Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Discuss how to promote using FLOSS to make music.

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maghoxfr
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Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by maghoxfr »

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone was using any of the methods to sell your mp3's online. Or other methods like Magnatune or Jamendo. It's obvious that making money out of music is not my main goal but it would be awesome if eventually I could.

Thanks
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Capoeira
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Capoeira »

I'm interested in that one, too

I know of last-fm, but probably you better make your own page.

but let's see if someone made experiences here already
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by autostatic »

I've ran a record label with friends for a few years and learned that it boils down to a few things: dedication, passion, networking, time, dedication and dedication. And some talent and skills. And dedication.
If you're dedicated to achieving your goal you can come a long way. If you're not dedicated enough, like we were, it's hard to get something off the ground and if it does - we had our momentums - you have to take advantage of those moments to the maximum. We simply didn't have enough time and weren't dedicated enough so our most popular album did sell over 3000 copies (which is quite a lot for a Dutch independent album), but it was the band who did all the promotion themselves, it was the band that was dedicated.
The reincarnation, or more or less continuation of our label, Beep Beep Back Up The Truck, is composed of people who are dedicated. And it pays off. They are undoubtedly one of the hottest independent labels of the Netherlands and are in the forefront when it comes to benefiting from modern ways of networking and promoting your music.

When it comes to selling mp3's and making a living out of it, I think it is nearly impossible. You will have to be very productive, very talented and you'll have to know what the people want. Compromises. If you're willing to do that you could make a living out of making music. But not with selling mp3's. Get your music into commercials, games, Android/iPhone apps, also live shows can generate way more income (wage + profit from merchandise). And I'd focus on streaming now, mp3's will vanish I think. Services like Spotify have the (near) future.

Best,

Jeremy
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Louigi Verona
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Louigi Verona »

Selling mp3s? This is a weird business model to try to get to work. mp3 costs nothing to copy - why would anyone want to buy a copy of an mp3? Don't make the same mistake the music "industry" does.
What AutoStatic said, though, is true. Get your music into apps, games. Do gigs. This is tough. Being a musician is not easy, it is a serious profession.
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by thorgal »

when I started making my own music, I discovered how deeply it resonated in me, and how much of myself I was putting in my compositions. The conclusion was that any "commercial ambitions" I might have nurtured originally just evaporated without a second thought. I will not make money from my music by choice because I am not for sale :) Fortunately, I have other skills that can feed me and my family ;)

PS: I forgot to add that even if I commercialized my music, it would probably be a big flop because I am definitely not following the mainstream trends that pay ... and to think about composing for cell phone ring-tones is so disgusting to me that I would not even think of it myself if it were not for some previous posts in this thread :lol:
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by steevc »

I know people who are selling their music on Bandcamp, including

http://music.stevelawson.net/
http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/

They do CDs too, but the audio files are generally available for whatever you want to pay, even if that's nothing. I've heard of people paying well over the normal price as a way to show their appreciation. I believe that both of these people are making a living from music, but some of that is from teaching and performing. They are both very active on-line and have great relationships with their listeners. Seems to work for them, and many others.

I've never made a penny from music myself. Have yet to produce anything I'd want to sell.

BTW Radiohead are selling their new album as MP3/WAV downloads from today.

Steve
Sounds - http://soundcloud.com/steevc
Debut Album - https://steevcmusic.bandcamp.com/
Blog - https://peakd.com/@steevc/posts
Recording via M-Audio FastTrack Pro and Zoom H4. Got Korg nanoKONTROL and Zoom G3X plus Roland TD-07 drums

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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Capoeira »

the question is not about making a living out of it......making a living as an artist is always hard, only a small percentage make good money.
Also you don't need to make comercial music to sell. you sell more with it, but again its not about making a living.
It's like a linux-programer who wants to add the possibilaty to make "donations". He will recieve if he does good work and work that somebody needs/uses

On the other hand perhaps it is neccesary to make your songs available for free to get known and to spread your work. This way, you can (if you have talent) one day PERHAPS make a living doing shows.

as Auto said, most important is:
AutoStatic wrote:it boils down to a few things: dedication, passion, networking, time, dedication and dedication. And some talent and skills. And dedication.
and i'd like to add: dedication, dedication and dedication ;-)
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by thorgal »

when I went to tease Bob Ohlsson and his forum-mates, I had some hard time explaining to these guys that one can be dedicated without exposing himself or herself to the "outside world" (whether by trying to make a living out of it or get some recognition of some kind, be it popularity, donations, a tap on the shoulder, etc). And that's what I was trying to say here: it's not necessarily because you like composing / playing music or are passionate about music in general that one gets into music production. Sometimes, there is no other choice, the music is inside and craves to be shaped up in the physical world (hard to explain what I mean). Not doing it would be crippling something or some place inside of you and it would "hurt" in the long run, like not taking care of yourself or neglecting basic needs.

I will soon force myself to take a 10 day retreat for meditating and try to get in touch with this inner craving (for I have felt this for decades and it still bothers me) and see if I can comprehend it by observing it during the meditation sessions Image
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Capoeira »

thorgal wrote:when I went to tease Bob Ohlsson and his forum-mates, I had some hard time explaining to these guys that one can be dedicated without exposing himself or herself to the "outside world" (whether by trying to make a living out of it or get some recognition of some kind, be it popularity, donations, a tap on the shoulder, etc). And that's what I was trying to say here: it's not necessarily because you like composing / playing music or are passionate about music in general that one gets into music production. Sometimes, there is no other choice, the music is inside and craves to be shaped up in the physical world (hard to explain what I mean). Not doing it would be crippling something or some place inside of you and it would "hurt" in the long run, like not taking care of yourself or neglecting basic needs.

I will soon force myself to take a 10 day retreat for meditating and try to get in touch with this inner craving (for I have felt this for decades and it still bothers me) and see if I can comprehend it by observing it during the meditation sessions Image

yea, an artist is an artist because he has to be.....its not a profession, its inside
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maghoxfr
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by maghoxfr »

I was just asking out of curiosity, of course I'm not playing music to make money, that's absurd for so many reasons. My main goal right now is to be productive and get to play gigs within next year. Set up a website and just put the soundcloud files for people to listen. Take advantage of social networks and promote myself, you know, what everyone's doing basically. My idea was to give my music for free with the posibility of donations, just like a street artist pass the hat for you to drop some coins in, I don't see any moral issues on getting some money there. I agree that selling mp3 is not ideal but I put it as an example of making money from music online. The biggest bands in the world gets most of their income from live gigs nowadays, so I couldn't think a nobody like me could even think of making a living by selling mp3s.
Autostatic wrote:I've ran a record label with friends for a few years and learned that it boils down to a few things: dedication, passion, networking, time, dedication and dedication. And some talent and skills. And dedication.
Nothing comes without hard work, that's true, and it's specially hard when you do it as a side project. Thanks for sharing your experience, it must have been awesome to run a label!
Autostatic wrote: so our most popular album did sell over 3000 copies
Man that's amazing, it sold more than the best selling bands of my country LOL for real.
Thanks, I'll check those out.
steevc wrote:BTW Radiohead are selling their new album as MP3/WAV downloads from today.
It's on my headphones right now.
thorgal wrote:Sometimes, there is no other choice, the music is inside and craves to be shaped up in the physical world (hard to explain what I mean). Not doing it would be crippling something or some place inside of you and it would "hurt" in the long run, like not taking care of yourself or neglecting basic needs.
Well said, I quit playing for a really long time and I was really down no matter what. It wasn't until I picked the guitar again that I realized how important it was to me.

Thanks everyone for sharing your opinions!
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Capoeira »

maghoxfr wrote:just like a street artist pass the hat for you to drop some coins in
that's it
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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by MattKingUSA »

In the last year I have sold a single track and an entire mp3 album on Amazon. Not enough for them to payout. hahaha

-Matt :D

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Re: Is anyone making any money as a musician? (mp3 sales)

Post by Lech123 »

Has anyone considered accepting Bitcoin for payment? With minimal transaction fees and pretty easy start-up, it strikes me as the perfect solution for anyone who is struggling with high fees for donations and low-cost tracks.

I'm wondering if I should start a separate thread on this, as Bitcoin is a pretty ambitious FOSS idea in its own right.
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