Online Earnings of a Musician

Have you ever wondered how much a musician has to sell in order to make a salary of $1,160 a month. Well David McCandless of Information is Beautiful can help you with that. He put together this data poster to show how much you would need to sell or stream in order to make this minimal income. Now don't take this data to heart. It's basically just showing you that if you only went in one avenue of sales, then this is how much you would need to sell.

In the music world though going through one avenue of promotions and sales is not going to cut it. You need to market yourself and put yourself in many different avenues. When I was finding information about the chart below. I came acrossed an article by Allison Rizk from Radio Potato who gave some great ideas to increase your fan base, get more exposure and start making that money flow. The ideas below came directly from her article.

Fame Games (@FameGames) – This online radio show promotes independent artists. Musicians can submit their music online and fans can vote each day for their favorites. As it grows in popularity, you can increase your exposure worldwide. Really cool group of DJ’s, too. They know their stuff! Eclectic music choices and always top notch music!

The Sixty One (@thesixtyone)
Branded as “helping artists find their audiences.” Indie artists submit their work, but rather than allowing a stuffy suit to decide what’s cool, the listeners do. Listeners have to listen to a song for over a minute before they can “heart” it. It’s very cool exposure! For music lovers, please make sure you find your favorite artists and heart them – and if they aren’t on there, make sure you get them on it!

Kickstarter (@kickstarter)
I want to kick myself for not thinking of this first. If you’re a musician that doesn’t have the jack to promote yourself, this site can help you fund projects. Much like a telethon concept, you can set up graduating levels of “rewards” and goodie packages depending on how much each fan contributes to your project. Kickstarter put one of my favorite emerging artists, Gareth Asher, on tour all throughout the United States and massively expand his fan base.

Pandora (@pandora_radio)
This site gets the Brilliant Award of the Century. This music engine automatically creates a streaming radio station that is based on the artists/songs/genres that you like – and plays similar artists based on the style and tonality of what you chose. You can now upload your music onto the site and become part of their Music Genome Project’s musical library. Click here to submit your music: http://submitmusic.pandora.com/

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, iTunes, Reverbnation etc.
The name of the game today is being accessible. Back in the day, if you wanted to find music, you’d have to go to the store, buy the whole album, and if it sucked, you’re the fool with the stack of CD’s collecting dust in the back of your car. Nowadays, people automatically go to YouTube to find a video of their favorite song and can share it immediately. If you’re not Internet savvy, check out www.mashable.com as a comprehensive resource on using social media. Oh, and if you’re one of those brooding and introverted musicians who hates people, do your best to still respond to your fans reaching out to you and Follow them back on Twitter. Acknowledging your fans individually endears themselves to you and in turn, they will support you through your sales.



via: Flowing Data, Radio Potato