Hello BHW gang,
I have been reading this forum for many years, but haven't posted anything until now.
Here's my story:
I'm a musician who's been in this business for as long as I can remember, I've been making a living from music online since 2007. Here are some of the things I have tried:
1) Producing and Selling background music (royalty-free music) on marketplaces such as AudioJungle, Pond5, and dozens of other small websites. During the "Golden Years" (appr. 2012-2016) I was making around 5K a month, now the income is much lower but still enough to survive. The great thing with this model is that the platforms do all the marketing, all you have to do is upload quality material (to get accepted), and upload often.
2) Producing and selling Beats (instrumentals intended for rapping/singing over them) on websites such as Beatstars, AirBit and similar. I was quite late for this one and only managed to make around 300-500$ per month since I started (2 years ago). This one took a lot of time to figure out marketing/advertising because unlike Audiojungle and similar marketplaces, you have to market your music yourself. I have tried various methods, including ClickFunnels, UpViral, etc. and spent several thousand in Facebook/Instagram and Youtube ads, but with limited success.
3) Streaming and Music Sales (for listening purposes) on iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify, etc. Uploading through distributors such as Tunecore, Distrokid, Soundrop and similar. I was earning 1-2k a month easily a couple years ago, now it's more like 500-700$ a month.
4) Youtube monetization - I have 2 channels that have monetization enabled (1 for background music and another one for "beats"), using good SEO, SMM panels and micro worker sites, I manage to make around 300-500$ per month from both channels.
5) Youtube Content ID - I have an account with AdRev - and I upload all of my music that I release here as well, they track unauthorized usage and send a percentage of the advertising revenue every 3 months. As I have sold many music licenses throughout the years, there are quite a lot videos using my music (illegally downloaded) so the income is about 500-700$ per month (put paid quarterly).
6) Freelancing Platforms (Upwork, Freelancer.com, Fiverr) - I have tried many of these, and I do get hired sometimes, but nothing substantial. I guess this requires many reviews to get to the top of search results (recommendations), but I haven't got to it seriously yet.
7) Patreon - I have recently started a Patreon page for my background music, I saw one of my "competitors" using the same method and having thousands of patrons with over 7K$ per month, but he has a Youtube channel with over 200K subscribers, not sure how he managed to grow his Youtube channel so well but it must be the reason for the number of patrons.
8) Custom work (from social networks, online contacts, offline contacts, etc.)
Maybe I have missed some of the things I tried, but for the most part this is it. )
I have all the skills I need to grow my music business. I can produce almost any genre/style of music, edit videos, make visuals, etc. I have a large portfolio of over 1200 music tracks in different genres/styles. However some of the methods that were working before, are dwindling down, so I have to find new ways to grow and succeed.
If any of you BHWers, who are also in the music business have any suggestions and/or know any marketing tricks, methods, etc. involving music I would love to exchange ideas, as long as it's a win-win for both of us. )
