Cash Issues is a collaboration between NewMusicBox and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, funded by New Music USA.
This isn’t simply one other recipe weblog crammed with tangents about purchasing journeys, romantic dramas, and household heirlooms earlier than attending to the purpose. No offense to these blogs; I get pleasure from them too—pun meant! However you are right here for one thing extra substantial: sensible recommendation and actionable methods that will help you navigate the monetary points of your artistic profession. Let’s dive in.
Know Your Provide, Know Your Value
What are the verbs you need to receives a commission for?
Give it some thought: not what your mentor or dad and mom envisioned, however what do you genuinely need? Instructing? Performing? Composing? Operating workshops? Producing ambient music in your individual house? Organizing a music collection full with nice snacks?
Seize a pocket book and jot down all the things. These are your choices, and understanding them lets you create measurable alternatives. For a composer, this may contain setting per-minute charges, licensing present works for media, providing composition classes, securing residencies, or promoting scores on-line. You’re not confined to what your diploma dictated—assemble the enterprise you actually want.
Now, let’s set up your pricing utilizing a formulation from Andrew Simonet of Artists U:
- Set your goal annual earnings utilizing gross figures.
- Determine what number of weeks you need to work every year. Many artists go for 44 weeks to permit for holidays and breaks.
- Divide your earnings purpose by the variety of weeks on your weekly fee.
- Divide that by your precise hours labored per week, usually starting from 20 to 25 hours. That provides you your hourly fee.
As an example, should you intention to earn $80,000 yearly and work 44 weeks, you’d want about $1,818 weekly. Dividing by 22 hours yields roughly $83 per hour. For a commissioned piece requiring 20 hours, you would want to earn about $1,660 from that venture, excluding supplies and revenue margin.
I didn’t impose particular numbers on you as a result of that’s totally private. Your hire, loans, payments, and different obligations make pricing a deeply particular person matter. Many musicians err by basing their charges on others’ prices, unaware of their distinctive circumstances.
- For instance, possibly they bought a positive divorce settlement and a competition fund.
- Or maybe they bought a Renaissance lute on-line to repay scholar loans.
- Some may need a family price range that enables their music work to be a facet gig.
- Others may reside on a farm, exchanging work for housing.
You possibly can’t know their circumstances.
Constructing a enterprise should not depend on assumptions about others’ conditions. Focus by yourself wants and goals. After you have your monetary information, you may alter your charges, develop your consumer base, and refine your choices as wanted.
Who’s Paying Whom, and for What
Artists continuously enter tasks with unclear expectations, resulting in unpaid work. Why does this occur? As a result of there’s no readability about who’s compensating whom, what for, and when. Let’s resolve this.
First, establish your best purchasers: who finally writes the verify? Is it a college? A presenting group? A non-public scholar? A grant-maker? A performer with funding? A nonprofit with a price range?
In case you’re not sure who’s paying you, it’s inconceivable to substantiate phrases of fee, which frequently leads to artists chasing after cash that must be theirs.
Listed here are widespread fee constructions:
- A presenter or group hires you for a efficiency or venture.
- A performer or ensemble commissions you thru their funds, grants, or a consortium.
- A funder funds a company that employs you or helps you straight by means of an artist/venture grant.
- A venue may provide the house, a assured price, a ticket gross sales cut up, or nothing in any respect. In the event that they don’t cowl your fee, another person must.
- You may self-produce, compensating collaborators and recouping bills by means of ticket gross sales, crowdfunding, or donations.
That is about positioning your choices in entrance of those that worth them and have the means to assist them. As an example, if you wish to construct a non-public studio, put up flyers in native faculties. In case you’re in search of commissions, inquire about performers’ commissioning processes. In case you’re planning a tour, talk about budgets and timelines with presenters throughout negotiations.
A proper plea: all the time use contracts. Each time. Even with associates. Good contracts foster good collaborations. They make clear fee constructions, expectations, and timelines. If somebody hesitates to decide to writing, it’s a purple flag. Contracts are instruments for readability and early downside identification.
This ties into the idea of “optimistic change of worth.” What do your collaborators convey that’s worthwhile to you? In change, what do you supply? This may embrace funding, studio recordings, premieres, or new skilled relationships. Outline what makes a venture worthwhile for you.
Cash in music hardly ever flows linearly. It weaves by means of a community of presenters, funders, venues, and artists. In case you don’t grasp how your funds match into this complicated construction, you threat working without cost, taking up invisible labor, or inadvertently subsidizing another person’s success together with your time.
Methods That Make It Sustainable
In case you’re consistently improvising, you’re heading for burnout. Methods are important.
Begin with monetary administration. I like to recommend the Revenue First system, tailor-made for these with variable incomes. Once you obtain funds, allocate your earnings into distinct accounts for Proprietor Pay, Taxes, Bills, and Revenue. This technique constructions your funds and establishes clear priorities.
Choose instruments that resonate together with your workflow. For bookkeeping, contemplate Wave or QuickBooks. For invoicing and funds, attempt FreshBooks, HoneyBook, or easy setups through Stripe or Sq.. If that feels daunting, even a color-coded spreadsheet works so long as you keep constant.
Take certainly one of your choices—say, composing new items on fee—and description the method for hiring you. Determine any steps that really feel complicated; these are the place your techniques want refining.
First, set up visibility:
Make sure that potential purchasers can uncover you and your choices. This may contain updating your web site, persistently sharing your providers by means of social media or newsletters, signing up for composer databases, or reaching out to earlier collaborators. Your community will not rent you in the event that they’re unaware of what you present.
Subsequent, make the follow-up clear and simple:
After you have somebody’s consideration, maintain the dialog transferring ahead. Provide an easy contact technique, like a devoted electronic mail or contact type, whereas outlining your choices and subsequent steps. Information them with out assuming they know what to do subsequent.
Reply clearly:
Develop a customizable electronic mail template that particulars your charges, course of, timeline, and subsequent actions. This doesn’t must be robotic; it ought to merely streamline communication to make it simple for purchasers to say sure or ask questions.
Affirm tasks professionally:
Make the most of scheduling instruments, like Calendly or Google Calendar, to arrange preliminary conversations. At all times present a transparent venture timeline, together with key milestones: contract, deposit, draft supply, revisions, and last recordsdata.
Facilitate seamless fee:
Leverage invoicing instruments that assist numerous fee strategies. You may require a deposit upfront, corresponding to “50% upon contract signing and 50% upon rating supply.” Planning your fee construction upfront minimizes issues.
Intentional follow-up:
After a venture concludes, solicit testimonials, request entry to recordings or pictures from performances, and discover future alternatives with collaborators. Hold observe of those relationships for future reference.
Establishing templates for every stage creates a reusable system. You construct it as soon as and refine it as you study what works finest for you and your collaborators. With outlined techniques in place for providing your providers, pitching, and dealing with funds, you’ll get rid of the guesswork and psychological muddle. Methods create house—each in your schedule and your thoughts.
The Artist as Strategist
Recognizing your self as each an artist and a businessperson isn’t contradictory; it’s a type of artistic self-respect.
In at present’s panorama, artists have unprecedented management over their careers by means of entry to music-making and distribution. Sure, you’ve gotten the choice to behave as entrepreneurs, negotiators, and monetary strategists—this isn’t a burden; it is a supply of empowerment. Understanding your monetary scenario doesn’t detract out of your artistry. Incomes earnings doesn’t make you a sellout. Requesting a contract doesn’t make you tough—it’s a crucial step for safeguarding your work and vitality.
This week, select one step from this essay to implement:
• Reassess your pricing primarily based in your precise monetary wants.
• Listing your choices and develop frameworks round them.
• Determine your best purchasers and generate a pitch record.
• Open a devoted financial savings account for taxes and automate deposits for ease.
• Define the workflow of 1 providing and draft templates for communication.
You aren’t simply an artist; you’re a strategist and a builder. No person goes at hand you a profitable profession. The excellent news is, you get to create one which fits you.
Let’s get to work.
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is an editorially-independent initiative of the American Composers Discussion board, made potential by means of beneficiant contributions from donors and establishments. The views expressed are solely these of the writer and don’t essentially symbolize the views of ICIYL or ACF.
In case you want to assist ICIYL, contemplate making a tax-deductible present to ACF. For extra info on ACF, go to composersforum.org.
