You’ve been crafting your latest beat for weeks, you’ve found the perfect snare, your synths are sounding top notch and the final mixdown is crisp as. Now you have the track, what next?

The internet has opened up more opportunities than have ever been available to independent artists and creators before. Whilst the options are all there to be discovered, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy.

We’re going to walk through some of the top ways you can earn money as a music producer with the world of the web at your fingertips.

Get Your Music on Streaming Services

Streaming services are now where the majority of people listen to their music. Hundreds of millions of people listen to and discover music on digital platforms every single day and thousands of artists are finding success from playlists and the ease of discovery digital services provide.

At RouteNote we offer distribution to all of the top streaming services and digital stores like Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, Amazon, YouTube Music and many more.

We also have a SoundCloud Network getting creators monetised for their uploads on SoundCloud.

Our distribution is available for free and you keep 85% of all your earnings. We also offer Premium distribution at a small cost allowing you to keep 100% of all your music revenues.

You can find out more and sign up for free at www.routenote.com.

Play Live Gigs

Playing gigs are one of the best way for artists to earn money but also spread your reach and earn new fans. Particularly playing local concerts with your peers, it can introduce you to brand new listeners who are in the area or rocked up to hear the other acts playing.

Many of the biggest artists gain most of their earnings from live shows, even though they’re making huge sales and streaming numbers on their recorded music.

Of course, depending on when you are reading this it may not be the best time for gigging. If there are still restrictions on performing then online concerts can still be a huge success. Look up the options for livestreaming a gig and see if you can get an audience of fans to show up.

License Your Music

Music licensing is a huge source of income for many artists. It means that your tracks can be used in TV, Film, games, and other media with your permission and you earn money from every use.

There are plenty of options for licensing your music online. Our partners at SynchedIn offer competitive licensing for all kinds of creators and have a growing and varied catalogue of music available.

Licensing your music not only gets you paid every time someone uses your music in their products, it also puts your track in front of brand new audiences.

Sell Beats Online

If you don’t necessarily want to release your music on your own there is a lot of potential in selling your beats for singers and rappers to use for their lyrics. Vocalists are always on the lookout for great backing tracks, even some of the biggest artists in the world take producer’s tracks rather than create their own music from scratch.

There are loads of options out there for selling your beats so it can be hard to decide where to start or which platform to use.

We have a guide to get you on your way with selling your music online and making money whilst ensuring you’re using an official site which will keep your content and brand safe: routenote.com/blog/how-do-i-sell-my-first-beat-license

Promotion

Promoting your music is vital to getting heard. Without pushing your music out there to listeners it’s highly unlikely you will be discovered and it’s only when fans discover your music that you can start making money from it.

There are lots of ways to promote your music and there are both free and paid solutions. We’ll explore a few below but the truth is that there are hundreds of ways to get your music out there and you’ll need to find the methods that work best for you.

PUSH.fm – Our partners at PUSH have built a platform for musicians and creators to share with fans in unique new ways. Discover Fan Links and bring all the links to your music onto one page, use Content Unlocks to offer fans bonus content, release a Pre-Save to get fans ready for your next release and discover more to come soon.

Social Media – Having an active social page is vital in this day and age. A place for listeners to see everything that you are up to and be kept up to date with your new releases and moves can be a huge boost to your engagement.

Playlists – Getting featured on a playlist can make an artist’s whole career; playlists are huge! There are a bunch of influencers on different streaming services making popular playlists and various ways to look into reaching them. On Spotify, you can send your upcoming tracks directly to the curators of their huge playlists from Spotify for Artists.

We hope these tips help you get on your way to getting your music out into the world and heard by the people who matter and making money for your hard work.

If you have any tips that have helped you along the way that you’d like to share and help out other artists then leave a comment below.