How Do I Make Money In Music?

The question I get asked more than any other question is: ‘How Do I Make Money in the Music Industry?’

Whether you are a Band or an Artist or working behind the scenes as a Producer, Engineer, Mixer or Songwriter, the music industry has changed dramatically over the last 15 years.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the main way of generating income was selling records. And the best way to sell records was to land a Major Label Deal. Bands and artists honed their songs, sound and look to garner the interest of a major Label A&R. Once you landed a deal, labels cut huge advance checks for you to produce your album and music videos, along with providing a big budget to promote your music.

With the digital age, sales record sales have dropped dramatically and are no longer the main way to generate income in music, which caused a drastic change in the music industry.

Performance Rights Organizations

A performance rights organization (PRO), also known as a performing rights society, provides intermediary functions, particularly collection of royalties, between copyright holders and parties who wish to use copyrighted works publicly in locations such as shopping and dining venues. Legal consumer purchase of works, such as buying CDs from a music store, confer private performance rights. PROs usually only collect royalties when use of a work is incidental to an organisation’s purpose. Royalties for works essential to an organisation’s purpose, such as theaters and radio, are usually negotiated directly with the rights holder.

In some countries PROs are called copyright collectives or copyright collecting agencies. A copyright collective is more general than a PRO as it is not limited to performances and includes reproduction rights organisations (RROs). RROs represent works distributed via mediums such as CD, audiocassette, or computer file rather than use of works in public settings.

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Sound Exchange

SoundExchange provides royalty solutions for sound recordings and publishing, serving as a critical backbone to today’s digital music industry. The organization collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of over 245,000 recording artists’ and master rights owners’ accounts. Its technology solutions help turn massive amounts of data into accurate revenue for creators and include: Music Data Exchange (MDX), International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC) Search, and the Notice of Intention to Use (NOI) LOOKUP.

How has the music industry changed and how can we adapt to these changes to to continue to make money in music? That’s what I’m discussing in today’s video.

It’s is a comprehensive collection of the best ways to make money in music, whether you are a producer, artist, mixer or songwriter.