Steven Melin

10 ways to earn $1,000 per month as a music composer

Don’t write another note until you’ve read this short guide ($17 value)!

As a full-time music composer for film, TV, video games, & podcasts, I earn around $4,000 - $12,000 per month, which averages to about $8,000 per month and that amount rises each year as my revenue sources increase. On an average month, I earn income from 15-20 sources, all of which combine together to create a reliable & sustainable business for my family.

I’ve been tracking my income and expenses for over 6 years now and have a very strong database that proves that my career is stable and future-proof. I can’t think of a more opportune time to have this discussion, so let’s dive in. Here are 10 ways to earn $1,000 per month as a Music Composer:

Perhaps the most obvious place to start our list is with custom music. Custom music is often regarded as the bread-and-butter of a music composer, but the truth is, it’s not super reliable. The pay is great, averaging $500-$1500 / min. of finished music writing for film, TV, video games, & podcasts, but even in ideal circumstances, there’s no way to predict whether or not you’re going to have a full schedule at all times.

Custom music projects are usually larger contracts for full soundtracks, so when they come, they are very time-consuming and usually last multiple months. Use a Rate Calculator on your website to bypass negotiations and get hired at a higher rate:

The only 2 ways to increase the number of gigs you get is to:

1. Reach out to potential clients

2. Attract potential clients with your online presence (social media, YouTube, podcast, blog, books, courses, etc.)

Patreon is a platform where fans can support a creator  – whether that’s for a YouTube channel, a podcast, visual novels, and everything in-between.

Supporters, called “patrons”, receive rewards in exchange for their monthly pledge, just like Kickstarter. Some creators create multiple tiers for fans to choose from, such as $1 / $5 / $10, while other creators prefer to have only one tier at a higher price of $20-$30.

The best part about Patreon is that you receive payment immediately when you gain a new subscriber, so this is an incredible way to help pay bills if you’re in a financial pinch.

I’d like to give thanks to my patrons for their monthly pledges on my Patreon. Their support helps cover production costs for my YouTube channel. If you’d like to have 1-on-1 access to me, where you can ask any & all questions, receive direct feedback from me for your music tracks, and help shape the future of my YouTube channel, become a patron today.

Another great income source is to produce other composers’ music to sound better with your music software, sample libraries, plugins, & experience. On average, you can charge $500-$1,000 per song production. Young songwriters are also a great clientele, since they often need help turning their chords, lyrics, or voice memos into finished songs.

This is exactly what I do with my Level Up Live YouTube series, where I help level up tracks for the composers in my audience.

Every busy composer needs help. Common needs include:

• Admin Tasks: organizing data in spreadsheets, emails, & research

• Music Organization: music packs, organizing folders, titling tracks, uploading to marketplaces, & metadata

• Orchestration: convert piano sketches into fully orchestrated MIDI mock-ups; this is a skill I teach in my Best-Selling Udemy course Film, TV, & Video Game Music Composition + Production Basics if you’d like to improve this skill set to make yourself more hire-able

• Additional Music

For admin & music organization work, I usually pay fixed rates around $80-200 / small project. For orchestration & additional music, I usually pay 20% of my project budgets, so if I earn $5,000 on a music project, I’ll pay an assistant $1,000.

Whether teaching online or in-person, teaching is an incredibly flexible way to earn additional income without trading too much time. You can teach:

• How to play an instrument

• How to notate music

• Music theory

• How to compose in a DAW

• How to mix music

• How to grow in music business

• Any other specialty you may have in music (talk-box, rap, EDM production, how to record, etc.)

Lessons are usually 30 min. – 1 hour in length. Teaching is an easy business model because most students need weekly lessons for an extended period of time, sometimes months or years.

On average, you can charge $50 - $400 per lesson. Depending on your expertise, you may be able to charge even higher, but expect a far smaller student-base with higher pricing.

As a music composer, you likely already play an instrument such as piano or guitar. Perhaps you can sing or whistle. Composers and clients need live instruments in their tracks and you already have the recording gear in your studio. Pitch your own recordings to active project teams and they may add your recording as a line item (I do this with violin regularly).

On average, you can charge $150 - $300 per track. Depending on your expertise, you may be able to charge even higher, but expect fewer gigs with higher pricing.

One of the easiest ways to start earning passive income is to sell music tracks that you’ve already created.

On average, you can sell individual tracks for $15 each on sites like Audio Jungle and Pond5, which is best for inspirational and corporate tracks. On these sites you will usually only earn 30-50% of your sales revenue.

For game composers, I highly recommend selling music packs for $20-30 each on GameDev Market, Unity Asset Store, & Itch.io. My favorite of the bunch is GameDev Market, because there you keep 100% of your revenue and can share in an Alliance where you can earn 5% commission on all your friends’ sales. If you’d like to join my GameDev Market alliance, partner with me here (this link supports my business at no cost to you).

Another great way to earn passive income as a composer is to help other musicians get from point A to point B with a digital products such as:

• Books / eBooks / Audiobooks

• Courses

• Sample Libraries

• Plugins             

On average, you can sell digital products for $10-200. If you decide to sell your products for a higher price, you will likely get less sales.

Of all income sources, Affiliate links have the greatest potential for long-term success. Affiliate links are URL’s that you share with your audience in a YouTube video, podcast, blog post, etc. where you recommend someone else’s product for your audience to buy. When they buy, you earn a commission of that sale, usually between 3-15%.

Some of the best items to recommend for music composers include:

• Books / eBooks / Audiobooks

• Courses

• Sample Libraries

• Plugins

• Music Gear

• Software Tools

• Online Services

Some of my top recommendations for Affiliate programs include:

• Amazon

• ConvertKit

• Sample Library & Plugin companies

• Teachable

• GameDev Market

It’s important that you always believe in a product before sharing it with your audience. Always be authentic and transparent about an affiliate link and your audience will always thank you for it – both by word of mouth and with their wallets.

If you’d like to like to become an affiliate for my products and believe that your audience would benefit, shoot me an email at steven@stevenmelin.com and we’ll discuss your idea.

This is by far my favorite source of income, because it requires the least amount of work, gives the highest payout per time investment, and helps employ other composers.

“Managing” simply means that when I get a job offer from a film, TV, video game, or podcast project creator, instead of doing all the work myself, I hire out assistant composers to do a portion of the work. In these situations, I act as a Project Manager and Quality Assurance person. I guide my team by providing source materials, tools, and direction. The end product is a collaboration that utilizes the expertise of each team member.

If I’m hired for a $5,000 project, I can pay 2 team members $1,000 each and earn $3,000 profit.

CONCLUSION

There you go – 10 ways that you can earn $1000/month as a music composer. Think about it – if you do all 10 of these each month, you’ll have a 6-figure business. Even if you only earn half of that, that’s likely enough to become a viable full-time career for you to support your family.

If you want to take the next step and answer your top 25 questions as a music composer, check out my #1 Amazon Best-Selling book Family-First Composer.

take the next step…

Don’t write another note until you’ve read this short guide ($17 value)!