Making profit

As a composer, who is late to the game, something have been has bugging my mind...always: making profit. 

I would love to earn profit off the music I make. I just don't know if that possible...

48 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

As a composer, who is late to the game, something have been has bugging my mind...always: making profit. 

I would love to earn profit off the music I make. I just don't know if that possible...

I am lucky to compose as an amateur. At least I don't to have to compose for profits and force myself to dig my brain out for trash music, since I know I don't have the ability to compose good music quickly. But other than pecuniary profit I do think composing provides much profit to myself. Without composing or music in general I would probably get depression, but luckily I have yet to get it.

4 hours ago, Kvothe said:

As a composer, who is late to the game, something have been has bugging my mind...always: making profit. 

I would love to earn profit off the music I make. I just don't know if that possible...

 

I could write a BOOK about this subject, given that this is pretty much the story of my life.

I'm fortunate enough to have made more money at music than most people ever see. I never struck it rich via music of course, but I got my first professional jobs when I was still a teenager. While my friends were working at the car wash, I thought I was on the path to living the dream.

Over the years, I composed for many (mostly failed or canceled) video games, I worked briefly in 2017 for a library music company that composed for companies like Netflix before the guy who started the company ran off to work as a synth operator for a big hollywood composer and everything collapsed over night, I've partied with some video game and hollywood big shots who promptly forgot who the hell I even was, had my music featured at Klondike Days in Edmonton in 2015 for a 24 hour video game stream to raise money for childrens' hospitals, and shortly before the COVID thing hit: Was in an apprentice/mentor program and became friends with some esteemed film composers, who have definitely worked on franchises you're all familiar with. Today, I mostly compose whatever I feel like, put some music packs up for licensing and make some passive income that way (where these tracks are winding up I have no idea), and am mostly just interested in getting people to listen.

What have I learned from all that?

"Making money" at music, especially if you're good, personable, and meet people is not terribly difficult.

Making a LOT of money* and making consistent money solely with music, is something that next to nobody — not even the pros — is doing, and here's the thing about that: Turning it into a "job" is a recipe for financial failure.

What I noticed, later in the game, about every "full-time" composer outside of the absolute biggest Hollywood guys (and you're not getting into Hollywood unless you have connections from birth) are making the majority of their money through other assets they invested in. Mike Patti has composed for games like Starcraft II...but the majority of his musical income, I guarantee you, is coming from his Cinesamples company and royalties from Audiomachine. Ditto for Troels Folmann, and numerous others. Duff McKagan hasn't been a relevant bassist in 30 years, but he was an early investor in companies like Paypal and Amazon, growing his GnR fortunes even more. Every single successful band collects royalties, licensing, merch sales, and owns various businesses not even related to music. Motley Crue (and god knows KISS) own everything from clothing lines to tattoo shops and restaurants and real estate. Alan Silvestri of Back To The Future fame owns wineries and vineyards. Many other composers run online music course empires.

These people could never play another note, and many haven't been playing sold-out stadium shows since the 80s, but remain rich because they took the money they made with music and put it into things that would turn into more money.

So where am I going with that? Any money you make at music should be seen as winning on a lotto ticket.

Most composers I have met, some who have worked on big projects, made the mistake of treating their career "like a job". So they went out, finally got a gig that paid them like 40,000 USD...and then quit their day job hoping for the next 40,000 USD gig that never came. If all you were going to do with that payday from music was use it to pay bills, you may as well have just taken a match to that money. It's the same thing.

So can you profit by composing music? Definitely. Will you be able to turn it into a "Job" — no, and if you're a smart businessman, you'll know that you don't want it to be. Keep the rights to your music and monetize it however you can, get kickbacks on projects you score wherever possible, put money you make into anything else that will generate more cash inflow.

I'm a nobody composer, and I'm not rich, BUT...I tried to be smart about the money I did make with music and working normal jobs and being able to get by without having to slave away 40+ at a job I hate (putting in the time with my other business ventures doesn't really feel like "work") and feel ostensibly retired in my early 30s hasn't been a bad experience.

Now, I don't really care so much about profiting in music. I do whatever I like, and can refuse projects I don't. When someone I don't know, from some totally different country, subscribes to my YouTube channel and leaves a positive comment and like on my video — that means more than a paycheck at this point. Last I checked, music was made to be heard, and some of my tracks now have the better part of 100k plays on YouTube with 99% thumbs up — no video game I ever did, or suspect I ever will do, sold 100,000 copies.

Thank you for the advice. I aware of how impossible it is to make a living as artist.  From what I gather, you saying I need to use YouTube, spotify, etc to earn money and make sure I have register my music?