4 less obvious ways to make money as a musician

In my experience, the key to making a living from music is to have a diverified portfolio career... in other words, a range of different income sources. So in today's video I'll take a look at four perhaps less common income sources for a musician that have worked really well for me.

And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

0:00 Introduction
0:46 Production Music
5:15 Session Work
7:58 Playing in Care Homes
10:36 YouTube

[DavidBennettPiano]

5:22 What I'm actually saying here is "£100, £200, £1000...", not "£100, 000-£200, 000". I just phrased it very oddly! Sorry for any confusion 💰😅

[oliverzwahlen]

What is interesting about those four ways to make money: They also apply more or less to any other creative work. A friend of mine who is a freelance photographer has exactly the same four ways of income: He makes stock photos, produce photos for companies according to their needs, he presents his works in nursing homes and have them on social media.

[pj]

I took a songwriting course recently in college and its crazy how you can make more money from a 30 second loop being licensed then a 3 minute song being streamed on all platforms combined

[Timmie]

I love that you mention care homes. I've had quite a few internships with patients with dementia, and music's power to create a connection and trigger memories has always baffled me. Walking into a room and seeing personnel singing with a few patients always lifted my mood, no matter how stressed or annoyed I was.

[WesCoastPiano]

I've been playing piano since I was 5 years old and I've always struggled with finding a way to make a living out of it. So thank you for this.

[_XRMissie]

So far, the only "real" income I've ever made was once-off through session work. Through a mutual friend, an up-and-coming Twitch streamer wanted to overhaul their intro and asked me to do a 5 minute track entirely from scratch in a very specific style, with access to stems and exclusive use rights. We worked out the rates (tbh I think I kinda lowballed myself given the amount of work in the end), and by the end of it, there were 19 revisions over 2 months lol. At the time, it was my most complex piece of music by far. If given the chance, I'd definitely do this kind of work again because I loved every second of if. Right now, I'm still fine just doing all this for fun. I don't know how I'd feel if was my full time job... Might suck the fun out of making music for me

[MiguelMendesguitar]

I'd like to add one more way: transcribing music.

The majority of my income nowadays comes from this, I'd consider it still a very small niche with not too much competition. There's always people wanting to learn a song and there will always be - I work mainly for guitar tabs but piano sheet music is requested quite a lot as well.
You can market yourself or work within an agencies (I do both).

Just make sure you do have some ear training/transcribing knowledge, meaning you can easily notate what's being played into a music notation software (Sibelius and Finale are the standards, I use Guitar Pro and some Finale).

Any questions you might have feel free to ask

[zappababe]

There was a lovely man called Graham, sadly missed and taken from us far too soon. I met him because he ran the music group for people who suffered from mental health issues and I have depression. He also used to play at a hospital for elderly patients and used to joke that he got them up dancing on their Zimmer frames! He was incredibly talented, had an amazing sense of humour and was extremely enthusiastic as well. RIP Graham, I wish you were still with us, you brightened up the lives of everyone who knew you.

[Jillbles]

I used to work for a music library. It's been ages, but one of our more popular options was sound-alikes. Stuff that sounded reminiscent to popular/famous music, but just different enough to avoid infringing on copyright.

[angelocast]

David happy to meet you here. From another fellow pianist and producer, I really appreciate what you are doing and the positive message you share in this and other videos.

Music Therapy, specially instrumental piano music, have an amazing healing-support power and for old people or with mental illness is a beautiful way to help them in a deep and lovely way. Hope more people work on themselves first so they can reach a powerful level with their music and spread the love around.

We need more musicians for this NEW WORLD!

[lanceware]

I’ve been playing at care homes for eight years now as a side gig. I can agree with you that it is a rewarding experience to see the joy it brings to people who have little else in their lives. And it is a good source of extra income.

[jrpipik]

Consider becoming a church musician. They need someone they can rely on usually several times a week (and not usually when you'd have other gigs, like Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings). Most don't require that you be an adherent of their faith (or any faith) as long as you can fit in with their style of worship. It's more fruitful for keyboard players, I've found, but as a guitarist-bassist I've managed to make a nice little piece of change over the past few years -- not a living wage, but a decent complement to other income.

[misanthropicmusings]

I'm not the target for this video, as I am not a professional musician (just a guy who enjoys music analysis channels like David Bennett Piano) but I found this really fascinating, as I know that it is really hard for entertainers to find work in their field and am always interested in how they find avenues for their talents.

[talscriver]

The moral enrichment people like you must enjoy is priceless. Thanks for the video and for you openness on this subject.

[SoleaGalilei]

I had a colleague in a corporate job who wrote and recorded production music as a side gig, because he could do it anytime around his 9-5 schedule. Eventually he did move to working in the music industry full-time, and having some existing income and experience in his target career smoothed that transition and made it much safer and easier for him to achieve his goals. So I'm glad you highlighted that option!

[Chilajuana]

I used to play at Care Homes back here in the U.S. and it was quite fun. We had the older people singing and dancing. In fact, a son of one of the older ladies sent my band a letter stating, the last thing he remembered his mother doing before she transcended was dancing on her walker to our music. She was dancing all the way to heaven!!!! lol Alleluia!!!

[Lhama]

i follow you specially because of the "list of songs that uses a certain musical technique" videos but i'm a musician too and recently i started trying to do a lot of things at the same time to see what's gonna actually work (freelance as session musician, teaching, recording stuff that nobody will ever listen or pay for, etc etc etc)

so... to watch this video right now was really reassuring, thanks for that, David! 😅

[lawrencetaylor]

My daughter played the harp for four years. She and a friend booked themselves into a Care Home to do a harp and flute concert of three songs. So many people came up and asked about the harp since it isn't the most common thing to see.
I appreciate your videos even though I am not at all musical.

[rdtasker]

You are a legend David. Always well researched, articulate, intelligent and helpful. Thanks for your channel mate. Cheers.

[douglasfuqua]

Good info, David. More, specific info on this topic, as well as more avenues (methods & approaches) would be welcome. More info on music libraries (names, best libraries, etc.) also welcomed. How to form your own music PUBLISHING site (and your own website) would be great, for music creators, would be very helpful. Please pursue this topic, in more (money-making) depth, please. I very much enjoyed this (too brief) synopsis of the possibilities. Good work, though. I just don't want my work necessarily posted ONLY on a commercial music library...but would love the capability of my own site (in addition to?) a large conglomerate library. (BMI, songwriter, former touring/live and recording/sound engineer, etc.). --- yours in music, Doug ("Crossbow"), Florida.