As I was younger, I always thought there is no money in art or music. But now I think, there are many ways to make money with music. You just have to be as creative in making it as you are in your making art.

I made this list for myself and for you. I hopefully give you some ideas you haven’t already thought of yet. I came up with these ideas in this exact order:

1. Give a concert.
2. Play on street.
3. Give private instrument lessons.
4. Become a music teacher at a public school or at an university.
5. Make a CD and sell it.
6. Sell a song on iTunes.
7. Make money as a DJ.
8. Produce another band or artist and reserve the rights on the music to constantly earn as their songs get played on TV or radio.
9. Make a website about music and monetize it.
10. Compose a soundscape for an airport or another public place like Brian Eno did.
11. Build a recording and/or mixing studio and rent it to other artists.
12. Become a mixing engineer and work self-employed or for a big recording label.
13. Work as a film composer and compose music for film, radio or television.
14. Become a programmer and develop plugins or other programs for musicians like this one.
15. Make a sample library for kontakt and sell it.
16. Become a studio musician and work as a freelancer.
17. Compose and develop adaptive music for games.
18. Become a musician in a public orchestra.
19. Give courses in music therapy.
20. Make an interactive sound installation for an exhibition at a museum.
21. Work as a pianist at a restaurant.
22. Compose a piece of music, go to a big building and ask them, if they need some 21st century elevator music.
23. Work at a company like Massive Music to compose and produce for television and radio advertisement spots.
24. Build musical instruments.
25. Buy instruments or microphones cheap and sell them more expensive. I actually know a guy who makes a living from it.
26. Build an online music school and sell memberships.
27. Write a book about a musical topic and sell it.
28. Become a background singer at a musical.
29. Become a live sound engineer to work at festivals.
30. Develop a really good ear and some other skills to become a piano tuner.
31. Compose a jingle and convince a company to invest in sound branding.
32. Work as a journalist or editor at a magazine like sound on sound.
33. Become a copyist.
34. Become really good at arranging to make arrangements for other composers.
35. Make some videos of you playing a coversong, put it on YouTube and earn money as a partner of YouTube.
36. Play the organ at your local church.
37. Become a choral conductor like Erik Whitacre and make money from concerts or sales of your music.
38. Produce hip hop beats and put them up for sale on a platform like Beatswagger.
39. Use technology to develop a new form of instrument and sell it.
40. Become handy in repairing instruments and offer your craft.
41. Study acoustics and architecture to design concert halls and recording studios.
42. Go up to a shop and offer your musical expertise to put together a pool of music that will influence customer in a positive way.
43. Form a cover band and play on every fitting occasions.
44. Search for undiscovered musical cultures and write a report about it.
45. Make a band and compete at a band contest t win the trophy money.
46. Collect lots and lots of old musical instruments and open a museum.
47. If you have a good deal of gear you could make money in renting them to others.
48. Join the army to play in a military band.
49. Become a orchestral conductor and swing your baton.
50. Write a catchy Christmas song and enjoy making money year after year.
51. Interpret music in a way without precedent like john cage did and earn money with silence.
52. Compose avant-garde music and get funded by the government.
53. Try to break the world record in some kind of musical performance. For example, You could play the longest ongoing didgeridoo note ever and make money on the publicity.
54. Teach others on how you succeed with 53.
55. Become a public speaker to inspire people with a musical topic.
56. If you get really skilled in working with sample libraries and samples you can make
    mockups for other composers.
57. Record karaoke tracks to sell them to a karaoke bar.
58. Make a remix of a song.
59. Take over the music industry like Apple did with iTunes.
60. Organize a Festival.
61. There are million ways to make money with music indirectly like merchandise.
62. Work at a mastering studio as an engineer.
63. Look for valuable vinyl records and sell them for higher prices as you buy them.
64. Open a music shop.
65. If you have enough gear you could open a private school for live sound engineering.
66. Work as a songwriter and sell your songs to other people.
67. Program an app for the IPhone or Android that entertains people in a musical way.
68. Make a music game like guitar hero.
69. Look for people that would pay for their own personal composition.
70. Build a roller organ and play on street.
71. If you own a bar turn up the volume of your sound system so that people will buy more beer.
72. Owning a pub you can also hire a popular band and benefit from more visitors.
73. Build a fanpage of your favorite band and earn money from merchandise and advertising.
74. Write simple tunes for a beginning piano book for kids.
75. Find out the secret of what makes a number one hit and write a book about it.
76. Make a long mixtape for a radio night show.
77. Combine the next music video of your band with some form of advertisement you get paid for.

I hope you enjoyed reading my 77 ways to make money with music. If another possibility popped up in your head while you were reading please share.