Steven Melin

Best Way to get paid as a Music Composer

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

Over the last 6 years as a full-time freelance musician, I’ve earned hundreds of thousands of dollars working with clients. Every payment has been a result of me sending an online itemized invoice to my clients who have always paid by the due date.

Sending invoices is a fundamental skill you need to master if you want to grow a successful business. There are many ways to accept online payments, but it’s important to know that a 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee is standard because of the required fees for processing credit cards.

Many beginning freelancers try to avoid these fees by using Venmo, Square Cash , & other similar apps to receive payments, but these “money transfer apps” are designed for family & friends only. It actually breaks terms of service to use these commercially for business transactions. This small savings from transaction fees is not worth putting your business in a liable situation.

Unfortunately we can’t add that 2.9% fee inside our invoices because this is also a breach of terms of service. So what can we do? Here are the 5 leading online payment platforms designed for business transactions. Let’s compare each and see which one saves you the most money & time:

PayPal has the most brand-recognition and trust on this list and I’ve used it successfully for years to invoice and receive hundreds of payments from clients.

• Free to use

• Instant payments

• Send quick & free professional invoices

• U.S. transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction processing fee

• International transactions: 4.4% transaction fee + fixed fee based on currency received

• Mobile PayPal app makes it easy for clients to receive and pay invoices immediately

• At tax time, you can export all expenses into a spreadsheet for easy accounting 

• Free to use

• Great platform for recurring payments (subscriptions & split payments)

• Has built-in analytics

• No invoicing, so you’ll need a web page with instructions about what the client is receiving for payments

• U.S. transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction processing fee

• 1% for international cards + additional 1% for currency conversion

• Free to use

• Free debit card & ACH bank transfers

• Standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee for credit cards

• Only available in select countries

  • Country List: https://support.google.com/pay/answer/9023773?hl=en

  • iOS Google Pay app only available in U.S. & India

  • not good for international business like game development

• No invoicing, just payment requests (unprofessional, no itemized list, no recurring payments, no reminders)

• As a new platform, Google Pay isn’t completely stable. At the time of this writing during the 2020 corona virus social distancing, I’ve had issues with the Google Pay server being slow and I couldn’t pay an assistant.

• Google Pay payments usually take 5+ days to transfer

• If you plan to use Google Pay for your business, you must register for a free Business account and include your business tax information to adhere with the guidelines.

• Designed for small businesses with multiple employees

• $25-40/mo subscription

• U.S. transactions: 1% ACH Bank Transfer or 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee for credit cards

• International: must connect with PayPal

• All-in-one full invoicing & accounting solution

• Recurring payments

• Reminder emails

• Almost identical to QuickBooks, but with features designed for freelancers

• $15/mo subscription for 5 clients or $25/mo for up to 50 clients

• U.S. & Canada transactions: 1% ACH Bank Transfer or 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee for credit cards

• Can connect with PayPal, Stripe, TransferWire, or Amazon Payments for both domestic & international payments

• All-in-one full invoicing & accounting solution

• Recurring payments

• Reminder emails

Apple Pay functions very similarly to Google Pay with no fees for debit card & ACH bank transfers, but is limited to iOS devices only.

• A good rule of thumb when tracking your monthly business expenses is to add the 1 – 2.9% vendor service fee to your monthly budget. This is tax deductible because you legally can’t avoid it when doing online business.

• Avoid cash & checks because you can’t track them and they’re time-consuming to deal with. ACH bank transfers are an inexpensive alternative, but still usually charge a 1% fee.

• Wire transfers are another possible method of payment, but require a lot of work to setup, often requires additional fees from the client to send at their bank, and takes a while to transfer 

• Online payments are the most convenient option and my personal favorite platform is FreshBooks. With FreshBooks, I can send instant professional invoices to my clients, accept payments from any method they choose with the least amount of vendor fees, and I have my Stripe account connected for all international payments. As a bonus, FreshBooks tracks all my expenses & neatly sorts all the information with its accounting features.

• The low monthly cost is almost negligible when I consider how much time and energy this tool saves me. As entrepreneur Pat Flynn says, “there’s the free way and there’s the headache-free way”. Sometimes all it takes is a little investment into the right tools to find the solution we really need.

30-Day Free Trial

If you’re ready to start invoicing clients with FreshBooks, go to www.stevenmelin.com/freshbooks for a 30-day free trial. If you decide to move forward with a monthly subscription, your purchase supports my channel at no additional cost to you. I hope that serves you well and helps you earn more money.

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