How to Get Rich As a Musician

Last Updated: March 29, 2019

Many people think that as soon as you are a musician, you're automatically going to get rich. Musicians, especially band members, quickly find out that just by selling records they get nowhere near rich. They often resort to "selling-out" in order to make more money. Here's how to get rich as a musician without having to sell out.

Steps

Without knowing exactly what type of music you want to make, you risk having to change it later and lose fans. To avoid that happening, choose your genre right from the start and stick with it. A few examples are Pop, Rock, Pop-Rock, Punk, Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Reggae, Experimental, Classical and Country. There are, however, many more genres of music out there. You can either pick one from this list, choose one of your own or you might have had your heart set on one right from the start. Either way, just know what genre you want to make.
Learn to play an instrument . If you can't play an instrument or sing, you won't make it very far in the music business, let alone get rich. You won't even make a very big fan base. If you can learn how to play guitar, sing, or play any other instrument, you can make whatever music that you want. You don't have to become a master - as Punk Rock showed us - but it helps to know that little bit more so your songs can be more diverse.

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Now that you know your genre and you can play an instrument, you will need to write a few songs. Without songs, how are people supposed to hear your music? If you're not great at writing songs, consider being a cover artist; somebody who just covers other people's songs. Cover artists usually get more people coming to their shows but often get less income as they have to pay lots of other people so you can play their songs. Whatever your choice is, get some songs ready for playing.
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Advertise. If nobody knows that there's an awesome new musician around, how are you going to get rich? Design and put up your flyers wherever you're allowed to. This is called "publicizing". It's necessary so people know who you are, what you play and where you're playing next. Be sure to include:
- Your name
- Genre that you play
- Your website
- Where you're playing next
- Ticket prices for your next gig.
After a while, you will start to build a big fan base and the money will be rolling in. Playing at a bigger venue that holds more people will obviously bring in more money. However, don't discard small venues to play at too, your fans are important too! Just try to get booked at bigger and more popular venues every time until you're happy.
Along with playing gigs, teaching private lessons is always a good way to bring in some extra money. If your students have heard you play live, they will want you to teach them so they can play as good as you do. Teach them well though, students move from teacher to teacher until they find one that's good and that suits their needs. Don't charge crazy prices or the student's parents won't be paying up for too long.

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How can I write songs?

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Think about big events and feelings in your life and try to write about them. It may help to be familiar with things like literature and poetry, as well as examples of the type of music you want to compose.

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How do I create a website?

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Check out the article on How to Make a Free Website.

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Why do popstars pay people to write songs for them?

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Some do and some don't. Some pop stars write songs both for themselves and other people - Taylor Swift is probably the most famous musician to do this.

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Tips

Record your music. After your albums sell 1,000,000 copies, it becomes "Gold".

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Warnings

Don't waste all your money on drugs and alcohol, it's not "cool" and you'll get a bad name.

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Things You'll Need

An instrument of your choice
Songs
Albums
Money
A Fan Base

How to Get Rich As a Musician

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Community Q&A

Tips

Warnings

Things You'll Need

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