art: Another of the highly requested needs of many bands is album cover art, you can charge a substantial amount of money or get to an agreement where you earn a share of the total album sales, it really depends on the agreement you make with the artist or band you are working with.

Cover art is the first thing that catches our attention when we see an album even online, we see a small interesting drawing and we even decide to listen to a song or two, we try to relate the artwork with the songs, so always have in consideration this if you have graphical design skills or artistic skills as a method to make some extra cash.

1. Hashtags: Websites like Twitter are those that popularized the use of hashtags. You can search within the website a specific hashtag like #Music and it will pop up all the most recent posts that have used it.

If you are trying to reach a large audience for example and you are a rap artist, you can google the most used hashtags for rap artists and make several different posts a day involving what you are trying to expose

1. AARC royalties: collected for digital recording of your songs, foreign private copying levies, and foreign record rental royalties, distributed to US artists by AARC.

1. Songwriting/Composing: If you’re a songwriter, you could write songs for other musicians, or compose music specifically for film and television.
   

1. Streaming: Online streaming is a very effective tool for drawing an audience and after the transmission offer them something or make an announcement.
   

Although per-stream payouts from streaming services tend to be small, they can add up over time.

1. Trailers: YouTube is encouraging channel owners to make a 30 second commercial promoting your channel and placing it on the front page of your Channel page. Great. You can also sign up on Fan Finder and they’ll run the ad in front of other videos for free. Bringing in fans and revenue.
   

1. Live Online Shows: Not to be confused with streaming an online show you priorly charge your fans an entry fee to the “virtual concert” you are hosting, you can announce it on social networks a few days before the event so that you can amass as much people as possible.
   

Try the site Stageit.com. They allow you to perform a live streaming concert for a portion of your ticket sales and they even allow fans to tip you while you’re performing!

1. Publishing Royalties: You should be signed up to a performing rights organization so you can collect royalties on your music. This includes public performance royalties (radio, TV, live venues), mechanical royalties (sales through retailers, streaming, etc.), and sync royalties (commercials, film, TV).
   

1. Digital Royalties: services like SiriusXM radio, Pandora, and webcasters, they must pay royalties when using one of your songs.
   

1. Licensing: One of the most profitable and oldest methods of making money for your music whether it is internet based or in real life it is licensing, if they use your song in the radio, in a movie, in a commercial, or any kind of profitable project they have to pay you a licensing fee to be allowed to use it.

1. Licensing of your Persona: Register your work online but overall register yourself, as an artist, this process usually brings an extra money as they do not only have to pay for using your song they also have to pay for using your artistic name and give you recognition for your work.

1. Sharing is Caring: You need your music to start selling and you are an iTunes user?

iTunes is one if not the most saturated music selling platform out there and sometimes new artists that do not have a worldwide impact do not get noticed enough, a great way to boost your sakes is by simply sharing in a daily basis your songs, use different social networks and try to build an audience of followers or listeners or subscribers little by little.

iTunes has a “Tell a Friend” function which enables you to share reviews and playlists with friends and this method has proven to be noticed in a more often basis.

1. Music for web-shows: The web-show movement is booming and many shows need songs for their introductions or throughout their episodes and they can’t pay the hefty licensing fees for mainstream music. This is also a way to expose your music to larger audience. Start by contacting some of your favorite web-shows via sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
   

Ask them if they are looking for original music to add to upcoming episodes. Be sure to include web-links in your correspondence so they can easily access samples of your music.

1. Cover Gigs: If you are performing live in a bar or someplace outside it is good to setup a camera with a live stream, this is very useful for tribute bands or artists who do covers.
   

1. Photos and Autographs: If you already own a small or medium ranged fan base one of the most sold items are photos or autographs (or autographed photos) from your band.

There is also people investing on buying autographs form new artists so in case they become famous res-ell them for a higher price (Yes you can do that too!)

1. Fan Exclusives: One of the main streams of money earning for musicians is offering some discount or specific fan-only item.

This can be shared through your mailing list and it can turn very profitable depending on what you have to offer, some bands offer a bundle kit with several things like a couple of exclusive photos, a poster, a shirt or an alternate unused artwork from their previous album.

Another great exclusive for fans is VIP Tickets for them to meet the band before or after the show and hand with them for a while.

1. Offer Acoustic Versions of Your Music: Offer your fans a different version of your music. Go acoustic and record it. Then promote it just like new music.
   

1. Make yourself discoverable: You need to up your search ability game and ensure you get found when people search for music in the online music store. What sort of tags are you using? Asides from the artist/group name and song name, you can also use words that inspire your genre of music or music style. If you create Fela inspired music, you can use words like “ Afrobeat” and “Nigerian music”.

1. fm Playlist System: Last.fm is a great website where your songs can become the newest obsession or even go viral.
   

They use a playlist system which matching famous bands that sound similar to you and play your song occasionally, I have personally discovered many bands this way and my friends have told me the same thing in a regular basis.

1. Spotify: One of the biggest music sharing platforms for both Desktop and Mobile, their music library contains almost every recorded artist there has ever been and you will definitely want to be in there!

Spotify has a Discover tool which randomly picks an artist from their database that resembles your musical taste.

Take into consideration Spotify has a total of 15-50 million daily users a day, Someone has to discover you sooner or later!

1. Share Cash: Share cash became successful because they offer free downloads, and the artist gets paid between $1-20$ USD

And not only music, any file you upload starts earning you some money so it is always good to consider it if you are planning to give a song or a Demo for “free” and still pull a bit of cash form it.

1. Fiverr: One of the most used platforms online for freelancing a service.

Fiverr has had a huge impact in the expresss-work as you tell your client you will have a final product in between 24-72 hours.

You can find all kinds of services, from translation , graphic design, funny videos, corporate presentations or any random thing you can think of..

It is pretty simple, you offer a service for a starting price of $5, if someone needs what you are offering, they contact you and if your video presentation or you are professional enough, you get hired.

Lucky for us, there is not that much in the musical department, you can set your Ad for “Amazing guitar riff for your song” and if some one is in need of it they will hire you or contact you.

You can also offer any other skills you are proficient at so be creative and exploit this great online tool!

1. Affiliate And Online Marketing:Proceed with caution here*

This can be an opportunity to make money but it is not an easy or quick method of doing so and do not believe anyone that tries to tell you it is. Basically, affiliate and social marketing is setting up your own website or using social media to direct internet traffic to another site that is set up to get people to buy something or take an action. Sites such as Amazon or Music Colleges.
If you do a little research and use sources like “warrior forum” to weed out the bad apples this can be a great way to add to your income.
Obviously, it too does require skills outside of musical related ones.
However, do not cross these possibilities off your list just because you do not have the technical skills. Remember that no one that does these jobs started out with those skills and unlike music they can be learned by anyone and often do not take very long either.

1. Start your own publishing company: Publishing your own music is great because if you enter into co-publishing agreements with larger companies not only will you get your writer’s share of royalties, you’ll also get ½ of publishing royalties. First step to starting your own company is to register the proper business entity within your state.

Afterward the kind of things you can publish are varied, for example your own guitar teaching book or singing techniques, or anything you can come up with or you can go into a co-agreement with other musicians or publishers to make a compilation of songs or educational music oriented books, well the possibilities are endless.

1. Video Tutorials: If you have a background on music education or want to try it out you can host a series of videos on a specific matter or instrument focused.

Many youtube-based artists upload tons of tutorials and How-To’s too also help other artists.

It is also a very viable way to get money if it becomes successful because you can release an exclusive set of videos with more detailed content or even a small book!

1. Live Teaching: As we mentioned you can start a publishing company or a set of video tutorials, but you can go full fledged and make a whole set of classes with books and live assistance, you can charge maybe $20 – $40 a One-to-one video live lesson an hour so your students can clarify any doubts and you help them build a studying plan for them to improve their musical skills.

1. Selling Music Related Items on Auction Sites: Such sites like Ebay are great starting points, all your unused equipment you can sell it up there and try to generate a substantial amount if you auction it.

Many new artists with a limited budget go in the hunt of used or low-priced gear through the internet, you can even go to your local stores or flea markets and find some music-related products and try to gain a bit more profit from them.

1. Music for video games: Nowadays one of the biggest entertainment industries is video games. All the way from small cute apps with 8-bit sounding like songs to huge games like Halo or Gears of War that hire a huge amount of musicians or a whole orchestra.

It is also one of the best paid music production related jobs and there are always independent developers out there on the lookout for good songs for their upcoming games.

1. Record/Produce Backing tracks for solo musicians: Many aspiring musicians in the internet do not have the means to produce or create their own backing tracks, you can make lease-based licenses for your own recording tracks and allow other artists to use them.

Especially guitar players or singers are always on the lookout for a good recording jam track or backing track either for practicing, for a live presentation or for a video recording.

Although it is highly overlooked it can turn out very profitable when done with high quality.

1. Beat Production: Beat production is focused mostly on rap artists seeking a tune for their next big hit single, it is a market that can pay up to $300 USD for each instrumental you sell.

It is a highly competitive market but even so there is a huge space still for new faces as beat production also includes a bit of the producer/composer personal sound and fell to it.

1. Pre-sell your upcoming album: Pre-selling your album gives you the money to produce a higher-quality product. Not only is this a great way to get cash flowing to your new project, this is also a way to generate excitement for your upcoming album with your fans! Free marketing and money, where do I sign up?

1. Join online music contests: A great way to get cash flowing is by searching for websites that host some sort of contest, they can be about how well you perform, if you have great mixing skills or production skills, composing or just writing a song’s lyrics.

There are websites that will host monthly a monthly contest and giveaway money or some worthy equipment or instrument.

1. Produce Music For Commercials: Many independent artists saving some money up go to TV related business and request if they need music for their commercials, and guess what? The answer most of the times is YES!

Music for commercials it is always requested worldwide as it is a fast business there is always a new commercial for your favorite products that require some kind of song or sound effects that you can contribute to and even gain a royalty form it.

1. Make Jingles: Many products need a catchy song to use for their commercials or any other auditive advertisement, a catchy tune that makes people intrigued and pay attention to the voice announcing the product.

Jingle production has been around for a very long time and has no intentions of going anywhere any time soon, even some internet campaigns today hire Jingle Writer to make a background or introductory tune.

Also a very requested area is music for corporate videos, which falls under the Jingles category as the process is very similar and most of the times they only need a repetitive simple or catchy tune.

1. Music Transcribing And Writing: A very requested skill for modern artists these days is music transcribing, making tabs for instruments or writing the songs in a music sheet for others to learn how to play it accurately.

Music transcribing takes place in both, online and real life situations as there are many artists who do not read musical notation and learned through other means how to execute their instrument or play by feeling, so they have to look for someone who assists them in this task.

1. Session Work: Another great way to make some extra money is to be a session musician, for the people who do not know, they are musicians who charge an hourly or project fee and contribute to someone else song.

It is very versatile as the artist decides whether or not you receive a percentage of that song rights or sales.

1. Build a Referral Relationship with Your Local Music Store: Get friendly with the staff and owners of your neighborhood music store. Recommend their products online to your local community through social media and earn commissions.

1. Musical Video Edition/Production: We have all watched in TV or in the internet a video of our favorite band!

Musical video Edition and Production is a very demanded market and requires someone who can handle the software to edit, assemble and retouch the video, and leave a great final product.

Artists usually give the producer/editor a commission or a fixed price, both ways you get paid a good price!

1. Freelance Producer or Sound Engineer: There are plenty websites out there where you can host an Ad offering a service, such as Fiverr (we will talk about it in another paragraph) or sites like Upwork.

One or the other, there are plenty platforms that make the process of searching-hosting shorter and easier, a good sound engineer can charge between $20-$500+ depending on how good he is, his previous experiences and how many years he has been doing it professionally say a lot.

1. Rent Your Studio: If you have a home studio, share the wealth, if you know other musicians they most probably are looking for a place to record a professional, high quality new hit song but as we all know, this is a pricey situation and not many independent artists have the funds for this.

You can even place an Ad in your local newspaper or in a local website so people in your zone specifically see it and avoid distance issues.

1. Product endorsements: Endorse products and display them in your website or social media sites.

1. Music Promotion Blog: A twist to the Music blog is using it exclusively to promote other artists or yourself, select a daily band that is not very well known and notify them of your post or blog update ( or if you consider it necessary ask for their permission to share them but it would be hard to imagine some free promotion makes any artist angry out there)Most independent artist will see your notification and probably re-share it and make a small share-chain among contacts from both parties, your blog followers and the band followers

This is not so much of a Make money method as it would only generate through blog monetization, although with time it can prove useful for reaching a large audience when you are selling something in particular such as merchandise or your new album.

1. Music Critique Blog: If you have good hearing and know how to really listen to a song this is for you!

There are many music critiques out there but there is always space for someone new, basically what they do is check the mixing quality, if the song portrays one or more meanings, see how others react to it and then give a constructive and elaborate review.

The best way to succeed with your blog is to avoid bad jokes or unnecessary insults as fans can take a turn and ignore your blog, the best thing is to be as polite as possible but always keeping a neutral attitude to be able to analyze each and every aspect of a song.

1. Merchandise: Ask any artist where the cash flows in, and one of the biggest money making generators for artists is merchandise.

This plays a huge part once you have a larger base of fans or a big mailing list and you and/or your band are ready to offer them a substantial amount of products.

Any fan buys at least 1 or even 2 things from their favorite bands to support them once I a while, and they usually treasure it because they relate to your music and support you on a frequent basis.

So, always have something for them, a T-shirt, a hat, stickers, Guitar picks, a bumper sticker, even tattoo sleeves, I don’t know, get creative make amazing things with your band’s logo or most famous song punch lines, and be ready to sell, always.

1. Get Paid From Every Facebook Post: Facebook has one of the best direct to fan advertising systems. You can easily reach a large amount of fans for a very small amount of money.

Once you have your fan base in line on Facebook, you can post blogs from your own website, with your sponsored ads. Again, when people click on them, you get paid. You can also charge other people money to post stuff on your Facebook page if you have enough likes and fans.

1. Offer Sounds for Sampling Licensing: Other musicians may want to use a beat or riff from your music. You can get paid to license just a sample of your music.

1. Sell Your Single Online with CD Baby: CD Baby is for singles, the platform allows you to sell one single song without the need of having the whole album, very useful for artists who do covers, jingles, or they are just starting of their career.

1. Online Music Collaboration: A vastly used method for electronic music producers, it is also a fun way 2 or more musicians can come up with something new, sell it and earn a share.

1. SponsoredTweets: If you have social network in which you have a vast amount of followers or constant activity visit sponsoredtweets, it is a website where you can register most social networks and generate a small (or large depending on followers and activity) income

1. Reddit Music: The homepage of the underground! Reddit is arguably the biggest thing on the internet.
   

You may not know this, but many of the viral things you see online made it to Reddit first, and that’s why musicians need to familiarize themselves with the Reddit Music thread.

The community for content sharing allows musicians to get a genuine feel for how their music is being perceived by audiences, but be careful, the hardcore users can be harsh with newcomers. Just be respectful and authentic and you’ll make it just fine.

1. Sell Sheet Music For a Rare Instrument: If you have skills and capacity to write music for a not very well known instrument this job is for you!
   

Many musicians can relate to trying to learn a song in a new instrument and not being able to find the music sheet or even a video as a reference to start off, and there are not many musicians or composers dedicated into this area.

Plenty online websites sell variations of famous musical interpretations adapted for a rare instrument and they can sell very well ranging from $5 – $25 each.

1. Sample Kit: All DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) support the use of wav. Files which can be used to retouch a song or constructing a whole digital-based production.

They can be synthesized pads or small riffs for an specific scale, you can even sell a drum kit with high quality mix already in it to save some time to the producer (o r more specifically electronic music producer or instrumental producers who are the ones on the look out for this kits)

I can tell you for sure, that there is not enough out there as they are always searching for something they can use to innovate and create new interesting sounds.

These packs can range between $15 USD to an impressive $300+ USD for each sale.

1. Get Paid to Review and Demo Instruments: If you have a large enough audience on YouTube, you can mix in the occasional product review and demonstration. Reach out to companies who produce the products you like and see if they’re willing to compensate you for a review.

1. Manage Other Musicians: Been around your particular industry long enough to make all the right connections and pick up a few business and marketing skills?
   

You can share your expertise into a management service, plenty musicians out there have their hands full and need to connect with other musicians, producers, sound engineers, publishers..etc…

If you have the social skills to assist a new band or musician make them an offer and help them to find the right path, we all know the starting point is the most difficult and even more when we barely know anyone in the business.

1. Local showcase: Instead of just booking shows fr your band do some scouting and find more local bands in your area to meet with them and see if you can perform with them.
   

This is a win-win situation in which both of you introduce each other to their respective fans.

1. Festivals: A more explosive version of the local showcase is contacting as many artist as possible and make a music festival, it has always been a thing, we get to listen to new bands, showcase some talents and who knows… if the festival is large enough a legend might pop up to play a song or two.

Most festivals even have their very own Merchandise, social networks and many other benefits as if they were a band on their own, so it is always a good thing to consider if you are trying to play live for large audiences.

1. Build an online Music Library: It’s a highly-competitive field, but if you have a degree in music theory or library science or other related fields, and you know music better than others, then this might be a good idea for you.

1. Create Digital Guides: if you have success as an artist or you are efficient at something, share the knowledge and charge for it!
   

Many people send online guides to learning how to use a software, to understand a subject or to learn a new skill.

It has always been around and in these days of technology it is a highly demanded market in general for all areas that require a certain level of skills.

1. Be creative: All the methods you have read where once a single individual idea that went viral and used by every one of us.

So the best advice of all is to try to come up with something and if you already have something in mind do not be afraid of trying it out, there is always room for a new tactic in this huge business.