As we already mentioned, being a singer or songwriter is a tough career that can get pretty expensive! Luckily, you don’t need to be rich to become wealthy as a musician, but there are ways to earn extra money for your music.

In this article, I will talk about some easy ways to make money from singing and writing songs. These things aren’t necessarily “professional”, but they’re totally achievable if you’re willing to put in the effort.

You’ll probably have to test out most of these tips yourself, but that’s okay! If you’ve got what it takes, then keep reading!

I hope you enjoy listening to and making music, and that my advice helps you achieve your musical goals. Good luck out there!

How to Make Money Writing Songs

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Writing songs is a great way to make some cash. There are many opportunities out there where you can write your own material and sell it or give it away online. Some of the best places to publish your work are YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes.

This is definitely not a one-time thing either! You could easily make a living off of your talent by investing time into creating and publishing songs.

Find a good manager

As mentioned before, being paid as a songwriter comes down to having your materials seen and heard by people. But how you go about doing that makes a big difference!

As you probably know, not every artist has a professional music business person supporting them. This is especially true in the beginning when artists are trying to break into the industry.

Some of these professionals include managers, publicists, and record label executives. Others are self-proclaimed experts who have lots of tutorials and courses to promote.

Mostly, they use their knowledge and experience to help others gain recognition and income as musicians.

In fact, most successful musicians were trained professionally beyond the basics like singing, writing songs, and performing.

They learned how to get ahead in the music business from someone with years of experience. And while it may seem expensive to hire a professional, what they offer can be worth its weight in gold.

A professional musician’s job is more than just making music, which can easily be done at home. A professional musician also manages his or her career. They create strategies to grow their reputation in the music business, negotiate contracts, find new opportunities, and respond to criticism. All of this takes time and energy.

How much money an amateur gets paid is influenced by many things: luck, timing, and effort put in are some of the biggest factors.

Get your own recording studio

Having a song writing career takes more than just sitting down with your laptop every day and putting out songs. You have to invest in music equipment, a home recording studio, or what we call a mix-mastering platform.

This is an external device that has pre-recorded songs you can use as templates for creating new songs. For example, someone could take a theme such as “Happy Birthday” and create their own versions of it using the template provided.

You can also purchase royalty free music which is much better quality than buying copyrighted music. This is because royalty free music does not require permission from copyright owners to be printed or published.

Write songs all the time

As we discussed, being a songwriter is an incredible way to make money online from anywhere in the world. But you need to do more than just write songs! You have to get into the habit of writing music every day.

That’s why I recommend setting up a lyric-writing program like FreeSongWriter.org or PowerLyricPro.com (this article has a full review).

By creating and editing lyrics in these free apps, you’re already starting off on a good foot as a writer. From there, it’s easy to move onto making your own music.

You can pick and choose which genres and artists you want to work with, and don’t worry about quality – no one will ever see your work except yourself and your friends.

Distribute your music

As we mentioned, being paid as a songwriter comes down to distributing your songs in the right places and obtaining appropriate royalties for your work.
As a writer, you will need to make yourself available to record companies and publishers who want to feature your material in an album or publish it independently.

Many writers are not aware of how easy it is to get started serving these purposes! There are many ways to do this. Some are more effective than others depending on what kind of result you desire.

It’s important to remember that unless you are actively looking to be hired as a songwriter, most people start out seeking help as a writer by publishing their own songs or recording them themselves first.

By offering your services as a writer you can begin earning money immediately.

Join a band

Being a songwriter is a tough job, which is why most people never make any money as a writer. You need to be in a position where you can get your songs performed!
As we mentioned before, being able to connect with other musicians is the best way to do this.

If you’re already part of a group or organization that hosts events, then write some songs and see if anyone wants to work with you on performing them – you could even offer your services as a musician-producer!

Alternatively, there are many online communities designed specifically for music writers to meet and network with each other. These sites typically have event listings, forums, and/or chat rooms too.

By writing new material every day, you will soon find yourself with enough quality songs to really start promoting yourself.

Be consistent

As with any career, being paid as a songwriter is really dependent on you putting in the time into it. If you are not investing enough time in your craft, then you will not reap the benefits of being a musician.
As a writer, you have to be consistently producing quality content which will help you gain traction with your music business.

That can mean writing lyrics or poetry, creative story ideas, or even recording yourself singing a song that you wrote!

By investing time in your craft, you increase your chances of getting more out of this industry. You will also get better at identifying what types of material resonate with potential clients.

Getting started is the hardest part! There are many ways to start writing, so do something that feels natural to you.

Connect with other songwriters

As we mentioned before, being a singer or musician is a great way to make money as a writer! But it takes more than just singing well to do so. You need to connect with people in the music industry to succeed.

That includes meeting with record producers, engineers, A&R professionals, and others in the music business to gain their trust and start building relationships.

It also means investing time into social media sites like Facebook and YouTube to promote your work and increase your exposure.

But beyond that, you will have to be willing to put in some effort to get paid for writing. That can mean sending emails and messages seeking opportunities, responding to job offers, and editing and creating content for various projects to earn rewards.

Submit your music to competitions

While most songwriters start out self-producing their songs, many eventually need to learn how to get paid for writing lyrics or music. The best way to do this is by submitting your work and offering it to others!

Submitting your material through contests is one of the easiest ways to get started. Most large corporations and organizations have a contest that offers prize money for winning songs with famous writers attached to them.

These contests usually require you to register as a writer at least once before entering (sometimes it’s free to enter), and then they take care of everything else. You pick your genre and style, and when the competition closes, someone reviews the entries and selects winners.

The winner gets a small amount of prize money and an opportunity to win more, which can lead to greater income down the line.