Let’s face it….the days of recording music for profit are endangered. People are seeking out ways to get the music for free more and more these days and the concept of making money on recorded music just doesn’t seem practical anymore.

Back in the day, a label would spend money producing a music video and use that to try and gain fans and sell records. Same thing with radio promotion, it used to be that radio airplay almost guaranteed that more people would go out and purchase singles, albums, etc. Don’t get me wrong, people still go buy music based on what’s on the radio (and are encouraged to do so) but relying on a revenue stream from music sales should not be “expected”, especially as a new band fresh on the scene. Besides, traditional commercial radio is in the business of selling advertising, not breaking new bands. Not like us at Kosher Metal though…we LOVE exposing others to new bands!

There are plenty of ways to make money as a band/artist, you just need to think like a business. Most unsigned bands are a business already and don’t even realize it. If you engage in activities in effort to sell music/merch and/or get people to come to concerts - then you’re a business. With that said, think of your music as a “business card”, a way to let people know what you’re all about. The product that you’re selling is the brand itself (band/artist name and image). If someone identifies with your music and it “speaks to them” then they will support the band and not just the music.They will buy merch and concert tickets along with helping to spread the word.

Stop sending out tweets and posts asking people to buy your music because it doesn’t really work unless they already are familiar with your music (though you might get a few bites). When people support a music artist…they usually don’t stop with just listening to the music, they also buy merch along with tickets to live events and most of the time spread the word to their friends (this is called viral marketing, and it is the best kind). Another thing to realize is that even with signed bands, they make most of their money from touring and not music sales.

Let’s create an unsigned band scenario, we’ll call the band Pork Pulling Piglets. Before they begin recording, they establish a Partnership business entity and create a DBA (doing-business-as) account so they can write off all of their expenses in connection with the band. PPP then records a full length album and is putting a tour together. Before officially releasing the album, they decide to give away an ‘free online version’ of the album, which consists of a free download of the album (but only at 128kbps) which is given to those who provide a valid email address. The band promotes this free album for a solid month and also enables people to share the album with others via a link back to their site. This is what I like to call the business card approach.

Now, the band has a decent sized database of email addresses just as they are about to officially release the album. There is a ‘paid online version’ of the album (which includes HQ audio and bonus tracks not available in the free online version) and there is also a ‘limited edition’ pressing of the CD that can be purchased as well, for those that like to have a physical product in their hands complete with pictures and lyrics. Pork Pulling Piglets also just finished getting merch made up and the tour is locked down in place. The band then sends out an email blast to their email database letting people know that they can now obtain a paid version of the album with the extra goodies, can catch the band out on tour, and can also purchase merchandise. This generates a much better percentage of return than any tweet or Facebook post ever could.

Also in addition to this, those intuitive Piglets also have been soliciting their music for use in movies, tv shows, commercials, etc. aka licensing. A good place for bands to do this is via Broadjam (I actually know a band that got a placement in the series “Bones” via this site and some of the members got to appear in the episode). See, if you own the rights to both the master and sync (the actual recording and the publishing of a song) you are what’s called a One-Stop Shop and people who license music love this because it means they can deal with one person or a group of people directly, as opposed to having to go through a label (for the master) and a publisher (for the sync)..which can be time consuming. There are many times where someone need to clear rights to music fast and doesn’t have the time to chase multiple people for the rights to use one track, this is where being a one stop shop gives you a huge advantage. If you paid for the recording, you own it. Then, all you have to do is register as a writer with a Performing Rights Organization (like ASCAP or BMI) and (in most cases) also register the business as a publishing company with the same Performing Rights Organization. This makes it so that the writer(s) and the publisher get paid easily when your stuff gets licensed out, most of the time it’s 50/50 split on the sync license fee amongst the publisher and the writer. Then the Master license fee goes to who owns the recording. With one stop shops, the same person/group get both the Master and Sync fees, which could mean a whole pile of shiny quarters.

Of course, every band’s situation is different. However, being in a band is just like being in a business. If you were going to start up a generic business, you would need start up money, right? Well the same goes for launching a band, you can’t do it without having some money upfront. Granted not ALL bands are in it for the money and/or want to make a career out of it and just do it for fun…and that’s fine, if you just want to play music as a hobby. I just would recommend asking yourself “what kind of musician am I” and if you know that you want this to be your career, start up a business (either Sole Proprietorship or a Partnership) and write off your expenses. If you’re just gonna spend all that money you make at your day job on furthering your music career anyway….you might as well at least get the write off on your taxes every year, right?

FYI, I am a graduate of the Music Business Program at Musicians Institute, in case you were wondering. This post was meant to be educational and is in no way a substitution for legal advice.

-ManJewky