How Musicians can Earn Money During COVID-19

Coronavirus pandemic negatively affected all industries, and the music industry is not an exception. Experts predict that the concert industry alone could suffer a $9B loss in 2020 – this is an epic decline without parallel in the modern music business.

Millions of musicians have lost their stable income source, and now they are looking for new ways to earn money. Are you one of those who are desperately trying to land a gig?

Here are a few ideas on how you can use your skills to make money online.

Teach online

Do you play the guitar, violin, or any other musical instrument? Do you have some teaching skills? You can work as a teacher online. All you need to start earning money is your musical instrument, laptop, and stable internet connection.

Where can you find a teaching job? You can sign up for a specialized teaching platform, for instance, LiveMusicTutor or LessonFace. Or, you can promote your classes on social media without using any additional services. For example, you can notify your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter followers that you give lessons online. It’s highly likely that a few followers will want to learn new skills from you.

The demand for online music classes is currently extremely high, so you can find first clients with ease. Many people use the time of self-isolation and social distancing to master new skills. And today is definitely the right day to launch a teaching career.

If you don’t play musical instruments, but sing or write songs, you can also work as an online tutor. You can share your knowledge with others and earn money.

Perform “live” and accept donations

Due to social distancing requirements, you can’t perform on a big stage. But thanks to advanced technologies, you can still entertain your audience and earn money from home.

Invite your social media followers to visit your “virtual concert” on YouTube or Instagram. Add a donation link to GoFundMe, Kindly, or CrowdFire to your live stream and encourage people to click the link and support you. You can be sure that your fans will not leave you without tip after a great performance.

Also, you can go live on Twitch and StageIt. These websites were designed to help musicians to raise money. Twitch, for example, is visited by more than 140 million visitors per month, so everyone can find an audience there.

Sign up for a freelance musicians platform

Have you heard about such freelance platforms as Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr? These platforms are popular mostly among freelance app developers, digital marketers, graphic designers, and copywriters. But they also offer some great job options for musicians.

Write a song for commercial

Let’s face it. Today, you have little chances to sell your songs to rock bands – all rock bands’ concerts are cancelled, and your “prospective clients” currently have no money.

If you want to capitalize on your songwriting talent, you can do it in a new way. You can write songs for commercials. Yep, even in the time of the world pandemic, the retail business keeps working, and ads are still needed.

Please, don’t say “no” to this idea too quickly. Maybe this kind of job will not give you a sense of fulfilment, but it will give you real, quick money. Check available jobs at freelance platforms – you will be surprised to know how much money companies are ready to pay for one-verse songs.

You can consider this job as a new stage in your career. It’s another great opportunity to test your creative challenge, isn’t it? Don’t worry, once the crisis gets over, you will get back to your normal life and start writing songs for real singers.

Narrate audiobooks

Do you have a small home recording studio? You can use it to narrate audiobooks and make money.

Book narration is an interesting well-paid job that can benefit you a lot. Working as a book narrator during the coronavirus outbreak, you will learn new voice techniques and improve your acting skills. You will gain a unique experience and take a fresh look at your musician career.

Become a voice actor

Have you ever worked as a voice actor? You should definitely try out this job during the time of social distancing.  You can voice over ads, educational videos, foreign movies, and other video content right in your home music studio and get a stable income.

Emilia Brown, a content strategist at SupremeDissertations says: “The best thing about this job is that it’s an easy one. Basically, you just need to press a record button on your recording device and read the text aloud the way you feel it.

Create content for musician based blogs and websites

Blog post writing and content creation is another great musicians job opportunity that can help you to survive the coronacrisis.

As you know, there are dozens of music websites and blogs on the web. And each of these sites needs quality content written by someone with relevant knowledge.

Do you have a vast knowledge of music, and are good at writing? This job is a perfect fit for you. It doesn’t really matter whether you have previous blogging and copywriting experience. If you want to get this writing job, you can learn the basics in a few days.

Are you ready to land your first writing job? Check online writing websites ClassyEssay and TrustMyPaper and find a project that matches your skills.

Transcribe audio

Some companies are looking for freelancers who can transcribe audio from online resources like podcasts to text. As a musician, you have strong musical listening skills, and you can easily handle this job.

Just keep in mind that work in the audio transcription world is paid by the “audio hour”. It means that the amount of money you will get depends not on the number of hours you will spend working, but the initial audio file length.

Use the time of social distancing to the fullest

You should understand one important thing: the pandemic will not last forever. But the “after-pandemic” world will be different. You should use the time of social distancing wisely and get prepared for the upcoming changes. Learn new skills, try new jobs, and explore new aspects of the music world – and your future will be a success.

If you do start running out of money, you might consider applying for a loan from brokers like CashFlex, but ensure you happy with the terms and conditions.