While most guitar players and musicians do what they do for
the love of it, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that we wouldn’t like to
make money if we had the opportunity to do so.
In fact I think earning money off of what you do, what you
love doing, your passion and what you get up for every morning is a good thing:
it allows you to become a musician full-time and hence do more of what you love
doing, and it allows us to earn our bread doing what we love to do!
So the question is, why wouldn’t you want to make money as a
musician?!
Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, here are a few things
that you can do one day to start your journey towards making a living as a
guitar player. (PS. Remember that if you’re serious about earning your bread
and your livelihood as a guitar player, it is important to diversify – which means
not being reliant on a single source of income)
1. Start a Youtube Channel
This is one of the easiest, simplest and the most basic
things you can do to start making money as an amateur guitar player. It is
hence also one of the first things that you SHOULD do! Make a channel on
Youtube, and join their partner program, called the Youtube Partner Program (support
page here), which allows you to ‘build a new YouTube-based career’ and
monetize your videos. You’ll of course need to record yourself playing the
guitar, perform a bit of editing on your clips and upload them to Youtube if
you want to get started with this. There are plenty of amateur and professional
musicians doing this – some very successfully too!
2. Play Live
One of the more obvious choices on this list, and not to
mention, one of the best ways of making money as a musician and getting some
serious exposure as well. Try putting the word out there that you’re a local
musician who’s open to doing live gigs. In fact, start off with performing for
free at the open mic night at your local bar, opening for a band performing in
your area for free, or playing at your friend’s wedding. The important thing
here is to make a name for yourself. You’ll obviously not be able to command a
big fee (or in some cases, any fee for that matter) initially. But once you
start creating a fan base for yourself, and begin pulling a large audience,
that may change for the better! My advice: take whatever you get, at least initially;
your priority is getting the word out.
3. Sell Records and Sell Your Music
Another one of the obvious ways to make money is selling
your music. You should most definitely look into various different ways of selling
your music, because if you’re even the slightest big good a musician, there’s
money to be made! There are a few things which you should consider looking
into: (a) try connecting with people who like the kind of music you make, all
kinds of music sells (even the so-called ‘crappy’ music has people willing to
pay money to listen to it), and there are probably people out there who would
be willing to pay and buy your record. (b) Make sure that the price it right;
not too high, not too low, find the right balance. (c) Make it easy for fans to
find your music. Try looking into avenues such as digital distribution (such as
over iTunes), putting CDs at your local store, partnering up with a business, a
website, or an individual who helps promote your business.
4. Teach the Guitar
We’ve already spoken about this in great depth in a previous
article. But yes, teaching the guitar is a great way to make a buck or two, or
much more – and become a popular musician while you do it. And you don’t need
to look beyond Joe
Satriani for proof.
5. Website
As a musician, I would suggest having a website anyway,
whether you intend on making money off it or not. But if you do, you could put
ads on it by applying for AdSense,
earning through product sponsorships or endorsements (such as promoting Fender
guitars on your website, if you’re a Fender fan) and/or selling stuff on your
website via an affiliate program (such as the Amazon Affiliate Program). You
should also use your website to sell records and of course merchandise. Which
brings us to…
6. Sell Merchandise
Selling personalized merch is one of the quickest, easiest
ways of making a buck or two as a musician. Initially, I recommend designing or
developing your own merch (or outsourcing this to Fiverr,
for instance) – start off with basic stuff such as tees, mugs, chains, button/badges/stickers,
and any other merch related to the kind of music you make. Remember to have a
merch table set up whenever you play live, since it sells particularly well
before and after a show. Just keep the price as reasonable as possible.
7. Working with Other Musicians and Become a Freelance Guitar
Player
If a band comes to your town and is looking for someone to
fill-in for an open position, go for it. If there’s session word for other
musicians that you can take up, go for it. Try playing with other bands in the
area. Taking up small jobs will allow you to build connections, get to know
people, get some exposure, and maybe even make a bit of money while you’re at
it.
8. Work in a Guitar Store
Why not take up a job as a salesman in your local guitar
store. It allows you to use your music skills, talents and knowledge to help
other musicians. Most salesmen that you see in guitar stores ARE actually
musicians working their way up. Besides, it provides you valuable sales
experience, and actually make some seriously good money in some cases; salesmen
are paid a base salary plus commission on each sale that they make. If you’re
already a guitar player, you’ll be able to guide any person who walks in
through the door to buy a guitar in the best possible manner.
9. Offer It Up as a Service
If you’re good with the guitar, chances are that there’s
someone out there looking for your services. Look on websites such as Fiverr
for people looking for jingles or covers for their favorite songs. Offer your
services online and offline as a session player, performer, song writer, etc.
To quote The Dark Knight: “If you’re good at something, never do it for free”.
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