How to maximise your earnings as an artist
Image credit: Alexander Grey
Your music doesn’t end at Spotify, in fact you might be missing out on the best revenue potential for your music if you don’t do this.
Thanks to digital platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, releasing your music has never been easier. Reaching a worldwide audience of listeners with music is as simple as signing up with a distributor like RouteNote. But, there’s still so much more waiting for your music beyond streaming platforms.
We’re going to cover new revenue streams that maximise the traction you build on streaming services and show you how to make your success cohesive. Follow our article to discover what may potentially be the biggest source of your income as an artist.
Streaming revenues aren’t enough?
A common complaint in the modern music industry is that music streaming services don’t pay out. This means that the income earned from plays isn’t enough to sustain many artists full time unless they’re getting a significant number of streams.
What needs to be understood about streaming services is that they are the ultimate promotional platform. With a global, on-demand reach and no barrier to entry, streaming services offer even more potential than radio once did – which also paid similarly low rates per play but offered great exposure.
Streaming platforms give all artists the chance to get discovered. Once discovered, that listener may be a lifetime fan. Years of streaming may amount to a decent revenue source from that listener, but there’s so much more that you can gain from every single extra listener gained by the exposure of streaming services.
Build a merchandising strategy
Merchandising is one of the greatest resources for artists of all sizes. Fans want to express their enjoyment of your music and merchandise offers far higher revenues than individual streams. This then not only means immediate earnings from each sale but extra promotion with each piece of merch that a fan wears out and about.
This is where each individual listener becomes so valuable. 200 regular listeners on Spotify may not equate to much in terms of streaming revenue, but if just one-tenth of those bought merchandise that changes. Say you sell 20 shirts, each one putting $5 of profit in your pocket. Suddenly those few dollars of streaming revenues have converted into $100 of merchandise profits.
A lot of effort goes into the release strategy of a new piece of music, and that’s important. But, when merchandise provides such huge potential it makes sense to put effort into a proper merchandise strategy.
Most platforms, including Spotify and YouTube, offer the ability for artists to integrate merchandise onto your platforms. This allows you to immediately capitalise on any listeners whether they’re long-time fans or brand new listeners.
There are lots of platforms that allow you to easily design and sell merchandise. Many websites will allow you to apply your designs to clothing and accessories that they will then print on-demand as it is ordered. This is a safer choice than going to a company and printing merchandise in bulk that you ship yourself, but if you can guarantee sales then that’s a potentially more profitable option.
Spotify is partnered with Shopify, a platform that allows you to easily create your own merch page with simple Spotify integration.
Here is some advice to creating your merch strategy:
- Drop merch around a release: Time your merchandise so that there’s hype and reasons to buy it. Fans are more likely to want to rep the artists they love when there is a big new single or album that they’re loving.
- Create different designs: Not all of your ideas are going to appeal to everyone. Come up with different ideas so that fans can choose one they like. You may even get multiple sales if a fan likes more than one design!
- Maximise your merchandise offerings: Offer vinyl, tapes, clothes, accessories, hats, and more. Give your fans options and they’re more likely to buy more than one thing, allowing you to maximise your profits and reach.
- Promote your merchandise: Just like your music releases, you should promote your merchandise wherever you can to reach your entire audience. PUSH.fm offers some helpful, free tools like Smart Links for use in your promotion.
- Make it special: Offer limited edition merchandise to encourage fans to buy so they don’t miss out. Use exclusive merch to boost likes, follows, and more in exchange for a link to a page where fans can buy exclusive offerings.
How do you create a good design? You’re a musician, you’re not expected to be a professional designer too. If you’ve got logos or good looking professional photos then they might be enough. If not, it may be worth investing in a designer who can create some simple but attractive designs that suit your aesthetic. Be sure to make it personal and relevant to you as an artist so that it’s desirable to fans. Try Fiverr for an easy-to-find and affordable designer.
Take your music on the road
We haven’t mentioned what is, for many artists, their biggest revenue stream by far. Touring and playing concerts is a huge money maker, whether you’re one of the world’s biggest artists selling out stadiums or a local artist doing bar shows.
Once again, streaming services act as perfect promotion to capitalise with the gains of concerts. Once a listener discovers you on streaming services, if they like your stuff then they’ll look to see you live, giving you the revenues of a ticket sale.
Streaming services really bolster live concerts. For a start, you can use your artist data to see where the majority of your listeners are located. Use this to inform the locations you take your concerts to, guaranteeing successful ticket sales. As with merch, many platforms display artists’ concert dates with an easy clickthrough to purchase tickets.
Concerts also offer even more exposure. If you are supporting an artist, or feature a support artist, it’s a fantastic chance to expose your music to an entirely new subset of listeners in the most energetic showcase possible: An in-person show.
Concerts are an incredible opportunity to sell merchandise as well, with dedicated fans in attendance who want something to remember the date by.
Bonus Earnings: Connect With Fans Through YouTube
There are more ways to earn on some of your favourite platforms. YouTube is a fantastic example of a platform that has enhanced the earnings potential for creators far beyond the earnings they get from a single play on their content.
On YouTube, if you are eligible for YouTube’s Partner Programme then there are many ways with which you can interact with your fans directly and earn revenue directly from them.
Channel Memberships allow you to offer something unique to your fans in return for a monthly fee that rewards superfans. Be sure to offer things that are exclusive and exciting for your biggest fans. Some inspiration could be bonus content, behind-the-scenes videos, making of content, demos, and exclusive images.
Going live is a fantastic way to connect with audiences, allowing you to interact in real-time. YouTube have jazzed up their livestreams to offer fans new ways of expressing themselves with Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks. These paid features prioritise users’ interactions whilst earning you, the creator, revenue.
Creating these connected relationships with fans allows you to interact on a deeper level, encouraging fans to show their love of your work by supporting you. It’s another example of how just a single listener can equal good earnings if you maintain a strong relationship. It’s not always about having loads of fans but about having quality fans.
You can see how all of these elements play together in tandem. Streaming services move more concert tickets which help to sell more merchandise. When used together, you can maximise your profits far beyond streaming earnings by using streaming services as a promotional platform as well as a source of income.
Remember, the first step is releasing your music. You can distribute unlimited music releases worldwide with a free RouteNote account. Sign up and gain access to global distribution tools at www.routenote.com.