I have a friend who is doing the indy musician thing, and he was asking my advice. Below is what I told him – but you need to understand that this is from someone who is struggling himself to make sense of how to make a living off of his music. I’ve done a TON of reading, and there are as many suggested paths as there are people – so there is a LOT of trial and error.
I also struggle with timing – how to know when to give up on something that’s not working, and when to hang on for another 10%. Sometimes you just pray, and then use your best judgement, Sometimes your best judgement is nothing more than a guess!
All of this, of course, is in ADDITION to practicing, developing your musical skills, performing, practicing, etc.
Thoughts:
- Go ahead and setup your business bank accounts, like your CPA suggested.
- Below is to be done AFTER the biz banking is settled. You’ll be having deposits electronically done, and it’s just easier/less work to have that setup before you go down the list.
- Sign up for a PRO [Performing Rights Organization]. I prefer ASCAP – and I **am** biased!
- Also Sign up as a publishing company. Doesn’t have to be at the same time – just get it done eventually.
- After this, sign up with Sound Exchange as a writer and a publisher. Free – they track online streaming royalties – which ascap/bmi does not.
- I’d also setup a writer account [and maybe a publisher account – I’m still thinking on this one for me] with the Harry Fox agency.[HFA.com, I think]. They also do tracking and royalties. I register [and “claim” the url where the video is] any of my works that are going to played on youtube – youtube pays a royalty, and hopefully I will eventually make something from it.
- Youtube ALSO has a thing where you can monetize your videos. There’s a checkbox you can click when uploading a video to youtube.
- Setup a musician account over at Last.fm – fill out the bio thing, etc., and put down that you use SoundExchange to collect royalties.
- There’s also the possibility of putting your music out there for licensing – that’s a whole ‘nother thing to learn.
- Do a search for Chris Rockett, Renegade Music Marketing, John Oszaca [spelling may be wrong] – guys that are doing online training programs for making money from your music. Sign up for the free newsletters at least – you’ll feel inundated, I’m sure – but keep glancing over what they send and you’ll pick up nuggets here and there.
So you write something
- Add it to your registered works database at the PRO.
- Get it recorded, and record a video [maybe at the same time].
- Post the Audio to Last.fm.
- Post the Video to Youtube and/or Vimeo and or……wherever.
- Let Soundexchange know about the piece [they have a form].
- Post it to Nimbit – free account at nimbit.com, paid versions give you more capabilities.
EVERYTHING contains links back to your website – which should have a way for people to get notified when you post something new. [I use Mailchimp for that.]. The website should ALSO have ways for people to get to your online stuff, and stuff that’s for sale.
You could, for example, use etsy to sell sheet music. There are also ways to use WordPress to sell digital goods [downloads] – and there are other sites that’ll do the heavy lifting as well.
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See www.last.com/music/Tom+Rule for my “albums”.
You can see the licensing stuff over at AudioSparx.com/TomRule
My nimbit store is at nimbitmusic.com/TomRule
Just some possibilities! I’m still trying to make all of this pay off – still struggling with it. There is no magic bullet, in my experience!
Hope this helps. Now gotta get back to work.